Year after year, the job market continues to shift towards becoming more candidate driven rather than company driven, meaning you don’t choose the talent; the talent chooses you. If you’re wondering how your organization stacks up, or if you’re simply scratching your head questioning where to start, take a look at our list of must-know employer branding trends below, compiled to help you stay ahead of the curve.

Branding Must Be Prioritized in the Boardroom

Having a “seat at the table” may sound a bit cliché at this point, however, it’s exactly what the human resources team needs to kick-start a branding strategy. In order to ensure that attracting top talent and employer branding are viewed as priorities by your organization, you as HR must position yourself as a strategic partner regarding business development. Ideally, HR’s role in the boardroom should be treated with the same importance as any other c-level executive. From an operational standpoint, HR is responsible for a businesses’ most valuable differentiator—employees.  HR departments capable of mastering this quickly will no doubt gain a competitive advantage over other companies within their respective industry.

Employees Will Provide Authenticity

Just as you’re more likely to trust traveler reviews over a hotel’s website, candidates are more likely to trust your employees over the recruiter. Thanks to the prevalence of social networks and popular workplace review sites like Glassdoor, it’s now incredibly easy for people to ascertain the conditions and work environment of you, their potential new employer, based on feedback from past as well as current employees. While it’s impossible to control what these individuals have to say about your organization, one thing you can do is attempt to reshape their perceptions. To do this, try listening to the thoughts and concerns of your employees, either by conducting anonymous surveys and focus groups or by browsing around the aforementioned workplace review sites. Once you’ve heard what they have to say and understand the reasoning behind it, you can then devise a plan to rectify things for the better. HR can take this one step further and encourage employees to become brand ambassadors for your organization, empowering them to share their stories on your website or post their experiences across social media platforms.

Technology Will Continue to Change Everything

Technology platforms for talent acquisition have been prominent for more than half a decade., We are now starting to see even more emerging in the market, especially relating to employer branding. The inherent value that recent digital advancements can provide, such as artificial intelligence and chatbots, are starting to be recognized and incorporated into many current and new applications— and for good reasons. The capabilities of these technologies have allowed organizations to drastically speedup recruiting, evaluation, and workflow processes while still ensuring that candidates stay engaged with the help of personalized journeys, and we’ve only scratched the surface. We can expect to see even more advancements like voice activated applications and virtual reality environments in the coming years. Jet.com for example, created a virtual space allowing applicants to partake in their organization’s happy hours and even hold virtual meetings with the CEO, giving them a life-like experience of their company prior to joining the organization.

Mobile Branding is Becoming Mandatory

Mobile usage has been a hot topic for some time now but it’s worth mentioning regardless, especially if you have yet to make this a priority. The ability to adapt your brand to meet the pace of the smartphone revolution is no doubt crucial to the success of your recruiting efforts. Right now, China alone accounts for half of the world’s app downloads. This means that if you haven’t started optimizing your brand for mobile use, chances are you’re missing out on a large chunk of qualified applicants. If fully transforming your mobile branding efforts seems too daunting to even think about, start small. Forget about smartphone apps for the time being and focus on first developing a mobile responsive website. Getting started is easy—simply take a look at your own job portal on your iPhone or Android and visually audit your own environment. Is it just as easy to browse and apply from your phone as it is from your desktop? Can candidates easily define filters and search keywords to find positions of interest? Are any pages, logos, images and videos omitted on mobile devices? After a full audit, how would you grade your career site?

This article was first published on Oracle.com