By Heather Niblett, Talent Brand Lead.
It’s taken a global pandemic and the ‘Great Resignation’ for Employer Brand to become a renewed buzzword. Although many companies focused on Employer Brand prior to these events, it’s clear to see more companies are investing in this key pillar of their Talent Strategy.
What is Employer Brand?
The way we describe it, Employer Brand is how you communicate your unique attributes as an employer to potential candidates and the resulting perception by candidates and employees. This is just like how you sell your products or services to potential consumers or businesses and how they may choose your brand over competitors’ brands.
It seems a no brainer when you think about it. It’s an advertiser’s paradise out there, advertising space is as hot as real estate and platforms are creating more and more innovative ways for businesses to market their products. Now, there are a few companies using this to their advantage when it comes to careers, but not many. And frankly, they’re missing a trick.
Why invest in your Employer Brand?
In a world where candidates can simply shake a tree and 10 great jobs fall out, how are you going to stand out from the others? That’s right, with your Employer Brand. Sure, salary, location or flexible working play a key part but when those are all the same… how will you stand out?
Enter your Employer Value Proposition and your Employer Brand.
Beyond the people, what is it that makes your company the ideal place to work? How are employees empowered to bring their best selves to work? Are they working on the most complex challenges? Or helping to make change?
In short, your purpose and culture will help you stand out. If you can articulate it!
But wait, it works both ways
Having a great Employer Brand will help you attract the best talent. However, what many fail to realise, is that a good one will equally help candidates self-select themselves out of a career with you. Saving your recruiters a lot of time and effort. People who don’t share your values, morals or ethics, shouldn’t be applying for your roles and if anything, you’re doing them a favour too by letting them know from day 1 what to expect from your business.
And, thinking long term, a strong Employer Brand should increase your retention, provide more organic applications and more employee referrals. What’s not to love?
The benefits of working with an agency
You take your car to the garage to fix the engine, rather than attempting to tackle it with your own tools, right? The same goes for your Employer Brand. Talent Attraction and Talent Strategies are key to the growth of a business. Hiring the right people within the right timeframes can make or break your business as well as impact your deliverables or development progress.
Bringing an Employer Brand agency in to help build your Recruitment and Attraction Strategy, brings a fresh pair of eyes to your business. Experts with experience of building unique value propositions, conducting trustworthy research and providing actionable recommendations and strategies.
How does Talent Works build Employer Brand Strategies?
We always begin with embedding ourselves into your business, understanding your pain points, your growth areas and your ambitions. We believe working in partnership is the only way to achieve an outstanding and truthful Employer Brand.
Some of the key steps we go through:
- Internal Research; focus groups, senior stakeholders; recruiters; new hires; exit interviews
- External Research; market perceptions, competitor research
- Analysis; strengths, considerations, unique selling points
- Value Proposition Framework; articulating your Employer Brand through proof points and the foundations of your culture and values
- And of course, finessing until we’re all happy with the proposition
So, we’ve got your proposition, now what? It’s time to get those creative juices flowing.
The proposition is based on facts, research and aspirations. Creative? That’s all based on psychology, impressions and emotions. There’s no right or wrong, as long as it speaks to your target audience. Have more than one target audience? No problem, that’s what segmentation is for.
Consider your Employer Brand the parent – your segmented propositions the children. Partially shared DNA, but unique in their own way.
As long as your segmentation still aligns with your Employer Brand and your Corporate Brand, you can’t really go wrong.
Finally, it’s important to track your progress. How is your awareness growing? Are you getting more organic applications? How is your retention? Measurement is key, have a starting point and track the changes over time. How we do that? That’s a story for another time.
If you’re thinking about creating or improving your Employer Brand, we’d love to speak to you – contact us now to find out more about our services.