Today, 86% of HR professionals report that recruiting employees is becoming more like marketing. The same number of workers say they research a business before they consider turning in their application.
In today’s job market, companies can’t just post a generic job description and expect high-quality candidates to submit their resumes. People want to work somewhere that represents their values and provides them with the right benefits. With the best employer branding, you can improve your company’s access to top talent.
What Is Employer Branding?
An employer brand isn’t just something you do. It’s who you are as a company. Because of this, you must always be authentic when you market your brand. People can immediately tell if a post or advertisement isn’t genuine, so you must build your branding strategy around the core of who you are as a company.
As the founder and CCO at Verhaal Brand Design, Philip VanDusen, mentioned in a recent Mission to Grow podcast, “Branding and marketing is not just for your customers and your prospective customers. It is your ethos. It’s who you are. It is what people say behind your back when you’re not in the room.”
Knowing what your brand is matters, but you also must learn how to convey your brand’s traits and values to others. With a strong brand strategy, you can improve your HR practices and reach a better-matched pool of workers.
The Advantages of Using Employer Branding at Your Company
By August of 2024, there were just 0.9 workers available for every open position. While this figure has improved over the last four years, it still means that modern companies are struggling with a labor shortage. Because there aren’t enough workers coming of age to replace retiring baby boomers, the labor shortage is only going to continue for the foreseeable future.
As an employer, one of the major advantages of employer branding is that it allows you to attract top talent. When job seekers understand what you have to offer, they’re more likely to apply. In addition to navigating a tight labor market, employer branding can help you in a few other important ways.
- Reduce Hiring Costs: 92% of workers would take a job at another company without a pay increase if the other company had a great reputation.
- Attract Talented Workers: If workers are aware of your employer brand, you’ll attract people to your company who care about your mission and cause.
- Better Worker Retention: When you attract the right workers, they stay longer.
- Improved Morale: People who fit in with your culture are happier, more productive employees. By attracting and hiring the right team, you can boost your employee morale.
How To Develop Your Employer Brand
To ensure the best employer branding at your organization, try incorporating some of the following tips and techniques.
Talk to Employees, Managers, and Applicants
One of the most important things you can do is talk to your employees, managers, and applicants about your employer brand and what their experience is like. There are likely opportunities for improvement in your onboarding, hiring, retention, and offboarding practices.
If you aren’t sure what your employer brand is, try gathering together your senior managers at a hotel for a branding session. As a group, brainstorm and hammer out your mission, vision, values, and employer brand.
Review Feedback
Often, your employees and applicants have a better understanding of your brand than you do. Prior to any branding session, you may want to conduct a survey of your employees and applicants. In the survey, ask questions about why employees came to work for your company, the values they care about, and what they think your business represents.
Create a Branding Strategy
Once you’ve figured out your ideal brand image, the next step is building a brand strategy. Depending on your company and your goals, you may want to try some of the following techniques.
- Social media posts
- Interviews and behind-the-scene videos with your current employees
- Updated policies in your employee handbook
- New training in your employee manual
- Adjustments to your job posts, such as making them clearer and shorter
- Discussing your values and employee benefits during interviews
- Having senior managers talk about your brand’s values in interviews
- Company blogs and pages on your website
- Brand ambassadors
- Employee education for existing employees
Implement the New Strategy
Once you’ve figured out your employer brand and how you will convey your brand to current and future workers, the next step is putting those values into practice. You should also get regular feedback from employees and applicants so that you can see how effective your strategy is. Then, you can make adjustments as needed.
Be Authentic
People can tell when a company isn’t being authentic. When deciding on your employer brand and your brand strategy, you have to base it on qualities that you genuinely represent as a company. Otherwise, you’ll end up deterring employees, and disgruntled applicants will leave poor reviews on job sites.
Learn More About Employer Branding
Building an employer branding can help you attract and recruit top talent to your company. Before you can market your brand, you have to understand what your business represents to your employees and stakeholders. With the right branding, you can develop a more productive, successful business.
For more information on employer branding and small business growth, reach out to our team of small business HR and payroll experts today.