How to Build a Strong Employer Brand and Create an Effective Employer Branding Strategy

Building a Strong Employer Brand

1. Think Beyond Your Logo or Slogan

Your brand goes beyond just a logo or slogan; it represents the guiding principles of your business operations and the way you treat your employees and customers. HR plays a pivotal role in attracting and developing talent, and the brand is reinforced by every interaction with HR, focusing on creating exceptional experiences for applicants and employees. Start an employer brand by clearly defining your company’s values and culture.

Your brand is either strengthened or weakened with every HR interaction, emphasizing the need for a strong, consistent approach to employee engagement and candidate experiences. By understanding the nuances of employer brand and developing a comprehensive employer branding strategy, companies can effectively attract top talent and enhance their market reputation.

2. Lead with Your Values

Transparency about your company’s values and culture is crucial. Prospective employees want to understand what your company stands for and what it’s like to work there. Highlight your values prominently on your website and consider providing a downloadable brochure that outlines your corporate culture. This approach helps to set clear expectations from the beginning and attracts candidates who resonate with your company’s mission and values.

3. Partner with Marketing

HR should collaborate closely with the marketing team to promote the company brand, particularly in the context of hiring and onboarding. Marketing expertise can help create compelling job ads and recruitment materials that effectively communicate the company’s values, mission, and culture. This partnership ensures a cohesive and attractive presentation of the company to potential candidates, enhancing both recruitment efforts and employee retention.

4. Share Your Story

Sharing the company’s history and legacy is a powerful way to connect with both applicants and current employees. A strong employer brand includes a narrative that explains who you are as a company and how you have evolved over time. This storytelling approach helps employees and candidates understand and become passionate about your mission and values, fostering a deeper connection to the company.

5. Personalize Your Storytelling

Authenticity is key in employer branding. Potential candidates prefer to hear genuine stories from current employees rather than scripted messages from corporate or HR representatives. Showcase real employee experiences on job sites and social media to provide an authentic glimpse into what makes your company special and why employees choose to stay.

6. Stand Out from the Crowd

Identify what makes your company unique and amplify that message. Use social media, company web pages, and LinkedIn profiles to highlight the aspects that set your company apart from others. Demonstrate why your company is a great place to work and emphasize the unique attributes that make your organization special.

7. Understand Generational Expectations

With five generations currently in the workforce, it’s essential to understand the different expectations of each group. Your employer brand should cater to the individuality of each generation, recognizing their unique needs and preferences. Additionally, treat all talent as valuable, regardless of whether they are permanent or contingent workers, to create a cohesive and inclusive brand.

8. Employee Ambassadors

Encourage your employees to become brand ambassadors. When employees share their positive experiences and favorite aspects of working at your company, it lends credibility to your employer brand. Consider creating social media campaigns featuring employee testimonials to attract new talent authentically.

9. Continuous Employee Development

Commitment to continuous employee development is a compelling aspect of a strong employer brand. Nearly every employee values professional growth opportunities. Highlight stories of employees who have benefited from development programs to showcase your commitment to their growth and learning.

10. Control the Message

Provide consistent messaging templates or prompts for employees to share on social media. While the sharing should be organic, having a consistent message helps maintain the integrity of your employer brand and ensures that the key points are communicated effectively.

11. Utilize Social Media

Leverage platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Glassdoor to highlight your employer brand. Showcase aspects like work-life balance, diversity and inclusion, and employee appreciation. Social media is a powerful tool to reach a broad audience and provide insights into your company culture.

12. Authentic Representation

Only market what your company truly represents and values. Authenticity attracts talent that fits your culture and helps avoid disillusionment later on. Be confident in your company’s current values and standards rather than marketing ideas that are yet to be implemented.

13. Culture of Free Will

Ensure that your external brand messaging aligns with the internal culture. A positive and magnetic culture will naturally create brand ambassadors who advocate for your company externally. Consistency between internal practices and external messaging is crucial for a strong employer brand.

14. Share Employee Videos

Sharing short videos featuring employee testimonials on social media can effectively promote your employer brand. Even with a limited budget, this method can yield quick results. Employees who are featured in these videos are likely to share them within their own networks, further extending your reach.

15. Know Your Reputation

Understand the current perception of your organization among both current and former employees. This insight can help you improve or promote your employer brand by highlighting unique cultural characteristics and demonstrating why your organization is a great employer.

Creating an Effective Employer Branding Strategy

1. Align Strategy with Organizational Needs

An effective employer branding strategy must be aligned with the business’s short- and long-term goals. Identify the organization’s objectives for the next 12 to 36 months, consider new products and services in the pipeline, and recognize any talent gaps that could hinder meeting these goals. This alignment ensures that the strategy supports the company’s overall ambitions.

2. Set Actionable Objectives

Define specific, measurable, and achievable goals for your employer branding strategy. Establish metrics to track progress, create a content calendar, and assign responsibilities to ensure deadlines are met. Actionable objectives help address specific business needs and provide a clear path for achieving them.

3. Define Relevant KPIs

Select key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your objectives. These metrics should be attainable, accurate, and actionable. For example, if reducing recruiting costs is a goal, cost-per-hire would be a relevant KPI. The right KPIs provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your employer branding strategy.

4. Develop a Measurement Plan

Create a plan to collect, analyze, and report data to make informed decisions. Tools like applicant tracking software (ATS), Google Analytics, and finance metrics can provide valuable data. A structured measurement plan ensures you have the information needed to evaluate and adjust your strategy.

5. Allocate Resources Upfront

Define roles and responsibilities early to avoid roadblocks. Decide whether to develop an internal team or enlist external agencies for your employer branding efforts. Clear resource allocation helps ensure the strategy is implemented smoothly and deadlines are met.

6. Create Target Candidate Personas

Develop semi-fictional representations of your ideal candidates to better understand their motivations and needs. Conduct interviews with prospective and recent hires to gather insights. This information helps tailor your recruitment efforts to attract the right candidates.

7. Develop a Compelling Employee Value Proposition

Clarify the mutual expectations between the candidate and the company with a meaningful employee value proposition (EVP). The EVP serves as the foundation for all recruitment communications, influencing everything you say and do when attracting talent.

8. Examine Your Application Process

Evaluate the application process from the candidate’s perspective to identify areas for improvement. Seek feedback from candidates and recent hires to understand their experience and make necessary adjustments to enhance the overall process.

9. Focus on Retention

Employee retention should be a key consideration in your employer branding strategy. Engaging with existing employees and seeking their feedback demonstrates that you value their input and are committed to creating a positive work environment. High levels of engagement correlate with increased profitability and productivity.

10. Determine Your Distribution Mix

Identify the most effective channels to communicate with candidates. Collaborate with marketing to leverage owned, earned, and paid media for broader reach. Determine where your ideal candidates spend their time and focus your efforts on those channels.

11. Tailor Materials to Candidate Personas

Customize employer branding materials, such as career pages, social media campaigns, and job descriptions, to resonate with specific candidate personas. This targeted approach helps tell a compelling story that attracts the right candidates.

12. Create a Content Calendar

Plan and schedule content creation and distribution to ensure consistency and accountability. Brainstorm ideas, consider the budget, distribute tasks, set deadlines, and adjust the plan as needed. A content calendar helps keep the employer branding strategy on track.

13. Watch for Implementation Roadblocks

Be aware of common challenges like distrust between teams, reliance on top-down execution, and resistance to change. Develop transparent and collaborative processes to overcome these roadblocks and ensure smooth implementation.

14. Ensure Employee Understanding

Equip employees with the knowledge and tools to communicate the employer brand effectively within their networks. Keeping employees informed and empowered to share the brand message can turn them into powerful brand ambassadors.

15. Test Your Message

Regularly test recruitment messaging through A/B and multivariate testing to optimize performance. Routine testing helps gauge the effectiveness of your approach and identify areas for improvement.

16. Be Ready to Course Correct

Monitor your strategy’s effectiveness and be prepared to make adjustments based on performance data and changing organizational needs. Flexibility and responsiveness are key to maintaining a relevant and effective employer branding strategy.

17. Continuous Improvement

Treat employer branding as an ongoing process. Reassess and refine your strategy regularly to keep it relevant and effective. Top-performing companies continuously improve their employer branding efforts, recognizing the value of a strong and adaptable strategy.

In conclusion, building a strong employer brand and creating an effective employer branding strategy are critical to attracting and retaining top talent. By following these guidelines and maintaining a commitment to continuous improvement, companies can create a compelling employer brand that supports their overall business goals and enhances their reputation in the market.