With the rise in remote working over the last year, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell authentic employer brand stories. 2020 has not only changed how we work but where your employees work. As we always like to point out, your people play a crucial part in not only your company culture but your talent brand as a whole. Without them in the office, how do you communicate how great your people and culture are?
Telling authentic stories of your employees’ experience is a vital part of employer brand communications. It helps future candidates gain an accurate picture of what working at your organisation will be like; allowing them to put names to team members’ faces and helping them envision their place in your team. It also helps your current team feel valued and as though they have a voice within the organisation. It also helps you to create more content which can be used to promote your employer brand. In the digital era content is king, and the more stories you can share on social media and beyond, the better.
As employers look to offer more permanent working from home solutions to their employees, this challenge is set to increase. We don’t want to rely on low-res selfies as an employer brand photoshoot requires a degree of direction and professionalism. Similarly, many scaling tech businesses cannot stretch to large photography budgets in multiple locations. If this means going into each of your team members’ homes with a professional photographer in tow, it’s just not a realistic endeavour.
Therefore, when asked to help create a new EVP for a client, we faced an issue. How do we bring real stories to life in an age where remote communications seem to be the norm?
The solution: Virtual Photoshoots
Virtual photoshoots are a way of capturing real people and real stories from the comfort of your home. All your team needs to conduct a virtual photoshoot through Talent Works is a phone, room, and professional photographer working miles away in their studio. We can organise the rest.
The benefits of virtual photoshoots
Conducting a virtual photoshoot for your EVP and employer brand communications means lower costs to studio alternatives.
It also reduces travel costs and requirements, giving you the ability to capture remote employees in their own working environments with minimal fuss.
Having a natural environment gives personal touches and ensures that your employer brand communications remain authentic.
It shows that you can deliver on promises to offer remote working opportunities to candidates.
What is the process?
As this is a professional way of taking photos, there’s a process involved to help you get the best shots and capture your team in the best light. As we said before, it’s not relying on selfies that your team send in; there’s a consistent look and feel to help your Talent brand marketing look as brilliant and coherent as you are.
The process is as follows:
Step 1: An introductory session between model and photographer to set the scene and help the photographer to understand the room, space and lighting they have to work with.
Step 2: A scheduled photography session that lasts around 30 minutes. Direction from the photographer is given via the sound on your device of choice.
Step 3: The photographer reviews the photos, downloads them and provides high-res images to Talent Works for editing. This is when our creative team can get to work. They can add the pictures into relevant social media and digital content from videos and animations to your careers site. Additionally, the images can be sent directly back to the model via the app as a nice touch.
Recommendations
If you’re thinking of conducting a virtual photoshoot through Talent Works for your employer brand communications, there are just two things you should bear in mind.
Remember, the phone is the camera here. Therefore, the image’s quality depends on the phone model, so make sure you talk to employees about the device they have before organising a shoot to avoid disappointment.
It may help if you provide phone stands for ease of setting up and stability within the shoot. This will ensure quality images of all employees.
To learn more about the process of conducting a virtual photoshoot, contact our team. We can help you capture images of your team working from their homes in this new era of remote work to help you tell authentic employer brand stories and bring your new working environments to life.
For more information about our employer branding service and how it can help you attract and retain top tech talent, visit our elemen.tal service page.
