What is Employer Branding
and to Use it to Build Your Business?
The reputation of a company among existing employees and potential job seekers is crucial. A lot of people will not continue working or apply to work in a place with a bad reputation. In the following page we will uncover everything regarding employer branding including what it is and how you can improve it.
What is Employer Branding?
Employer branding is your company’s reputation as an employer. It encompasses everything from your company culture and values to your employee benefits and career development opportunities. It’s essentially how you market yourself to potential and existing employees.
A good way to think about it is trying to think of your company as a completely different product with a completely different market. Currently you have the product or service you provide to your client and potential clients. When you try to attract new talent it almost has nothing to do with the product or service the company offers, it has to do with how your company appears for jobseekers, and that’s a completely different market.
Let’s take IKEA for example. As a company people shop there because of the affordable pricing, different designs and innovative products that solve different things around the house (among other reasons). While this is all great when they are looking for new clients, when they are looking for new employees the employees care about completely different things. They care about things like the culture of the company, whether or not there are mass layoffs (and if so, how often), can you grow within the company, etc. A good way to think about it is by imagining a conversation between a job seeker and a current employee of the company asking “how is it working there?”
Why is Employer Branding Important?
Employer branding is very important and it serves two purposes: recruiting new employees and reducing turnover.
- Recruiting: Everybody knows that recruiting the right people for the role is one of the most important things when it comes to hiring. Having a good employer branding could be the difference between a future employee wanting to work at your company or not.
- Turnover: Employer branding doesn’t only affect job seekers, it also affects your current employees. What your employees think of you as an employer can make a difference between them choosing to look for another job or staying. While turnover is of course inevitable, trying to reduce it can help your company continue the momentum without the constant need to recruit and train new employees.
Employer Branding Strategy
When it comes to an employer branding strategy there are several things you can do:
Understand Your EVP
Just like in “regular” branding, where understanding your unique selling proposition (USP) is crucial, a similar concept is applied but we call it EVP (employer value proposition). In employer branding the story is a bit different though, and you should try to start with your vision and values. The vision doesn’t include KPIs or metrics like marketshare or revenue, this audience (the workforce) doesn’t care about that as much as they care about a clear vision they want to follow.
Conduct an Employer Brand Audit
An essential step in developing a strong employer branding strategy is conducting an employer brand audit. This comprehensive review acts as a health check for your current employer brand, allowing you to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.
The audit process typically involves:
- Internal analysis: Examining internal factors such as employee surveys, exit interviews, and company culture assessments to understand employee perceptions and experiences.
- External analysis: Analyzing external sources like online reviews, job board postings, and competitor employer branding efforts to gauge your reputation in the broader market.
- Competitive benchmarking: Comparing your employer brand to competitors in your industry to identify areas where you excel or fall short.
By analyzing this data, you can gain valuable insights into how your employer brand is perceived by both internal and external audiences. This information helps you identify any gaps between your intended brand image and actual perception, uncover potential blind spots that may be impacting your ability to attract and retain top talent and develop targeted strategies to address weaknesses and leverage your strengths.
Bring Your Values and Vision Into Writing
After your research it’s time to put everything into writing. When writing your EVP it’s important to try to be honest with yourself and really understand the values of your company. Write things that the employees who work the closest with you will agree with. The EVP can be put on your website, Linkedin and other recruitment materials. Make sure that when you write it it has nothing to do with the compensation or things like “ping pong table” or “beanbag”. You want your employees and potential candidates to connect with the values and mission of the company, because that’s what makes you unique.
Your Employees are the Best Salesman
You saying how much you care about the employees and how much you value their growth (or whatever your values are) is one thing, but it’s a completely different thing hearing it from the people who actually live it – your employees. Job seekers are much more likely to believe whatever they are saying about how it is to work with you as an employer. Use their testimonials and reviews on your hiring page, if you use your social media as part of your employer branding make sure to post videos about what it’s like for them working with you.
Suggest Development Opportunities
One of the most common reasons people leave their jobs is because they’re bored and looking for a new challenge and a new opportunity. Luckily it has a simple fix. Finding a way where you can give and encourage employees to learn new skills and also having it help your business is tremendous for several reasons – they are not bored and will stay with you for longer, it makes all the employees know this opportunity of growth exists and you will get an employee with new skills.
Be Honest and Transparent
Being honest and transparent first and foremost is good in order to become a good employer and a good leader. Make sure that your employees, the people you want to lead, have the view of everything that is going on whether it’s their performance, the direction of the company or other things. Those things are also part of your branding as an employer. When you ask for feedback from your employees, don’t only do it because you want to get good reviews to put on the careers page, rather actually listen and take the feedback. This will make you employees more satisfied with their jobs and eventually stay longer. This honesty is important both in your feedback and one on ones with your employees, and also in your messaging towards job seekers. Don’t write values that are not true or make statements you won’t fulfill.
Employer Branding Best Practices
There are a few ways you should do in order to amplify your employer branding:
Utilize social media
There are several examples of how you can utilize social media to improve your employer branding. One very common way to do it is by having a social media page showing what it is like working in your company. When it comes to choosing the right social media it’s important to understand your audience and what social media is best to find that audience. If you are looking for marketing or developers maybe linkedin could be the right place for it, but if you’re looking for truckers it’s probably not going to be the place to find it.
Another tip we want to give you is to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Being an employer and running a social media account are completely different things. If you don’t think you understand well the social media platform you are choosing, maybe it’s best to figure out who is the right person for the job.
Invest Time and Effort Into the Careers Page
A lot of career pages are just a list of job openings. Don’t do that. That doesn’t show anything about what it’s like working in your company. Instead try to include things that will really show what it is. For example:
- Your values
- You mission and your vision
- Flexibility in hybrid and remote work
- Benefits and perks
Write Convincing Job Posts
Job posts are one of the main interaction points you have with job seekers. When you write the job post and description make sure you include the values as an employer. In the job post you can include a day in the life of an employee there.
Who is an Employer Branding Specialist and What Does he do?
An employer branding specialist is a professional who focuses on shaping and promoting an organization’s image as a desirable employer. They play a crucial role in attracting and retaining top talent by crafting a positive and authentic employer brand.
Here are some key responsibilities of an employer branding specialist:
- Developing and implementing employer branding strategies: This involves defining the organization’s employer value proposition (EVP) – the unique benefits and offerings that set it apart as an employer – and translating that into a compelling narrative across various channels.
- Creating and managing employer branding content: This includes crafting engaging content for job postings, career pages, social media platforms, and internal communications, highlighting the organization’s strengths as a workplace and showcasing its company culture.
- Managing employer branding campaigns: This involves launching and managing initiatives to raise awareness of the organization’s employer brand, such as attending career fairs, participating in employer awards, and collaborating with external partners.
- Analyzing and measuring the success of employer branding efforts: This involves tracking key metrics, such as employee engagement, website traffic to career pages, and the quality of applicant pool, to assess the effectiveness of the employer branding strategy and identify areas for improvement.
Staying current with industry trends: Employer branding specialists need to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in the field to adapt their strategies and utilize emerging tools and technologies.
An employer branding specialist typically requires a bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, human resources, or a related field. Strong communication, storytelling, and analytical skills are essential for this role, along with creativity, strategic thinking, and a deep understanding of the current job market.