Employer Branding what is it & why is it important

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.

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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. And 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 the 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 for your applicants. Employer branding attracts talent to your company, and this drastically reduces the time in hiring.

To improve your hiring and assessment process, we recommend using an assessment tool like Testlify. With Testlify, you can set up 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.

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 a 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.

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, website, newsletters, and other channels.

Employee assessment is essential for 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!

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Employer branding influences recruitment, employee retention, customer perception, and overall company reputation. A strong employer brand attracts top talent, fosters employee engagement, enhances customer loyalty, and contributes to business success.

Create a communication plan by defining brand messaging, identifying target audiences, selecting appropriate channels, scheduling content creation and distribution, monitoring feedback, and adapting strategies based on results to effectively convey the employer brand to internal and external stakeholders.

Establish an employer brand by defining company values, culture, and employer value proposition (EVP), aligning internal and external messaging, showcasing employee testimonials and success stories, leveraging social media and recruitment channels, and consistently delivering on promises to attract and retain talent.

A positive onboarding experience reinforces the employer brand by welcoming new hires, aligning them with company values and culture, providing necessary training and resources, fostering engagement and confidence, and setting the stage for long-term success and loyalty.

Employer branding is important because it helps attract and retain top talent, differentiate the company from competitors, enhance employee engagement and productivity, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and ultimately drive business success and growth.