In an employment market that is getting more and more competitive, attracting the best talents to a company needs something more than just a good paycheck. Its brand is one of the most effective tools for a company to be used in attracting new talents. A strong company brand may seriously influence a candidate on applying for a job or accepting a given offer too.
Your company brand includes reputation as an employer, organizational culture, its values, and the way of treating your employees. It’s what makes a difference and distinguishes you from other employers in the eyes of potential candidates.
This blog post will arm you with the knowledge and provide you with the tools needed to present yourself as the employer of choice.
Understanding Your Company Current Brand Perception
Before embarking on the journey to enhance the standing of your company brand, you need to first understand the current brand image of your business. Consider getting a professional human resources company logo in the beginning only. Then, start to work on building a strong brand image.
This will, therefore, require an honest assessment of how your employees and the outside market see your brand. It is not really about what you feel about your company but rather what others perceive it to be. Employee feedback will most definitely play a very big role in this evaluation exercise.
Your employees are your brand ambassadors; they are the ones who have first-hand experiences with your work culture, values, and employer practices. Anonymous employee surveys or open forums can help generate some feedback regarding the things your company is doing well and those that need some work done. However, internal feedback alone isn’t enough. You also need to get a gauge of your external brand perception.
Tools such as Google Alerts can help in tracking online mentions of your company; giving you an idea of your public reputation. Social media sentiment analysis can also reveal what the potential candidates think about the company. Websites like Glassdoor include forthright criticism by current and ex-employees, adding further perspective to it.
Regular measuring of your brand perception using these strategies will update you with your strengths and weaknesses and help you make necessary adjustments in the branding strategy.
Define Your Employer Branding Strategy
Now that you have a clear understanding of your current brand perception, the next step is to define your employer’s branding strategy. This starts with defining what your company values and culture are. These are the core principles that guide not just how your business is run but also how your employees interact with one another.
This will help clarify to you and make sure that they are consistently demonstrated in your actions. Remember, potential candidates are not looking for a job alone; they look for an environment where they feel connected to the company’s mission, vision, and values.
Next, establish what retains employees in your organization. What makes you different from the rest? Maybe it’s your innovative work methodologies, amazing employee benefits, emotional intelligence and ways to consistently grow and build one’s career. Or maybe it’s your diversity and inclusion attitude.
These unique selling propositions (USPs) will be the cornerstone of your employer brand so make sure prospects know exactly what these are and exactly what separates you from other employers.
Finally, ensure that your employer brand is aligned with your overall business strategy. It should not, therefore, be a stand-alone element that works independently of your broader organizational goals. If, for example, your business strategy is built around being innovative, then the employer brand will emphasize the opportunity to be creative as well as to learn and grow.
Steps Towards Building a Strong Employer Brand
The development of an appealing employer value proposition (EVP) is one of the key steps in developing a strong brand as an employer. Your EVP is the unique set of offerings you offer as an employer, from competitive salaries and benefits to opportunities for professional development.
It’s something that makes you attractive to potential employees. A successful EVP should not only reflect your business values but, of course, it should be audited on a regular basis to stand strong and competitive.
Next on the card towards developing a strong employer brand is building an online presence. In this digital age, often the first point of contact a potential candidate has with an organization is its website and online platforms. Ensure that the mission, values, and unique selling points of your company are all clearly articulated on your website.
Social media is a very powerful tool for employer branding. LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram platforms, would allow you to chat with your target audience and employees on a more personal and non-formal basis. Post some pictures from the company’s events, employees’ working accomplishments, or funny views of what is going on backstage in the working space.
Communication of Your Brand
Communication of your brand is another critical component of employer branding. One of the first touch points for potential candidates would be job postings. For job postings to be engaging, be sure to be clear and specific about the role and responsibilities.
Try using action, and active language that will make the posting fun and interesting. Also, don’t forget to detail compensation, benefits, and growth opportunities. Make your job postings visually appealing, and concise in order to improve on readability.
Tell stories that bring out your company culture. There is no better way to do that than through effective storytelling, whereby you can boldly own up and show the values and what differentiates your organization from others.
Telling success stories and bringing out examples of successful projects and employees who made a difference is an ideal way to put a message across. Stories work as they are more memorable and also relatable rather than stating dry facts.
Employee testimonials take your brand a long way. Various surveys indicate that very few companies solicit the help of employees in similar roles to share about the job. Employee testimonials give a truthful glimpse into your company’s culture and values.
Engaging Existing Employees in Brand Promotions
Engaging the existing employees carries with itself a great impact on your ideological employer brand. The genuineness and true authority of any company’s brand extension are its employees.
Two such ways include encouraging employees to advocate for the company on social media. Employee advocacy is directly promoting the organization by its staff members. Employees sharing positive experiences, achievements, or company updates can portray a signal of positivity in your company and pull in potential candidates.
You can design guidelines as well as resources that will help your employees not to feel shy and cautious about posting content about your company. Focus on your human capital management strategies so you can engage existing employees to advocate for your brand.
Another effective strategy is to implement a successful employee referral program. Hiring through employee referrals can help speed up the hiring process and contribute towards successful hiring, as employees referred by existing employees may be more comfortable with your company’s culture and requirements.
Nowadays, most people seem to agree that employees referred to the company are going to stay longer and fit in the organization better than others. You can motivate the referrals by offering some bonus or other types of recognition whenever a successful referral is made.
Evaluating the Success Of Your Employer Branding
It is very crucial for every company to evaluate the success of their employer branding efforts.
Quantitative measures can be determined based on key performance indicators (KPIs) toward measuring success. Some of the important KPIs that measure employer branding are time-to-fill, quality of hire, or employee turnover rate.
Other social media metrics like reach, engagement, and follower growth would also be indications of the effectiveness of your online branding efforts. Qualitative insights into your employer brand may come through employee satisfaction surveys and exit interviews.
Equally important is to revisit your branding strategy for current relevance periodically. Your employer brand should change with the business environment and job market. This might mean changing your EVP, improving your online root, or introducing new programs for employee engagement. Just to remind you, employer branding is not a project but rather an ongoing process that needs continuous attention and energy.
Conclusion
On the whole, employer branding is a strategic tool that could have a gigantic impact on your company’s ability to attract, maintain, and engage top talent.
The extent to which employer branding affects overall business performance is overwhelming. A strong employer brand attracts world-class talents and also leads to better employee engagement, productivity, and loyalty. That can in turn pay off in increased customer satisfaction and, ultimately, business growth.
In conclusion, employer branding can potentially deliver a strategic investment that reaps big returns in terms of attracting talent, retaining highly engaged employees, and driving business results.
With a strategy in place and consistent work with the right tools, you have the way paved on which you can build a solid employer brand for your company.
