Halfway between marketing and recruitment, employer branding refers to the reputation and brand image that a company projects to potential candidates. It’s also a way for a company to stand out from the competition by highlighting its identity and values.
Employer branding is often underestimated by companies, but it can help them attract more skilled talent. According to a LinkedIn study published in 2015, companies with a good employer brand would have 31% more chance of getting replies to the InMails they send to candidates.
Here are five things you can do to boost your employer brand!
Taking care of your employees
Let’s start with the obvious. There’s no point in spending time and energy on your employer brand if it’s just a bogus marketing tool that isn’t based on solid foundations. Starting an employer-employee relationship with false promises is bound to lead to resentment and frustration among your new recruits.
In other words, the efforts you make every day to improve your employees’ experience will have a direct and lasting impact on your employer brand. Remember that your employees are your best ambassadors. The happier they are, the better your reputation will be.
💡 To remember
Also according to LinkedIn, companies that invest in their employer brand would see their recruitment costs down by 43%. The reason is simple: the stronger an employer’s brand image is in the minds of candidates, the less that company needs to invest in recruitment campaigns, marketing campaigns, etc.
A few good practices for looking after your employees:
- Regularly ensuring their development : are they satisfied with their tasks, their career, the atmosphere within the company, their benefits…
- Offering a stimulating and pleasant working environment, with supportive and transparent management, comfortable offices and resources to help you develop your skills..
- Listening to their needs: in terms of development, desire for training, etc
Define the company’s values
What are the values that motivate your employees and bring them together? What is your company’s raison d’être, its mantra, its mission? What are its convictions, what differentiates it from its competitors (what might make competitive employees to come and work for you)? What are the key characteristics, the character traits shared by all your employees?
The answers to these questions will enable you to define your values precisely. Then think about highlighting them on your career site or recruitment page; The more you communicate about what defines your company, the more you’ll attract like-minded talent!
💡 A good employer brand knows how to inspire candidates and convince them that they will be able to achieve their full potential within the company.
A few good habits to forge a corporate culture
- Tell us how your company came into being, its raison d’être and the challenges it has faced along the way.
- Get all your employees together and help define your values. To be relevant, they must reflect who you really are.
Strengthen your presence on social networks
Once your values have been clearly defined, all you have to do is highlight them on your various social networks (particularly LinkedIn or Instagram, which lend themselves well to storytelling). Also take advantage of these speaking spaces to highlight your internal events, to illustrate your team building… It’s also an opportunity to present your staff, for example by creating employee portraits!
How is it useful?
These seemingly secondary elements will allow candidates to project themselves within your company! By discovering your offices, the personalities of your employees or the events that bring you together, the candidate can already feel whether or not your world speaks to him/her. A clever way for candidates to assess their own culture-fit (i.e. how well they fit in with your company’s culture).
💡 To remember
According to this infographic signed CareerAct, 70% of Millennials use social networks to evaluate a company’s employer brand. Hence, it’s important to have a captivating logo design to help your brand stand out and capture the hearts of young talent. If you’re looking to recruit young talent, investing in social networks is absolutely essential!
Take care with your job offers
And above all, make sure you create job offersthat reflect you and your values. If, for example, originality and innovation are two of the things that define you, it would be completely inconsistent to propose any kind of job advert that simply listed the tasks to be carried out and the profile sought.
Make the most of your job offers to stand out from the crowd, and don’t hesitate to infuse them with the soul of your company. If you’re a young start-up with a penchant for self-mockery and a passion for the cinema, don’t hesitate to include film references and a few touches of humour in your descriptions. The it should also reflect the atmosphere of your company (light and familiar for a startup on a human scale, neutral and professional for a recruitment firm…)
Also, remember to include some useful but often overlooked information in your job adverts, such as average age of employees, number of employees, male-female parity rate… All this information will enable your applicants to project themselves accurately into the company!
Involve your employees
They are in the best position to give an objective and sincere opinion of your company: so give your employees a say! If their well-being is at the centre of your daily concerns, then you should be able to count on their support.
This approach is all the more necessary today, at a time when online reputation represents a major challenge for businesses. According to an Indeed study, 87% of jobseekers say they consult reviews written about a potential employer before forming an opinion about them.
💡 To remember
Your employees aren’t the only people who can help you build a good (or bad) reputation! Don’t forget to look after your candidate experience too. For example, make it a point of honour to treat all your candidates with respect. Be transparent and responsive in your exchanges, don’t leave any application unanswered, even if the feedback is negative… Guaranteeing all candidates a pleasant experience sends a very positive message to your potential future recruits ! To achieve this, don’t hesitate to use a recruitment software.
Boosting your employer brand, in conclusion
Still underestimated by companies, employer branding is nevertheless an excellent talent attraction and retention lever. However, to be effective in the long term, it must reflect the reality of your business. If you want to build a positive and inspiring image, you must first do everything you can to improve your employee experience! Don’t forget that your employees are your best ambassadors: their opinion carries more weight than the most brilliant communication campaign.
