The process of influencing and managing your standing as an employer among current employees, job searchers, and key partners is termed employer branding. It envelops all that you do to situate your association as an employer of choice. An organization’s reputation as an employer is called its employer brand. It is the opinion of the organization in the minds of their organization employees or job searchers in the market. A powerful employer brand is an asset for an organization as we all know “word of mouth” is a strong driving force, in terms of branding. The employer brand of a company lives and breathes along with the former, present, and future employees of an organization.
Employer Branding is merely an organization’s reputation as a business and the worth it brings or everything the company has to offer to its employees. The employer brand of a company determines how future candidates and prospects perceive the company. A positive employer brand enhances a company’s chances of standing out in the market.
The main aim of employer branding is to present your organization as desired and it should be based on your company’s mission, vision, and values.
Why Is Employer Branding Important?
According to a survey by Linkedin,
- 72% of recruiting companies around the world agreed that employer brand has a significant impact on recruiting.
- 75% of job applicants consider a company’s brand before applying for a job.
- There has been a 50% reduction in cost-per-hire due to great employer branding.
An employer’s brand improves the three most impactful and significant hiring metrics- time to hire, cost per hire, and quality of hire. These statistics prove that this tool is worth putting your money into, and leaders worldwide are thriving to develop it.
As the job market is becoming increasingly competitive, employer branding has been a concern that companies have started paying attention to more than ever. Without a proper employer brand, one cannot expect the top candidates in the market to join your company. In today’s world, recruitment processes and retainment methods have become highly challenging due to the lack of proper resources or infrastructure. Your employer brand can back you up during the hardest recruitment drive and attract and retain the best candidates.
Progressed nicely, employer branding will start a buzz around your organization, and this buzz will pull in inspired job searchers and a multitude of content workers. And afterward, those individuals will pivot and communicate their positive experience to future aspects, customers, clients, and partners — further expanding the extent of your employer brand.
Is Employer Branding Important To Your Business?
While the idea has been around for quite a long time, it didn’t acquire attention widespread until the mid 90’s the point at which the principal online job boards were presented. Within a fortnight, job searchers had access to applying for jobs from around the world. Employees realized about the opportunities outside their current organization and the days of sticking to one’s own company for a long period were over.
Many big companies started investing in their employer brand from the early days realizing the importance of this asset. However, 85% of companies are still lagging in this aspect. Unlike successful organizations, they have not taken many steps towards attracting candidates and retaining top talents.
Benefits Of Employer Branding To Recruitment
Employer Branding enables a company to:
- Attract talented candidates as most applicants nowadays want to work with a company with a good reputation.
- Retain existing employees which reduce the cost of hiring new candidates.
- Solidify the company’s brand so that they have a wider talent pool to choose from.
- Improve candidate and employee experience and engagement. Experience and branding go hand in hand.
- Strengthen their hold on social media and job boards.
Let us look through some stats and reasons why the benefits of employer branding are so significant in the recruitment process.
- According to a survey, 66% of respondents are willing to know about an organization’s values and culture.
Almost every applicant, active or passive, goes through a company’s nature and reputation before applying for a job. Having a good employer brand is like communicating with prospects about the environment of your company and the nature of the workforce.
2. A study by Corporate Responsibility Magazine states that 69% of job searchers would reject a company with a bad reputation or employer brand, even if they are unemployed.
Job-related responses for organizations with a bad reputation will increment hiring costs because of the more trouble to source, offer, and onboard fresh recruits.
3. As much as 23% of the 18–34-year-old labor force would acknowledge a compensation cut for a chance to get into an organization with a decent employer brand.
Young professionals like the millennials and Gen Z want to work in a company with a fair reputation. They care less if their salary is cut by some percentages. The new age value brand more than capital.
4. 95% of applicants have stated that their decision of applying for a job depends on the employer’s brand.
The top candidates in the talent market do not waste their time by applying to companies with a bad reputation.
Over the last five years, the advancement of social media and easy access to worldwide information has changed the recruitment game. Applicants can research any employer before they care to apply. If they do not find the organization interesting enough, they can skip applying.
More than everything else, the above numbers demonstrate that employer branding impacts each aspect of the employer-representative relationship. While it is often connected with hiring, employer branding likewise influences retention, employee engagement, and even productivity of the company.
How To Strengthen Employer Branding During Crisis?
The growth and development of the employer brand of a company depend on the inputs given by the CEO, marketing team, hiring team, and leaders of the company. This is especially important for increasing the number of quality candidates applying for open positions at your company. There are plenty of organizations of strategies to improve your employer brand irrespective of the size of your company or the capital invested. The company needs to think like an excellent marketer and focus on building relations with past, current, and future employees. Here are some tips to keep in mind:
Tip 1: Pay Attention to Online Reviews
Every applicant, before applying at a company will go through the business reviews of the company on various websites, and running over negative feedback can leave a very negative impression. While you can’t handle unknown or anonymous reviews, you can always positively respond to them, and that can have a genuine effect on your employer brand. 62% of applicants state their assessment of an organization improved after seeing a positive response to a negative review. It is therefore important to what your reputation is on the online review websites to build a positive employer brand.
Tip 2: Use high-quality media
Every company has a gallery of images or videos trying to attract applicants in their office. However, simply media in your company profile is not enough. There are several elements that these images or videos should portray. Your online media should include:
- A message from the CEO.
- Introductory videos of the various teams.
- Pictures of the company’s working environment.
- Videos that enhance the diverse workforce.
- A video explaining the recruitment process.
- Interactive graphics.
- Gamification strategies.
Tip 3: Focus on Candidate Experience
Starting from the job application process to the onboarding stage, candidate experience should be in line with your employer’s brand. Even after the onboarding process, a bad candidate experience is enough for the company to lose a candidate. Employer Branding is meaningless if it does not accompany excellent candidate experience.
Tip 4: Build your Career Page
Career Pages are an outstanding method to impart a good first impression on candidates. These pages are more like an extension of your company page but more interactive. You can accumulate all your branding materials on this page and make sure that potential candidates do not miss this page while they investigate your company. The career page can contain various sections like employee testimonials and feedback, upcoming projects, open positions, company values, and principles, etc.
What is Recruitment Marketing?
Recruitment Marketing is defined as the process of utilizing marketing strategies to enhance the worth of working for a company to recruit, attract, engage and retain candidates and employees. It is a strategy that is used by talent acquisition platforms, marketing professionals, and HR teams. It is encouraged by a set of technologies, skills, and practices that have become necessary for companies in the competition for the best candidates in the market.
Why is Recruitment Marketing Important?
Companies have come to realize that the most valued candidates are passive. Meaning, they are not actively looking for jobs, going through job boards, or filling out application forms. Employers have to really dig in for these candidates. In fact, according to research by LinkedIn, only 36% of candidates are actively looking for employment and the competition for grabbing their attention is fierce.
Some of the biggest challenges in hiring top talent are:
- Finding candidates in high demand talent pools: 46%
- Compensation: 43%
- Competition: 39%
Therefore, Recruitment Marketing has come around to be an important element in employers. As traditional methods of hiring do not have much use in today’s competitive market, companies are having to turn to more advanced and developed methods.
Differences Between Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing
The difference between the two concepts is quite evident from their functions.
What does Employer Branding do?
- Create a specific definition for your company’s Candidate Persona
- Focus on the company’s Employee Value Proposition
- Enhance, employer and lift the company’s employer brand
What does Recruitment Marketing do?
- Advertise open jobs in a company
- Compose engaging job descriptions
- Curate attractive job postings
- Career Site Optimization
- Engage candidates with attractive recruiting content
- Initiate email campaigns
- Promote a company’s social media handles
- Track hiring metrics
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In case you want to learn about why Employee Well Being is critical to Employer Branding — click here.
You can also learn about the strategies you can adopt to improve your Employer Branding — click here.
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