Beginning of the Year - It is time for an EB Audit!

February is practically the beginning of the year, teams came back from their holidays and vacations, reviews of last year have ended and probably plans for the new year are clearer.

But in Employer Branding, it is crucial every year to do an audit first, to know where you are versus your competition, versus the market you work in and comparing to others before you start any kind of activities.

While auditing can be done through specialized agencies with big budgets, it can also be done manually by us - Employer Branding teams!

But ONE KEY fact you need to understand before this audit exercise "Your employer branding competitors are those companies who compete with you on talents - not necessarily who compete with your company in business"

This means; you might consider a company that isn't in your industry a competitor your employer branding audit list just because they take talent from you or they hire similar talents like you.

What should I look for during the audit exercise?

This is a 101 list of things you can look for on every single competitor "there is more that I discuss in my employer branding course but it cannot simply be presented here!"

1- Career website: You should always monitor changes happen in your competitors' career websites - did they change the UI? how is the application/job application process? is it easy/complicated? is it short/long? what kind of content do they have on the career website? and compare it with yours.

2- Social media channels: What content do they share? on which topics? any new announcements made on interesting new hiring programs or new policies...etc.? what kind of comments do they get on their posts? how many followers do they have? do they have a careers dedicated page on any platform?

3- Job vacancies: What type of skills do they hire regularly? Their job vacancy announcements are attractive?

4- Employees' LinkedIn Profiles: What their employees say about them is so crucial!

5- Awards: Did they win any awards? Which ones and in which area?

6- Glassdoor Rating: What is their rating on glassdoor and the type of comments they have.

7- Employment fairs and Career events: Are they more visible than you? :)

8- CEO, Executives and Senior Management: Any influential leadership voice?

9- Benefits and Working Culture: What are their benefits portfolio and how it compares to you? what type of working culture do they have? how is it compares to yours? Any new programs for the employees?

10- Advocacy platforms: Facebook groups that are dedicated to public feedback on employers, LinkedIn conversations..etc. Their reputation versus yours!

There are so many other tools that I can mention but these are the 101 factors that you need to measure.

It is very important to know where you are NOW to know where do you want to be HEADING in the future at the end, your employer brand should differentiate you from others - how will you know what others do if you do not make an AUDIT.

P.S Interested to attend my Employer Branding course? You can pre-register here:

"to be contacted for the coming rounds"

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