When business owners talk about branding, they usually think about employee’s attempts to become better and more attractive job candidates. However, the truth is that personal branding is not the only thing that matters in the business universe called employer branding.
On the contrary, employer branding is a major trend as well because companies have to prove professional authority if they want to recruit the most talented workforce. Branding is a two-way process since both parties need to do their best to attract each other.
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If you want to learn how it works, keep reading to see the basics of employer branding and seven ways to use it as a valuable business resource.
Employer Branding: Definition, Benefits, and Stats
Before we show you the best ways to improve the employer brand, we need to begin with the basics and explain this concept. By definition, the employer brand describes an employer’s reputation as a place to work and their employee value proposition, as opposed to the more general corporate brand reputation and value proposition to customers.
Jake Gardner, a human resource manager at UK Dissertation, says it’s a critical business process because renowned brands are able to grab the most talented professionals before their competitors. He explained the benefits of employer branding:
- Attract talents: The first benefit of employer branding is obvious – you get to win over the most promising talents and convince them to work for your company.
- Spend less time hiring: Strong employer brands can drastically speed up recruiting procedures.
- Improve retention: A typical worker is willing to fight for the position at a powerful company.
- Reduce error rates: Better employees promise to reduce error rates long-term.
- Increase engagement: Employees are also ready to work harder and more diligently.
- Boost profit: With all the benefits we mentioned above, it is evident that employer branding leads to a significant profit increase.
These statements sound perfect in theory, but can we support them with real-world evidence? It turns out we can because the Internet is packed with employer branding statistics. Here are just a few:
- As much as 92% of candidates would leave their current jobs for a role at a company with an excellent reputation.
- Negative reputation costs companies at least 10% more per hire.
- Employee turnover can be reduced by 28% by investing in employer brand.
7 Tricks Boost Your Employer Branding Efforts
You’ve seen the introductory part, but now it is time to focus on practical ways to improve employer branding. We made a list of seven tips, so let’s check them out here:
- Create an employer branding strategy
The first thing you need to do is to create a comprehensive employer branding strategy. It must cover everything from top to bottom and include all levels of the hierarchy. The point is to send the same brand-related messages consistently to grab the attention of potential job candidates.
- Start the execution from recruiting
One thing we learned from the best paper writing services such as custom essay service is to begin executing employer branding activities right from the beginning. In this case, the starting point is the recruitment process.
What is it that you need to do?
You should be polite and highly informative, making sure to simplify application procedures. Even if you turn down a candidate, you have to keep him/her informed about it instantly. If you do everything properly, every candidate will be glad to recommend your business to friends and peers.
- Educate new employees
Another thing you need to do is to educate new employees through carefully designed onboarding. Make sure to get them acquainted with the employee value proposition and company blogs, but you should also organize formal training and seminars to explain to new workers how to spread the word about the employer.
- Take care of online reputation
The Internet is packed with business directories where people can rate, discuss, and comment on almost every company out there. Some of the most notable platforms are Glassdoor and Indeed, but you can find many other networks that specialize in local or niche businesses.
- Take advantage of social media
You probably understand the value of social media for employer branding, so don’t hesitate to take advantage of it. Studies reveal that 70% of employers check the social media profiles of candidates, but the same logic applies vice versa. Therefore, you should use social networks to share stories about your company and show behind-the-scene details that can make you a desirable employer.
- Conduct online surveys
If you want to improve the employer branding strategy, you must know what your workers think about the company. You can do it by conducting anonymous online surveys via Survey Monkey or some other platform. The results will help you to enhance the strategy, but you can also publish positive comments on your website and social media accounts.
- Measure results
The last tip is to measure the results of your employer branding strategy. Here are the indicators you might want to analyze - time to hire candidates, turnover rate, cost per hire, offer acceptance rate, and the number of applicants per opening.
Conclusion
Building a powerful employer brand can help your business to attract the most talented professionals and grow steadily in the long run. In this post, we showed you:
- The definition of employer branding along with the basic stats and benefits
- 7 ways to build employer brand and make the company a more desirable employer
Do you have an employer branding strategy? Which tactic do you believe to be the most important in this process? Share your thoughts in comments – we would love to see your opinion about this topic!
