Your company has its own reputation, influence, honor, and position. These elements make your company stand out in the market. This standout reference is what makes your company a ‘BRAND’. And with the identity of this brand, consumers gain trust, confidence and reliance to purchase products from your company.
But, apart from this, your company has another outlook as a brand, which talks about your company’s reputation as an employer. This is the brand image that is created talks about you as an employer and the experience you provide to your employees. This is called your employer brand.
In a quick context, employer branding is a process of promoting and endorsing your company as an employer to the desired target people whom you want to attract, recruit and retain for the growth and development of your company.
Employer branding of your company is your ‘influence’ that sticks into the minds of your employees. Getting your employer brand value higher boils down to one thing which must be done right, “Using right employer branding strategies”. But before we move on to that part, let us talk about some numbers and figures that state why employer branding is essential to run your show.
· 72% of recruiters agree that employer branding has a significant impact on hiring.
· 40% of respondents say that employer brand will be a long last trend to focus on in the future.
· 60% of recruiting leaders are investing more in their employer brand.
· 9/10 candidates would apply for a job when it is from an employer who actively maintains its brand.
· 50% of candidates prefer not to join a company with a bad reputation even for increased pay.
· A strong employer brand can reduce the cost per hire by as much as 50%. Now that is one key strategy outcome recruiters cannot miss!
Source: Builtin, Papirfly, LinkedIn
6 strategies to build your employer brand - With a modern twist.
The strategies listed here aren't new, but the way you establish yourself using these stratgies is what will make you stand out.
A. Career Site
A career page may not seem important to candidates. They will apply irrespective of how it looks as long as the page works fine. But that shouldn’t stop you from developing a kickass career page that will act as an anchor for your employer branding. Consider your candidates are your customers. Now, is your career page communicating enough to convince them to join you? Remember, your content on the career page is your salesperson 24x7. Ensure you reflect what’s happening in the company.
You can include captivating images or videos with hypnotic content to portray the life in your company. Focus on the user experience to not complicate the whole process of finding the right role and applying.
- Have a short application form with lesser but enough questions
- Trigger a confirmation email if an application is received
- Give resources for candidates to learn more about the role and culture of the company
Read: Best career pages that can inspire you
Here’s a career page that I love!
B. Job Descriptions
Similar to a career page, job descriptions, tells a lot about your employer brand. Kartik Mandaville, is the CEO of Springworks and the job listing is from his personal LinkedIn account. You can see this a lot these days when it comes to high growth startups. This kind of post automatically brings in a lot of traction. Candidates get to know what the recruiter is looking for not just in terms of skills but also attitude. This also effectively communicates the what the culture looks like and the type of people in the organisation.
C. Play the Social Media game
Social media is the most widely used channel and can help you build your employer brand and attract talents. 25% of job seekers are believed to use social media as a primary tool for job searches. For example, you can use your employees to talk about their growth in the company and then inform about the vacant positions. These are nothing but testimonals about employee experience that will assure potential recruits. Social media is 'the' place to show off how content and satisfied your employees are. Use high-quality images, videos, shorts and slideshows to tell your company story. Let the media world know who you are!
D: Audit and survey
Audit and survey help you get familiar with the status of employer branding. Understand its key metrics, unique attributes and conduct surveys both externally and internally, on social media and monitor all the surveys regularly.
External research helps to understand how your company is positioned in relation to the competition. These researches can be conducted through applicant surveys, internet surveys and social media. Internal surveys are between you and the people who are working under you. Catch a work break and go get some feedback from candidates and employees. Keep one thing in mind, your motive is to understand how they feel about the company, so ask questions accordingly to get meaningful information.
Some of the questions you could ask are,
- How would they describe the company to a friend?
- Why did they choose to apply?
- Why did they choose to accept/reject their offer?
- Why would they stay with the company year after year?
- Why are they leaving the company?
I would recommend taking a data-driven approach which would strike out any possibility of subjectivity while carrying out the survey and audit. After gathering this information, the company can therefore begin to define its unique identity.
Also read: How to establish a data-driven culture in your company?
E: Employer value proposition
Employer value proposition is how you want to be perceived as an employer. Different companies want to be known for different things. A few companies are known for their cutlture, a few for the fun activities, a few for their employee benefits they offer. There can be mulriple things you offer for your employees and but put the limelight on one thing that best suits your company's goal and requirements. A versatile EVP can shape the identity of your company, uplift your employer brand and facilitiate better recruitment overall.
Here are a few propositions your company should look out for-
a) Professional development
b) Holiday allowance
c) A thriving workplace culture
d) Healthcare employee benefits
e) Flexible working opportunities
f) A strong work-life balance
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F: Employee growth
Invest in your current team’s development as lack of career development and learning opportunities could be one of the core reasons for bad retention rate. Understand that employees who feel that they are progressing and developing are 20% more likely to remain at the company in a year’s time. A positive workplace culture, perpetual efforts to upskill employees and a right mix of employee benefits will take your employer branding a long way.
Pre-requisite to the above strategies, you must understand the company’s vision, mission, values and culture which would help fetch the right talent to accomplish the required objectives.
Remember one thing, all the tips and strategies discussed above are subjected to trends and influence.
Takeaway
During the industrial revolution in England, the best employer brands were the ones who would give wages to their employees at regular intervals without any pay cuts. But in this decade, this is not the scenario. Along with regular pay checks, employer builds their brand by offering other benefits like employee wellness, paid vacations, group health insurance for employees, etc. Only those employers are ruling the market who provide the best benefits and workplace culture to their employees.
Also read: Employee benefits you need in 2022 to attract top talent
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