What is happening to all 100 people? Fortune 100 Employer of Choice What do they have in common? They all have great employer brands, with companies like Cisco, Hilton and NVIDIA ranking highly in last year’s assessment.
Employer branding is the reputation of your company among current and former employees. It’s the emotional story that connects your company’s mission, values, and company culture, making it an attractive option for top talent. It essentially answers the question: “Why work here?”
In today’s highly competitive job market, job seekers are competing with other skilled job seekers for the few available positions in the best organizations. Looking at why it is important for modern businesses, here are some of the benefits a good employer brand can bring to your recruitment efforts:
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Accelerate your time to hire and get the best candidates before your competitors know they’re available.
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Build a diverse and inclusive candidate pipeline filled with qualified applicants that other employers may not know about.
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It improves the overall candidate experience and ensures your employees have rave reviews from family and friends.
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This will boost employee morale, leading to lower turnover and reduced recruitment costs.
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It builds an unparalleled level of trust between employers and candidates, new hires and existing staff.
Having a recognizable employer brand isn’t just for powerful enterprise-level organizations. Learn all about the concept of employer branding, strategies for building a unique corporate image, and the technology that drives success in this guide.
Components of a strong employer brand
We all know the top employer brands like Apple, Google, Amazon, etc., but these organizations have some common traits that can help you join their elite ranks: The main factor these companies have in common is that they prioritize their employer brand project and make their efforts a top priority.
These companies also know who is responsible for specific tasks related to their employer branding strategy. There is a clear division of authority between who manages employees and who manages them, with the clear goal of building a positive brand image among potential candidates.
Secondly, companies with effective branding gain strong social recognition and good reviews on sites like Glassdoor. According to Glassdoor’s internal statistics, nearly 75% of candidates Read company reviews before accepting a job offer.
Top employer brands have a compelling brand story that captures a meaningful moment and has a unique Employer Value Proposition Or your Employee Value Proposition (EVP). These EVPs are the positive employee experience that everyone hears about and that makes them feel like working for your organization is worth it.
The EVP is an essential element of a company’s values and mission. A mission is why an organization exists. In this case, an EVP tells employees, “what’s in it for me?”
Companies with the best employer branding have a concise EVP that’s consistent across all recruiting channels. That unified brand messaging tells job seekers what makes your company unique and sets you apart from your competitors.
Strategies for building your employer brand
Now that we’ve looked at some of the building blocks of a strong employer brand, let’s look at some recruiting strategies to build a world-renowned employer brand. However, before you go overboard and get disappointed with the (lack of) results, it’s important to set realistic expectations. After all, building a meaningful employer brand takes time.
For example, a careers page is a common starting point, but it would require significant effort to redesign the color scheme, change the landing page copy, and introduce a thoughtful layout. It could take months to properly implement meaningful changes to your careers site.
Instead, start by understanding the basics of recruitment marketing. Deploying some tricks Here’s what your sales and marketing teams can tell you:
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Develop a content strategy that markets your organization to top talent.
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Deliver strategic social media posts that tell your brand’s story.
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Target and engage potential employees through platforms they frequent, including social media sites like LinkedIn.
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Incorporate SEO strategies into your career pages, job listings, blog posts, and social media ads.
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Optimize your career site and job applications for mobile devices.
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Invest in programmatic advertising to leverage AI to deliver more effective targeted job ads.
You can also assess current sentiment through a brand audit and consider how you can invest in your existing employees. These investments could include offering your current employees professional development, workshops, courses and external training opportunities.
The benefits of such an investment are two-fold: first, it equips your workforce with the knowledge they need to stay competitive, and second, it reduces turnover, improves employee engagement, and increases retention.
Another investment costs little in terms of your budget, but can have big benefits: transparency. Revealing financial and operational health, strategic goals and initiatives, and even the ugly side of your business helps employees understand how they contribute to the success of your organization and builds a positive brand perception.
While positive brand awareness goes a long way in encouraging employee referrals, a generous referral program can also help: You can also enroll employees as brand ambassadors in recruiting events and outreach campaigns.
Measuring the success of your employment branding efforts
Developing an unforgettable employer brand takes time and effort, but a great way to keep track of your progress is to create robust, detailed reporting. Best practice is to compile your most impactful KPIs and metrics and include them in a centralized dashboard like Gem Software’s.
Not only can you track meaningful metrics, but you can also compare your results with benchmark data to see how you stack up against your competitors. You can further tweak your recruitment marketing strategy by leveraging A/B testing to discover which job boards, messages, and timing are most effective.
Additionally, it’s worth remembering that success is a moving goal, so continually evaluating feedback and surveys will help you identify ways to improve.
The role of technology in corporate branding
The effort required to overhaul your employer brand can seem daunting when viewed as each part is a separate task. Modern technology consolidates disparate aspects of the talent sourcing, hiring and onboarding process into a single platform without overwhelming recruiters.
One tech tool that can help streamline your efforts is Applicant Tracking System (ATS) manages the recruiting funnel and saves time through automation. An ATS enhances recruiting efforts by automating the parsing, sorting, rating, and scoring of resumes. The software also schedules interviews, sends job offers, and assigns ratings.
Another aspect of recruitment technology is Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) software. Those familiar with the sales version of CRM know that the tool helps you collect candidate information, organize and store data, and customize interactions to deliver an unparalleled candidate experience.
Gem’s ATS and CRM combination has the added benefit of creating a more equitable hiring process, allowing companies to focus on DEI recruiting processes. Gem’s tools allow you to visualize your pipeline, uncover hidden biases, and help source talent from underrepresented groups.
Overcoming Common Employer Branding Challenges
Renewing your employer brand can be fraught with challenges, including internal discord and overlapping or missing efforts, so it’s important to prioritize projects that improve your company’s image and give everyone a clearly defined role in succeeding in that mission.
Having staff on your team shoulder some of the responsibility is a great way to distribute the burden and get everyone on board. It also makes employer branding more practical for small businesses, startups, or teams with limited resources.
To get buy-in, it’s essential to have the whole team involved, but perhaps most importantly, senior management involved. Core change to your employer brand needs to come from the top, meaning those in leadership positions need to support efforts to drive positive change in your employer brand.
Gem’s platform boosts recruitment
A good employer brand is perhaps the best strategy for finding qualified candidates. A strong employer brand encourages employee recommendations, makes hiring more attractive, and increases employee retention.
To build a positive employer brand, Talent Marketing It’s a consistent, strategic effort. Managing the various aspects of effective employer branding requires the right recruiting ATS and CRM to handle the back-end tasks.
When you integrate your business with Gem’s ATS and CRM platform, you get a comprehensive talent acquisition solution in a single, unified view. Watch the demo Start enhancing your employer branding efforts with Gem’s talent sourcing platform.
