Enhancing employer brand

Employer brand is all about an organisation’s reputation as an employer and the value it brings to employees. By focusing on and building employer brand, an organisation can shape the way they are perceived as an employer by past, current and prospective employees. 

It is an important element for organisations to include when developing strategy and planning for success and growth. Why is this important?... Having a strong, positive and authentic employer brand helps to attract and retain high-quality employees to your organisation.

According to Employer Branding Australia, some of the key benefits of shaping and promoting your employer brand include attraction of quality candidates, securing the right people who align to your values, higher retention of the right people, reduced recruitment spend, a quicker time to hire, better productivity and results.

As recruitment specialists, we hear first hand from people their reasons why they will or won’t consider opportunities, and why they leave organisations… both good and bad. Although we get so many different answers, we understand that employer brand plays a significant role in decisions of whether to explore and accept opportunities, renew contracts or resign from organisations. For organisations that are large and well-known, flying under the radar, small but impactful, going through significant changes, down-sizing or managing negative press… a strong and positive employer brand may be the point of difference when your preferred candidate applies for a role, or needs to decide between two opportunities.

How can you build your employer brand?

 Be active in your industry

Think of ways to be active within your sector or industry to raise the profile of your organisation and team. Some of the ways you could do this, whilst adding value, include:

  • Speak at conferences or events

  • Create valuable and interesting content

  • Benchmarking and articles

  • Contribute to other relevant blogs/sites in your industry

  • Host events, either in person or virtually

  • Enter (& win!) industry awards

Build a positive culture

An organisation's culture consists of shared beliefs and values, that are communicated and reinforced through the organisation and ideally led top down, ultimately shaping employee perceptions, behaviours and understanding. The culture of your organisation plays a huge role in shaping employer brand, so it’s important to build a positive one. And a strong culture is a common denominator of the most successful companies so it’s worth investing in and continually building upon.

Embrace social media

Social media is a big part of many people’s lives – particularly active and passive job seekers. If they are active in this space, then it’s important that your organisation is too, otherwise you could miss out. A few ideas to help build your employer brand on social media:

  • Storytelling – this is a big one; it’s simple but extremely effective! Have employees share their experiences of working for the organisation, the culture and what they like about it (bonus points for using video). Check out this page at Employer Branding Australia for some pretty impressive examples of this

  • Ensure your content is relevant, useful and portrays your organisation in the right way

  • Share good news stories about the organisation, your employees, testimonials, reviews, policies, etc. 

There are many CEO’s in the ‘for purpose’ sector that actively and simply highlight their Employer Brand. A few that stand out to me that set a high benchmark for embracing social media include Kon and Karen:

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Although not the absolute intention of these posts, these comments from leaders clearly communicate strong commitment to their teams. They are short, sweet and cost effective (Free), and provide insights and evidence… “We Care”, We value and appreciate our people”, “We make an impact”. Apart from the kudos and benefits for existing employees, these thoughtful posts positively contribute towards Employer Brand plus provide information about your perks and culture, spark interest and inspire curiosity.

Differentiate your organisation

Think about ways you can differentiate your organisation to stand out as an Employer of Choice and communicate it with the world. Make sure you communicate the positives, innovations, wins and what makes your organisation unique. Remuneration is not the only thing that retains employees.

These questions may prompt some thoughts (& LinkedIn posts)…

  • What makes our organisation more attractive than others in our field?

  • Why would people wish to join our organisation, over another?

  • Why do people stay? Why do people leave?

  • What additional benefits/perks do we have?

  • How does our organisation promote a positive internal culture?

  • How do we celebrate and share our success?

  • What makes our organisation unique? What is special about us?

Through recruitment, we know that candidate’s research potential employers beyond their website and annual report for ratings, feedback, comments, articles, stories and evidence. They also seek advice, insights and perspectives from their network, mentors, friends and family. As an employer, you can’t control everything people say about you or your organisation, but can take proactive steps to shape these answers, and build an employer brand that attracts and retains talent.

For further insights, here is an article from marketing & brand expert, Darren Taylor from Taylor & Grace, The pivotal role brand plays in attracting and keeping good people.