15th December 2020 10 MIN READ •Talos Attract •Employer Branding
It has never been more crucial for companies to focus their efforts on defining a talent-winning employer branding strategy amid the current competitive nature of the job market for both candidates and employers alike. After all, strong talent is at the core of any successful business.
Here, we explore the role of employer branding in recruitment and how organisations should approach building an employer brand strategy that attracts the talent you actually need.
Key takeaways
- Employer branding in recruitment is essential if you are trying to source and attract top talent in your sector
- Focusing on your employer brand can help you attract 50% more qualified candidates to your organisation
- Developing your employer branding strategy doesn’t have to be difficult, start by defining your values before you implement your strategy
- Continuously strengthen your EVP and employer branding with gamified employment engagement surveys from Taslos ATS
Table of Contents
What is your employer brand?
Your employer brand is essentially what your candidates perceive of your company as a potential workplace. Your employer brand is typically made up of several factors:
- Employee Value Proposition (EVP) – the reasons employees choose your business over the competition
- Company culture
- Online presence and brand awareness
- Online reviews (Google reviews, Glassdoor)
- Career sites
Understanding your employer brand makes a huge difference in your brand’s awareness, people retention and chances of attracting the right talent.
What is employer branding?
Employer branding is all about building and tailoring your company’s reputation within the job market.
Employer branding in recruitment reflects the integrity of your workplace from the perspective of both current and potential future employees and, in many cases, is the main thing that attracts new candidates to apply for your vacancies.
So, take it from us – it’s well in your best interests to get your employer brand strategy nailed down so you can maximise your employer branding strategy.
Why employer branding in recruitment matters
Employer branding is the process of creating the external image or perception of your organisation that candidates will see when considering applying for a role. Your employer branding strategy will encompass the values and techniques that go into creating that external image to showcase your employee value proposition (EVP) and attract the right candidates.
Positive employer branding in recruitment can make all the difference in attracting top candidates. If candidates perceive your company to be more desirable than the competition, you’re already halfway to securing them.
If, however, your employer branding strategy isn’t quite up to speed, you could be losing out on some valuable candidates. In fact, LinkHumans found that strong employer branding in recruitment will attract 50% more qualified candidates.
It is, therefore, crucial for companies to evaluate, recognise, and define their employer branding to ensure they are well-equipped to attract and retain key talent.
How to assess your employer brand
So, before we get into the ins and outs of actually building a solid employer branding strategy, you’ll first need to assess where your employer branding is currently and what needs work.
To assess your employer branding in recruitment campaigns, you need to:
- Get a strong understanding of your EVP by sending employee engagement surveys
- Review your online presence, including website visibility and company reviews
- Review your career site – does it need an update?
Once you have a better understanding of how your organisation is perceived by candidates, you can start to think about how to improve your employer’s brand strategy. To effectively implement your employer branding in recruitment campaigns, follow our simple steps below:
How to build an effective employer brand strategy
While improving your organisation’s employer brand strategy, and ultimately its reputation sounds like a complex issue, it’s fairly simple to review your values and incentives to improve your employer branding.
Here are a few intuitive ways to strengthen your employer brand and implement your employer branding in recruitment:
1. Define your brand’s values
Identify the shared values and beliefs of your workforce. These are the foundations of your employer branding strategy and are crucial for attracting like-minded talent.
Find out what matters most to your employees – this may include collaboration, diversity, sustainability, or inclusivity. This may involve conducting workforce surveys or speaking with key employees on an individual basis.
Take action to reinforce your employer branding in recruitment, and shout about these to attract and retain employees who share your beliefs. For example, if your employees are passionate about diversity & inclusion, demonstrate the actions your company is taking to provide equal opportunities and counter discrimination.
2. Find the USP of your workplace
Now that you’ve got the groundwork of your employer branding strategy down, it’s time to find the selling point of your workplace. Think about why candidates would choose you over any other employer. What makes your opportunities more valuable?
Find out what employees love about working for your business, and what they would change given the chance. Use this to inform and showcase your employer branding in recruitment campaigns and develop values and incentives that truly resonate with talent in your sector.
Review your employee benefits package – how do you incentivise your colleagues to go above and beyond? Does your employee value proposition (EVP) live up to their expectations?
3. Gain feedback & testimonials
Your employees are your strongest advocates for your unique employer brand. Use their feedback in hiring campaigns to highlight the key benefits of working for your business.
There are plenty of ways to use testimonials to promote employer branding in recruitment campaigns, from employee testimonials on your careers site to current employees leaving positive reviews on sites such as Glassdoor.
Job-seekers are more likely to trust in your brand if they hear direct feedback from your employees. In fact, 86% of candidates will research company reviews before deciding where to apply for a job.
To really drive your employer branding strategy, you should always be sure to engage with and respond to your company reviews, whether positive or negative.
Not only does this show candidates that you are actively engaged with your people, but 62% of Glassdoor users say their perception of a company improves if employers respond to reviews.
4. Build a dedicated careers site
If you haven’t already implemented a careers page, this can be a great addition to any employer branding strategy.
Once your EVP has been identified, your employer branding in recruitment can be strengthened to attract compatible candidates. By building a dedicated careers site to host your recruitment campaigns, you can showcase your values and perks to candidates.
This not only gives applicants a positive impression of your company as an employer but also enhances your chances of securing top talent, with 35% of all applications coming from dedicated career sites.
If you haven’t yet built a career site, don’t worry; it’s easier than you think, especially if you have an applicant tracking system like Talos ATS. With integrated drag-and-drop career site builder in Talos’ recruitment software, you can build a fully branded site in minutes.
5. Highlight your company culture
Familiarising key talent with day-to-day life and the company culture within your team is an important part of employer branding and helps to increase the likelihood that candidates will want to pursue a career with your business.
Creating material such as ‘meet the team’ videos as part of your employer branding strategy can highlight to potential candidates the real values and benefits that come with being a part of your workforce.
To really drive the success of your employer branding in recruitment, make sure to use plenty of videos from social events, company events, and any work trips. Using video to showcase your employer brand can help increase your brand awareness by as much as 70%.
6. Strengthen your EVP with Talos Engage
Evaluating the reason why employees choose you as their employer is key to engaging new talent and strengthening your employer branding strategy. That’s why we built Talos Engage, our gamified solution for workplace insights and EVP analysis.
With Talos Engage, you can truly understand why your people love working for you and how you can use this information to attract top talent with your employer branding.
Top ways to improve your employer brand
Every employer brand is unique – as is the approach needed to strengthen its reputation. Here’s how you can optimise your brand strategy to attract and hire the best new talent, and retain your top employees…
1. Gain feedback from your employees
Your employees are the driving force behind your company’s success; their expectations should be at the centre of your employer branding strategy.
Survey your colleagues to find out why they choose you over any other employer, and which aspects of your workplace they would change given the chance.
This will help you to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of your current employer brand, and take vital action where needed.
2. Look at the competition
Analyse similar employers in your sector; what benefits/values do they offer that your company doesn’t? You could be missing a trick to attract top talent in your industry.
Look at their employee benefits, workplace culture, and core business values – how do they promote (or ‘sell‘) these to potential candidates?
This will help you to align your company’s vision with candidates’ expectations, attracting more of the best talent to join your team.
3. Define and promote your brand’s values and culture
Your employer brand needs to be well-defined; candidates want to know exactly what your company stands for, and what it has to offer as a workplace.
In fact, 44% of candidates research a potential employer before applying for a role* – with an enormous 86% preferring to work for a company whose culture matches their personality.
Show candidates what you’re worth; promote your company’s culture and values consistently! Focus on inclusivity, employee opportunities, and any workplace benefits that resonate strongly with your workforce.
Be sure to make these the focus of hiring campaigns, careers websites, and any future employer brand communications.
4. Conduct regular employee review surveys
Do you know how your employees feel about your current employer brand? Their opinions are a great indicator of your company’s underlying reputation within the job market.
Conducting regular employee reviews through performance management software will help you to identify the strengths and potential weaknesses of your current employer brand strategy. Be sure to include questions around your leadership strategy, work environment, and both tangible and intangible employee benefits.
5. Act on employees’ feedback
Use data from employee surveys to your advantage; act on their feedback to strengthen the appeal of your employer brand!
This has a number of benefits for your HR strategy. Not only does it allow you to make informed optimisations to your employee value proposition (EVP), but it also frames your workplace as being receptive to employees’ opinions.
6. Stay in touch with your industry’s HR trends
The recruitment market rests entirely on the expectations and sentiments of its active candidates. As these change, your employer brand needs to evolve in order to appeal to those looking for work.
It’s important to keep in touch with your industry’s latest HR trends, such as the benefits being offered by competing employers, salary insights, and even things like job titles!
Keep an eye on the recruitment market for your specific industry. What are your competing employers offering to their candidates, and how does this compare with your current strategy? Use this analysis to adapt your own employer brand to the latest HR trends – keeping your finger firmly on the pulse of your industry’s job market.
7. Understand what candidates are looking for
While it might seem difficult to gauge what candidates are looking for in their next employer, you can still get a pretty good idea!
One way of doing this is by surveying new recruits to find out why they chose your business specifically. This will help you to identify which aspects of your employer brand matter most to candidates, helping you to prioritise specific incentives and benefits in future job ads.
This can be easily incorporated into your onboarding process, giving you insight as to how your brand currently sells itself to new talent.
8. Use your careers site to boost your employer brand presence
Your careers site serves as your employer brand’s digital ‘shop window’ within the talent market. This is the best place to promote your unique workplace values, benefits, and opportunities.
Use plenty of employer brand assets on your main online careers hub. Employee testimonials, ‘a day in the life’ videos, and office/workplace tours make great content for appealing to new talent!
Your careers site should give candidates all the information they need to make an informed decision about your employer brand. Don’t leave any gaps – showcase exactly what your workplace has to offer to its employees!
Benefits of employer branding
Now you know just how to really showcase your employer branding in recruitment campaigns, it’s important to see what you can expect from all this work, and what benefits of employer branding you’ll realistically see.
By following your steps to building a strong employer branding strategy, you can expect to see many benefits, including:
- Attracting quality talent
- Inspiring current employees
- Retaining valued staff, reducing employee churn
- Boosting your company’s profile within your industry
Want to see these results in your organisation? Request a FREE reviewment review
FAQs
How employer branding helps in recruitment?
Employer branding helps to attract more, better quality candidates during a recruitment campaign. By showcasing your employer branding in recruitment, you can improve candidates’ perception of your brand, increasing their chances of waiting to join your organisation.
Is employer branding marketing in HR?
In truth, employer branding falls under the responsibility of both marketing and HR. It takes both departments to ensure your employer branding strategy is consistent across all channels, including website, social media, career sites, and popular review sites.
How to measure employer branding
While you can’t accurately measure your employer branding, you can determine what candidates and employers perceive of your brand with online reviews, exit interviews and company surveys.
Can employer branding reduce recruitment costs?
While employer branding doesn’t directly reduce your recruitment costs, research has found that well-executed employer branding in recruitment can attract 3.5 more candidates and even reduce cost-per-hire by as much as 50%.
How can I review my employer brand?
Reviewing your workplace brand means finding out what your company means to its employees. By conducting such research, you can identify benefits and cultural aspects that your employees may value, or indeed want rid of.
What is my EVP?
Your employee value proposition (EVP) is the aspects employees value about working for your company. This is based on the various benefits they are offered in return for their role within your business.
For example, if your company offers its workers a private healthcare package, which is valued by the majority of employees, this would make up a key part of your EVP.
How can I strengthen my EVP?
Strengthening your EVP takes work, but it is a crucial step in attracting the best talent to your business. Without a well-defined EVP, potential candidates won’t be as enthusiastic about pursuing a career with your company. Furthermore, existing employees will gain less satisfaction in working for your company – decreasing staff retention.
