6 easy ways to improve your employer branding

On our blog last month, we talked about the importance of employer branding and what it means for your company. Having a strong employer brand can have several benefits for your company, such as decreasing your cost per hire, building your business reputation, and increasing employee engagement.

Now you know why employer branding is essential for a company’s success – but how do you begin improving yours?

If you don’t know where to start, this might seem like a daunting task to take on – but there’s no need to panic! In this blog, we’ll explain 6 simple ways to help you develop a strategy to build and improve your employer brand.

Examine your existing employer brand

First things first, you need to carry out an analysis of your current employer brand. You can find out what current and former employees are saying about your company on platforms such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn, which could help you understand what positives you can make more of, and what negatives should be addressed. 

Potential employees can also provide useful information – pay attention to what they say in their cover letters and interviews when you ask them why they want to work with you. Company culture is one of the most important things a job applicant will be trying to investigate for themselves, so imagine yourself in their position. Who would you ask about this, and what would you want to hear them say? 

You might also want to investigate what’s being said about your company in the press. A positive or negative news story could have huge consequences on your reputation, regardless of your company’s size, so doing some PR work can also help you identify what you want to achieve with your employer branding.

Research the competition

The first step of any successful marketing campaign is taking some time beforehand to carry out thorough market research and analyse your competitors. By making the time to find out what other businesses in your industry are up to in regards to their own employer branding, you will be able to identify what helps you stand out, or what you might need to catch up on.

Put yourself in your target candidate’s shoes, and think about what would appeal to them. For example, if your company is looking for a long-term hire, jobseekers will want to see information about career development opportunities. If this is something your company can realistically offer, great! If not, you might be losing some great talent to your competitors.

Reading company reviews, job postings, and social network posts will give you a great overview of your competition. By developing strong market knowledge, you’ll be able to hit the ground running with your own employer branding efforts.

Be clear about what you want to achieve

One of the key aspects of employer branding is about building your employer value proposition (EVP). People who might be interested in working for your company will only follow through with their application if your EVP stands out to them. This includes your company’s values on things such as career progression, work lifestyle, and community. In fact, according to Globalization Partners, 75% of jobseekers consider EVP before applying for a job with a company, so you need to make sure your employer branding aligns with this. 

Think about what goals you want to achieve with your employer branding. Are you trying to build your reputation in your industry? Are you trying to attract new hires? By having these conversations with senior management, you will be able to establish clear and realistic goals to work towards.

Trying to improve your employer branding without a clear strategy can lead to you and your employees wasting time and energy on an unsuccessful project. As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, then plan to fail!

Engage your management team

All your hard work could be in vain if your management team contradicts or undermines your employer branding efforts. You should encourage them, and any other company stakeholders, to be actively involved from the beginning of the process. This is so that they can help set the direction, and share their own ideas for what they want your strategy to look like. 

You should also be able to reply on your management team to promote your employer brand messaging on your most visible platforms, including social media. Many prospective job applicants (especially those from Gen Z) will seek out your current employees online, so your managers need to be visible on sites such as LinkedIn to help communicate your company’s values. This gives the impression of your company having an engaged, motivated and committed management team, which is bound to impress potential applicants.

Digitise your strategy

Speaking of social media, you should make sure to focus your attention on a digital branding strategy. According to the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer Study, 62 percent of respondents found a company’s social media more convincing than their advertising.

Even when posting to hundreds or thousands of followers on social media, you should aim for a tone that conveys honesty and authenticity. Charles Hipps, founder of Oleeo, explains that: ‘in the digital era, employer branding must revolve around creating an engaging and personalized experience for candidates. To do this well, employers need to harness technology and ensure they form a bond from an early stage—even before the candidate applies. Crucially, this must extend all the way through to their first day in the role’.

Give your employees a voice

Your employees are the best brand ambassadors you could have. Encourage them all to be active on social media, and provide social media training if needed. Not only will this help increase your organisation’s visibility online, it will help ensure that any content they post is consistent with your brand guidelines. 

In addition, by including your employees in your employer branding, they will feel like important and valued members of your company. This in turn can help increase employee retention and overall morale and engagement. 

Some ideas for how to include your employees in your branding might include sharing testimonials from them on your company page, or by spotlighting certain members of staff on your social media pages to give a ‘behind the scenes’ look into their jobs. Just make sure you ask for their permission first!

Find your next hire with TalentSpa

Having a strong employer brand is just one way to attract top talent to your company. At TalentSpa, we can help with all your other recruitment needs, from optimising your job descriptions to screening candidates on your behalf with our unique applicant tracking software (ATS). Visit our website, or call us today on 020 3982 7600 to find out more about our recruitment software!