Let’s Talk About Employer Branding
When a job seeker starts her/his search, one of the first things she/he is going to Google: “Top companies to work in XYZ sector” or, “Top companies to work for in 2020”. Today, the employer’s reputation matters more than ever before, since organizations with powerful brands receive twice as many applications as firms with negative brands, and eventually they spend less money on employees. Moreover, 1 out of 2 job seekers wouldn’t work for a company with a negative reputation — even with a pay increase.
This article will briefly discuss what employer branding means, it will present some necessary steps that a company needs to undertake for establishing a coherent branding strategy — as well as some notable case studies.
What is Employer Branding?
In a sentence, an employer brand is the perception of an employer by his employees, it is the reputation as a place to work. In other words, EB is the overall strategy on how a company markets itself in the job market (job seekers & potential employees) as well as to its current employees. The more positive image you have as an employer, the higher the chances to attract & retain top talent.
For example, if a job seeker asks someone who works in a company “How is it working at X ?”
Most probably his/her friend will provide information for the day-to-day work, for the people’s management, the organization’s culture & values. Therefore, an employer needs a compelling story to explain to job seekers what the company stands for & not simply communicate for the fancy offices the company has. The existence of a strong employer branding strategy can increase by 50% of the qualified applicants & it is 1–2x faster time to hire. Therefore, a powerful employer brand can help a company to reduce its recruitment costs & enhances productivity among its current employees.
What are the steps for setting an Employer Branding Strategy?
- Be aware of your company’s value proposition
Before setting the brand in place, it is necessary to identify the organization’s mission, vision, core values, and culture, so you would be able to hire people who fit those elements.
2. Be aware of your company’s value proposition
As an HR Professional of your company, you might not be totally aware of the firm’s reputation among your current employers and job seekers. In order to understand what they say for your firm, you could check the Glassdoor reviews and/or send out internal surveys. Essentially, this could identify the employee’s favorite aspects of your firm, its culture, as well as for those aspects that need improvement — in order to ensure a strong employer brand.
3. Write & Communicate your employer brand
Once you’ve conducted the research and generated the benefits and values of your workplace, you need to establish the employer value proposition (EVP). The EVP is a marketing message or a promise to the job market for your workplace and could be communicated. The EVP should not contradict with what your current employees think for the company
Once you’ve done your research and cultivated a list of values and benefits your company offers, you’ll want to create an employer value proposition. An employer value proposition is a marketing message and a promise — so you shouldn’t say anything that isn’t true, or that your employees wouldn’t agree with. You might use your employer value proposition on your website, recruitment materials, or LinkedIn company page.
Additionally, your employer value proposition is something your recruiters and HR team can discuss with potential candidates.
The EVP should not be associated with compensation. Nevertheless, it should envoke a passion for job seekers by expressing the firm’s positive impact on its external environment. Employees are attracted by firms & jobs which are meaningful, even one at the expense of a higher salary.
4. Leverage current employees. (Make them your ambassadors)
A job seeker would look into different sources to learn more about an employer besides the company’s website like current employees & Glassdoor reviews. It is necessary to utilize them workforce and make them ambassadors of the employer brand by sharing their experiences with the company on the website or in social media for example.
5. Cultivate a strong onboarding process
According to G2, 88% of employees think their employer did a poor job with the onboarding process. It is necessary for the new hires to get enthusiastic and engaged for their new role, their tasks, their colleagues from the beginning. By arming, the new employees with the guidelines and tools to excel in their positions, the organization can attain a smooth adjustment, lower turnover, and higher productivity.
6. Develop your workforce
According to LinkedIn’s 2019 Workforce Learning Report, 94% of employees stated that they would stay at a company longer if it simply invested in helping them learn.
If a company would enable its employers to new learning & development opportunities and allow them to acquire new skills, not only would it benefit from this investment, but it would also send out, the company’s effort to continue learning & development in the job market. Thus, it can retain and attract top talent.
7. Communicate your brand
Imagine a company, implementing its strategy to enhance the market’s perception of the service or product via one channel. Probably it would not be so successful. It would explore different paths, like television, social media & press — in order to reach the maximum potential audience for its service/product.
Similarly, an employer would utilize different channels to promote its employer brand, such as enriched content for the work environment on the company’s website, presenting employee testimonials on social media, participating in career fairs and others.
Employer branding examples
Beat
Beat fosters a culture of equality and diversity among its employees. This is not only evident from the company’s multinational perspective with the eleven operating offices in cities like Athens, Bogota & Amsterdam but also from the strong representation of women in the workforce segmentation & top management :
Recently, Beat published a blog post on its website showing this commitment to equality and diversity by presenting a few interviews from women working on Beat, sharing their experiences with the company as well as how the work environment looks like & how Beat has enabled them to advance their careers. Some significant statements, on the interviews, were the following ones which shape the Beat’s employer brand:
- “For me, Beat is not just a job, it is a lifetime experience that few people are lucky to have and I feel so grateful.”
- The culture, the advanced thinking and the fact that we work for the future, aiming to create a better urban life for the cities we operate in
- I was intrigued by the fact that the company was growing fast and experimenting with new technologies.
Those examples, present clearly to the workforce on how current employees feel about working at Beat, understand elements of its culture and the day-to-day work life in the company. This is also aligned with the Glassdoor reviews of the company which out shape the strong employer brand that has.
Delivery Hero
Delivery Hero (DH) is a leading global business in online food ordering by being active in 41 countries with around 22,000 employees. DH was awarded earlier this year with a Great Place to Work description here. It was also awarded from Glassdoor as the best place to work for 2020 due to its several high ratings.
Moreover, in its career section DH, has enriched information for day-to-day life at the company, for the ‘Super Heroes’ culture. For demonstrating aspects of the culture & values that DH holds, there are several testimonials from the top management and other employees who share their experiences with the company, both in the corporate website & LinkedIn
For example, an employee’s testimonial which provides valuable insights for the day-to-day work & corporate culture is from Alexandros, a Software Engineer :
“The most important thing that I learned in the first month of working at Delivery Hero, is that there are a lot of ways contributing to the company’s success — you don’t have to be afraid to put yourself out there and try. I’ve seen a lot of new perspectives and different approaches because of the multicultural, tolerant and forward-thinking environment. Experiencing that showed me what it means to have a truly global and ambitious mindset”
The job seeker gets a better sense of what the employer stands & it has a more positive outlook on the job market. Moreover, DH communicates across platforms its ‘heroic’ personality, aiming to attract the top talent and state by all means its leading position on the market. Ultimately, DH is a powerful example of how you might use your corporate page, social media & Glassdoor positive reviews to promote your employer brand.
Stoiximan
Stoiximan is a leading sports betting operator in countries like: Greece, Romania & Cyprus. A few months ago, Stoiximan launched the BrainGain Initiative | Try this at Home, in order to attract talents who left Greece by launching a massive campaign in its social media & press for communicating this. The content on the above video for instance and on the campaign’s webpage indicates the company’s vision & culture as well as information on the offered benefits in order to attract skilled candidates, mainly engineering positions, which many companies in the Greek market strive to fill them due to increased competition & lack of talent.
