The ultimate guide to employer branding

Harvard business review reports that in the United States, companies spend $20 billion on hiring. Even after all these expenses and efforts, not every employee is Ideal. 

According to Society for human resource management (SHRM), 59% of hiring managers are unsatisfied with the basic skill set required by candidates. And 84% believe candidates lack the hard skills necessary for the job. Just like you need good clients and customers to run the organization, you also need good employees.

There’s a hidden fight for good talent. And, good talent is limited. This makes it extremely important for companies to attract good talent fast. And this is possible with employer branding strategies.

So if you want to attract good talent, you need to understand employer branding. According to a LinkedIn study, 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agreed that employer brand has a significant impact on hiring. 

This ebook covers the importance of building a powerful employer brand and how to frame an employer branding strategy, challenges, and examples of good employer brands.

What is employer branding?

Employer branding is marketing and branding to attract good talent to your organization. It is about creating desire, excitement, and eagerness in prospective candidates to join your company.

Employer branding is also about managing the workforce’s retention at your company. Your existing employees should feel satisfied working for you and stay loyal to your organization. 

It is not just marketing your brand in a way that appears desirable, it is also about conducting all the activities and overdelivering everything we promise as an employer.

Why is employer branding important?

According to research by Randstad US, it was found that 86% of employees would not apply or continue working for a company that has a bad reputation with their employees.

Here are some reasons why employer branding is essential:

1. Attracts good talent to your organization

The best employees are hardly out there looking for job availabilities and applying casually on the job portals. They pick the company to work with.

Searching and reaching out to employees with the desired skillset requires tremendous effort. And, even after all the steps, you might not find the right fit. Implementing employer branding is the best way to attract good employees to your company. 

2. Retains the top talent in your organization

A considerable part of employer branding is ensuring your existing employees are satisfied to a level that they don’t feel the urge to search for other job opportunities. 

According to a study by Kronos, 87% of HR managers prioritize the retention of employees over other HR activities. When you get the employer branding done right, the employees stay loyal to your organization. 

3. Saves hiring time

Hiring has to be done fast. Else it costs you problems in operations and vacant positions. Yet, it could take several weeks and months to find good talent. 

This delay in time is because of a shortage of suitable candidates in your applicants. Employer branding attracts talent to your company and this drastically reduces the time in hiring.

Note: To improve your hiring and assessment process, we recommend using an assessment tool like Testlify. With Testlify, you can set up a pre-employment skill tests that help you hire good candidates faster.

How does employer branding impact other aspects of business?

Apart from attracting talent and retaining existing employees, here are other ways it impacts your organization.

1. Improves your reputation

Employer branding improves your brand image. You don’t have to over-emphasize that you have an excellent team to help you, and it is very transparent that you’ve top talent and good work culture.

2. Builds trust with customers

When your employees are treated right, your employees treat your customers and clients right. A frustrated employee will share negative energy with your customers.

Employer branding helps you build trust with your customers.  

3. Helps you save the cost of hiring

If a brand with a low reputation wants to hire talent with a high skill set, they must go above and beyond the budget. Because prospective candidates are unwilling to work for them, employees will gladly join at standard salaries if you’ve built a strong employer brand.  

4. Builds your authority in the industry

When you have the best talent in the industry working at your organization, what do you think this communicates about you to the industry? It builds your authority and helps you set standards and benchmarks.

Who should be involved in employer branding?

Employer branding has the departments confused about the responsibilities and involvement. Here are some of the teams involved in employer branding processes.

The HR Team

The HR team is the core of the hiring process. They are the ones deciding about people at your organization. They will help determine what kind of talent they want to attract and how they want to position themselves. They will take care of the operations and ensure that employees are happy.

The marketing team

The marketing team, as the marketing managers, digital marketing experts, graphic designers, copywriters, social media marketers, and content writers, would help plan and implement marketing activities. They will help with the strategic marketing plan and execute the employer branding activities.

What is an employer branding strategy?

Employer branding strategy is actions you have to take to attract good talent. Without a proper strategy, you might end up wasting all your efforts for no results.

Let us take a look at the different stages of our target audience to frame a better idea of your strategy. There are 5 different audience groups:

1. They are not aware of your company
2. They are aware but never considered working for your company
3. They want to work for you, but they doubtful
4. They want to work for you. They’re waiting for the opportunity
5. They’re already working for you.

Your employer branding strategy should cater to all of these five groups.

How to establish and implement an employer brand?

Here is how to implement an employer branding strategy for successful results.

1. Have a clear employer value proposition (EVP)

An employer value proposition is knowing what differentiates you as an employer from your competition. What are you bringing to the table that others aren’t?

Here are some of the questions that will help you define your employer value proposition:

• What makes you unique as an employer?
• What makes you stand out from your competition?
• What are some values that you start for? What are those?
• What makes your existing employees stay at your company? Why?
• What makes you a desirable employer for your ideal candidates?
• What is something that you’d never tolerate as a part of the company’s culture?

2. Define the ideal candidate persona

Having the top talent recruited at your company is vague. Be specific and conclude the qualities and skills you want in an employee. The hard skills required might differ, but the soft skills and personality trials, and particular characteristics would be almost the same for different roles.

Here are some questions that will help you define the ideal candidate persona:

• Are they actively seeking jobs or passive with their approach?
• What personality traits do they have?
• Are they more creative or logical?
• Which social channels are they active on?
• What are their interests and hobbies?
• What are they scared about at the workplace?
• What are their hard skills and soft skills?

3. Create a communication plan

Once your EVP (Employer Value Proposition) and candidate persona are ready, it is time to get your work out there. There is where the marketing team takes over and helps you talk to the target audience.

Your communication plan includes the following channels:

• Social Media
• Blogs 
• Newsletters
• Career Page
• Events Page
• Press Releases
• Brand ambassadors
• Existing Employees

4. Talk to your existing employees

Your existing employees work as a testimonial for your employer brand. They will say good things about your company if they are satisfied and happy. Else they will repel good talent from entering.

First, get feedback about how they feel working with your company. Ask them if they have any problems or concerns. Ask if they are frustrated with anything. 

If you find them unhappy about something, resolve it. Once you have them on the same page, urge them to share their stories about how they like working for you and share these stories on social media.

5. Have a smooth onboarding process

The first thing your new hire sees in your company is your onboarding process. If they have a negative experience during onboarding, it is likely they will carry the negative image of your organization with them. 

According to a report by Digitate, candidates with negative onboarding experience are twice as likely to seek different opportunities in the immediate future. And, Organizations with a strong onboarding process improve employee retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%.

Having a good onboarding process delivers a positive message about your company, which makes it easier for you to retain the employees for the long term.

What are some challenges in employer branding?

Despite the importance of employer branding, very few organizations and companies invest in employer branding. Some think of it as highly challenging to implement, and others start focusing on it but lack consistent efforts.

Here are the most common challenges organizations face in employer branding.

1. Lack of ownership

Employer branding needs a mix of efforts from different departments. It requires teamwork between marketing and HR. 

When the activities are actually implemented, there is a problem in ownership of tasks. The HR teams assume some things are the market teams’ responsibility and vice versa. There needs to be a clear share of responsibilities and ownership for the smoother implementation of employer branding activities.

2. Lack of resources

According to a survey by LinkedIn, 53% of companies would proceed with employer branding activities if they had more budget and resources. The HR team is not allocated enough funds for marketing activities.  This lack of resources is a widespread challenge in employer branding.

3. Lack of employee participation

To execute the different employer branding strategies, you need support from your employees.

There are two parts to this:

1. Involve them in the activities
2. Update them about the activities going on

Most employees have no idea about the wins your company is having. They don’t know if you’ve written a blog post dedicated to their area of expertise. If they’re updated, they’ll share it with their family and friends.

What are some examples of good employer branding?

Let us discuss some of the examples of good employer branding:

Chipotle

Chipotle is a restaurant chain with its headquarters in California. Despite COVID 19, the business grew. Their employer value proposition is based on three major things: inclusion, benefits, and promotions.

They take the initiative for their employees’ better mental health and consider their employees’ work-life balance. They improved their parental leave program recently. 

The company proves the EVP by having 70% of employees from different backgrounds and giving internal employees promotions. 

Moreover, their social channels share stories of their employees and the company’s culture. They make it attractive by sharing stories of how Chipotle helps them develop skills and how it supports inclusion and diversity.

Petsmart

PetSmart is a pet accessories retailer that provides services for Pet care. They have 1660 stores in US and Canada, making them a leader in pet specialty chains in North America.

They’ve positioned their brand in a way where they show that all their employees love pets. And, who better to take of your pets than pet owners themselves?

Their employer branding content revolved around sharing images of dogs and kittens with a mix of store associates and how their store associates care for pets. They have used employee-generated content and set an example about employee engagement for employees and offer them growth with different pieces of training and programs.

Klient boost

Klient Boost is a marketing agency with 20 Million+ ARR. Their employer branding is so strong that it doesn’t just attract potential employees. And they also attract customers because they attract employees. They were rated as the best place to work.

Even when you browse their homepage, you’ll see their employees. They have positioned themselves as strong because of their employees and giving extreme appreciation to them. 

Their caree r page communicates that they want their employees to succeed. They help employees with a finance coach, gym allowance, and $1000 worth of training every year, and they also arrange for mental health therapy. 

Final thoughts

Employer branding is not a do it once and relax forever strategy. It requires constant effort. 

To sum it up in a few sentences. Employer branding is treating your employees well, appreciating them, including diverse people, helping them grow, and sharing what you’re doing on social media, websites, newsletters, and other channels.

Employee assessment is essential for the smoother onboarding of your candidates, and it saves you time and helps you make solid decisions quickly. Specifically, with Testlify, you can manage assessments and send them feedback emails and appointment letters in simple steps.

Learn how Testlify can improve your recruitment experience by signing up for free!