Growing staff turnover forces business owners to look for new methods to attract qualified staff, retain professionals with experience, and find ways to grow their own experts. However, under the current conditions, it is becoming increasingly difficult to win this confrontation every year. Therefore, for most companies, employer branding has become a recent and strategic direction of development.
According to Employer Brand Research 2017, for 88% of surveyed millennials, it is important to be part of a company with the right values and corporate culture. 87% came to the company because their own values coincide with the company’s values, and 50% are not ready to work in companies with a bad reputation.
By 2025, millennials will make up 75% of the world’s workforce. Therefore, experts believe it is vital to analyze what image your company has in the eyes of potential employees, the impressions and associations it evokes. Keep reading to learn how to build it, and what tools to use to create a highly-respected employer brand.
10 Tips to Enhance Your Employer Branding Strategies
- Work in two directions
- Be proactive and act ahead
- Build a strong team
- Conduct a survey
- Prepare brand ambassadors
- Interview ex-employees
- Work offline and online
- Digitize
- Involve colleagues
- Offer maximum benefits
1. Work in two directions
There are two main reasons to purposefully build a brand in the job market: engagement and retention. Employer branding is attractive for both job seekers and employees.
Companies with a strong internal brand find it easier to retain talent. And the external brand increases the number of responses to vacancies and the probability that the best candidate will accept the offer.
2. Be proactive and act ahead
By investing in an employer brand today, you make your life easier tomorrow. People communicate, share information, and advise on work, and a well-known company with positive reviews attracts candidates like a magnet.
Well-developed brand increases the chances that the talents will offer their services themselves, without waiting for an official invitation.
3. Build a strong team
A bright external picture is not a guarantee of success. How the company treats its employees is equally important. If your image contradicts the actual atmosphere in the company, it damages reputation. However, it is not necessary to embellish reality with the candidates. It is better to start working from the heart of the company – your own team. n addition, you can also create a branded T-shirt design and gift it to employees for more engagement.
Talk about your team’s daily routine to reach an outside audience. You can broadcast their values and strengths via Instagram account or a YouTube channel. This approach will allow the candidates to understand in what culture they will have to work.
4. Conduct a survey
It makes sense to start a brand audit with a simple but extremely important step: employee engagement surveys . Ask your employees if they are satisfied with the work; it is vital to find out what they would like to change. That will help you identify problems and understand how to improve the situation. As a result, you can reduce turnover and attract more talents from the market.
You can even employ an employee engagement software, like SurveySparrow, so that you can automate and set the surveys to be conducted at a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or annual basis.
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5. Prepare brand ambassadors
Nobody will talk about your company as sincerely and eloquently as your employees. They are your face on the job market.
If people love their company, team, and work, they will not miss an opportunity to present the company in any situation. So don’t hesitate to request your employees to be brand ambassadors on your behalf. This can only help your employer branding strategy.
6. Interview ex-employees
Former employees are a valuable source of information that can easily enhance an employer brand. It is easy to explain as people who have left the company are more sincere in their feedback.
It will allow you to better understand and alter attitudes towards the employee and the company, as well as provide information for the future. Remember, employees can always return later, with new knowledge and experience.
7. Work offline and online
Job fairs are a good way to attract students and graduates. But the focus is increasingly shifting to online platforms. So keep track of what people write about the company on social media and on review sites.
Such reviews can really affect the brand, because most candidates study these resources before coming to the interview. Therefore, it is worth analyzing and responding to online and offline feedback.
8. Digitize
An increasing number of people search for information via smartphones, including about work. Likewise, employers must adapt to it. It is important to make it as convenient possible for people to view vacancies and respond to them from whichever device they are using.
Now it is possible to delegate part of the HR work to machines and AI like for example, chatbots. These HR assistants can simplify and automate repetitive tasks like matching resumes and vacancies, screening candidates and enhancing employee onboarding.
9. Involve colleagues
The HR/Talent department usually fuels and supports the process of building the employer brand. But this task should be the responsibility of the team as a whole, and not just HR.
“You need to involve top managers, marketers, and a network of brand ambassadors. Only together will they be able to effectively convey the values of the employer,” say HR experts from a research paper writing help service.
10. Offer maximum benefits
It is not enough to offer attractive salaries to employees to have a strong employer branding. It is definitely an important factor, but your proposal should contain material and intangible benefits. People estimate a whole range of values, including compensation package, training and development opportunities, work-life balance, culture, etc.
Why Is Employer Branding So Important?
Employer branding directly affects the company’s business performance. It boosts financial results and the level of staff involvement. In other words, it has a very efficient mechanism.
Satisfied employees increase their involvement in the work processes and life of the company, improving the quality of work, and increasing customer satisfaction. In turn, the financial indicators of the company grow.
According to a study by LinkedIn, a strong employer brand also has the following benefits:
- 28% reduction in the organization’s turnover;
- Cost-per-hire reduction – 50%
- 50% more qualified applicants;
- Reduction of hiring time – 50%
Employees are indeed the most influential ambassadors of your brand.
Wrapping Up
In other words, a strong employer brand today is not just another tribute to fashion, but a key factor in successful business development.
Of course, employer branding is not a panacea for all the troubles that a business may face from time to time. But it can be your lifeline in difficult times. It is exactly what can keep people in the company during a crisis when it is impossible to attract financial incentives. It is not so difficult to achieve it: careful analysis and regular work will result in high trust in your brand.
