How Can Employer Branding Help to Grow Your Business?
October 19, 2021 | Read: 7 minutes
Human resources are arguably among the most important resources in your company.
As a business owner, you’d want your company to consist of high-quality and productive employees who help the business thrive.
That is why aside from building your business’s reputation around its products and services, paying attention to the workplace is also important.
One way to achieve this is by implementing employer branding strategies for your business.
In this article, we will dive deeper into the definition of employer branding, its significance for your business, and how to establish a good reputation with it.
What is Employer Branding?
Employer branding is a way to promote your company as a good workplace for existing employees and job seekers. Just like product marketing, your company also needs to show its benefits to employees in order to attract and retain talented staff.
To build a positive employer brand, your company should showcase various aspects that improve job satisfaction, including financial benefits, people management, work culture, and office facilities. When a company can balance these factors, it may increase its employer value proposition.
However, simply stating that your company offers many benefits is not enough; you need to follow these statements with solid actions. A well-thought employer branding strategy helps you attract potential candidates and improves the overall recruitment process.
Why is Employer Branding Important?
Attracting good candidates can be harder when your company doesn’t apply a good employer branding strategy. Even if your business has an outstanding product, it is not the primary consideration for most job seekers.
The key factor is your company’s reputation as a good workplace.
50% of job seekers say they wouldn’t work for a company with a bad reputation, even if they paid more. Thus, a high salary is not the only important factor.
Studies have also shown that a strong employer brand results in a 28% reduction in turnover and a 50% reduction in cost per hire. This allows your company to save hiring budget and use it for other operation necessities such as better web hosting, production utilities, or office facilities.
How to Improve Employer Branding:
Let’s take a look at the six steps an employer can take to build strong employer branding.
1. Understand your company
It’s essential to realise your company’s mission, vision, and core values to effectively attract and retain talents. Once you know your company’s identity, it will be easier to introduce it to potential candidates.
It will also help you find the type of people to hire to fulfil those objectives. Employees who resonate with your company’s core values will more likely perform well and feel comfortable with the working environment.
Tesla’s career page is an excellent example of introducing the company’s mission statement to future employees.
Consider publishing your mission statement, vision, and core values on your business website so potential employees can easily access them before deciding on joining the company.
2. Create an employee value proposition
An employer value proposition (EVP) is a statement that gives employees a sufficient reason to work for your company. This should be in line with your company’s core values since a clear EVP is the core of most employer branding efforts.
An EVP typically consists of the following factors:
- Office location and facilities
- Career development
- People management
- Work-life balance
- Overall compensation
- Job security
Before including them into the EVP, make sure that they can fulfil existing employees’ satisfaction. Also, consider presenting them in the form of a compelling story instead of a list. Yelp can be a good inspiration for presenting your EVP as a brief, clear, and interesting statement.
3. Tapping into social values
Nowadays, social values can influence people’s affinity towards a brand. Around 78% of consumers said they made a purchase decision based on values. Thus, companies that care about current social issues may have better chances to gain customers’ trust.
You can also apply the same principle to build a positive employer brand. Show where your brand stands regarding issues such as pay equity, fair labour practices, and environmental care. When your company’s values resonate with these issues, people will find it easier to relate to your brand.
Keep in mind that all of this needs to be genuine. Most people, including potential employees, can sniff out companies that use social issues just as marketing tools. Therefore, it is better to pick social values that you’re passionate about or have a strong connection to your company’s values.
4. Utilise technology
Knowledge to utilise various technologies is important to maximise your employer branding efforts. Nowadays, social media, business websites, and online customer portals powered by software are some of the most helpful marketing tools to promote your brand. They’re particularly useful where the self-service experience is concerned, as well, keeping customers in-step with your brand.
Make sure to build your online presence by starting a company blog to publish news, culture updates, and articles written by people within the company. Creating social media accounts to engage with more audiences is also a great idea.
According to CareerBuilder, 64% of candidates research a company online after finding a job opening. Furthermore, 37% said they would move on to another job offer if they couldn’t find information on the company.
However, you need to choose the social media platform carefully. LinkedIn could be a great choice as it is one of the most popular social media platforms for job seekers and professionals. Thus, sharing posts there and joining conversations would increase your company’s virtual presence.
5. Engage current employees
Good employers pay attention to their workforce. Show that you care about their opinion by conducting regular surveys. This is a great way to find out what your employees expect from their job and the company in general.
Employees who feel their voice is heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. Don’t forget to follow up on this job evaluation with improvements to increase your employees’ job satisfaction.
Consider offering training and advancement opportunities for your current workers to boost their performance and help them not get bored with their jobs.
Employee happiness can significantly improve your company’s reputation.
When employees are satisfied with their current work environment, they can act as social recruiters. Employee voice is three times more credible than the CEO’s when it comes to talking about working conditions in that company.
6. Build a positive onboarding experience
The onboarding process is crucial for both employees and the company hiring, who will want to prevent a high turnover rate of staff. Research into onboarding from B2B Reviews shows that:
93% of employers believe that good onboarding plays an essential role in retaining an employee.
And, for employees:
Over half […] believe that onboarding helped them more rapidly gain competence in their job.
It’s in the best interests of a company to foster a positive work culture that keeps staff happy and attentive, (and a strong onboarding process can help improve new hire retention by 82%)!
To help, aim to maintain positive communication with talents until their first day of work. Welcome new employees with excitement and enthusiasm to ensure they feel valued when joining the company. Don’t forget to give them a well-structured plan to eliminate stress for onboarding staff, too.
Start making the most of Employer Branding!
Implementing employer branding strategies is crucial for most businesses considering its many benefits.
Aside from allowing companies to attract more potential talents, good employer branding can also help businesses grow.
In this article, we have looked at six steps to build a positive employer brand for your company, including:
- Understand your company
- Create employer value propositions
- Tapping into social values
- Utilise technology
- Engage current employees
- Build a positive onboarding experience
Keep in mind that happy employees are typically more productive and loyal to your company.
Apply the tips provided in this article and get ready to grow your business!
