At Talent Works, we know employer branding better than most. We also know the demands and expectations of tech candidates in this competitive recruitment market. This means that we get asked many questions about building and leveraging your employer brand especially in the tech industry, where demand for talent is currently soaring, and all businesses are trying to be the ones that stand out.
The truth is, your employer brand is the main differentiating factor in the eyes of candidates, and so while tech recruitment is so demanding, it’s important to get it right. Your employer brand may just be the reason that tech candidates pick you over the competition, particularly if salary and role are equal.
Here are some of the questions that we are often asked about employer branding. We wanted to share our insights with you in one place so that you have a greater understanding when it comes to creating an employer brand for your tech business.
1. What does employer branding mean, and what does it involve?
Your employer brand is the term used to describe how your current employees and future candidates see you. It’s not something that can be seen or controlled, but you can leverage aspects of your employer brand to create the desired image for yourself as an employer. Much like the reasons people buy a specific coffee brand, your employer brand attracts employees to your business. It involves everything from reputation and company culture through to employee engagement and how happy they are at work; summing up what your organisation stands for, what sets you apart from the competition and your impression in the market.
2. Why does employer branding matter?
Your employer brand plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining top tech talent. Having a reputation as a good employer makes it easier to attract top talent, as often talent already wants to work for you before they here about a vacancy. It can reduce recruitment costs and the time it takes to hire.
In a world of infinite choice, your employer brand makes a candidate choose to work for you. It combines both tangible and more emotional factors. If you imagine your competitions salary offerings, attitude to work and company culture; they may be largely the same as your own. But if your reputation and employer branding promotions work in your favour, this could lead the best talent employees to choose to work for you.
3. Is employer branding only an issue for more established companies?
No, not at all. If anything in the competition for the best tech talent, employer branding is even more crucial for smaller companies. Almost every developer and tech worker in the world wants to work for the likes of Google, Amazon or the other big players, but your employer brand can show them that you’re also a viable option. Your employer brand plays a crucial role in attracting the best talent and helping your tech business to scale. Without corporate reputation to rely on and the value of your name alone, your reputation as an employer could be the difference in attracting tech talent and not.
4. Are your consumer and employer brand linked?
While sometimes your consumer and employer brand will interlink, other times it’s not appropriate; this depends entirely on the nature of your business. For example, if you’re a company which is promoting relaxation and wellbeing to consumers, you may still need your team behind the scenes to work hard, which could contradict the messaging. However, in the age of social media, we’re seeing more cases of negative reviews of employer brands reflecting on a consumer brand. So be aware that how you treat your employees could not only have an impact.
5. Can I ensure my employer brand resonates with specific talent, i.e. tech talent?
Having an employer brand that resonates with the talent you’re looking to attract is essential. Some aspects of your employer brand like laid back company culture or good benefits will appeal to candidates in all areas. However, if you’re serious about attracting tech talent in large numbers, you should segment your employer brand messaging to focus on the things they care about. This will make you look like you really understand these candidates and your business is committed to them, you’re not just recruiting them as part of a generic campaign.
Tech candidates want to know more about the technology they’ll be using, how innovative the company is and whether they have a chance to make a difference, all of which can be communicated through your recruitment marketing and employer brand promotions.
6. Which digital tools can help promote my employer brand?
In the digital era, there are so many tools which can be used to support and promote your employer brand. Use any social media platforms to tell your employer brand’s story and share your team’s experiences. All of these platforms can give candidates a behind the scenes glimpse into your culture, people and passions.
You can also use dedicated careers websites as a platform to showcase your story, using digital attraction techniques like Google advertisements to draw interested candidates to them. These websites act as a blank canvas for you to showcase who you are – imagine employee testimonials, videos about your company and an easy online application process.
7. Is employer branding a marketing or HR topic?
Your employer brand should be the responsibility of the whole organisation. While yes, traditionally it was the responsibility of HR, it’s growing importance makes it fundamental that the entire company is involved. You will need to communicate your employer brand across multiple platforms. Still, you will also need employee feedback and testimonials, their help with spreading the word and need HRs help to improve employee engagement. Your EVP (which forms the basis of your employer brand) runs through the entire business and all communications. Therefore the employer brand should be everyone’s concern.
8. What key marketing channels do you recommend for the developer/tech community?
It’s no surprise that tech talent can be found online, and through digital platforms, this is where all candidates are now spending time. Therefore, social media and digital programmatic advertising is a great place to start. LinkedIn is great for business purposes, but if you’re just trying to advertise yourself as employer look at Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and even Tiktok if you’re looking to reach a younger demographic.
However, don’t underestimate the importance of adding a personal touch to the recruitment process, asking recruiters to reach out to candidates directly or more personalised advert styles such as LinkedIn emails can help show vacancies and your employer brand.
Plus, you can always think out of the box to reach out to education providers like universities. Collaborate with them, and you’ll have a network of ready to graduate talent at your disposal who will know all about you as an employer.
9. With more people working remotely, how can you promote your employer brand?
Again, social media is your best friend, but you’ll need to be creative without the office. Instead of promoting your company’s physical presence like quirky office spaces and the whole team together, you need to find ways to capture your employer brand’s emotional elements. Share employee testimonials, creative content and use the advancement in video technologies to your advantage and post screenshots of meetings and get-togethers. Just because you aren’t together physically, it doesn’t mean your employer brand has disappeared. You just have to show unity in more creative ways.
You can also conduct virtual office tours and executive interviews to use as part of your virtual onboarding process. Just because we’re working from home now, it doesn’t mean we will be forever, and new hires need to have a sense of what they can expect from office life when they finally return.
10. What can I do to monitor my employer brand?
Monitoring your employer brand is tricky as it’s not a tangible, measurable entity. However, you can use market research techniques to monitor perceptions, both internally and externally. Using well-known techniques like interviews with recently hired team members, existing employees and other available candidates or more creative research methods; there are many possibilities to learn whether your employer brand is perceived in the way you’d like. You can acknowledge any changes that need to be made to correct your business’s image that you’re putting out there. With online brand monitoring that can monitor whether your digital promotions have been seen and remembered to monitor social media engagement, you can also understand whether your employer brand promotions have been successful.
If you’d like help building and leveraging an employer brand which can resonate with top tech talent and make you an employer of choice, contact our team and discover how our Elemen.tal service could be tailored to your business.
To learn more about how to build and leverage your employer brand, download our eBook.
