An employer’s brand strongly influences the image of the company with its employees and potential candidates, but also with its customers, service providers, and investors. Even though the word “employer” is in the name, the employer brand is not just for recruitment. It also aims to retain, engage and motivate existing employees by ensuring their well-being at work.
The HR Marketing strategy is one of the pillars of an organization’s DNA. It propels the organization and highlights its notoriety, authenticity and values, in the eyes of its target market. For this reason, here are some ways to build your employer brand.
1- Gather information about your current brand: Even if you haven’t built an employer brand yet, it exists through your reputation. This step aims to find out what your employees and, the candidates who respond to your offers and those who decline them think and expect from your company.
2- Define your new strategy: From there, you can set new goals (increase the acceptance rate of offers, reduce the turnover rate, and so on). In order to do this, you need to start answering the following questions:
> What image do you want to convey?
> What values do you want to highlight?
> What issues do you feel the need to communicate internally and externally?
> Which communication channels do you want to use?
>What strategies should be applied to retain our employees?
Practical idea: According to a study, companies that prioritize the training and skills development of their employees, observe an increase in the efficiency of their teams in return. In Canada, the United States and the Netherlands, at least 90% of employees who received employer-driven training indicated that they used their skills acquired through that training at work*.
3- Promote and communicate your employer brand: The promotion of an employer brand is not an institutional communication, but a social and interactive communication. That is to say, it is not only necessary to deliver a message, but also to talk about it. Encourage your employees to participate in the conversation.
4 – Measure the impact of your employer brand: It is essential to regularly measure the impact of your employer brand through several indicators (the acceptance rate of job offers, the attendance rate of your employees online, internal surveys, turnover rate, etc.).
Some very interesting figures on employer brand*:
– Companies with a strong employer brand reduce their hiring costs by 43%;
– 67% of candidates would accept a lower salary if the company had a good image online;
– 83% of hires start with an online company search;
– 84% of employees plan to leave their company for another with a better reputation;
– 72% of recruitment specialists worldwide admit that employer branding has a significant impact on their role;
– 55% of people drop out of the application process after reading negative reviews about the employer, while only 45% of companies are interested in comments posted about them.
– 79% of candidates under 35 use social networks in their job search;
– A strong employer brand increases the number of highly qualified applications by 50%.
The more effort you put into growing your employer brand on a daily basis, the more it will grow. Over time, your company’s culture will take shape and your employees will embody it. Obtaining quality applications will then be easier since your reputation as an employer will be better established.
One last piece of advice: have fun and be authentic. Employer branding projects are particularly enjoyable. It’s an opportunity to explain to the world why your business is wonderful!
* Source : Faits Saillants de la Formation des employés – Une perspective internationale
* Source : Link Humans (Infographie “10 statistiques à connaitre sur la marque employeur”, 2019)