The Importance of Employer Branding

/in /by

Employer branding has never been more critical.  And every organisation has an employer brand, whether they acknowledge it or not.

If you don’t know what yours is, or how it impacts your ability to recruit and keep great talent, simply listen to what your employees are saying about workplace conditions, read the reviews you are bound to have on Glassdoor, take stock of the mounting costs associated with unnecessary recruitment and issues with high staff turnover.

Attracting top talent has never been harder than it is today and if turnover at your business is high and recruitment a chore, it’s time to think about your employer brand.  Whether good or bad, your employer brand significantly influences your ability to attract and retain the right people for your business.

Your workforce is your customer

The balance of power associated with job seeker and employee behaviour has shifted and employers are now under scrutiny.  Today’s candidates are acting like customers and should be treated as such by employers.

Think about the time, energy, expertise and investment businesses put into attracting, nurturing and retaining customers.  To stay relevant in a job seekers’ market, employers need to adopt a marketing mindset and apply the same customer-centric principles to job seekers and employees.

It’s a consumer world

We live in a ‘broadcast culture’ world, where consumers see it as their duty to share and review their experience with brands.  Under these conditions, job seekers are influenced by what others have to say about your organisation.  You don’t need to have witnessed the rise of sites like Tripadvisor and Glassdoor, or the volume of complaints lobbied on organisations’ Facebook pages to know that people love to rate things, and are especially compelled to do so when it’s bad.  

People trust what other people say, which makes this advocate behaviour particularly powerful for employers.  Organisations that are able to harness the power of an engaged workforce of positive advocates will be the ones to succeed in recruitment long term.  But this hinges on an employer’s ability to identify, articulate, communicate and nurture their employer brand.

Getting ahead of the curve and proactively taking the reins of your employer brand is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but now a critical must-have.  Without doing so, you will be at the mercy of what employees and job seekers perceive your employer brand to be.  And we can guarantee your competitors are taking their employer brand seriously, and they’ll have the edge over you.  

Great talent values a strong employer brand

  • 56% of professionals rank employer brand as the deciding factor when choosing a job (LinkedIn)
  • 52% of candidates use employer review site Glassdoor during their job search (Software Advice)
  • Companies with high engagement have four times the earnings per share (Gallup US Employee Engagement Survey)

To attract high-calibre candidates and retain them, it is critical for organisations to position themselves as an employer of choice by effectively executing and communicating their Employee Value Proposition (EVP) which forms the backbone of their employer brand.  

Build a great employer brand by

  • Understanding your target audience
  • Auditing your current employer brand assets (ie, careers page, Glassdoor reviews, employee engagement survey results) to benchmark your current position
  • Being honest about your company culture and benefits are to know what you are (and more importantly, what you aren’t) so the foundation of your EVPs and employer brand is authentic and lived by the organisation.  Employees will resist an employer brand they don’t experience themselves, and job seekers will sense the falsity
  • Engaging employees in your EVP to encourage advocate behaviour
  • Show – don’t just tell – the world what your EVPs are and what your employer brand is through storytelling, advocates and social media
  • Adopt a marketing mindset to establish and communicate your employer brand

Don’t leave it any longer.  Now is the time to nail your employer brand.  

 

Employment Office helps organisations to consistently attract and retain top talent through powerful employer branding.

Our experts have developed a proven model to bring your employer brand to life and position you as an employer of choice.

Talk to us today about how we can transform your recruitment results and elevate your employer brand.

Speak Employment Office’s employer branding expert Mark Puncher by contacting him on 07 3330 2484.