The Importance of Employer Branding

What Is Employer Branding?

Employer branding is one of the strategies used by an organization's HR team to make its brand attractive to potential job candidates.

As organizations develop communication initiatives and marketing to attract and retain high-quality clients and stakeholders, employer branding uses its strategies and tools to win top talent and maintain it.

These talent-seeking goals can be accomplished internally, but working with an employer branding marketing firm is never a bad idea. Any investment that you make in this field will be rewarded with the ideal candidates and, ultimately, higher profits.

Definition of Employer Branding

Employer branding involves other people's perceptions of your company, its work environment, and its company culture. In short, it is the process of influencing and managing the organization's reputation.

Employer branding is the organization's ability to identify what sets it apart from other companies and promote it to candidates who make a suitable fit.

Why Does Employer Branding Matter?

You may be wondering if employer branding will bring much value to your business.

Employer branding is essential to your net income. A leading employer organization can lessen turnover rates while halving your hiring costs. Almost three-quarters of active job seekers will apply for positions where a strong employer has secured a healthy employer brand.

An employer brand is a given rather than something that a business works toward. Best practice dictates that you concentrate on making your employer brand a source of pride.

If you would like to employ a solid employer brand, there is a straightforward way to get to that point.

How To Build Your Employer Branding Strategy

With an employer branding strategy at hand, you can improve the way others see your overall business. This strategy leads to a more inviting environment for potential talent, where companies will better retain future employees.

Employer brand management is how companies market themselves to job seekers and their employees’ regard.

Let's get started.

1. Understand Your Business's Exclusive Employee Value Proposition

Establishing a solid employer brand starts by concentrating on your business's culture, values, vision, and mission statement.

Another good starting point is understanding what your business requires and the kind of candidate experience to satisfy such goals.

2. Audit Your Employer Brand

It is not easy to assess your business's reputation outside a company's employees' (or even your executives') understanding.

Finding out where you stand is sometimes as easy as searching your business on social media platforms. You can also deliver internal surveys and pore through your business's Glassdoor page.

If you want to get serious about your employer brand research, you can work with a reputation researching firm.

This employer brand audit aims to learn more about your employees' most enjoyed qualities within the broader company work life.

Once you've highlighted these winning points, you can also identify the areas that employer branding efforts could improve upon to strengthen your employer brand further.

3. Charter An Employer-Related Value Proposition

With your company culture's most vital points in hand, you can write up a value proposition.

This charter promises potential employees the benefits identified in your research. Just remember not to inflate said advantages and stray from your existing employee base's broader understanding.

While you might be tempted to include your compensation structure in your charter, perhaps it's best to leave such discussions for interviews.

The point is to impassion candidates with your company's world-changing impact and its commitment to value and change. Many people will skip a tempting paycheck to know that they are making a difference.

Now you have an excellent piece of marketing that can be published on your company website or LinkedIn page. Your HR team might also want to include this charter in its candidate interviews.

4. Work With Your Employees

Job seekers will often turn to a company's employees when trying to figure out whether they're a good fit for one or not.

You can take advantage of this human curiosity by interviewing your employees and sharing their rhetoric on your company's website or social media.

Encouraging employees to become more involved with your company's culture-related marketing is another superb idea. Get promotional with your company events with Instagram and Facebook employer posts.

5. Foster A Healthier Onboarding System

Onboarding is often one of the most stressful experiences for new employees. If their first few days are horrible, they may be doubly likely to look for a change of scene.

A positive onboarding process often results in a lasting and positive first impression. It is essential that starting employees feel valued and are exhilarated to begin their new role with your company.

6. Provide Development And Learning Resources

Boredom is one of the main push factors for employees. The brain requires the occasional challenge to remain stimulated.

Supplying your employees with novel learning resources and developing opportunities assures them that they won't stagnate in their current roles. More so, an excitingly challenging work environment fosters employee loyalty.

A more skilled workforce increases your overall company productivity and efficiency, but that is a topic for another discussion.

7. Make Use Of Mixed Media To Express Your Employer Brand Strategies

Focusing on a single channel to deliver your message can be very limiting. Instead, make your company story as varied and appealing as possible with social media posts, videos, and slideshows.

You can curate this company-related highlight reel with the highest-quality content provided by employees and your marketing team.

8. Establish A Winning Diversity And Inclusion Program

The strength of an employer brand often hinges on its diversity and inclusion resources. Why not plan and execute an augmenting initiative if you feel like your employment equity standards could use a revamp?

A great diversity and inclusion program will strengthen your workplace culture, improve customer service, and incorporate more ideas from a broader range of resources.

Is There A Difference Between Employer Branding and HR Marketing?

Many professionals contest the differences between employer branding and human resource marketing.

When HR specialists understand their differences, they can build effective strategies at work. Using the two together, you can create a successful campaign, attract the best talent, improve recruitment skills, and achieve significant results.

One of the main differences is that HR marketing is operational while employer branding is strategic.

With HR marketing, you want to reach and impress candidates with a specific message: the employer brand. HR marketing can spark an interest in job applications from qualified future employees, but you must have effective employer branding for them to apply and stick around.

HR marketing is concerned with implementing initiatives that add to an effective employer branding strategy.

You should, therefore, focus on analyzing target groups and defining your EVP (Employer Value Proposition). Determine the candidates you want to reach, where to contact them, and the message to present.

What Is The Difference Between Employer Branding And Recruitment?

It can be difficult to discern between an Employer Value Proposition and the general recruiting efforts of your HR team.

Let’s take an in-depth look to better understand the difference in structure and the value that both employer branding and recruitment bring to your business.

1. Employer Branding Surrounds The Definition, While Recruitment Promotes The Employer Brand

Employer branding entails influencing your company's reputation, while recruitment concerns promoting your organization's employer brand.

Employer branding revolves around defining your job seekers' persona, employer brand, and employee value proposition. On the other hand, recruitment entails promoting your employer brand by curating engaging and interesting recruiting content.

This effort attracts job seekers while you share it on channels like job boards, company blogs and career sites, job fairs, social media, and talent networking events.

2. Recruitment Strategies Can Evolve, But Employer Branding Remains The Same

Retaining targeted audiences of job seekers through new and exciting methods is essential. Industrial and cultural trends force recruitment to evolve constantly. As a response, the current recruiters develop innovative strategies and communication channels, like social media, to attract candidates.

On the flip side, employer branding is an ongoing commitment and long-term promise to potential and existing employees; it, therefore, retains its consistency.

3. Recruitment Comes After Employer Branding

Employer branding is the basis of recruitment; it's built around using additional tactics and methods.

Before promoting your employer brand, you must clearly articulate its precise definition. Otherwise, you risk creating an inconsistent message during your recruitment venture.

What Are The Benefits Of An Employer Branding Strategy?

When you think of the term "branding,” the things that come to mind are probably brand messaging and logos. While these are essential, employer branding strategy is also vital due to the following benefits.

1. Reduced Expenses

Solid employer brands ultimately attract more applicants to open positions.

When you invest in your reputation and turn your employees into brand ambassadors, you reduce time and money wastage that would otherwise come from constantly advertising vacant positions

2. Encourages Diversity

A clear employer branding strategy enables you to attract job applicants with diverse talents.

This way, you can strengthen your organization's inclusion and diversity initiatives. Social media channels give you a great platform to showcase your social and corporate responsibility, building diverse workplaces.

3. Fast Growth

When your organization is reputable, top talent in the market is likely to be interested in identifying with you.

Employees are assets to your company. When you attract the best talent, you stand to grow faster than your counterparts with weaker talent brands.

4. Express Your Brand Value

The best talent in the industry ultimately owns the market, meaning they have various options.

Most skilled professionals always pick the organization whose values they share or have a solid reputation. The modern job seeker goes for more than the tangibles, such as wages; they also care about your mission, work environment, vision, and values.

You, therefore, must clearly express your brand’s value through employer branding to ensure that you're attracting the best applicants.

5. Boost Employee Engagement

Engaging employees as part of your institution's culture becomes essential when you commit to an employee-centric corporate brand.

Employee engagement leads to increased profits due to high productivity and ultimately low turnover. Low employee turnover creates a solid foundation for your company to attract potential candidates and stakeholders.

6. Attract The Right Fit Of Employees And Retain Current Ones

Employees are proud to be identified with your organization when you have a solid corporate brand.

Today, almost all job seekers chase after companies with an excellent working culture; take care of how you showcase it. Potential candidates first look at your profile. Use social media to project an attractive employee culture.

What Is The Importance Of Social Media In Employer Branding?

Today, most job seekers, whether passive or active, are going on social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, searching for career opportunities.

If you're not on social media, you risk missing out on highly qualified talent, as most searchers land there in the first place. Create a social media marketing story on different platforms showcasing your employer brand.

Social media is crucial in employer branding because of reasons such as:

• It gives an excellent first impression; it paves the way for sharing unique and engaging content; hence candidates aspire to work with you.
• Provides a platform for two-way communication, allowing authentic and engaging experiences.
• Builds trust, especially when potential candidates see how well you treat customers and existing employees. When you build trust, you create loyalty and long-term relationships.

Common Employer Branding Targets

There are two kinds of employer branding targets; inward-focused and outward-focused.

Inward-focused targets involve everything that happens in the organization, while outward-focused targets include everything that happens outside the organization.

Both affect your employer branding strategy, and they should be treated equally for optimal results.

To gain a broader understanding, look into the following:

Internal

Employer branding internal targets revolve around retaining employees after the recruitment process.

Besides that, you must also establish means to keep employees motivated to increase their productivity and effectiveness. You should, therefore, look into your organization's strengths and weaknesses, capitalize on strengths and aim at working on the weaknesses.

When defining your employer branding strategy, let your questions revolve around internal targets, such as the corporate culture and working environment.

External

External employer branding targets are all initiatives outside the organization that contribute to your reputation.

Recruitment is among the exterior sides of employer branding; design external initiatives with new job applicants as the target.

Five Steps to Establish Employer Branding

Establishing your employer branding strategy is no walk in the park.

There are no quick ways to create winning employer branding strategies; you must constantly manage them. You need to plan, build, implement, and manage your talent acquisition strategy for success.

Take a look at these other employer branding examples and the following five steps to establish a successful employer branding strategy.

Step 1: Define Your Employer Value Proposition

Your Employer Value Proposition represents your organization's mission, vision, culture, and core values.

It makes you stand out from the competition, enabling you to attract the best talent in the market. Employer branding begins within the organization; it's crucial to remain realistic when defining your EVP.

Most companies tend to express their Employer Value Proposition attractively, but reality doesn't match it. Consequently, they experience high turnovers and reduced employee tenure.

Step 2: Create a Communication Plan

Communication is essential once you define your value proposition. Keep all channels open and create a suitable plan.

Communication allows you to understand future talent expectations and challenges. When you know your target group, research and understand their contact points for easy and effective communication. Some of the contact points include:

• Career fairs/events
• Social media
• Brand ambassadors and employees
• Blogs and career page
• Newsletters

Step 3: Implement Your Content Strategy

Now that you've defined your Employer Value Proposition and created a communication plan, start thinking about the kind of content you want to publish and how to market it.

Some of the other things you should consider are:

• Areas to publish your content (at intervals), such as creating posts and reels on social media.
• The kinds of events that allow employer branding to attract the right talent.
• Adequate support your brand ambassadors and employees can offer you.

Which employer branding materials are suitable for your content strategy, such as articles for your blog.

Step 4: Finding and Recruiting Employees

Employer branding provides a foundation for the recruitment process.

If you're able to impress candidates, you can merge the employer branding initiatives with recruitment initiatives to reap the rewards.

Step 5: Retaining Employees.

Employer branding doesn't end after you recruit employees. It’s expensive to hire new talent, and important to retain them.

It is a long-term process that requires effective management for employee retention. Every working day experience should confirm the positive impression you gave during the application process.

Engage your employees to improve their working conditions; seek to understand their challenges, and make a point of making the necessary changes.

Similarly, listen to their suggestions and enable them to have an excellent work-life balance; it doesn't always have to revolve around monetary perks.

Which Initiatives Add Up to an Attractive Employer Brand?

When your employees are happy, they become productive, ultimately driving your employer branding success.

Some of the initiatives that contribute to an attractive employer brand include:

• Development and training opportunities
• Transparent communication
• Free office food and beverages
• Flexible working policies, such as working remotely
• Employee benefits
• Autonomy
• Team building events

Ultimately, you must turn theoretical employer branding practices into practical initiatives in the following ways:

1. Employer Value Proposition

Begin your brand initiative by defining your values and constructing an employer brand identity.

Discuss your approach with your current employees, analyze information, and brainstorm on slogan development. Finally, develop a positioning statement and communicate it to employees for revision.

2. Career Website

A website is the first point of interaction with applicants; make it user-friendly with easily accessible information on computers and smartphones.

From your EVP, enhance your open corporate culture on the career website through impactful content. Site jobs prominently and be personal so that interested job seekers can identify them fast and apply.

3. Turn Employees Into Multipliers

Employees can greatly influence applicants' decisions with how they portray your employer brand.

Through their networks, employees can reach some of the best talents. When you turn them into brand multipliers, the cost of your employer branding strategy significantly reduces.

Let your employees become your ambassadors by creating their profiles on digital platforms. Additionally, bring them forward in content creation by building employee stories and encouraging recommendations by giving bonuses.

Conclusion

Every organization depends on qualified employees for its success.

To attract top talent, you must invest in employer branding, implement it, communicate, and manage it to attract and retain employees. Employer branding helps you grow fast, reduces expenses, and conveys your brand value.

Follow the appropriate steps to establish your brand strategy, find your target focus, and select the best means of communication, like social media platforms and career websites.

Businesses should always focus on improving the lives of all those connected to them, internally and externally. No one wants to be in a position where their talents and skills aren’t a good fit.