Recruiting and talent search has been going through a lot of changes, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of virtual job interviews and AI-powered recruiting. Employer branding has emerged as one of the most powerful and essential recruitment trends that your company should be focusing on in 2021 and beyond. In this blog post, we’ll give you a complete rundown of how to build an employer brand the right way. Read on to learn more!
What is employer branding?
Simply put, your employer brand is the reputation you have as an employer. Current, former, and future employees have an opinion about you as an employer, and this information likely circulates around the workforce and potential candidates in your industry.
It encompasses everything that an employee looks for in an employer, including compensation and benefits, of course, but also the intangible things that differentiate your organization from other employers.
This can be a very bad thing for some companies, as their employer brand may be so negative that candidates actively avoid their job vacancies which in turn makes it difficult for them to hire talented people. Organizations with positive employer brands leverage their good reputation to attract high-quality candidates.
Why is employer branding important?
A positive and strong employer brand offers a range of benefits to your company. Here are the top 3 most important benefits of a strong employer brand:
Attract hard-to-find talent
As millennials and generation Z start making up a sizable chunk of the workforce, some companies are struggling to attract young people. Working on your employer brand will make it easier for you to attract young, global professionals that are more tech-savvy and adaptable to the rapidly changing landscape of work that your company might be navigating. Young professionals pay particular attention to the reputation and value proposition that their potential employer has, so this might be one of the best ways to reach them.
Attracting experienced and highly skilled candidates could also be made easier with employer branding. When a candidate is aware of their value in the job market, they’re unlikely to consider a position at a company with a negative employer brand. An employer branding strategy that improves employer attractiveness is one of the most important trends for organizations in 2021’s tricky job market!
Reduce costs
Unsuitable or underqualified job seekers are deterred by a strong employer brand, making your initial candidate filtering process less time-consuming and expensive. Job seekers will also actively search for your latest vacancies, meaning you’ll have to spend less money getting the message out that you’re hiring. Candidates are even willing to accept lower pay if they’re working at a company with a good reputation, meaning that the financial benefits of focusing on your employer brand can extend far beyond the recruiting phase.
Employee engagement
A well-established employer brand doesn’t just help you with attracting new candidates — it also improves your relationship with your existing employees. When the way you interact with your workers is aligned with your organization’s culture, your employees become highly engaged, more productive, and are often converted into vocal ambassadors for your company. This results in multiple benefits including increased revenue, reduced employee turnover, and a more efficient workforce, to name just a few.
What makes a great employer brand?
All great employer brands are focused on people. Whether your company is interacting with candidates or employees, you should aim to always treat people with care and respect. The world’s leading employers also aim to instill a strong sense of belonging and purpose in their employees from day one. When your workers feel like they’re part of something important and far-reaching, they take pride in their job and are eager to tell others about what they do and why they love doing it.
How do you build your employer brand?
To help your organization enjoy all the benefits we mentioned above, you need to know how to build your employer brand. Here are 4 steps that you can implement quickly and easily at your company to start developing an employer brand in 2021:
Get help from your marketing department
Developing an employee brand can seem like a daunting task, but if your company has a marketing department, they might be able to offer advice on how to build your communication strategy with candidates and employees. Social media and website marketing are great places to start and make sure your marketing efforts are eye-catching, benefit-driven, and human-centred.
Your marketing department can also support you in measuring and testing different strategies, especially if you’re thinking of investing money in paid media campaigns on the internet. Doing this will help you improve over time, and you’ll also get valuable data back about what your ideal candidates want to see and what jobs they’re interested in.
Offer employee development and support
Candidates and employees love working on themselves. By offering comprehensive career development programs to all employees, you’ll quickly gain a positive reputation as an employer that cares about people. This can be done by creating online or in-person training courses, regular departmental workshops, and mentor programs.
This also applies to employee support. If your employees have access to physical and mental health programs, they’ll spread the word about how their employer takes an active interest in their wellbeing.
Share employee stories
Candidates want to know what it’s really like to work at your company. Despite all the amazing things you can tell them, there’s nothing quite as effective as sharing stories and testimonials from your current employees. By posting videos from your team on your website and social media, you’ll give curious job seekers an authentic look into life at your organization while displaying a transparent and honest employer brand for everybody to see.
Improve your hiring process
Candidates talk to each other about the companies that they apply for, so taking extra care with how you treat people during the hiring process is key in achieving your employer branding goals. Make sure you maintain constant communication with candidates, don’t waste their time, manage their expectations, and be as empathetic as possible during every step of the recruitment process.
If you do this correctly, candidates will give your job interviews and filters their best effort. This makes it much more likely that you find the right person and that you avoid a bad hire. You’ll also reduce your chances of being ghosted by promising candidates or by losing an applicant to a competing organization.
Follow this employer branding guide to make your recruiting and employee retention more effective! Your employer brand could help you beat your competitors while growing your business in difficult times. To learn more about how Adecco helps companies just like yours, visit our employer portal and get in touch with us today.