The importance of employer branding for companies large and small
Besides being among the most notable brands in the world, what do Apple, Google and Microsoft have in common? They prioritize employer branding because they know it’s how to hire and retain exceptional talent—and ultimately reach consumers with an authentic, credible message of trust. But what is employer branding? And how can you develop and measure an effective employer branding strategy? Following is a look at what employer branding is and how GA Creative can help.
What is employer branding?
Employer branding is establishing and maintaining a positive reputation for your company’s brand among internal stakeholders including current and potential employees, leadership, volunteers and others who might be personally invested in the success of the company. Important for both small and large companies, it’s about how your company is perceived as an employer. Is yours a great place to work? A place that fosters innovation, comradery, personal growth, and community? Is yours a workplace that prioritizes diversity? Are employees proud to come to work every day? These are all factors that contribute to a positive employer brand. The management of that brand is employer branding.
What’s the difference between employer branding and organizational branding?
Employer branding is a subset of organizational branding, focused on building and keeping a positive culture among current and past employees to help retain talent, recruit stronger candidates, and reduce the time and cost to fill open positions. Organizational branding focuses on building and keeping a positive reputation externally among current and potential customers, stockholders, boards of directors, press, competitors, and others. Customers want to feel good about supporting your brand with their dollars—and employees want to feel good about supporting your employer brand with their dedication. Your brand and your employer brand work hand in hand.
What is an employer branding strategy?
An employer branding strategy is the way in which you approach building a positive reputation as an employer. Just like a brand strategy, it should be rooted in data and spelled out in an employer branding plan with objectives, strategies, target audiences, tactics, timeline, and key performance indicators (KPIs). Often times through this process, organizations will find operational areas of improvement. Launch and measure your employer brand campaign just like you would a typical brand campaign targeting customers. Afterward, analyze results and hold a project retrospective to discuss how you can improve upon results next time.
How do I measure my strategy?
Before kicking off an employer branding campaign, compile data pertaining to current and potential employees to use as benchmarks, then evaluate campaign results against these benchmarks monthly and at the end of the campaign. Following are types of data relevant to current and potential employees.
- employee/manager satisfaction surveys
- internal-only social media data
- employee engagement
- employee referrals
- retention rates
- exit interviews
- Glassdoor reviews
For potential employees:
- time to hire
- cost per hire
- email opens
- number of fills versus opens
- applications
- external social media engagement
- jobs site traffic
- sign-ups to receive information about open roles
- job offer acceptance rates
In addition, there are a number of artificial intelligence tools that help employers gauge where they stand with current and potential employers, such as predictive analytics in the workplace and chatbots that use machine learning on jobs websites.
Who manages employer branding?
The size of the company or organization usually determines who manages the employer branding activities. Sometimes, they are managed by the human resources department; others, they’re driven by marketing. Most enterprise organizations have talent acquisition marketing teams focused on the care and keeping of the employer brand.
What does recruitment marketing have to do it?
Recruitment marketing is key to employer branding. Take time to craft the right messages that speak to what your employer brand really is, and how working with you is different than working for the competition. You might have better benefits and more competitive salaries—but don’t forget to tout the intangible benefits. Tap existing employees to tell the story of working at your company or organization. Make sure you have effective landing pages that capture leads so you can nurture them via email communication later, giving you more opportunities to build up the brand in their eyes so when they’re ready to make a career change, they’re more likely to think of your company or organization.
How is a positive employer brand good for retention?
Building and cultivating a positive employer brand is about having a culture of shared values: an all-for-one and one-for-all approach to the workplace. That positive approach can’t help but make an impact on current employees—and happy employees tend to stay put. In fact, a survey of 2,250 corporate recruiters by LinkedIn revealed that companies with stronger employer brands had 28 percent lower turnover rates than companies with weaker employer brands.
What are some examples of employer branding?
If no one knows about your great employer brand, it can’t help your company. That’s why companies are marketing their employer brands just like they would anything else, through email campaigns and events, through landing pages and video. Yet perhaps the best way companies can communicate about their employer brands is through social media. Savvy employer brand companies like Microsoft and Cisco are inviting employees tell their stories through social channels directly, letting potential hires in on what it’s really like to work at their organizations.
How can GA Creative help?
At GA, we’ve helped major companies and organizations with employer branding activities. For example, we work with Providence, the third largest health system in the United States, with recruitment marketing activities in support of their employer brand. Campaign strategies include digital and traditional media campaigns to target job seekers, jobseeker landing page strategy and design, email campaigns, content marketing, organic social media, and more. In addition, for a global software firm, we helped create a series of video testimonials of both recruitment managers as well as potential college hires to help share what its like to work at the organization.
Every company has its own unique employer brand story to tell and we are adept at helping you uncover and refine that story, and effectively communicate it to target audiences through activities that work within your time and budget constraints.
Contact us for help with your employer branding strategy.