In today’s job market, having a strong employer branding strategy is crucial to attracting and retaining top talent. An effective employer branding strategy can influence how the public views your company as an employer, boost worker motivation and output and promote financial success.
We’ve gathered advice on how to define and strengthen your employer brand, foster employee advocacy, fund employee development, use social media, and measure and optimize employer branding efforts using data to help you with your employer branding strategy. Implementing these suggestions can enhance your reputation, draw in and keep top talent, and accomplish your business objectives.
What is Employer Branding?
Employer branding manages and influences how job seekers, employees, and other essential stakeholders perceive you as an employer. It entails everything you do to market your company as a top employer.
Your employer brand is the standing of your business as an employer. Simply put, it’s what your co-workers and potential employers think of you. When you aren’t present, they share their true intentions to friends and family. Your employer brand is a valuable asset that needs constant maintenance even though it might not be physically present.
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Importance of Employer Branding In Attracting Top Talent
Many businesses often need to pay more attention to employer branding, so they miss its numerous benefits. However, understanding the value of employer branding can provide a competitive advantage in today’s job market. To emphasize the importance of employer branding, here are some points.
Company Reputation
When considering new career opportunities, 75% of candidates say that a company’s reputation is vital to take into account. Almost every applicant, whether active, passive, or somewhere between, will research your business before applying.
Diverse Workspace
Biased employer branding and hiring procedures deter candidates from applying and prevent your business from attracting top talent. A welcoming workplace is essential for inviting high-achieving professionals from various backgrounds.
Career Development
Candidates are more likely to apply to a company if it offers skill development and training programs. Create a strong program for career development, and you’ll attract ambitious professionals who can see a bright future working for your business.
Talent Acquisition
If the company had a strong employer brand, 41% of passive candidates would accept a new position without a pay raise. A strong employer brand can eliminate the stigma attached to a lateral move for nearly half of the workforce.
Company Culture
Before applying for open positions, 77% of job seekers want to learn more about your culture and values. Regarding what they want to see during the job search, candidates are telling us. Your efforts to brand your company as an employer may be a great way to convey these benefits.
Brand Savings
Companies with a bad reputation as an employer must increase pay by at least 10% to attract top talent. Consider adding 10% to the cost of each hire you make. Now pause to think about your employer brand and ask yourself if you are already paying that premium covertly.
Talent Magnet
Up to 23% of workers ages 18 to 34 would take a pay cut in exchange for the chance to work for a company with a strong employer brand. Even though we never advocate deliberately undercutting your rivals, this illustrates the importance of reputation.
Referral Advantage
According to data, while 86 percent of employees recommend great workplaces that have been certified, only 56 percent recommend typical U.S. workplaces. This one is particularly frightening because, frequently, employee recommendations are the best source of qualified applicants. If just over half of your staff would refer you to their network, you can wave goodbye to those hires.
Brand Perception
Even if they were unemployed, statistics show that 69% of applicants would decline an offer from a company with a poor employer reputation. Negative employer brands are too strong to overcome, not even the fear of losing one’s job.
Why Manage And Influence?
You do not own your employer brand. Candidates and employees have opinions about you as an employer, and those opinions and impressions impact your reputation. You already have one, whether or not you actively manage your employer brand. You’re at the mercy of candidates and co-workers if you don’t try to change their perceptions of you.
Consider your company’s overall recruiting and retention efforts as individual interactions. Every interaction with candidates and employees shapes your employer brand and affects your capacity to attract and keep excellent employees. Each of those touch points has the potential to be a deal breaker without proper management, costing you both candidates and employees.
Constituents of a Strong Employer Brand
Company Culture
Employer branding must take into account an organization’s culture. Top talent can be attracted to and retained in a welcoming, inclusive, and supportive environment.
Leadership
Effective leadership can foster a supportive workplace culture and instil value in employees. Employees may be motivated to contribute to the company’s objectives by it.
Communication
Open and honest communication with employees is crucial for building a strong employer brand. This includes opportunities for employee participation in decision-making, regular feedback, and expectations that are crystal clear.
Employee Value Proposition
The employee value proposition outlines the benefits the company provides to its staff. It includes compensation, perks, and chances for professional growth.
Benefits of Employer Branding
Increased Productivity: Engaged, valued employees are more likely to be productive, which can translate into higher revenue for the company.
Top Talent Attraction: A strong employer brand can draw in top talent and improve the calibre of applicants for open positions. This is because candidates are more drawn to companies with good reputations and values for their employees.
Positive Reputation: A compelling employer brand can aid in establishing a positive reputation for the business, which may draw stakeholders like customers and investors.
Cost savings: By attracting and keeping top talent, businesses can cut the price of hiring, training, and turnover.
Employee Retention: A strong employer brand can also aid in keeping top talent. Employee retention is lower when they are content with their working conditions and feel appreciated.
Real-world examples of how businesses have effectively evaluated the effects of their employer branding initiatives
GE: To evaluate their employer brand’s success, GE used employee engagement surveys. They found that highly engaged staff members were likelier to endorse the business as a great workplace, increasing brand recognition and enhancing recruitment.
Hootsuite: To track its online reputation and find opportunities to strengthen its employer brand, Hootsuite used social media monitoring tools. They raised employee engagement and lower turnover by addressing criticism and enhancing their employer branding initiatives.
Hilton: To gauge the effectiveness of their employer branding initiatives, Hilton monitored candidate feedback and examined recruitment metrics. They could attract and keep top talent by using this data to enhance their hiring procedures, which increased revenue.
Strategy for Building an Employer Brand
Organizations may want to take the following factors into account when developing an employment branding strategy:
Become acquainted with your business.
Crafting an ‘Employee Value Proposition’ is simpler when pinpointing the distinctive qualities that make your business unique. Learn about your organization’s core purpose, vision, mission, values, and culture. Recognize your business’s goals and the talent required to achieve those goals.
Analyse your employer’s brand.
You likely already know exactly where your product or service stands in the market, but you might need to be more aware of how the public or your current employees feel about your business. Perform internal and external research using applicant surveys, internet and social media searches, and companies that monitor reputations.
Examine your company’s operations, morale, and especially the talent acquisition process to see what is working so you can continue doing it there and what needs improvement to find solutions.
Did you know?
Canva’s dedication to its mission makes for a unique employer brand. The company’s Careers page emphasizes its values for potential employees in an interactive carousel and pairs each value with pertinent information, highlighting that design can be a force for good. On its social media channels, which combine motivational content and design-driven ideas, Canva expands on this concept.
Write down your employer’s value proposition.
Now is the time to shine with your corporate messaging. Create an EVP that expresses your corporate brand’s values clearly while highlighting the unique benefits of working for your company. It should directly address your staff while enhancing your customers’ brands.
Put recruitment marketing to use
Consider utilizing the writing skills of your own marketing or communications department when creating an EVP or other employer brand messaging. By practicing a few marketing techniques, like asking yourself, “Who are we trying to reach?” And what do they want?” You’ll be best positioned to develop an employer brand that speaks to your target audience.
Boost current workers’ engagement.
Look no further than your workforce for guidance on becoming a trustworthy employer. Leads are three times more likely to trust employees than your CEO when learning about what it’s like to work for your company. Additionally, your employees help create your business’s culture, live out your values, accomplish your goals, and realize your mission. The value of your employer brand would only be zero with their involvement. Here are some strategies for increasing employee engagement with your employer brand:
- Simplify the message
- Show off your staff by letting them showcase their abilities
- Transform your team into a social recruiting force
- Perfect the on boarding procedure
- Offer chances for career advancement and skill development
- Create eye-catching job descriptions
Job ads are an effective way to promote your employer brand, as they are candidates’ first interaction with your company. To make your ad stand out, avoid generic phrases like “excellent communication skills” and use more specific and captivating language instead.
For example, you can say, “You’re the kind of person who prefers picking up the phone to waiting for an email. The thought of making a cold call doesn’t scare you.” This will help your company differentiate itself from competitors. Additionally, include relevant keywords that candidates may use when searching for jobs to improve your search engine rankings, but avoid using them excessively.
Did you know?
Starbucks demonstrates its commitment to being more than just a product by setting up social media accounts to express gratitude for current workers and inspire passion in potential candidates. The business uses the platforms to show its dedication to inclusion and diversity.
Employer Branding Success Metrics
Candidate experience: Monitoring candidate feedback and experiences during the hiring process is part of measuring candidate experience. This can give valuable insights into how candidates view the company and highlight areas where the employer brand can be strengthened.
Employee engagement: Employee satisfaction surveys can be used to gauge how the employer brand affects the working environment. These polls can pinpoint the employer brand’s strongest and weakest points.
Retention: Employer brand effectiveness in attracting and retaining top talent can be assessed by employee retention rates.
Employer reputation: Monitoring a company’s online reputation can help determine how well the employer brand works to attract and retain top talent.
Did you know?
Companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft have developed strong employer brands by providing distinctive benefits and perks, emphasizing the growth and development of their employees, and promoting a positive work environment.
Improving Your Employer’s Brand
You can use the following advice to strengthen your employer brand:
- Describe your employer brand and the benefits your business provides to employees.
- Determine what needs to be improved, and then get input from both candidates and employees.
- Make the hiring process enjoyable for candidates by providing an exceptional candidate experience.
- Encourage staff members to represent the company’s brand.
- Provide training, career growth, and recognition opportunities for your staff members.
- Promote the employer brand on social media and interact with applicants and staff members.
- Utilize data to evaluate and improve employer branding efforts continuously.
Conclusion
Developing a strong employer branding strategy is essential for tempting top candidates, keeping them on board, and fostering business success in the long run. Employer branding must be prioritized to avoid losing top candidates to rivals. Businesses should invest in employee development, use social media, and measure efforts with data to develop an effective strategy. By implementing these suggestions, companies can improve their reputation, accomplish their objectives, and maintain competitiveness in the changing labour market.
