Concepts of Employer Branding, What It Is, and Why It Is Important

Employer Branding
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Employer Branding
Employer branding is a concept that entails positioning a company to be the favorite choice for job seekers and employees. This can be achieved by managing and influencing the organization’s reputation among the key stakeholders. Like any brand, the employer brand is an intangible asset that needs frequent cultivation to stand out from other companies. Since an organization’s reputation exists in the minds of candidates and employees, the organization is tasked with shaping it in its favor. This paper will favor the components and attributes of employee branding and its importance to a firm.
Employer branding helps to hire new employees. The modern workforce has become very fluid; therefore, a company must improve its reputation to improve hiring and ensure high employee retention rates (Gilani & Cunningham, 2017). Similarly, employer branding creates a strong company culture and reduces marketing and hiring costs. Job seekers give much attention to the culture and values of the recruiting firm to see if they align with their values. Therefore, employee branding will help communicate the company’s vision, mission, practices, and core values. Despite the rising unemployment rates, 69% of job seekers will reject a company with a negative employer brand (O’Donnell, 2017). The ease of recruitment and high employee retention rates associated with a good brand will lower the hiring costs as eligible candidates seek to be hired by the company. In the long run, a good employer brand will improve the overall public image of the firm and result in low marketing costs. A well-known brand saves on recruitment costs and can use the savings to improve its product.
Employee brands use a pull strategy to attract talent to the firms. A strong employer brand should possess certain critical attributes to achieve the benefits discussed above. The main attribute of an employer brand is an Employee Value Proposition (EVP). An Employee Value Proposition refers to employees’ value most about working in your organization. This is majorly the unique benefits that the employer gets in exchange for the skills they bring to the company. They can range from work-life balance and compensation to stability. The company must conduct internal surveys to establish its Employee Value Proposition (Backhaus,2016). An EVP will help the firm build on its most valued elements to attract more talent. If employees value compensation, the company can make its packages even more attractive if the most valued benefit is work-life balance; the company research how to improve it.
Clear vision, mission, and values are important attributes of an employer brand. The latter are important elements of a company culture that greatly affect the company’s reputation (Barrow & Mosley, 2011). If the vision, mission, and core values are embedded in the employee and partners’ behaviors and s processes, the employer brand grows stronger and the app more appealing to seekers.
Uniqueness and authenticity are required in every employer brand. Jobseekers and other stakeholders should be able to identify the firm’s brand from a set of other brands. The brand should be authentic because it is a truthful representation of what it stands for. If the firm claims to support a work-life balance, it should ensure so. Otherwise, there will be high employee turnover. The lack of these two important features will spoil its reputation and reduce its productivity as employees will be frustrated.
The company needs a dedicated digital presence. Today’s world is undeniably digital. The covid-19 pandemic increased online interactions even more. Consequently, candidates visit company websites and job sites. To improve an employer’s brand, the company should manage its online presence by ensuring that they have a dedicated career page. It’s through this page that they can communicate their culture in brief. It can also bring the employer brand to life through social media outlets like Facebook polls and Insta stories. Furthermore, the firm can share its job ads on job platforms. Having a logo and a good culture is not enough to help people connect with an employee brand; the firm should be active on digital platforms.
Employee input as an attribute of an employer brand cannot be understated. It’s the firm’s employees that live its culture. Therefore, their views will help shape the employer’s brand crucial to showcase the employer’s brand from an employee’s point of view. The views and perspectives of the employees will help new candidates envision themselves as part of the firm. The employees can write blogs or publish interviews and podcasts that describe what they appreciate about the brand. Truthful employee reviews will help the company attract new talent.
Consistency in its branding strategy improves the authenticity of the brand. As an attribute, consistency ensures that the employer brand communicates the same message in its internal and external communication. Consistency proves that the brand is accurate and truthful in its message. A similar message must be communicated on all digital platforms during career fairs, conferences, and interviews.
Career advancement should be the goal of every employer brand. People prefer non-monetary attributes that come with an employer brand. A company should offer career opportunities that encompass upward progression (Barrow & Mosley, 2011). This makes the package attractive. Consequently, the company can use its offer for career advancements in various positions as a recruitment marketing tool.
Similarly, learning and development are crucial attributes of an employer’s brand. Employees appreciate training and development opportunities offered by their employers. How an organization develops its employees’ capabilities and skills will separate it from its peers regarding performance and employee satisfaction levels (Buttenberg, 2013). Even though training and development of employees is an expensive affair, it improves the company’s brand to most job seekers and stakeholders.
The most overlooked attribute of an employer brand is diversity and inclusion. It should thus consider gender, race, disability, and ethnic differences in its recruitment process. Fostering a diverse and inclusive environment in the workplace is a winning formula in this century (Backhaus, 2016). Candidates want to be part of a community that values their differences and will choose any company that embraces multicultural teams. According to the Mckinsey report, the productivity of multicultural teams tends to be high. The diverse board has a 95% high return on equity compared to non-diverse boards (Barta, Kle...