Your employer brand is what potential candidates reference when they are considering working at your organization. In the current job market, it has an increasingly powerful influence on your hiring process and your talent acquisition strategy. Most modern employers have shifted towards omnichannel recruitment and marketing approach to further their reputation in the marketplace and attract top-quality talent. But what exactly constitutes your employer brand and how can you leverage it to acquire better quality candidates?
This blog explores:
Let’s dive right into these areas.
Table of Contents
What is Your Employer Brand?
Defining it is a bit tricky, but it can pay-off many times over if you are able to leverage it correctly. In layman terms, it’s what you tell the world, including passive and active candidates, about your organization – what it’s like to work there, what values you stand for, and what the evolution of your company really looks like. This catch-all definition ultimately encompasses just about everything to do with your business. From community building to team activities and daily operations, every execution plays a role in defining and sharpening your employer brand. In an increasingly competitive hiring market, it can be the key differentiating factor utilized by your hiring managers and your partner staffing agency to amass a competitive selection of talent.
The candidate journey begins with the sourcing process, within which talent attraction to your brand can separate your organization from its peers. From a consumer’s standpoint, after all, if a customer is not impressed with your products, your store, or its marketing elements, the chances of securing a profitable interaction decline sharply. The principle of talent acquisition is much the same.
The modern job market is a competitive and constantly shifting landscape. These days, organizations have to be a lot more proactive in attracting candidates. In the past, – employers could get away with gathering a decent pool of capable candidates using the simplest of tools and online forms to net potential candidates. These days, savvy employers invest in omnichannel recruiting to source talent across all available avenues of interfacing with candidates. This holistic approach accentuates the need for a strong and well-founded brand identity.
How Is It Different from Your Corporate Brand?
Making this distinction can be difficult for those not involved in recruiting. While both are different things, they have an intricate connection with each other. What the consumer market thinks of your brand will have a significant impact on a candidate’s decision to work for you. Similarly, what the job market thinks of your brand may influence a consumer’s buying decision.
The point of distinction is this: your corporate brand is what your customers think of you; your employer brand is what active and passive candidates think of you. While both are important, the latter is what differentiates you from the competition and ultimately, it’s what encourages better-quality active and passive candidates to consider employment with you. Simply put, a stronger employer brand means stronger potential candidates.
4 Ways to Use Your Employer Brand to Influence Candidates
After having illustrated how it can influence both passive and active candidates considering you for employment, the logical next step is to understand the various ways in which your organization can leverage its employer brand to influence and attract top-tier talent to your team. Four principles to consider:
1. Improve Visibility
In order to expose more proficient candidates to – your brand, it’s imperative to focus on your brand’s visibility. Companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple are defined by their shared desire to maintain immense visibility across the board, in every aspect of human life and interaction. That means they invest in being something for everyone, from consumers to vendors to potential employees.
Of course, this sort of evolution does not happen overnight. Any young organization hoping to scale will need to undertake several multi-pronged approaches to increase its visibility, especially across digital channels. Among other things, this includes optimizing the company website for organic visibility, marketing the brand on social media, developing advocates among the current pool of employees, and above all, smart and efficient use of media channels. Furthermore, leveraging conventional outlets like events and press releases ensures that an organization casts the widest possible net, capturing an audience that might be missed by social media alone. Every opportunity to showcase your brand is an opportunity to be seen by a new and more diverse tier of potential talent. A core focus of any acquisition strategy must revolve around a plan to make the employer brand as visible and as appealing as possible.
2. Maintain a Strong Online Presence
It goes without saying that an online presence includes having social media managers and quirky Twitter accounts. But there’s so much more to it. All of the digital spaces in which your brand exists are unique and personal opportunities to create a strong online presence. These days, that digital footprint can be expansive – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google, your website, employer forums, discussions, communities, and platforms like Glassdoor, among many others. You need to portray a consistent image, speaking to your position as a rewarding employer with a mindful and well-developed corporate culture. By keeping consistent messaging front and center, you are one step closer to your ultimate employer branding objectives.
3. Craft a Social Footprint
Your social media presence plays a huge role in influencing and educating your audience, many of whom might be considered as capable candidates for employment. Twitter updates and social media sharing go a long way towards influencing your intended audience. Using social media to craft a strong company footprint is among the easiest and most approachable ways to build your brand messaging and appeal to a higher-quality selection of candidates.
There is also another aspect to consider, however: social media offers opportunities for your employees to verbalize their opinions – on your company, policies, and culture. Provided your current employees are satisfied, you can leverage social media to broadcast their satisfaction and improve your employer brand. This adds authenticity to your organization and effectively influences the decisions of other prospective candidates.
4. Make Use of Branded Assets
When candidates consider an employer, they place a significant emphasis on the perceived value that employment brings to their professional lives and goals. This is what is known as the Employee Value Proposition – simply put, the balance of rewards and benefits in return for job performance. One way to reinforce your EVP and position yourself as an appealing employer is to make use of your branded assets.
Your branded assets are all of the assets that enable you to remain visible to prospective employees. Some examples might include your website’s career pages, the customized emails you send out to candidates, and even the landing pages candidates see on your website. Internal hiring managers and third-party recruiters alike can make use of your branded assets to connect with a stronger talent pool. For example, if you’re regarded as a fair employer in the mortgage and title industry, your mortgage recruiters can leverage that reputation using tools and assets that associate themselves with your brand. Whether it’s your company logo or original, informative content, your branded assets play a key role in acquiring top-quality talent.
Admittedly, acquiring talent seems more and more like a war these days. With unemployment at an all-time low, candidates have the luxury of choosing options based on appeal alone. In order to make sure you attract the quality of talent you want, you must leverage your employer brand as a key part of your talent acquisition efforts. At the end of the day, that’s what ultimately differentiates you from your competition.
