What is Employer Branding?
Maintaining a positive employer brand is essential to attract and retain the top talent and remain competitive, particularly in this tight market.
Essentially, your employer brand is your reputation as an employer. It consists of the different factors that make your company the employer of choice for the top talent in the industry, along with the factors that can help keep current employees engaged and happy at work.
A successful employer brand establishes confidence, loyalty, and enthusiasm throughout the organisation by bringing to life a distinctive organisational culture and brand identity that will attract great talent.
The bottom line is every company has an employer brand whether they put effort into it or not.
The Importance of Employer Branding
You must ask yourself: why would the top talent in your industry want to join your business?
A big reason that employer branding is so important today is it’s the business identity of your company. A good employer branding strategy can help you attract better talent, cut down on hiring costs and reduce employee turnover. Employer branding isn’t about the reputation a company has by ‘doing a good job’ – it focuses on its culture, values, vision and leadership. Focuses on what makes it the employer of choice.
Employer of choice status brings many more advantages to your company. It lowers marketing costs as the organisation becomes more attractive to customers and buyers. Employee performance increases, as both you as the employer and the employee are more engaged and less stressed.
Your business offers something unique to its employees – you need to identify it and implement a marketing strategy to share it. Sure, word-of-mouth is great but it cannot be relied on to get your brands message across to the masses.
Your company’s brand and online reputation are major decision factors for all aspects of business growth. And one of those drivers of ensuring your company’s employer branding success is social media.
The Impact on the Recruitment Process
When it comes to hiring, reputation matters. Not only can your employer brand influence people when deciding whether or not to apply for a position at your company in the first place, it can also have a real impact on how costly is it to hire and retain them once they do so.
Your employer brand is greatly influenced by current employees, referrals, word of mouth, and any existing relationships that your company has. A positive employer brand will boost recruiting, employee engagement and retention.
The value of your reputation as an employer begins with your ability to get high quality people into your talent pipeline, positioning your company as a desirable place to work means that more candidates will actively seek you out for opportunities.
Another key way in which building awareness for your employer brand and successfully communicating your EVP can streamline recruitment is by bolstering the receptivity of candidates who are familiar to your company.
How does your employer brand translate into measurable ROI?
Here’s some stats to show you:
1. There is a 43% decrease in cost per hire for businesses with a strong employer brand [LinkedIn]
2. 77% of candidates say that the reputation of a company is important. [TalentNow]
3. 74% of people are more likely to apply to a job if the employer actively manages its employer brand. [Glassdoor]
4. 80% of HR leaders think that an employer brand has an impact on their recruiting. [SHRM]
5. Employee turnover can be reduced by 28% by investing in employer brand. [Office Vibe]
6. Negative reputation costs companies at least 10% more per hire. [Harvard Business Review]
7. 64% of consumers have stopped purchasing a brand after hearing news of that company’s poor employee treatment. [CareerArc]
8. 50% of candidates say they wouldn’t work for a company with a bad reputation – even for a pay increase. [TalentNow]