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In today's highly competitive job market, attracting and retaining top talent has become challenging for organizations of all sizes. With the rise of social media and online job portals, job seekers have access to a wealth of information about companies and their work cultures.
Employer branding is the process of creating and promoting a unique identity that sets your company apart from others. It is the perception of your organization in the minds of current and potential employees and the general public. A strong employer brand can help attract top talent, improve employee retention, and enhance your organization's reputation.
In this blog post, we'll discuss the importance of employer branding and provide you with actionable tips on how to improve your employer branding.
Employer Branding
Employer branding is the process of managing and influencing your reputation as an employer among job seekers, employees, and key stakeholders.
What Is Employee Branding?
Employer branding is an integral part of a company's brand strategy. It’s the process of defining and communicating what makes a company unique as an employer. By proactively planning how the organization should be perceived, employers can better attract and retain the right talent.
From understanding their employer value proposition to building relationships with employees, organizations need to focus on creating an attractive culture that resonates with prospective candidates. This means taking into account their values and mission and outlining how they can help develop careers and job satisfaction over time.
In addition, companies should take steps to ensure their employer branding efforts reflect every aspect of their recruitment process.
By developing a strong employer brand, organizations can create valuable connections with potential applicants and set themselves apart from competitors when recruiting top talent.
How to Improve Employer Branding
A strong employer brand not only reflects your company's values and culture but also creates a positive perception of your organization in the minds of current and potential employees.
We'll cover essential steps to help you build a strong employer brand that sets your company apart from others. Let's get started and explore the top strategies for improving your employer branding.
Understand the state of your Employer Brand
Understanding the state of your employer brand is essential to properly improve it. Before you can effectively overhaul your employer branding strategy, you need to take a step back and review what’s currently working and where efforts should be directed. An effective way to do this is by assessing four key areas: employee engagement, employer reputation, customer feedback, and industry sentiment.
Employee engagement is key for understanding the internal view of your employer brand. This can be assessed through surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc., and will help you understand how employees relate to and view your company. Employer reputation should also be researched – look at third-party websites and social media platforms to get an unbiased opinion from customers and potential hires about your organization.
Additionally, customer feedback can provide valuable insight into how people perceive your organization’s values or services. Lastly, consider industry sentiment by researching the companies or brands in your field that are deemed desirable employers.
By taking a comprehensive look at these four aspects of employer branding, you’ll have a better idea of what needs improvement moving forward.
Review your employee reviews
Understanding your employees' thoughts and feelings about your company is key to improving your employer brand. Reviewing employee reviews can provide a wealth of insight into how you're currently perceived and what adjustments need to be made.
By visiting employer review sites or reading best places to work rankings, you can see how current and former employees rate their experience with the company. It's important to make sure you respond to reviews regardless of whether they are positive or negative; doing so shows that the company values feedback and cares about its employees.
Additionally, surveying your current staff will help identify why they stay at the organization and any areas that need improvement. This data can be used to craft a better employer brand strategy going forward.
Track key performance indicators (KPI)
To improve employer branding, it is essential to track key performance indicators (KPIs). To ensure your efforts are moving the needle and that you’re making progress, establish which metrics you plan to track.
After reviewing the current state of your employer brand, you'll have a good idea of the areas in need of improvement. These are the metrics you should focus on.
Examples of recruiting metrics include retention rate and application rate. Tracking these KPIs will help you identify which strategies work best for your organization and make sure that your employer branding efforts are successful.
Identify candidate personas
When it comes to employer branding, creating an effective candidate persona can be the key to connecting with top talent. Having a clear understanding of who you're looking for and what they have to offer allows you to narrow down which platforms are best for connecting them.
For example, if you're looking for an experienced software developer, GitHub is likely a better bet than Instagram, while marketers may be more successful on Instagram.
By taking the time to create detailed candidate personas that include information like expertise, skills, geographical location, and online presence, you can make sure your employer brand is targeting the right people in the right places. This will help you reach the best candidates faster and give your organization a leg up when it comes to building a strong employer brand.
Establish core values and mission statement
Establishing strong core values and mission statement is one of the most important steps in improving employer branding. Not only will it create a sense of purpose and direction for your organization, but it will also help you differentiate yourself from other companies in the industry.
When creating or rewriting your values and mission statement, be sure to get input from seasoned employees who have been with your company for a while. Ask them to identify the core elements that make up your company and its vision, then use this data to hone in on commonalities.
This will ensure that your values and mission reflect both your current culture and the future you envision for your business and brand.
Research competitor strategies
Researching your competitors' strategies is a critical step in improving your employer brand. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses can help you to identify areas where you can stand out from the crowd.
To do this, act as if you were a job seeker yourself, searching for jobs on the platforms they use, and researching queries related to their brand. Pay attention to content that has high engagement with job seekers, such as likes, shares, and saves.
Additionally, look for repeat ideas or content; these are good indicators of successful strategies even if there isn't any clear data to measure success. With this information in hand, you can create strategic employer branding initiatives that will set you apart from the competition.
Refine your employer branding strategy
As an employer, it is essential to ensure that your brand is accurately communicated to potential hires. By refining your employer branding strategy, you can ensure that the right message is being sent out and that the right individuals are targeted.
Through analyzing research from your current strategy, review sites, internal employees, and competitors, you can identify the areas in which your strategy needs refinement. Additionally, detailed candidate personas can help inform where you should focus your efforts and refine messaging.
Your core values and mission statement will also be invaluable in helping you narrow down messaging for a more effective employer brand. To make sure that your message resonates with prospective candidates and effectively communicates who you are as a company, take the time to refine your employer branding strategy.
Enhance your internal employer brand
Start by enhancing your internal employer brand. This is the backbone of a strong employer brand and a necessary first step to take to improve your reputation as an employer for job seekers. To ensure that your internal employer brand accurately reflects what you want it to, survey your employees and ask them how they talk about the company as their employer and why they view it as an employer of choice.
Additionally, see if there are any areas where employees feel dissatisfied or would like to see improvement. Once you have collected this data, work with managers and leadership to develop action plans based on the feedback — this will help create a unified vision of what your internal employer brand should be.
Finally, make sure to keep employees updated on the progress regarding-ting their suggestions and creating an improved workplace culture.
Invest in your company culture
Creating a strong company culture is essential to building a successful business. A positive work environment can help to foster productivity, innovation, and employee satisfaction. One way to promote a healthy corporate culture is through the recruitment process. Hiring individuals who fit well with your organization's culture can have a significant impact on the overall success of your team.
For example, 83% of millennials are actively engaged when they believe an organization fosters an inclusive culture. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on building a diverse and inclusive team that reflects the values of your organization. Recruiters can also take steps to make hiring more inclusive by using blind resumes and conducting structured interviews.
Investing in your company culture can significantly impact your employer brand. Your company's reputation is a reflection of your culture, and creating a positive culture is the foundation of a strong employer brand. A great corporate culture prioritizes employee well-being and development. This can include creating engaging activities for employees, encouraging open communication between teams, and valuing team members.
You can also invest in team-building exercises, mentorship programs, and regular check-ins with employees to ensure their satisfaction levels at work. When you invest in your employees and create a healthy work environment, it can be reflected in your employer branding efforts.
It's essential to make sure that your team is happy and productive, and this can be achieved through a positive company culture that prioritizes your employees.
Improve your perks and benefits
To create a compelling employer brand, it's important to showcase the unique benefits and perks that your company offers. According to research, job seekers place significant importance on both salary and benefits when considering a job offer. Therefore, it's essential to include details about your company's offerings in job postings, on your website, and in recruitment materials.
It's also crucial to listen to your employees and understand their needs and preferences. Conduct surveys and gather feedback to identify the benefits and perks that are most valued by your staff. This information can guide your decisions on which benefits to offer or enhance, ensuring that they align with your employees' needs.
By investing in high-quality benefits and perks, your organization can attract and retain top talent. This can include anything from health insurance and retirement plans to flexible work arrangements and professional development opportunities. When employees feel valued and supported, they're more likely to be satisfied and engaged, which can ultimately lead to increased productivity and success for your company.
Incorporate your recruitment strategy
After defining your employer brand, it's time to put your recruitment strategy in place to ensure that you build and maintain a strong reputation with job seekers and stakeholders. A recruitment marketing strategy is an essential tool for achieving this goal.
While it's impossible to control everything that contributes to your employer brand, a comprehensive recruitment marketing plan can help you share important information about your company and its employees throughout the recruitment process. This strategy can help attract and engage top talent, as well as maintain relationships until roles are filled.
If you don't yet have a recruitment marketing plan, it's important to collaborate with your marketing team to better understand how your company is presented as an employer and how you can work together to achieve your goals. This can involve a variety of tactics, from targeted job postings to social media campaigns, employee testimonials, and employer branding videos.
You should also consider how you're measuring the success of your recruitment marketing strategy, and whether you're getting the results you want. Metrics like candidate conversion rates, time-to-hire, and employee retention can all provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your approach.
Ultimately, incorporating your recruitment strategy into your overall employer branding efforts is an important step in building a strong reputation and attracting top talent to your organization.
Create a content calendar
To build a strong employer brand and attract top talent, content is key. Whether it's social media posts, career page updates, or recruitment events, you need to have a strategy in place to ensure that your messaging is consistent and engaging. That's where a content calendar comes in.
A content calendar is a plan that outlines the type of content you will be creating and when you will be sharing it. It allows you to set clear deadlines and ensure that your strategy is divided among your team. By having a roadmap of your content, you can stay on top of your deadlines, identify gaps in your strategy, and avoid duplication.
For your short-term strategy, you'll want to coordinate internal employee spotlights, write content for social media, and regularly respond to inquiries and reviews online. For your long-term strategy, you may need months of preparation to create recruitment videos, host recruitment events, and update your career page.
Document ongoing efforts, like connecting with people in your talent community or scheduled email sends. Organizing all your content in a calendar makes it easier to manage and maintain.
Your content calendar should include a mix of evergreen and time-sensitive content. Evergreen content is content that is always relevant and can be shared repeatedly, such as company values or testimonials from employees. Time-sensitive content is content that is relevant for a limited period, such as job postings or upcoming events.
A content calendar is an essential tool for any recruitment marketing strategy. By staying organized and planning, you can create a consistent, engaging employer brand that resonates with job seekers and sets your company apart.
Use social media recruiting
Social media has become an indispensable part of employer branding strategies. Almost 80% of job seekers search for jobs on social media, which makes it essential for companies to have a strong social media presence that builds trust and encourages candidates to pursue employment.
Social media is unique because it allows you to be more authentic and transparent with job seekers, giving them live updates on happenings in the office, team outings, and a glimpse into the fun and quirky side of the company culture.
Using social media recruiting effectively also means keeping track of metrics, such as engagement rates, followers, and reach. These metrics can help companies understand which types of content are resonating with their audience and adjust their strategy accordingly. Moreover, you should encourage your employees to share and promote their social media presence, as this can help to build a stronger, more authentic brand.
While social media recruiting can be time-consuming, it's a worthwhile investment in the long run. A strong social media presence can not only help you attract top talent but also create a positive image and reputation among job seekers and stakeholders.
Test out new platforms and avenues
Incorporating new platforms and avenues in your employer branding strategy is a great way to reach more job seekers and expand your reach. While social media is an important component of your strategy, it's important to consider other platforms that may be relevant to your audience.
Researching the latest platforms and trends can help you stay ahead of the competition and attract top talent. It's also important to understand the features of each platform and how to optimize your content and strategy to reach your target audience.
When testing out new platforms, consider the different types of content you can create, such as videos, blog posts, or podcasts. Look for opportunities to partner with influencers or other organizations to expand your reach and build credibility.
It's also important to track your results and make data-driven decisions about which platforms are most effective in reaching your target audience. By staying up to date with the latest trends and testing out new platforms, you can continue to build your employer brand and attract the best candidates to your organization.
Be authentic
Being authentic is crucial when it comes to building your employer brand. To achieve this, it is essential to have strong leadership that influences your company culture and employee satisfaction. Research has shown that an employee's perception of authentic business leadership is a strong predictor of job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and overall happiness at work.
Being authentic means being true to who you are, based on your personal experiences, values, and strengths. Leaders should not try to adopt a new persona but should instead focus on bringing their authentic selves to work. This can help to create an environment that is both engaging and fulfilling for employees.
It's important to give a voice to your employees to amplify your message and values. A trust may be an issue when it comes to allowing employees to openly discuss your organization, but this shouldn't be the case if there is nothing to worry about. Encouraging employees to share their experiences can create a sense of authenticity and transparency.
Embrace transparency
In today's job market, job seekers are no longer just looking for any job that pays the bills. They want to work for an organization that aligns with their values and offers a positive work culture. To attract and retain top talent, organizations must be transparent about their operations, decisions, and work culture. This is where employer branding comes into play.
LinkedIn and Glassdoor are examples of websites that have transformed the job market. Job seekers use these sites to search for jobs and to learn more about an organization's work culture. Therefore, organizations need to provide an accurate depiction of what it's like to work for them. If an organization fails to be transparent about its work culture, it risks losing out on talented individuals to other organizations that are more transparent.
Organizations should not only aim to be transparent but also embrace it. Using real imagery and quotes from employees on their websites is a great way to show the authenticity of their work culture. Real stories and quotes from employees can also serve as a powerful marketing tool that can attract top talent. In addition, potential customers are also more interested in an organization's employer brand than ever before.
It's important to note that embracing transparency can have its downsides. Negative reviews from current or former employees can damage an organization's reputation and recruiting efforts. However, the key is to address these reviews head-on and work to improve the areas where they reflect negatively. By doing so, an organization can turn a negative review into an opportunity to showcase how it values employee feedback and uses it to make meaningful changes.
Be human
When it comes to attracting job-seekers, it's important to remember that people are drawn to other people and not faceless corporations. That's why showcasing a brand personality, thinking like a human, and focusing on building relationships are all important elements of a strong and authentic employer brand message.
One way to add a human touch to your employer brand is by making human contact easy for job seekers. This could mean ensuring that your recruitment or HR team is easily accessible and responsive.
You can also take inspiration from how great brands treat their customers. For example, one online bridal retailer found that customers who received a personal apology by phone were twice as likely to make a repeat purchase compared to those who were sent a gift card. This highlights the importance of human contact in building relationships and loyalty.
Online conversations are a great way to communicate with potential candidates and show your organization's human side. Offering advice, answering questions, and asking for opinions can all help to promote your employer's brand. Encouraging your staff to get involved can also strengthen your messaging and showcase the brilliant people they work with.
Sharing real-time social updates can also add a human element to your employer brand. By posting photos of your people having fun in the office, at social events, and in the general culture of your workplace, you can give job seekers a real insight into your company culture.
It's also important to use language that sounds natural and conversational when sharing content. This can help to make your organization feel more approachable and human. On certain social platforms, such as LinkedIn, this may mean avoiding overly formal or corporate language and instead using language that is more relaxed and informal.
Define your message
To attract top talent, it's important to have a clear and authentic message about your company's values, culture, and mission. This message should be reflected in all of your branding and messaging, from your website to your social media accounts to your job descriptions.
One way to ensure that your message is consistent is to create a tone of voice guide that outlines the key messaging and language to be used in all communications related to your employer brand. This guide can be used by everyone involved in the hiring process, from recruiters to hiring managers to executives, to ensure that the company's message is being conveyed consistently.
Another key component of your employer brand message is your employee value proposition (EVP). Your EVP is essentially the unique set of benefits and perks that your company offers to employees, and it should be a key part of your employer branding.
Once you have a clear understanding of what makes your company stand out as an employer, you can begin crafting your EVP messaging and incorporating it into all of your employer branding materials. This can help you differentiate yourself from competitors and attract the right talent for your organization.
Build brand advocacy
Corporate and employer brands are not just owned by marketing teams. Thanks to technology and social media, the power of brand advocacy now lies in the hands of your employees and customers. This means that it is crucial to have everyone who can amplify your employer brand on board, from front-line staff to hiring managers.
According to the marketing magazine, the Drum, 84% of people trust peer-to-peer recommendations over any other form of advertising, which also applies to recruitment. That's why it's important to afford employees some freedom on social media and provide platforms for them to build their brand by sharing elements of their working lives with others.
To build brand advocacy, consider how you can use posts from employees on enterprise social networks, internal Facebook groups, and intranets on your career social channels. It's important to encourage your employees to share their experiences of working for your organization with others. This can be done by showcasing your company culture, values, and mission, and by encouraging your employees to tell their stories in their own words.
Building brand advocacy is all about empowering your employees to become brand ambassadors and showcasing your company culture and values to the world. When done effectively, this can be a powerful tool to attract and retain top talent, enhance your employer brand, and ultimately drive business success.
Embrace technology
Technology has significantly improved communication channels and provided a better candidate experience in the recruitment process. By using technology, you can streamline various stages of recruitment such as candidate engagement, job search, applications, assessments, selection processes, interview scheduling, and feedback.
This not only saves time for recruiters and candidates but also provides an opportunity for companies to reinforce their employer brand by providing a smooth and personalized journey for candidates.
Platforms like LaunchPad are examples of how technology can be used to enhance the recruitment experience. Candidates can have a seamless journey from their first engagement with a company right through to onboarding, which can positively impact the employer brand.
In addition to improving the recruitment process, technology can also provide you with access to a broader pool of potential candidates, particularly those who may not have applied through traditional channels.
Technology can also help companies to stay connected with potential candidates and build a relationship with them, even if they are not yet ready to apply for a job.
For example, chatbots can be used to answer questions and provide information to potential candidates about the company and its culture. This can help to increase engagement and build a positive employer brand even before a candidate has applied for a job.
Technology can be a valuable tool in improving the recruitment process and strengthening the employer's brand. By utilizing technology, companies can provide a better candidate experience, access a wider pool of potential candidates, and build relationships with candidates even before they apply for a job.
Connect employer and corporate brand
Connecting employer and corporate brand is essential to building a strong and effective brand strategy. When these two brands are aligned, it helps to create a consistent and clear message for both customers and candidates.
A positive candidate experience can add value to both brands, while a negative experience can have serious consequences. Research has shown that 25% of UK job-seekers have either stopped purchasing or purchased less from a brand because of a negative candidate experience.
Employer brand enables those outside the organization to understand the company's purpose, vision, and culture. It is crucial to ensure that the messages communicated by both the corporate and employer brands are aligned and consistent.
In our interconnected world, we use many of the same channels to speak to our customers as we do to our candidates. It is, therefore, necessary to ensure that the messaging across all channels is consistent, from the company's website and social media pages to job advertisements and the interview process.
Having a clear and consistent message across both the corporate and employer brands helps to reinforce the company's values and culture, which will, in turn, attract the right candidates and customers. This can lead to a positive impact on the company's bottom line, as well as create a positive reputation that can be leveraged for future success.
Grow with Employer Branding
In today's competitive job market, building a strong employer brand has become more important than ever. A well-crafted employer brand can help you attract and retain top talent, increase employee engagement, and ultimately drive business success.
To build a strong employer brand, it's important to focus on key areas such as defining your message, embracing technology, building brand advocacy, and connecting your employer and corporate brands.
By creating an authentic message and tone of voice for your brand, using technology to streamline the recruitment process, getting your employees involved in building your brand, and aligning your employer and corporate brands, you can create a compelling and consistent employer brand that will help you stand out in a crowded marketplace.
At The Brand Shop, we specialize in helping companies build and grow their employer brand. Whether you need help defining your brand message, creating compelling content, or leveraging technology to improve the candidate experience, we can provide the expertise and support you need to take your employer brand to the next level.
If you're ready to grow your business through the power of employer branding, contact us today to learn more about how we can help.
