Employer Branding Essentials
Now is the time, if you haven’t already, to take a deep dive into your employer branding. Reputation matters more than ever with a high percentage of job seekers not applying or employees continuing to work for a company that doesn’t spend as much time creating their internal story as they do on that of the products or services.
What exactly is employer branding? 💭
It’s the reputation you have among your employees and how you market yourself to those yet to join you. The better the branding, the better you will be at retaining and attracting top talent. Your brand for your products and services may have a huge following but that alone will likely not convince the best people to work for you.
When it comes to communicating your company’s values, culture and leadership the same branding strategies should be implemented. You want your employees to shout about how positive, inclusive and flexible the workplace is, not how wonderful the products and services are, that’s the role of your customers!
Why is it important? 🤔
Simply, it can save a lot of time, money and resources as well as creating a really positive place to be. It can reduce staff turnover and make the hiring process less expensive so a massive plus to the bottom line.
If employer branding is something that you’ve been meaning to think about, don’t wait, this will certainly be the difference between you and your competitors. Top candidates have the success or soft skills you need just as much as they do, if the mood is being set very nicely elsewhere it’ll be a good old fashioned case of ‘you snooze, you lose’.
To get you thinking about your employer branding journey, below are some initial questions you should be answering or tasks to do to get your strategy where it needs to be.
💼 Be sure of why a candidate should stay or join your company. By looking at your culture, values and mission statement work backwards to understand the type of talent you need to reach those objectives.
💬 Ask around. Survey your employees, conduct social media searches, look at career sites for reviews and see first hand what people are saying. You can use this to highlight the good and use the less positive to ensure improvements are made.
📝 Write an employer value proposition. Using the information from your employees, you can write a factually correct marketing message which can be used on your website, social and recruitment materials. Use this to inspire and motivate, this is not for salary or other material benefits, simply to let them see their work will be meaningful.
✨ Ace the onboarding process. Without this in place it’s a fact that this can negatively impact your employer branding therefore resulting in higher turnover. Not everybody wants to feel like they are immediately joining a work family, but seeing the promised culture for themselves, knowing where they fit and arming them with the instructions and tools to be their best is vital.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for your employer branding, consider your diversity and inclusion initiative and always be honest and genuine!
You will see far more emphasis on this, so good luck in creating your story!
