Employer branding activities are the methods used to influence how current employees, job seekers, and the rest of the workforce interpret an organisation’s brand. It is how people perceive your organisation’s values and working environment. Employer branding activities are strategic plans that aim to position your organisation as the “employer of choice” for prospective and current staff.
Every organisation has a reputation, which may describe its services, history, products, leaders, team members, and other concepts. Furthermore, your organisation’s reputation can go beyond instilling a specific perception in the people who see your ads, use your products, and eventually tell others about you. Your brand is your reputation and can be a powerful, mystical, and synergic force.
Employer branding serves two distinct purposes. It is both an internal strategy to help boost retention and employee affiliate link and an external approach to draw the best talent to your organisation through marketing, benefits and perks, and how you present your organisation to the world.
Your organisation’s branding activities are more than just a marketing strategy. It gives you a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. Branding also emphasises everything that makes your organisation the best place to work for potential applicants and current employees.
Let’s dive into the steps needed to take to kickstart your branding activities.
1. Define Your Organisation’s Value Proposition
Your organisation’s value proposition explains how your products or services improve the lives of those who invest in them. To build a strong employer brand, you must first focus on your organisation’s mission statement, vision, values, and culture. Identifying your organisation’s needs may be beneficial, and then working backwards to determine the type of talent required to achieve those goals. You must show how your organisation meets specific needs or pain points that talent and clients have encountered and why your organisation stands out from the competition in your target market. For example, a value proposition to talent is your promise to candidates about what they will receive in addition to a monthly paycheck. This communicates your organisation’s core values and how people feel when they decide to work with you, which will set you apart in the eyes of the right talent and make hiring easier.
2. Do an audit of current branding
Whether you are aware or not, you already have employer branding as long as you have people working for your organisation. The most important question to ask as you embark on your employer branding journey is where you currently stand. What are the opinions, viewpoints, and feelings surrounding your organisation’s employee experience? It would be best if you initiated an employer branding audit to get the answers to these questions. You may be unaware of your organisation’s reputation among job seekers or even among your own employees and clients. However, by conducting an employee branding audit, which may include sending out internal surveys and running social media searches, you can learn about your employees’ favourite aspects of your company culture that you can highlight as well as any areas for improvement to ensure a strong employer brand.
3. Utilise existing staff
When job seekers want to learn more about your company’s employer brand, they’ll want to hear from and see real professionals. Make the most of your employees by conducting employee interviews or testimonials for your website. Employer branding strategies that highlight your current employees are the most effective. You should also give your staff something to brag about to their friends, colleagues and connections, and this will definitely show when they are enthusiastic about the organisation. You could also ask employees to post on their social media accounts when your company holds a fun giveaway or outing.
4. Take lessons from your successes and setbacks
Employer branding actions never stands still; there are always the latest trend, technological advancements, and differences of opinion about what works and what doesn’t. To keep and enhance your employer branding, you must take a cue from your experiences and mistakes, as well as from outside feedback, and utilise that information to adapt and evolve your strategy constantly. Setting up a feedback session for new employees, for example, will provide an overview of any changes that need to be made in the onboarding process and what works well. There are two significant aspects of your employer branding strategy to consider: how effective you are at delivering on your perceived brand and how well you are at getting the word out. Your long-term plan should include periodic reviews and adjustments to ensure that your organisation remains effective over time.
5. Leverage social media
Your organisation must have a social media presence and utilise it to promote your brand by showcasing the excellent work you’re doing in your field and community, as well as customer narratives. You should communicate your message through as many relevant channels as possible to create a successful employer branding activity. Your target audience and ideal talent persona will determine which channels you will invest in. Likewise, make sure in this case that everything you post and share is of high quality-the content and should accurately reflect your brand as you intend it to be perceived. An effective way to promote your brand and empower employees is to participate in and communicate about any nonprofit or community endeavours in which your organisation or employees are involved. Also, celebrating your employee’s accomplishments is an effective way to demonstrate that your organisation encourages its employees to take the entrepreneurial and ownership spirit and be recognised for it.
Creating an employer brand strategy and launching a successful employer branding campaign is a great way to increase your organisation’s visibility among potential clients and attract top talent.
With daring brand advocates, you will gradually establish a favourable reputation as a sought-after organisation where people actively seek employment.
Employer branding is essential for your business in order to attract top talent and retain your best employees. You can show potential employees what it’s like to work for your brand and persuade current employees that your organisation is the best place for them to advance their careers.
There’s no better time than now to invest time and resources in developing your employer branding.
