Prioritizing Your Employer Brand To Attract Top Talent

 18th Oct 2022

Employer branding has become essential in 2022 to attract top talent.  

If an organisation wants to gain a competitive edge and meet its recruitment objectives it’s important to consider how potential candidates perceive its brand. In fact, 94% of candidates would consider an employer’s brand when applying for jobs.  

What is employer branding? 

In short, an employer brand refers to the perception your current and potential employees have of your company. A company develops a positive or negative impression of its brand through the quality and competitiveness of what it can offer its employees, including its salary and benefits, management style, culture, and commitments.  

Employer branding is not about misleading people into thinking that a company is better than it is. It is about defining your unique employee value proposition: It is the sum of everything you offer as an employer and tells the story of your business and why someone should consider joining your team.  

Why is it important?  

The benefits of employer branding are huge – less time and resources spent, more top-tier talent seeking to work with you, and quicker filling of vacancies as candidates find you through their own research.  

Compete in the war for talent 

A company is only as great as its people. And great people want to be associated with leading brands. Talented candidates have much more choice during their job search than they once did, meaning your business doesn’t always have the luxury of picking and choosing talent anymore.  

According to LinkedIn research, a strong employer brand is twice as likely to be linked to job consideration compared to a strong company brand. That means developing your employer brand can help you level the playing field in the war for talent.  

Retain your best employees 

Employees working at companies with positive employer brands are more invested and present lower turnover rates. LinkedIn reported that 28% of employee turnover can be reduced by 28% by investing in employer branding.  

People want to work with companies that treat their employees right. Happy employees feel proud to be part of their company and can become brand ambassadors. For instance, they could refer you to good-fit candidates and create a positive impression through word of mouth. 

Reduce cost per hire 

According to LinkedIn, companies with positive employer brands or favourable reputations within the market can get up to 50% more applications than companies with negative brands. LinkedIn also found that there was a 43% decrease in cost per hire for businesses with a strong employer brand. 

Companies that fail to focus on branding stand to lose out significantly — financially and reputationally. 

How to improve it? 

Gone are the days of posting a job advert and hoping the applications flood in. And with the growing popularity of remote or hybrid working, a ping pong table in the office no longer counts as looking after your staff. 

How can you position your company as an exciting place to work? Previously, companies have focused on "why you joined," but it is time to focus on "why I would not leave”. 

Nurture your culture 

These days, no one is willing to work for a company that does not give any sense of fulfilment to its workers. Cultivate a happy, disciplined, yet healthy work culture for all your employees. Put in place competitive benefits and a few employee appreciation perks.  

Consider your digital presence 

In today’s world, social media plays a massive role in business branding, with many candidates basing their employment decisions on the quality of a company’s online presence. Monitoring and updating social media pages and websites are critical to ensuring you put your best foot forward. 

Social media is great for sharing stories because it is a visual storytelling medium. Images of your staff having a great time at work or sharing employee success stories promote a more authentic and human brand image. 

Optimizing your hiring process 

Candidates often gain their first impression of your business brand during recruitment. As a result, every stage in your hiring process should be carefully considered to ensure talent is not dissuaded from pursuing an opportunity within your company. 

Keep your candidates up to date, and share feedback to let them know what they need to improve. Once onboard, provide new hires with the tools and introductions they need to hit the ground  

Employee Feedback 

Run anonymous surveys, focus groups, or one-on-one interviews with current employees to find out what’s important to them, what engages them, and why they remain with your organisation. Try to measure your employees’ perceptions of your culture, values, goals, career progression, senior management, salary, benefits and support.  

An employee’s exit experience can also provide a rich learning opportunity for the company to better understand how to improve the employee experience overall. If people are leaving an organisation, figuring out why is crucial. Once this information has been collated, spend some time analysing it and making a plan on what areas need to be improved. 

Managing all of the above can quickly become an overwhelming task — especially in the current candidate-driven market. If your business needs any support in managing your recruitment processes please reach out to us today.