The employer brand can make or break even the greatest recruiting strategy and most sophisticated technology. That’s why some of the biggest trends in recruiting right now have a sharpened focus on company reputation.

They work hand-in-hand, recruiting and reputation/brand management. You have a product to sell, that product is a job. Whether or not the best candidates are buying it depends on how they perceive a future with your company. Here are 5 of the biggest trends that help you successfully enhance the employer brand and land all of the right candidates.

#1: Encourage Employees to Tell the Company Story

Word-of-mouth advertising has always been important for any company. And when employees share their experiences, prospective employees pay attention. That’s what Amazon’s talent acquisition manager, Danielle Monaghan, said at a recent Society for Human Resource Management conference, according to Recruiting Trends.

It works both ways, Monaghan explained. Just a year ago, the company took a major reputation hit when some employees, both former and current, went public about “harsh managerial tactics” that affected the physical and emotional health of Amazon staff. But with concerted effort, the employee story turned around on social media. Now they’re “highly ranked as a place to work,” she said.

#2: Focus on a Mobile-First Approach

You’ve heard it before, and it bears repeating. Conference speaker, Nicole Hedrick, Duke Clinical Research chief HR officer, urged employers to think about how frequently people use their phones to search for information. With a mobile-first approach, the user experience is friendlier for the way that candidates really live.

This sentiment echoes throughout the talent acquisition community. Employers should focus on mobile before anything else because that’s what candidates want. Nearly 50 percent of people looking for a job use a mobile device. And the majority of them will opt out if the employer job site isn’t mobile optimized.

#3: Learn to Love Technology

Technology is your friend in every way, particularly in that it enables you to reach not just more candidates but more of the right ones. It helps improve your chances of making a great hire. RealMatch candidate matching knows who is a great fit for the job, and knows where to locate the ad so the right people will see it. And because it operates in real time, ad placement can change based on updated qualifications.

Programmatic job ad buying lets you “follow passive candidates all over the web and place ads in places they’re most likely to see them,” says conference speaker and recruiting consultant, Peter Weddle. And analytics lets you know how ads are performing and can shift ad placement to a more productive location.

#4: Emphasize Employee Referrals

Just as employee testimonials about the company work wonders, so do employee referrals. “Employee referral is the best recruiting channel I know,” explains Liz Ryan for Forbes, who say she was a “Fortune 500 HR SVP for ten million years.” And an employee referral bonus can be pennies compared to the fees charged by recruiters.

There’s a caveat that comes with employee referrals. If the company culture isn’t up to snuff, you’ll be hard pressed to encourage any employee to refer a friend or colleague. So to create a solid program, you need both a great company culture and a nice incentive to encourage referrals, which doesn’t necessarily have to be monetary.

#5: Don’t Omit the Personal Touch

With all of the technology, there’s still a lot to be said for the personal touch in recruitment, according to Monaghan. An automated process is great in the early stages of recruitment when job seekers are just scoping out the company. But there’s a point where they want to hear from a person. “Candidates would prefer to talk to people as it has gone down the path,” she said.

Weddle added that when candidates receive a steady diet of messages from future colleagues throughout the hiring process, it “makes a difference.” Knowing when to automate and when to step in with a more personalized interaction is a bit of an art, but it’s one that candidates appreciate.

Unemployment is still improving, which means prospective employees aren’t desperate in the least. So if you want to find and snag top talent, you’ve got to present an employer brand that’s irresistible.

Examine each facet of your strategy and determine whether it enhances the employer brand. The convenience of mobile, assurances about the company culture, getting the right amount of personal interaction and many other elements can work together to present a strong, appealing presence. And that makes your company look like the place to be.

Looking for more articles about what’s happening in recruitment?