How to enhance your employer brand
The best part of your business is your people – without the right people on board, you’ll find it hard to progress. Working on improving your employer brand, and how you appear to the world as a place of work, is vital for attracting, hiring and retaining the most talented candidates.
If you’re stuck for ways to enhance your employer brand, or don’t know where to get started, here’s our 4 top things to consider.
Focus on your recruitment process
One of the biggest factors that contributes to whether your employer brand is seen positively or negatively is the experience that people go through when applying to work for you. To leave a good lasting impression on applicants, even the ones that aren’t successful, you need to treat all candidates like potential ambassadors for your brand, at all stages of the recruitment process.
Whether it’s acknowledging you’ve received their application, treating them fairly in the interview or getting in touch with them quickly and politely to let them know your decision; any contact you have with candidates during the hiring process is an opportunity to show them what kind of employer you would be.
Too many candidates still hear nothing from the jobs they’ve applied for, and this can be damaging to your employer brand.
One way to make your recruitment process more candidate friendly is by using video interview software in the early stages – with software like Shine, the process of interviewing is made much more efficient, accessible and flexible for all candidates, as well as showing an innovative approach to hiring, all of which leaves a lasting positive impression.
Don’t just wait for it to happen
Many companies don’t put a conscious focus on their employer branding, and they may even just expect it to happen as a result of their marketing and hiring efforts – but it doesn’t.
Employer branding is complex, and includes everything from employee contracts, to how you act on social media, to how you hire new recruits. It spans a number of departments in your organisation, and the best way to make sure you’re always presenting your best employer brand is to make a person (or team) responsible for it. Whether it’s an individual whose only role is to work on your employer brand, or you give it as a project to a selected team, having someone dedicated to working on your employer branding is a much more proactive way to improve it.
Create brand advocates
Who are the people that can have the biggest impact when improving your employer brand? The people you actually employ!
When creating material like promotional videos or blog posts to boost your employer brand through marketing, building it around real life testimonials from your current team members, whether they’re an intern or the CEO, will give you huge amounts of credibility, and build trust in those looking to work for you.
Turning those you already employ into brand advocates is crucial for spreading a positive perception of your organisation, but…
…most importantly, make your company a great place to work
For all of the above to really work, firstly, you must make sure that your employees are happy and fulfilled with what they’re doing, and that you’re treating them well.
If your employer brand works to attract people, but they find it’s a different story once they start working for you, word will soon spread. Similarly, trying to find employees to become brand advocates when your team isn’t enjoying their work will be tricky.
To really boost your employer brand, and become a place that the top talent want to be a part of, you have to back up your words with action, and put the people in your company first.