Every company has a brand that they put out to their customers. This will include all graphics, logos and marketing material that identifies a company, along with messaging and mantras that consumers can begin to spot and match to their brand. A good brand is about telling a story. However, companies have another brand to think about and that is their employer brand.
Employer branding has the same idea as consumer branding in that it’s about telling a story. However, the story in your employer branding directly relates to how you are viewed as an employer and good employer branding is going to be what encourages people to want to work for you.
Employer branding is how a company markets itself as an ideal place to work for potential jobseekers and it’s tied into your brand identity. Think about it this way: If your company was a human being, what kind of personality would it have?
If you could design the person you wanted to work with, what personality traits would be most important to you? What way would you want them to work? What bad habits would you want to avoid? This is how all leaders should think about their employer brand identity, no matter how big or small the company is.
Good talent will want to work somewhere meaningful. Somewhere that makes them happy. And, perhaps unfortunately for leaders looking for a quick fix, your employees’ happiness cannot be bought with salary increases and perks. That’s not to say that rewarding hard work isn’t of any value, but it needs that recognition strand to actually be effective.
In many ways, employer branding is a marketing strategy. It’s about showing off what makes you such a great employer and proves to the outside world why everyone should want to come and work for you. However, as with most things, if an employer branding strategy is all style and no substance, you will be found out quickly. Leaders who are serious about employer branding need to first assess what it really is like to work there and fix the problems from within before you can think about going to market. Find out more about the future of employer branding here.
An EVP is also known as an employee value proposition, which basically refers to the value you are proposing your employees will get out of working for you. While it is tied directly to your employer branding, it is also distinct from it.
If you think of employer branding as the marketing strategy we mentioned earlier, your EVP is the core of the actual ‘product’ you’re trying to sell. What are you trying to give employees in exchange for working for you? What are you using to entice the very best talent through your door? Most likely, you’re offering a competitive salary, but that’s unlikely to be a USP for them.
Are you offering flexible working? An employee wellness programme? Healthcare? These are all surface-level benefits that can add to an EVP, especially since they give candidates a taste of what truly matters to the company. However, similar to competitive salaries, these perks and benefits are unlikely to be unique and while they may help entice some candidates, what will fully attract a top tier candidate will be at a much deeper level. These include, a chance to make a real difference, an opportunity to single-handedly grow an evolve a strategy, a role that directly helps people in their lives, working in a company that genuinely nurtures talent, values growth and learning and works hard to keep its staff happy and engaged.
It's also important to remember that different teams may need slightly different EVPs. For example, a strong sales team will be driven by honesty around commission, growth plans and clear expectations, to name a few. Find out more about what makes a good sales culture from CarGurus’ Wendy Harris.
As you can see, these are all much more engrained in the role and the company culture. They’re about an employee feeling like they can add real value. Being looked after with good salaries and nice perks will help too because they will go some way towards making employees feel taken care of, but ultimately, it will be how their work is rewarded, appreciated and valued that will make the difference.
Your EVP can then be used in your employer branding strategy. In fact, it’s vital that it’s put out there. But, while employer branding is a relatively external practice, marketing to potential talent that you’re looking to bring in, your EVP is a much more internal practice that’s main goal is to keep your current talent happy. You can read more about the difference between EVP and employer branding here, along with where to start when it comes to building, fixing or strengthening your EVP.
In today’s job market, a strong employer brand is critical, not only because companies need to use every tool in their arsenal to compete, but also because enticing talent with big salaries isn’t enough anymore.
Research shows that the millennial workforce in particular are searching for meaning and value when they look for the right place to work. And with millennials expected to make up 75% of the workforce by 2025, the meaning and value that companies offer has never been more important and this is all tied into employer branding.
It’s clear from the above statistics that employees value working for companies with a good reputation and a strong employer brand. Naturally, the more you attract candidates in general, the more you attract better candidates and so, you will not only attract top talent, but you’ll be able to keep it.
But it’s not enough for CEOs to know that employer branding is important. There are many stakeholders involved in ensuring an employer brand remains authentic and strong enough to do its job of attracting and retaining the very best employees.
We’ve said multiple times about the importance of culture, values and employer branding working from the top down, so of course, good employer branding needs to come from leadership and C-suite employees. However, it also needs to involve HR and marketing. After all, employer branding and marketing go hand-in-hand so in order to effectively convey a good message about what it’s like to work in a particular company, employer branding will need to be part of the marketing department’s strategies.
Additionally, HR will need to be involved because your employer brand is tied directly to talent acquisition and employee engagement, which usually falls into the HR and people operations departments. Finally, your employer branding needs to be important to your individual employees. They need to buy what you’re selling because they will act as your most authentic brand ambassadors. After all, as LinkedIn statistics above show, potential candidates are three times more likely to trust what your employees say about working there than whatever messaging your company might put out. This is why your employer branding will continue to become a vital part of your business.
Company culture and employer branding go hand in hand. You can have the best employer branding strategy in town, but without a good company culture, your branding will be hollow and the new talent you may have drawn in using your stellar employer branding will run for the hills within a few months – especially if you don’t have a good onboarding process.
The struggle for employers is figuring out what exactly they can do or implement to create both a good company culture and a strong employer brand because it’s never a simple matter of adding perks and benefits. Perks are great, and as we mentioned in regards to your EVP, the perks have, such as extra annual leave or wellness programmes, tell employees and candidates what you value as a company, and they will play a role in selling your employer brand to potential candidates.
However, perks and benefits do not a good culture make, and culture is probably the hardest element to define and improve, but it’s also the most important part. After all, even companies with the worst cultures can offer pension contributions, health cover and free snacks, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll want to work there.
So, now you know how important the company culture is, but what exactly is it? Remember what we said about imagining your company was a human being with a personality when it comes to your brand identity? Your organisation’s culture is the same basic concept and it comes back to the company’s values and the general work environment. Company culture should be thought of as both a personality and a temperature.
So, when you’re trying to figure out what your company culture is, ask yourself:
What’s it really like to work there?
What are the things that make the company great?
What’s missing?
If you could do the exact same role in another company, what are the most important elements you would need for maximum happiness?
When I don’t feel good in work, why is that?
Again, none of these questions are directly to do with salaries, bonuses or perks. It’s about how a company makes you feel coming into work every day. Do you feel appreciated and valued? Do you feel like an important part of the business? Is it a transparent and communicative company? Do they feel like they have to show up even when they’re sick?
As a leader, you will need your employees to answer these questions and you will need to be prepared for the answers. It’s important that employees can answer anonymously so that they feel they can be honest if the culture has some problems.
A good company culture can’t be faked. That’s why it’s so important that you make sure you have a strong one before you even think about including it in your employer branding strategy. When a positive culture is there, it means employees are happy, motivated, engaged and thriving – all vital markers for increased productivity, quality of work and profitability. It also means you’ll be able to keep top talent for much longer and a loyal workforce is another good signal to outside candidates looking in – not to mention the fact that it will decrease the cost of staff turnover, which currently comes in around €14,000 per employee.
If you don’t know what your own company culture is (and you do have one, even if you don’t think you do), you can start by learning how to assess your current culture here. Once you’ve taken the time do assess, it’s time to evaluate the results and again, we’re back to asking open, honest questions.
What negative effects are coming up?
What are the positive elements that you need to nurture?
What improvements have been suggested?
Having read all the feedback, can you sum up the company’s current personality?
It can seem daunting to fix such nebulous issues in a company especially when you’re so passionate about it. No one wants to hear their company is uncommunicative or that it undervalues its staff. But if that’s what the feedback is telling you, you have to own up to it and work on fixing it.
In fact, some of the most common company culture problems include a lack of communication, and transparency and too much of a focus on short-term goals, leaving employees feeling frustrated and confused. You can find out more about how to fix these common company culture problems here. Another common problem with the culture is bad managers, or at least, untrained managers. A common phrase you’ll be familiar with is that people don’t leave companies, they leave bosses and there’s a lot of truth to that. Manager training shouldn’t be viewed as a nice-to-have, but a critical part of your employer branding.
Remember, assessing, analysing and improving company culture is not a ‘one and done’ exercise. You must constantly review your culture, at least once a year, to ensure it stays at its best in order to keep your employees happy and continue to attract fresh talent. After all, a happy workforce is a productive workforce.
Once you’ve got a handle on your company culture and an idea of your current brand identity, you can go about implementing some strategies that will improve one or both – especially when you need to compete for talent in areas where there is a skills gap.
Companies often forget about the hiring process when it comes to employer branding, presumably because they think it as either attracting candidates to apply for jobs, or retaining the internal staff they already have, neglecting that crucial middle part.
But in reality, a 2018 survey from Career Builder shows that 68% of employees believe their experience as a candidate reflects how the company treats its people.
It’s vital to remember that looking to fill a role, your employer branding starts with the job ad, and every experience that a candidate has with you from that moment will define how they judge you as an employer.
Good interview and candidate experiences mean transparent communications keeping candidates in the loop. Interviews should be structured and professional and interviewers should always be attentive and polite throughout the interview process. Even if you’ve decided they are not the right fit, prompt and courteous rejections are important. After all, the vast majority of candidates will tell their friends and family about their negative experience and after that, the message will be long out of your hands.
We’ve talked about the importance of an employee value proposition already, but not only is it a valuable tool for retaining your talent and an important complement to your employer branding, but it’s also an excellent tool for sourcing the right type of candidate.
Think about your ideal candidate and also your best employees in the workplace? What makes them so great? What about the ideal candidate is on your wish list? Are you looking for someone who wants to learn new skills? Are you looking for an innovative thinker? Do you want someone who is autonomous?
You can list all of these things on your job spec, but an effective EVP that nurtures the attributes you want in a candidate, it will organically draw in the right candidates. If work-life balance and employee wellbeing are a major part of your culture and, by extension, your EVP, a strong employer branding strategy will market that, not just in your job ads but also to the more passive talent. A good EVP will be clear to those who come across your brand until they eventually say, “I want to work there.”
According to LinkedIn, candidates trust a company’s employees three times more than the company itself to provide credible information on what it’s like to work there. So, while there’s a lot of magic companies can do to improve their brand from a company messaging point of view, it will never be as effective as your own employees.
Can you see it all tying together yet? With a good company culture and a strong EVP, you will retain the best talent. This talent will then want to stay with the company because they are motivated, engaged and happy to come to work. And, as an extension, they will talk about this positive work experience to anyone who will listen, which will naturally elevate your employer brand.
However, are you utilising your employee ambassadors in the most effective way? Make sure you have a few guidelines in place to allow your employees to share their working experience. Encourage social sharing with clear guidelines so that employees don’t have to feel nervous about it. Even consider a short in-house workshop with them, highlighting the benefits to them around building their own personal brand. It’s also a good idea to have a brand book with general guidelines around style. Don’t overdo it the rules though – if you force employees to conform too much, you will edit out their authentic voice and be back at square one with company-style messaging.
According to Cisco, 82% of all global internet traffic will be video by 2022 and according to a Career Builder whitepaper, its clients receive a 34% greater application rate when they add video to their job postings.
Brand videos are a great way to give candidates a visual and authentic feel for what it’s really like to work in your company. It also brings in those all-important employee advocates, putting them front and centre, and letting them explain in their own words what it’s really like to work there.
Check out the employer branding video RECRUITERS produced for AA Ireland below to get a unique insight into what it’s like to work there and what its employees like most about the company.
Candidates want to get a real feel for a company. They want to see the people they might be working with, get a sense of the office they’ll be sitting in and get an authentic sense of the culture. It’s one thing to say you have fun, creative and supportive atmosphere, but it’s another to be able to show that in a video.
Whether you like it or not, candidates look for you on review sites such as Glassdoor. If you don’t have a profile, it could make candidates think you’re not willing to be transparent about what it’s really like to work there.
Some employers might worry that allowing reviews could leave them vulnerable to negative reviews outside of their control, but being authentic is paramount. Furthermore, responding to company reviews, both good and bad, can improve candidate’s perception. A Glassdoor US site survey showed that 62% of jobseekers say their perception of a company improves after seeing an employer reshod to a review.
The reason employee ambassadors work better than company messaging is because of the trust element that comes with authentic reviews and opinions. Another way to develop your authenticity as a good place to work is not just by pushing and hard selling your company culture to candidates, but by showing your culture through the content you want to be an authority on.
Speak about the thing you are passionate about. Believe in and support causes that matter to you and the people who work for you. Provide valuable, informative content that doesn’t end in a sales pitch. Host events that are beneficial to people in your industry and not just thinly veiled recruitment drives. Become comfortable in your own strengths and use that to give back to society in the form of useful content.
Think about HubSpot’s culture podcast, or Intercom’s product and design content. These elements are not necessarily set up with the intention of hiring people, but becoming an authority in a particular area and providing a valuable contribution to the industry in some way is how you attract the best talent, because that talent will want to a part of a company that does that.
According to Glassdoor, almost 80% of jobseekers are likely to use social media in their job search, so that’s where employers need to be. You should use your social media accounts to show off some of your personality as a company. Social media is an extremely visual tool, so pictures of your events, employees socialising or working on cool projects as well as any awards will all help in promoting your brand. Does your office allow dogs in the office? Make sure you put that on Instagram. Do you have a wellness programme or even a running club? Share that on Facebook. It’s also important to engage with your audience. Social media should be seen as a conversational tool not a one-way information track. Looking for ideas? Here’s why you should follow RECRUITERS on Instagram.
It can be difficult to measure how successful your employer branding campaigns are, especially in the beginning. In order to measure the success of your branding strategy, you need to know what to measure in the first place.
Remember, the goal of a strong employer brand is to attract high quality candidates, retain top talent and become known as a great place to work. With these three pillars in mind, you’ll want to increase both the number and the quality of candidates applying for jobs, reduce staff turnover and hiring costs and increase brand awareness.
The number of candidates applying is an easy metric, but you can also look at the quality of those applications. After all, hiring comes at a cost, but bad candidates are time wasters and bad hires are even more costly. How many of those candidates are top performers and good cultural fits? Is that number going up as your branding strategy progresses? Additionally, when the quality of candidates improves, and that all-important candidate experience is improved, the offer acceptance rate will go up and the cost per hire will decrease. You can also monitor where your candidates are coming from to see which strategies are most effective.
In terms of staff retention, the best way to measure employee experience is through anonymous surveys and making any necessary tweaks to improve the culture. It’s also important to monitor the rate of staff turnover and the number of candidate referrals from current employees. After all, if your employer branding is truly strong, your current employees will want to refer people to you.
The final strand of brand awareness is the most abstract and most difficult to measure, but it’s still really important to find out how well-known you are as an employer. Being well-thought of and liked as a company will make top talent want to work with you. Monitor your mentions and interactions on social media and keep an eye on the number of websites linking back to your own site to track how strong your brand awareness is.
At RECRUITERS, our experts are not only adept at finding top talent, but they’re also experienced in solving your business and employer branding challenges. Just check out our success stories here. Want to learn more about how RECRUITERS can help your business? Check out our hiring solutions here.
Rubik’s cube photo by Olav Ahrens Røtne on Unsplash
