Think of your employer brand as how your stakeholders (i.e., current employees, active and passive candidates, clients, customers, etc.) view your organization. If you’re successful, your image is “a great place to work.” This image makes recruiting and retention much easier. If you’re like most organizations, employer branding is an underutilized strategy to develop a high performing workforce. Now is the perfect time for an employer brand tune-up.
Marketing + Human Resources = Employer Branding
Bring together your Marketing and Human Resources leads to develop a successful employer brand strategy. Employer branding is anchored in basic marketing and human resource principles.
- Marketers seek out a target audience and clearly communicate a strong value proposition to compel folks to choose their offering.
- Human resource professionals are focused on efforts to recruit, engage, and retain the top talent for their organizations.
As an employer, it’s important to understand that, when recruiting, job candidates will expect your organization to live up to its external reputation and that your own employees project a “brand image” each and every day they conduct business as representatives of your organization. Credible brands are created by what your employees do, rather than what your ads or blogs say. The better your employees are at what they do for you, the better your brand. All the more reason to develop a high performing workforce!
Best Practices
Consider these best practices as you develop your employer brand:
- Conduct research with your internal and external stakeholders to determine what makes your employer brand distinctive.
- View employer branding as a recruitment strategy and a long-term recruitment advertising campaign.
- Collaborate across departments (i.e., human resources, marketing, communications) to create a unified recruitment message.
- Create recruitment advertising that conveys what it is like to work for your organization.
- Promise what can realistically be delivered in the real employment experience.
Next, look at your hiring process from the point of view of a job candidate. The process should run smoothly. As a business you work hard to make it easy for your customers to buy. Do you make it just as easy for your applicants to become your employees? How many hurdles must applicants jump just to get an interview?
All interviewers should be trained in proper interviewing techniques and should convey consistent information to the candidates. Hiring managers should make hiring needs a priority—to act on resumes more quickly and be able to ―sell the benefits of working for your organization. To the extent possible and appropriate, all candidate questions should be answered.
Take the time to scrutinize what you have to offer job candidates. Examine your compensation and benefit plans to make sure they are competitive. Does your company value work/life balance? Is the corporate culture desirable? Then, look at your turnover statistics and safety record. Determine why good employees leave your company and do something about it. Evaluate if you offer star performers what they want.
Finally, review your onboarding process to make sure new hires are provided with the information they need to be successful and are promptly and enthusiastically made to feel they are part of the team. After all, how they act and what they say is part of your employer brand.
You’re not alone if your employer branding could use a bit of polish. Invest the time to tune up your employer brand strategy and you’ll attract stronger candidates.
