How to build a strong employer brand
Attracting and retaining talent is no less important for today’s businesses than attracting and retaining customers.
According to ManpowerGroup’s Talent Shortage Survey, almost three quarters (72.8%) of employers are facing difficulties with finding skilled candidates, and 45% of employers are concerned about finding employees with the necessary talents.
This creates a tough competition for the best talent between companies over how well they can present the brand to their existing and potential employees. If we look at the concept of a brand as a set of promises to its consumers and employees we can draw parallels between the Customer Experience (CX) and the Employee Experience (EX) and figure out the best strategy for responding to people’s expectations. What makes this achievable is the close partnership of HR and marketing teams.
HR managers who aren’t yet familiar with this approach usually say at this point: ‘Sounds great, but what are the actual benefits for the company (and for us personally)?’ The answer is that strong employer branding can:
- reduce recruiting costs;
- attract more and better candidates;
- increase retention rates;
- increase productivity;
- increase customer loyalty;
- help a company to weather a crisis.
What makes a strong employer brand?
Building a strong employer brand starts with defining an EVP (Employer Value Proposition). It sits at the core of the brand, representing everything that the employer can offer to their employees: corporate values and culture, company mission, and tangible benefits, such as growth and learning opportunities.
The idea of a modern employer brand framework was introduced by Brett Minchington, one of the world’s leading authorities on employer branding. His scheme shows how the brand starts from the inside out and why it needs to be a part of the overall marketing strategy.
This approach can also answer the question ‘What can we offer our team members beyond the standard set of remuneration, perks and benefits?’
Actually, there’s a lot. EVP includes both practical and emotional benefits for people who are looking at your company as a potential workplace. Apart from the salary (which is, of course, competitive), working hours (which are, of course, flexible), and office coffee and biscuits (obviously, in limitless supply), people might be inspired by creative tasks, your corporate culture, an opportunity to be proud with the results of their work or be a part of an innovation.
The marketing team can join HR efforts at this point to create candidate personas, much in the same way they do with customers, and help to get insights into what your perfect team members want and aspire to.
Creating personas that represent your ideal candidates will help you set the right tone of voice and create engaging content for your job postings.
How do you build your employer reputation?
The social accounts of job candidates aren’t the only ones that fall under scrutiny of the employers. It also goes the other way. Most likely, the first thing your candidate is going to do is to search for your company on the internet. So, here are some best practices for ongoing employer brand reputation management.
- Monitor your employer reputation and respond to reviews
All research usually starts with the first two pages of Google search results. And there, the person who is interested in your company will see everything that surrounds your brand. In most cases, your search engine results pages will contain not only customer reviews but also reviews and ratings from job sites. 5-star ratings from happy customers won’t be able to offset employee feedback about delays in payments or not being able to get through the one-month probation period because of difficult work conditions.
So, it’s useful to have accounts on sites like glassdoor.com and indeed.com even if you don’t have any open positions. You will know where to look for feedback and get the opportunity to showcase your company.
Some sites, like Glassdoor, offer the option to respond to employee reviews. This is a great marketing opportunity for your employer brand — be it positive or negative feedback. In employee reputation management, all the rules of responding to customers apply without exception: personalisation, time of response, tone of voice, and the ability to accept criticism. We described this in detail in our previous article on how to respond to customer comments online.
Here’s an example of a constructive response to a negative review on Glassdoor:
2. Use social media to connect with candidates
Surveys show that over 80% of companies are recruiting via social media and that it’s a very useful tool for finding passive job candidates. All large companies have dedicated accounts on the most popular social networks for potential employees.
The most successful social media content features team members’ opinions and stories, as well as employee testimonials. A good example is HubSpot, a developer of products for inbound marketing. They manage to give an informal feel to their Instagram feed, despite the big size of the company.
The concept focuses on sharing information and experiences from first-hand accounts. Interviews and Q&A sessions with team members are also a great way of letting people see how the company operates.
Microsoft’s recruiting account social media strategy takes a more formal approach, but it also puts their employees in the center of attention, following popular trends, like ethnic and gender diversity.
3. Create recruiting content
Content marketing is a great way of sharing your company’s values and attracting seasoned professionals.
Netflix’s TechBlog on Medium contains stories from developers on decisions and challenges they faced when improving the platform. The whole blog is aimed at attracting new programmers and developers by describing the ongoing tasks and case studies. These articles generate a high level of engagement from both Netflix users and IT professionals.
Aside from corporate blogs, you can publish recruiting content on the sites that are related to your industry. There, you have a chance to promote your company and establish yourself as an expert in your field to generate interest in working with you.
Another popular source are the HR sites and forums. One might expect these to be read only by HR professionals, but it’s not the case. Lots of people are interested in learning how recruiters see candidates and the whole process — especially those who are currently looking for a job. If your HR specialist publishes their expert opinion in an established online media channel, it will definitely add weight to the reputation of your business, both in the eyes of job applicants and your competitors.
Similarly, a great deal of people spend time in Facebook and Reddit groups dedicated to recruitment, discussing jobs and work conditions. These are the communities where employees can vent their frustrations freely, sometimes even mentioning the companies they work for. You shouldn’t engage or try to control the conversation there, but rather use it as a valuable source of feedback.
So, to sum up, here’s what goes into building a strong employer brand:
- developing strategies for engaging candidates on social media, forums, job sites and in online media;
- monitoring your employer reputation;
- responding to negative feedback;
- reaching out to potential and current employees;
- communicating your corporate culture and values through content marketing.
