You know hard it is to land the best and brightest new employees. In this guest post, ADP exec Dave Imbrogno explains how your corporate social responsibility activities can be a key recruiting tool.  
Conducting a job search is hard work. Countless variables can affect a candidate’s decision to pursue or accept a job. Job requirements, location, salary, and benefits are typical items recruiters expect to address when speaking to potential candidates. But recently, amid a renewed passion for ethics and sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an enticing attribute that companies are using to attract potential employees.
As companies have become more aware of creating and promoting their CSR initiatives, candidates have become more socially selective throughout their job hunt. Candidates place heavy emphasis on an organization’s reputation and commitment to the community and want to ensure their future employer engages in CSR practices that align with their own beliefs.

A must for younger workers

Forward-thinking, sustainable, CSR-competent leaders are in high demand by the new wave of young workers.  A study conducted by GreenBiz found that Millennial employees prefer to work for leaders they admire in companies that exemplify good CSR practices.
Similarly, according to Deloitte’s global Millennial Survey 2014, 63% of Gen Y’ers or Millennials donate to charities, 43% actively volunteer or are a member of a community organization, and 52% have signed petitions.
Since Millennial workers will make up the majority of the workforce within the next decade, it makes sense that companies that want to succeed would actively identify CSR activities that will resonate with a increasingly younger, more socially responsible candidate pool.
But despite what may be robust CSR policies on environmentalism, sustainability, health and human rights, or other social issues, in many organizations those programs may be disconnected with the company’s recruitment efforts.
Establishing a connection between a company’s CSR policies and recruiting staff can lead to significant talent acquisition gains. And bridging the CSR “knowledge gap” between recruiters and potential candidates can help attract talent and staff companies with individuals with similar values.

3-step approach

Here are three ways to incorporate your company’s CSR results and key messages into your recruiting practices:

1. Cultivate Your Career Page. A company’s career page tends to be the first place potential candidates land when researching an organization, so it’s important to have CSR information visible to help expose candidates to positive corporate programs. An effective way to inform candidates is to promote articles, awards, and policies, as well as to post images and videos featuring employees volunteering or participating in charitable events.
2. Refresh Your Recruiters. In the intense race for top talent, it’s key for recruiters to personalize and sell their company’s CSR initiatives to individuals within their pipeline. To that end, companies must ensure that their recruiters are efficiently trained on CSR policies, and are capable of positioning these elements to potential candidates. Following an initial training session, organizations should continue to refresh and enforce the importance of CSR initiatives to the recruiting staff.
3. Bond CSR to Your Brand. Demonstrating the impact your organization has on the community – locally or globally — reveals a lot about your organization’s values and beliefs to potential candidates. Characterize CSR as part of your overall workplace culture. This may not only influence a candidate’s decision to choose your company, but it can also influence future talent’s perception of your brand.

Clearly, CSR programs can be used as an additional asset to secure a candidate. These programs can become the deciding factor to a candidate who is juggling multiple offers and trying to determine the best fit for his or her next career move. Additionally, candidates who are passionate about CSR programs during the hiring process are likely to become CSR champions for the company in the future.
Embracing CSR initiatives and promoting their success to attract talent has become a best practice, and helps ensure companies hire candidates who will work to promote and perfect workplace culture and brand recognition.
Dave Imbrogno is president of HR, payroll and talent solutions for ADP, a leading HR consulting firm.