The importance of employer branding

Despite changing market conditions, the competition for top talent still remains fierce, particularly in areas of intense skills shortages.  Alongside this, social change has created a workforce that more than ever before is focused not just on salary, but on working for an organization that they feel engaged with, whose values are aligned with theirs, and that they will feel proud to work for.  Being competitive no longer needs to mean paying the most- in fact often having a strong employer brand contributes to sensible salary alignment- golden handcuffs will no longer attract and retain those that wish to have a good work-life balance and to feel enjoyment from their work

Alongside this, authenticity is key. The workforce is increasingly image savvy, and able to differentiate between an exercise in keywords versus a genuine attempt to create and communicate a true sense of employer culture.

Some key takeaways

• According to the Edelman Trust, in 2022 60% of people will choose a new employer based on whether their culture and values align
• In a Linkedin study, it was reported that the biggest blocker to decision-making for new hires was being unable to understand what it would actually be like to work at an organization
• 92% of employees will consider a move to an organization with a reputation as an excellent place to work ( CR magazine)

Finally, being seen as a great employer does not just affect your ability to hire- consumers are increasingly aware of, and make purchasing decisions based on all aspects of your brand. If you are publicly seen as a great employer, it can have a real influence on overarching company commercial success.

Employer branding, in short, is how you as an organization communicate your value proposition to future new hires. It’s not a list of benefits on a website and a culture charter, and it’s certainly not separated from your external or internal communications strategy. Great employer branding is intrinsically linked to your overarching market-facing approach and can really help set you aside from your competition when it comes to attracting, and retaining great talent to bolster your hiring strength.

Key elements include

• Company values and culture
• Company location(s) and facilities, including accessibility and convenience
• Overall compensation
• Career development
• Management style
• Team caliber and quality
• Quality of work
• Ongoing employee recognition
• Work-life balance, or proportion of work to time off
• Benefits, such as dental insurance and vacation time
• On-the-job perks like lunch, on-site childcare, flextime, and telecommuting
• Non-salary financial perks like commuter credits, bonuses, housing subsidies, relocation, and assistance
• Opportunities for travel and client exposure
• Opportunities to perform community service
• Job security

https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-acquisition/employer-branding

Firstly, find out where you are at present, and ensure you are clear on what you are wanting to achieve and communicate.

• Audit your existing brand
• Align the strategy with your existing company strategies in terms of People and Growth
• Ensure that you have management buy-in
• Competitor analysis and your USPS
• Look at your current offering in terms of benefits and salaries and utilize the list above to ensure that you have an attractive proposition
• Elicit feedback from your current teams, stakeholders, customers, and anyone who can give you an understanding of how you are currently viewed
• Develop your culture and values charter
• Consider appointing employee brand ambassadors
• Set KPIs and performance indicators
• Create personas for those candidates you are keen to attract
• Establish what resources you have
• Decide on the range of communication methods you are going to use
• Create a content calendar
• Examine the candidate hiring process

Once you are clear on what you are wishing to tell people about, think about how to embed everything in the organization so that it becomes a seamless process.

• Tailor all future employee branding to match your candidate personas, particularly any job ads
• Utilise as many channels as possible, but be careful to ensure that these are matched to where your intended candidates will be viewing content
• Create content that is engaging and elicits conversation – great job ads are only one part of the puzzle
• Be creative – blog posts, photos and videos, anything that really speaks to who the organisation is, and most importantly shows the individuality of the people who work there
• Encourage your teams to be active on social media
• Make use of storytelling to really engage, particularly around success stories
• Monitor the reactions to this, and course correct if something is not working
• Conduct regular audits to ensure that the content is still fit for purpose and more importantly is still an accurate reflection organisational behaviors and goals, always bearing in mind the importance of honesty and authenticity
• Be aware of external review sites and be careful how you manage encouraging employee engagement on these. To be effective they have to be honest, so take on the feedback given from these sites and ensure that change is implemented. Do not make it mandatory to review positively, prospective employees will see straight through this, but do make the teams aware that you encourage it and the benefits to them of getting great people to join the company.

The team here at Troi has extensive experience in helping organisations of all shapes and sizes explore and develop a world-class employer brand experience.  The experience in the team, alongside a continual learning journey that is focused on ensuring our people are at the cutting edge of how to attract top talent, means that having one of our team on-site can add real value in helping you explore how to be seen as a true employer of choice.

Whether you are just starting out and designing this from scratch or would like to refocus on your goals in this area for 2023, the team at Troi would be delighted to help. We offer an end-to-end recruitment service, becoming embedded as your talent partner – all via a monthly subscription package.