Understand that all companies will have a reputation. The public will have their perception about your people, the brand, products, history, leaders, members, partners, etc. Moreover, your brand reputation will go beyond just the common perception; it can be intellectual, instinctive, and emotional. On the other hand, you will also have an employer brand. Employer branding pertains to the process of improving, influencing, and managing your reputation among key stakeholders, employees, and job seekers. It includes all things you will do to ensure that you will position yourself as a prime employer in your industry.
What is Employer Branding?
We can look at it similarly that a company branding works. To highlight the company brand, the business will highlight a unique selling proposition to their target audience define their services and products to ensure that they will stand out from a congested marketplace. Employer branding is all about employing the market’s perception of the employer or the key people in the organization. It highlights the promise and benefits to the employees to help you attract key talents in the industry.
Employee branding strategy is how you will market yourself to job seekers. There are different ways to do this, which we will discuss further below. For instance, you can showcase the cultural differentiator of your company. You can highlight the amenities you offer to position yourself on the top consideration of the job hunters.
What are the Benefits of Employer Branding Strategies?
You will be surprised at the astounding benefits that employer branding in recruitment offers. While this concept has been going on for decades, it hasn’t been that popular until online jobs were launched in the late 90s. The advancement in the online world made it possible for millions of employees to have access to different employment opportunities both here and abroad. The industry has transformed and become more fluid. Most employers gradually adapted to the shifting landscape of employment. They started to implement proactive methods to retain key employees and attract top talents. Unfortunately, some still fail to recognize the benefits of this strategy.
Attract Top Talents
According to the latest survey, around 95% of the candidates have identified that the company’s reputation is their prime consideration when looking for employment opportunities. Whether they are actively seeking career opportunities or passive in searching for career growth, all of them will look at your reputation before applying. Furthermore, you can also use your employer branding strategy to communicate your culture and ethics with the potential talent. Most candidates will be very vocal about the things that they are looking for when searching for work. About 66% of them need to learn about the values and culture of the company before submitting their application.
Improving Employee Retention
Most businesses know that retaining employees is much cheaper than training new people. Even if you offer them a new contract, 69% of them would reject the offer if you have an employer with a poor reputation. Even those who are unemployed will reject the idea of working with a bad employer. Understand that even the idea of being unemployed will not be enough to work with an employer with negative branding.
Reduce the Cost
When luring the top talents, most companies will have to spend more than a 10% increase in pay to attract the best talents in the industry. The idea of paying a 10% increase on each hire you will make may not be possible for every company. There’s also a chance you are already paying your people with a premium without even realizing it. With employer branding, around 40% of the passive applicants will accept a new position in the company without an increase if they have a good employer reputation. Furthermore, about 23% of your workforce ages 18 years age to 34 years old would permit a pay cut just to get an opportunity to work with a company with a top employer brand. While we do not really encourage businesses to perform underbidding, this is simply a testament that showcases the power of reputation.
Good Referrals
Your employer’s reputation advances your word-of-mouth marketing. If your people have good employer branding, there’s a chance that your existing employees will recommend your business to their friends. Employee referrals will commonly be the best source of high-quality candidates. If only a tiny percentage of your workers will recommend you, you will have to spend more on promoting your job opening. There’s also a lesser chance of attracting top talents in the industry.
How Should I Build My Employer Branding Strategy?
Now that you are aware of the various benefits that it can offer, perhaps you are now seriously considering what employer branding is and the things that constitute it. You are probably wondering how to execute the best strategy to improve your employer’s reputation. Here are some of our recommendations.
Start with an Audit
You won’t devise a solid plan if you are not aware of your current employer brand. You won’t influence the job seekers and manage your reputation if you don’t know the public perception. Therefore, an audit of your employer branding in recruitment is necessary. This is a two-step process designed to discover how your company presents itself to the potential candidates and what the employees think of your business. Start by examining everything that is related to your employer brand. It may include what you are saying to the employees and the things that may affect their perception of your company. Look for the performance review, internal communications, onboarding materials, rejection letters, acceptance letters, social media platforms, company [ages, and job descriptions.
Once done, you will have to receive feedback from the employees and the candidates. Your goal here is to understand how they feel and what they think of your company. Compose questions that will help you find those answers. For instance, ask them how they will describe your company to people close to them. Ask them the reason that motivated them to apply for your job opening. If you received a rejection, ask them why; the same thing goes when you receive an acceptance. Ask your existing employees why they choose to stick with your company after so many years. You need to have enough data and insights to help you formulate a conclusion. However, you should avoid overdoing things. Too much information will make it difficult, if not impossible, to perform an analysis of the employer branding.
Developing the Employee Value Proposition
We’ve mentioned above that your employer branding strategy is somehow similar to your company branding. Nonetheless, instead of your Unique Value Proposition, you will have to craft your Employee Value Proposition. EVP is basically the ‘deal’ between the company, the existing employees, and the talents they are planning to recruit. It helps you convey what the talents and employees can expect from your organization and what your company can expect from your employees and the potential candidates.
Your EVP will serve as your guide when devising your employer branding. Unlike your marketing campaign, there’s a chance that you will not share this publicly. Nonetheless, it will help you shape the employees’ perception and your prospects for the years to come. This won’t be easy, but we will make it a bit easier for you if you follow our guide.
Implementing Your Strategy
After you have completed the prior steps, it is time for the public to be aware of your employer brand. However, you may be thinking of what channel is the most vital for your business. You can utilize limitless platforms to promote your employer branding in recruitment. However, if you are just starting with this, it is best to start with the basics.
- Job Description- It may not be a factor that will allow you to highlight your employer’s positive nature. However, this is usually the first thing that job seeker will notice. Therefore, make sure that it will reflect your employer’s brand.
- Career Page- This page will serve as the anchor of your employer branding strategy. This makes it one of the most critical channels for potential talents. Add employee testimonials, compelling video, and high-quality photography. Highlight the core values of your key people that will help convince the candidate that you are the best option for them.
- Online Reviews- Nowadays, people are not just leaving reviews and feedback on the company and service; they will also leave testimonials about the employers. Most job seekers will be reading reviews before applying for a particular company. If you have negative reviews, this can discourage them from pursuing the job application. While it may be difficult for your marketers to control those anonymous feedbacks, responding to them will help you manage the possible damages. Pay attention to what these people are saying, and don’t be scared to respond to them.
- Experience of Candidate- If you manage to attract a significant number of candidates, there will come the point when you have to interact with them. Whether it is for an in-person interview or an initial phone assessment, the experience of these candidates should align with your company. Otherwise, it won’t be easy to attract them.
Employer Branding
Employer brand will not be easy; it is essential to take small baby steps before pushing with a complete strategy. There is simply no sense to rush things since developing a good reputation will take some time. Once you are able to handle the factors we’ve enumerated above, you will be able to use the more advanced employer branding strategy.