In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, attracting and retaining the right kind of employees is increasingly difficult. Recent studies have revealed that 75% of job seekers go online and research employers before even applying for a role, with more and more candidates looking to find out about your company’s ethos and culture before they even decide whether or not to apply.
It is therefore important that, in order to attract the right people, an employer creates a positive ‘customer’ experience for candidates that represents them as a business. Part of this is the brand that you portray as an employer. A strong employer brand can be a powerful business tool that connects your values, people strategy and policies to your overall corporate brand.
Mismanagement, lack of focus, or the wrong perception of your employer brand can be a real problem when trying to recruit the best employees for your business. For example, McDonalds, will always have trouble hiring professional gourmet chefs to their ranks because their reputation as an entry level job provider and a purveyor of cheap fast food will make quality caterers think twice. However, amongst the student population they will always find a large pool of people willing to flip their burgers.
But What is an Employer Brand?
Your employer brand is how people perceive you. It can help attract customers to your consumer brand or indeed push people away. A good employer brand will help attract more talented candidates by marketing what you offer to employees. Conversely a bad employer brand will make the most talented recruits look elsewhere.
So How Does a Good Employer Brand Help?
As mentioned previously, a strong employer brand will connect with your company’s values, your strategy and policies and align with your consumer brand. It is a set of attributes and qualities, often intangible, that makes your organization distinctive, promises a unique employment experience, and appeals to those people who will thrive and perform best in your culture.
An effective employer brand will narrow your talent funnel and at the same time allow you to stop the traditional approach of having to cast a wide recruitment net and sift through hundreds of applicants in hopes of finding that one right candidate. If you have a clear employer brand, the candidates will already have a good idea of what your company is about and at the same time know if they have the talents or skills for your business.
How Can I Strengthen My Employer Brand?
One really good way to improve your brand is to make sure your website, especially your careers page is top notch, even if this means spending a little money on it. Your careers page is your businesses shop window for prospective employees and as such needs to set the right impression from the get go. Take pictures of your office, shoot a video with your employees. Show candidates what working for your business is all about.
If you’re not sure what your brand is then get your current employees, the people who live and breathe your company, in a room and ask them what they think is important about your business and what are the things that attracted them to their jobs.
Get yourself a strong social media presence that matches your website branding. Social Media has a profound effect on your employer brand and has revolutionised the way that people search and apply for jobs, assess prospective employers, and communicate with each other. Most potential employees will check you out on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and most importantly LinkedIn as part of their own application process.
So, in conclusion, your employer brand is important to your company and allows for an easier and more efficient recruitment process. With the help of a good employer brand and the talented staff here at Recrur, whose goal is to offer a way for recruiters to automate annoying bureaucracy and help focus on the important things like building relationships with candidates, you will attract only the best applicants and find filling vacant position a much smoother and easier ride.
WRITTEN BY
Meery Reisi
Recruiter and client success manager. Meery’s experience in organizing talent across different industries has helped many employers and businesses improve their recruitment and hiring.
