Building a Strong Employer Brand

In the current talent market, having a strong employer brand is not simply an option: it’s a prerequisite to attracting the talent you need to reach your organizational objectives.

Why a Strong Employer Brand is Important

Your employer brand is part of your employee value proposition. It communicates your values, mission, and company culture to current and potential employees. In essence, it defines why talent would want to work for your company.

Having a strong employer brand is important for several reasons. It can attract more and higher quality applicants because job seekers know what the company stands for as an employer. For this reason, it can also result in faster hires and consequently reduce the cost per hire. In addition, because employees know what to expect from a company with a strong employer brand, it can also help increase employee satisfaction and reduce turnover.

Tips for Building a Strong Employer Brand

Clearly, having a strong employer brand can positively impact both the engagement and retention of current employees, as well as the recruitment of new ones. Yet how do you not only build a strong employer brand, but also showcase it to talent? Keep the following tips in mind:

• Create an attractive organizational culture where talent want to work. Each company has its own unique organizational culture — a set of shared values, beliefs and practices that everyone in the company understands and adheres to. Management can impact how organizational culture develops, for example by establishing diversity policies or creating flexible work arrangements. Think about the type of talent you want to have working for you, and research what’s important to them. When you know what’s important to your employees, you can take steps to shape your culture accordingly. For example, in a tech company, it could be important to have collaborative workspaces and the option to telecommute. In a healthcare setting, employees might value the opportunity to acquire different skills and be able to use the latest technology to streamline administration.
• Market your organizational culture. When you have a positive organizational culture, it’s time to market it so that prospective employees become aware of it. Be sure to emphasize all the factors that would attract the type of talent you want. In addition, highlight what makes your organizational culture different from the rest and adds true value to the employee experience. Use social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to publish leadership blogs, interviews with employees, photos of events and videos of what it’s like to work at your company.
• Engage talent. Establish talent communities, either on your own website or on social media. Use these talent communities as a hub where current and potential employees can interact with each other, as well as with the business. Promote it as a space where people can ask questions about the industry and jobs, learn insights from leaders and find out about company developments and activities.
• Ensure all of the perks you offer employees are showcased in your employee handbook. Review your handbook to make sure that everything you offer employees is included, from professional development support to educational sabbaticals. Provide candidates with this handbook (or an overview of all of the perks) during the application process, as this can have an impact on their decision to work for you.
• Measure the success of your employer brand. Track metrics such as time to hire and quality of new hires, as well as employee satisfaction, engagement and retention. Use the data to tweak your policies and marketing accordingly.

Remember: Thanks to the Internet and social media, today’s talent is more informed and conscious than ever before when it comes to a potential employer’s brand. So being in control of your brand and how it’s disseminated isn’t an afterthought – it’s essential for attracting and retaining the talent you want.