Many companies will understand that they have to have branding – and strong brand guidelines – to appeal to customers and clients, but what of employer branding; that which helps a company attract candidates, or talent, and makes them want to work for that company?
Overall, employer branding is the process of creating a positive and compelling image of a company as an employer. It involves showcasing the company’s culture, values, benefits, and work environment to attract and retain top talent.
Much like more general branding, it’s about the colours, design, fonts, language, and general communication used in the recruitment process, and many other things besides.
Working on your employer brand is an ongoing task, not something to do just when recruiting.
Typically, employer branding will encompass things like:
- Company culture: The values, beliefs, and behaviours that define your company’s approach to work, and treating your staff, and how you put them into practice on a daily basis.
- Employee experience: The overall experience that employees have of working for your company, what they say about you, whether they’d recommend you to others.
- Employee value proposition: The unique benefits and opportunities the company offers employees, such as salaries, benefits packages, growth opportunities and career progression.
- Online presence: The company’s website, social media channels, and online reviews.
Our own careers page is here – judge for yourself whether you feel it would work for candidates or not. - Any advertising: It may be that your company, outside of social channels and your own website, advertises in specialist publications, on outdoor advertising sites, or with digital ads on job boards.
- Communication: How you communicate with candidates. Do you email them? What is the tone of those emails like: fun and lighthearted or stiff and corporate? Do you apply a more personal touch and call individual candidates on the phone?
All of these things, combined, directly influence how potential candidates perceive your company.
And with so many companies out there for candidates to choose from, and applications coming in at the click of a button/tap of a screen, your employer branding could have a big say in whether a candidate chooses you or not.
In short, a strong employer brand will lead you to recruitment success.
It’ll help you to attract top talent, retain employees for longer, result in a positive candidate experience, and it’ll enhance your reputation in the marketplace.
It will also do one crucial thing, which we mentioned in our post on the importance of recruiting metrics, which is reduce the time-to-hire.
Read on, as we’re now going to discuss the fundamentals of employer branding (including how it differs from corporate branding), the importance of building an effective employer branding strategy, and how to measure the success of your employer brand.
The fundamentals of employer branding
When it comes to the fundamentals of employer branding, and what makes a strong employer brand, we’ve kind of covered them in the intro, but we’ll now look to expand on them.
So, the core components of employer branding include:
1. Company culture
- Values: The core beliefs and principles that guide the company’s behaviour and decision-making processes.
- Mission and vision: The company’s purpose and goals – what is it setting out to achieve and how does it look to meet those achievements?
- Employee experience: The overall experience employees have working for the company, including their satisfaction, engagement, progression, interaction with peers, and wellbeing.
2. Employee Value Proposition (EVP)
- Unique Selling Points: The unique benefits and opportunities that the company offers employees, such as competitive salary, career development, training, insurances and wellbeing packages, and a work-life balance.
- Differentiators: What sets the company apart from its competitors in terms of employment opportunities and the overall benefits package?
- Structure: Is there a hierarchy at the company or a flat structure – can everyone communicate easily, regardless of levels/seniority?
3. Online presence
- Company website: A well-designed and informative company website that showcases the company’s culture, values, and career opportunities.
- Social media: Active and engaging social media profiles that highlight company culture, employee stories, exciting announcements, and job openings.
- Online reviews: Monitoring and responding to online reviews to maintain a positive reputation, and looking to address issues internally if there are a number of negative reviews.
4. Employer branding messaging
- Consistent messaging: Ensuring that all communication about the company, from job postings to website content to social media content, aligns with the overall employer brand.
- Storytelling: Using storytelling to convey the company’s culture, values, and employee experiences.
- Using guidelines: Taking your lead from existing brand guidelines to ensure consistency at every touchpoint in a candidate’s journey.
5. Employee advocacy
- Getting employees to talk: Encouraging employees to share their positive experiences of working for the company will go a long way in improving the perception of your employer brand.
- Employee recognition schemes: Recognising and rewarding employees for their contributions to the company’s success will also help.
- Employee referral schemes: Incentivising employees to recommend friends or former colleagues to your company – word of mouth is always the best recommendation.
While considering these, it’s important to make the distinction between employer branding and corporate branding.
While there is a link, they’re two distinctly separate things.
Corporate branding is broader in its scope. It looks to build a positive perception of your company as a whole, creating a good reputation among consumers/clients, investors, and stakeholders.
It involves building a strong brand identity, developing brand messaging, and managing the way in which the company presents itself publicly. It’s about key messages, tone of voice, logo, colour palette, the way people answer the phones, and so on.
Employer branding, on the other hand, is specifically focused on creating a positive image of your company as an employer. It involves showcasing the company’s culture, values, benefits, and work environment, to attract and retain top talent. It’s about gaining a good reputation among both current and former employees, and candidates who go through the application process.
It’s something beyond colour palettes and logos, but tone of voice (in job descriptions, on careers pages, in emails during the hiring process) and key messages play a part.
Employer branding is solely aimed at potential and current employees, not customers/clients or investors.
How employer branding influences recruitment
There’s no denying it, having a strong employer brand can help you to attract the very best talent out there, when it comes to recruiting.
Here are just some of the ways it can help you attract and keep the right candidates:
- Increased visibility: A strong employer brand makes a company more visible to potential candidates. This is especially important for companies who aren’t so well-known in their industry, or who have a lot of competitors in the field, all vying for the same candidates.
- Improved candidate experience: A strong employer brand can create a positive candidate experience. This can lead to referrals and brand advocacy, ultimately reducing your cost-per-hire.
- Reduced time-to-hire: When a company has a strong employer brand, it’s easier to attract and hire qualified candidates, reducing the time it takes to fill open positions.
- Increased employee retention: Employees who are proud of their company and its culture are more likely to stay, and, again, recommend that company to others.
This is especially the case if their performance is regularly reviewed and they receive praise or recognition. - Improved company reputation: A strong employer brand can improve a company’s reputation in the marketplace, firstly among candidates… but also among customers or clients.
It’s also worth mentioning that having a strong employer brand can result in companies having a larger talent pool of applicants to choose from when they recruit for positions.
And it helps to keep existing staff on board too – employees who are happy with their employer are less likely to leave the company, reducing turnover and the costs associated with it.
The role of employer branding in the candidate experience
Without a shadow of a doubt, employer branding plays a crucial role in shaping candidates’ perceptions throughout the recruitment process. A strong employer brand can leave a positive and lasting impression, influencing candidates’ decisions about whether to apply for a job and ultimately accept an offer.
Here are just a few of the ways in which employer branding can affect candidates perceptions of a company throughout the recruitment process:
Initial attraction: A strong employer brand can attract top talent to a company even before they apply for a job. Candidates are more likely to be interested in working for a company with a positive reputation, a strong online presence, and good reviews by former employees.
Job application: Candidates are more likely to complete and submit job applications to companies with a strong employer brand. This includes the application process itself, how easy or difficult it is, and whether the candidate experience has been taken into account.
Interview process: Candidates are more likely to be excited about the interview process and the opportunity to work for a company with a strong employer brand. They’ll naturally be more interested and have more questions to ask. Also consider – how fair is your interview process in terms of the time commitment required of candidates?
Job offer: This one is simple…candidates are more likely to accept job offers from companies with a strong employer brand, even if they have other options.
Post-hire experience: A strong employer brand can set expectations for new hires, and if the company delivers on those expectations, it can lead to increased satisfaction and loyalty. This, in turn, leads to a lower turnover rate and reduced recruitment costs in the long run.
All of the above is good to know, but it’s of no use if, as part of your employer brand strategy, you don’t maintain brand consistency across all touchpoints in the user journey.
To maintain that consistency, you’ll need to do some, if not all, of the following:
- Define your brand identity: Clearly outline your company’s values, mission, vision, and personality.
- Set your visual identity: Specify guidelines for colours, fonts, logos, and imagery.
- Create messaging guidelines: Develop guidelines for tone, language, and messaging.
- Ensure consistency: See that all communication channels, from internal newsletters to external job postings, stick to the guidelines you’ve created.
- Train staff up: Provide regular training to employees to ensure they understand and can apply the brand guidelines.
- Track brand perception: Monitor online reviews, social media mentions, and employee feedback, to assess brand perception.
- Check job postings: Ensure job postings align with the brand guidelines, using consistent language and imagery throughout.
- Review onboarding materials: Use branded materials during the onboarding process to reinforce the brand message.
- Assess and adapt: Periodically review and update your brand guidelines to ensure they remain relevant and effective.
Following the above tips should ensure that you have a relevant and consistent employer brand which helps you to attract and retain the right people.
Building an effective employer brand strategy
As we’ve already established, a strong employer brand is essential for bringing in top talent and creating a positive company culture, but just how do you develop a strong branding strategy?
Here are the steps you should look to take in developing your brand strategy:
Assess the situation:
- Look internally: Evaluate your company’s current brand perception, values, and culture.
- Look a little further: Analyse how your company is perceived by employees, candidates, and the public.
What’s your Employer Value Proposition (EVP)?
- Consider Unique Selling Points (USPs): Identify what makes your company unique and attractive to potential employees.
- Benefits and perks: Highlight the benefits and perks you offer, such as competitive pay, flexible work arrangements, a good wellbeing package, insurances.
Who’s your target audience?
- Ideal candidate profile: Define the characteristics of your ideal employee, including their skills, experience, and values.
- Understand their needs: Research what your target audience is looking for in a job, such as work-life balance, career growth, or company culture.
Develop your employer brand messaging:
- Consistency is key: Create a clear and consistent message that reflects your company’s values and EVP.
- Storytelling: Use storytelling to share your company’s history, culture, and employee experiences.
Create a strong online presence:
- Company website: Ensure your company website is visually appealing, easy to navigate, that the written content is clear, and that the site showcases your employer brand.
- Social media: Actively engage on social media platforms to share company news, culture, and employee stories.
Develop a consistent employee experience:
- Onboarding: Create a positive and memorable onboarding experience for new hires, looking to minimise stress while they’re settling in.
- Employee engagement: Create a positive and engaging work environment, through employee recognition, career development programmes, and team-building activities.
Measure success:
- Track metrics: Monitor key metrics such as time-to-hire, employee satisfaction, and turnover rates.
- Gather feedback: Collect feedback from employees and candidates, to assess the effectiveness of your employer brand.
By following these steps – possibly looking to bring in a specific employer branding agency or consultancy along the way – you can build a strong, healthy, and effective employer brand.
How employee advocacy helps with employer branding
When it comes to recommending your company to potential candidates, current employees are often the most credible and effective brand ambassadors.
Those candidates are far more likely to trust an existing employee of a company, than just a job advert posted online
This is important as it can dramatically reduce your cost-to-hire and time-to-hire metrics.
To turn your employees into brand advocates and not just staff, you could start by creating a supportive environment, where they feel valued, respected, and an integral part of the team – earning regular praise and recognition for their efforts.
You could also promote open communication between employees and management, so that those employees feel heard.
And you could offer career development programmes, mentorship programmes, and other opportunities for career advancement.
You could also empower your employees, by giving them a strong voice – encourage them to share their ideas and feedback on a regular basis.
Alongside this, you could give them greater autonomy and decision-making power, without the need to consult management about every little thing.
On top of this, you could actively encourage employee advocacy, by getting them to willingly share their achievements and success stories on company channels – perhaps on your website careers page or your YouTube channel.
You could even offer incentives or rewards for them to do so, although in an ideal world you shouldn’t have to.
And, of course, you could ask that they recommend your company to friends and family, provided they have the skills you’re looking for.
Finally, it also helps if you’re seen to actively listen to employees, act on things, and make positive changes.
Regularly gather feedback from them, to understand their needs and concerns, then, if you need to, take action to address any issues that may be affecting employee satisfaction or engagement.
Measuring the success of your employer brand
If you’re going to put the work in to enhance your employer brand, then you need to know that it’s worth the effort, by measuring its effectiveness, using few KPIs.
KPIs to consider include:
- Time-to-hire, application volume (per job posted), cost-per-hire, and offer acceptance rate (as a percentage). More detail on this can be found in our recent post on recruitment metrics.
- Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): Which measures their loyalty and satisfaction.
- Employee turnover rate: The rate at which they leave the company.
- Follower growth: The number of followers on your company’s social media channels.
- Engagement rate: The level of interaction on your social media posts, such as likes, comments, and shares.
- Website traffic: The amount of traffic to your company’s website from social media posts.
- Candidate satisfaction surveys: Which measure candidates’ satisfaction with the application and interview process.
- Brand recognition: The percentage of people who recognise your company’s brand.
- Online Reviews: Be sure to monitor reviews and ratings on job boards and review sites.
How online careers pages can assist employer branding efforts
Your own online careers page can help in terms of your employer branding strategy, showing what your company is like and why a candidate should choose you.
Then there are the sites on which you choose to post your jobs, which also say something about your employer brand.
If you choose to post temp or temp-perm roles with Indeed Flex, on our app-based platform, you’re partnering with a brand known to offer candidates instant access to jobs, the freedom to choose when and where they work, and the choice of a wide variety of roles to suit their needs.
You’re also partnering with a brand backed by the world’s number one jobs board: Indeed.
You can then expand your reach to candidates right across the country (relevant to the areas in which you have sites), whether directly through Flex or via one of our agency partners. And you can manage your entire workforce all on the one platform.
And once you’re using Flex for your temp recruitment needs, you can then further enhance your brand by doing simple things; posting shifts early, offering competitive salaries, providing thorough job descriptions, outlining your uniform and grooming standards, and setting out what you offer beyond just the wages (are there any on-site perks, for example?).
Ultimately, a strong employer brand will attract more (and better quality) candidates and ensure they stay with you for a long time, so it’s worth investing in.
