In a society where image is everything and a company’s reputation can be measured in likes, re-tweets, comments and shares; creating an employer brand that draws people to your business has never been more important.
It is refreshing to see more companies investing in their employees’ development. The challenge, however, may be that too many have shifted away from an authentic experience in the quest of perfection. It is important to stay true to your company’s culture when developing an employer brand.
What is an employer brand?
Employer branding refers to the process of creating a strong employment brand. Developing an employer brand includes making sure you present your company in the best possible light when appealing to potential employees. Employer branding is one of several ways companies differentiate themselves in the job market and attract top talent in an increasingly competitive hiring environment.
Whether you’re running a small business or large corporation, with hundreds of employees or thousands, an employer brand is essential for attracting and retaining valuable employees. Employer branding isn’t just about finding the right job candidates, it’s an effective strategy for keeping valuable workers engaged and committed to your company. Employer branding can be a big help in recruiting and managing employees of all ages and levels.
An employer brand shows what kind of organisation you are; what you value as a company, how your people work together, what skills are required to do the job well, what opportunities are available within the company, what kind of people succeed there – even how much fun it is to work there. By building an employer brand that connects with everyone who finds out about your business, you can attract people who are naturally more engaged and will be committed to your company. Your employer brand makes the difference in how talent views your business when compared to other organisations, which can mean everything when it’s time to recruit new talent.
The benefits of creating a strong employer brand
Today’s hiring landscape is changing rapidly. More than ever before, companies need employer branding to attract top talent. Employers must be prepared to take employer branding seriously if they want to gain the competitive advantage in the market and keep their best employees engaged, committed, and productive.
Employer branding is an important part of business success, it should show potential employees what your organisation stands for, who it helps, and why they would want to work there.
Here are some key benefits to having a meaningful employer brand:
- Reduces cost per hire
Effective employer branding is a great way to reduce your cost-per-hire (CPR). By having good employer branding, you encourage your employees to refer your organisation to other professionals in your industry. Thanks to the ever-increasing popularity of social media, your good reputation and employer branding can spread like wildfire and potentially attract all the talent you need through word-of-mouth.
- Increased talent pool
Employer branding can increase your talent pool from which to fill vacancies. This allows you to not only hire more people, but also at a cheaper cost than if advertising was used. As your reputation as an excellent workplace grows, the talent pipeline will expand too. That’s because exceptional candidates are drawn in by what they see and hear about you.
- Reduce time to hire
By using increased talent pools created by strong employer branding, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to fill a vacancy. Talent acquisition teams can give you a head start on your competition by building and maintaining talent pools, screening and qualifying the candidates long before they need to be hired. Then when an open position becomes available, you can quickly select from those best suited to the position with minimal disruption to the day-to-day running of your business.
- Engaged employees
Your employer brand impacts not only how potential candidates see your company but also how current employees feel about working for you. Your employer brand should represent the great working environment you have within your company, the potential for career progression, personal growth and constant motivation that your company offers its employees. A workforce that enjoys working for their employer, feel valued and understand their contribution towards the goals and objectives of the company are often more productive and perform better.
- Higher levels of staff retention
It’s no secret that employees are happier when they have a job to be passionate about. When people love where they work, it makes them want to stay around for longer instead of leaving as soon as something better comes along. The benefits of low staff turnover means you will spend less on advertising, recruiting and training new staff.
How to start creating an employer brand
Companies should invest in their employer brand, as it’s an important competitive advantage. They need to make sure they are investing time and money into building up this aspect of themselves because the global skills shortage continues to increase the competition for talent.
The first and most important step is to talk to your employees. Ask them what it is like working for your company and encourage them to be open and honest. How you do this is up to you, whether it be through engagement surveys or one-on-one meetings with management. To be able to communicate real experiences of what it is like to be an employee at your company, you have to get a good understanding of your current employees’ experiences.
The process of analysing your employer brand to find out what makes it competitive is a great way for you and your employees to learn more about why they joined the company in the first place. You also need to ensure that you are balancing your present-day employment offering with branding for the future direction of your business. This will help give current and prospective employees a greater insight into where your company is headed, so they can better understand what their involvement will be.
How to promote your employer brand
As the war for talent intensifies, employers need to do everything they can in order to create a lasting impression of themselves and their employer brand. One of the best ways to do this is to effectively communicate their employer brand and company culture with potential employees.
Here are some of our top tips to effectively promote your employer brand:
- Your website
One of the first places potential employees will go when deciding which company to work for is their website. Imagine a job seeker landing on the website of a company they are considering applying to, only to find out that it has been taken over by hackers, it has outdated information, bad design or user experience or is not what they expected. They would feel discouraged and lost, which could lead them down an unhappy path towards finding employment elsewhere.
Make sure any potential candidate visiting your website is greeted warmly and presented with the most relevant information. This includes open roles, a company overview and photos of employees and the working environment.
- Company LinkedIn page
It isn’t just recruiters and companies who use LinkedIn to research potential candidates, candidates also use LinkedIn to research companies, so what better way to promote your company culture and employer brand than on your company LinkedIn page?!
Creating a great company page on LinkedIn that attracts followers is very valuable. Followers of your LinkedIn company page are more likely to apply for your jobs, 81% more likely to respond to your messages and 10 times more likely to share your posts with their followers; who could also be potential candidates.
- Your employee’s social media
When it comes to communicating a company’s employer brand and culture, nobody has more credibility than the employees themselves. Encouraging your employees to share positive experiences about your company and what it is like to work there to their social media, you are promoting your company’s employer brand in one of the most effective ways possible.
- Attending local events
Local events are a great opportunity to present your employer brand. Taking part in these types of activities will help build a reputation as an invested company that cares about the community and its people, which means you’ll easily be able to attract local talent and increase your reputation within the local community.
- Employer Fencing
Employer Fencing is a unique recruitment tool that can be used to display employer brand messaging and job adverts to geographical locations. It allows companies to create a perimeter on a map in which digital ads can be served to people who enter the geofence.
Employer fencing is a great way to advertise vacancies and attract potential talent from a variety of locations such as academic institutions, job fairs and even competitor’s premises. Besides the fantastic opportunities for marketing vacancies, Employer Fencing can be used to promote your employer brand.
To find out more about how crooton can help promote your employer brand and market your vacancies, contact one of the team today.
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