Companies today need to work on how their local market and the world perceive them. In other words, they need to improve their employer branding.

Two decades ago, only large corporates focused on building their employer brand. But in today’s fast-paced and constantly evolving hiring market, employer branding is important for all.

In this article, we’ll explain what employer branding is, why it’s important, and offer tips on how to improve your employer brand.

What is employer branding?

An employer’s brand is a combination of the company’s reputation and how others perceive it. In other words, it’s about how business owners, employees, and others in other companies or the market perceive you.

Many companies today are looking to build their employer brand through social media. It’s easier, faster, and people, whether employees or other employers, use it to get a feel and understanding of a company and its values and work environment.

Sometimes referred to as corporate brand or company brand, employer branding combines both HR and marketing.

Despite that, companies often find themselves building or bringing down their employer brand.

Company founders and subsequently managers don’t realize that their actions, or lack thereof, affect the company’s perception, and its branding.

 

Why is employer branding important?

There are many benefits to having a strong employer brand. Here are several of those benefits:

1)  Attract talents

When you have a strong employer brand, candidates are attracted to your company. They want to apply for open jobs and get accepted.

This can also translate to candidates spending more time and effort on preparing their resumes and cover letters for a better chance of joining your company.

2)  Faster hiring

When candidates know that you offer a good work environment, they’re eager to join your company.

They become more likely to rush to your interviews and get their papers in order to join your company.

3)  Cut your time to hire

The time-to-hire is a recruitment metric that measures the time taken from publishing a vacancy to a candidate accepting your job offer.

Improving your employer branding helps reduce the time-to-hire, which means you can fill vacancies faster.

4)  Increase employee retention

Companies with a strong employer brand are better able to increase employee retention. And because employees like the company and the benefits it offers them, they’re less likely to leave, thereby reducing employee turnover.

 

What is an example of employer branding?

To clarify how employer branding works, let’s take a few examples.

Employer branding example 1

Imagine having an open vacancy for a marketing executive. You get 100 resumes and of those you set interview appointments with 20 candidates.

After each candidate leaves, you inform them that you’ll get back to them within a week or that you’ll let them know whether they’re accepted or not.

These 20 candidates await your email and decision but they get nothing in their email. A week passes. Two weeks pass. Three weeks pass. And crickets.

You never sent an email informing them of where they stand. A task that would have taken you a few minutes at most.

The result? These potential candidates dislike your company and may leave a negative review about you and how you hire others.

They may tell their friends, family, and colleagues, or others on social media, that your company and team aren’t professional.

They’ll tell them ‘Don’t apply here!’

This is how you create a negative perception and branding for your company.

Employer branding example 2

Now, imagine the same situation but instead of ignoring candidates, your HR or hiring specialist sends an email, informing candidates they didn’t pass to the next level of the interview.

The result? Candidates may feel dejected but they will appreciate the notification so they don’t have to wait for your answer.

You’ve relieved them of the decision to wait and hope for an opportunity that wasn’t coming any time soon.

Even if they don’t feel happy with the rejection, they will appreciate you taking the time to notify them so they can decide on their next steps.

How to improve your employer branding

Now, that you’re familiar with what employer branding is and what it looks like, let’s look at ways to improve your brand.

The first step is to want to be a good employer and strive to achieve that goal. This means creating a good work environment for your employees as well as your vendors and suppliers.

You should remember that building and improving your employer brand is a multi-sided endeavor.

It’s an effort you should work on in-house with your teams and employees and on the outside through your marketing and hiring efforts.

Here are several tips to help you improve your employer brand.

1)  Improve your hiring process

In most companies, the recruitment process is too long. It’s also frustrating for candidates who apply to your vacancies.

But reducing the time taken to screen resumes, set up and conduct interviews, and move the process along can affect your employer brand positively.

Improving the hiring process includes respecting candidates’ time. This means you shouldn’t cancel last-minute or keep them waiting for hours in your lobby.

2)  Create good candidate experiences

In addition to improving your hiring process, you should also work on creating a good candidate experience.

This can include answering candidates’ questions on social media, sending rejection emails, explaining how the process works,…etc.

 3)  Offer competitive benefits

Whether you’re hiring a new candidate or have employees who’ve been working for you for years, make sure you offer both competitive benefits.

Having a compensation and benefits strategy also plays into your efforts to improve employee retention. Be sure to measure your compensation and benefits KPIs to constantly improve your strategy.

 4)  Provide training and development

One of the top reasons employees stay with a company is because it provides them opportunities to grow. This is often through courses and in-house or external training.

Some companies help their employees get their master’s degrees. Others offer to pay a portion of their tuition or course fees.

If you’re conducting an in-house training, measure its impact using training and development KPIs.

5)  Have an HR strategy to guide you

Whether you’re a small, medium, or large-sized company, you should have an HR strategy to guide your business.

If you can’t have a strategy, then try to create HR policies that help you, as an employer, and that help your employees feel safe in the workplace.

6)  Improve your employer branding via social media

Use social media to improve your company’s branding. Some ideas can include:

• having new hires share the news that they’ve joined your company
• celebrating employee and team wins on platforms like LinkedIn
• sharing special events on social

7)  Create an employee rewards program

Having an employee rewards and recognition program is a great way to increase retention and improve your business brand.

It helps you empower and engage employees. It also motivates them and prompts them to stay longer with your company.

Read our full guide on how to create an employee rewards program.

Conclusion

Employer branding isn’t a one-man, one-woman, or even one-team effort. It’s a company-wide effort.

Improving your employer branding benefits for your in-house team and changes the world’s perception outside your company.

If you need help building your employer brand, creating an HR strategy or employee rewards program, then get in touch with Tawzef. Our team of experts will help you retain employees and attract candidates.