Creating a Positive Employer Brand

Call it your brand, call it your image, but no matter what you call it, it’s the key to your company’s success: that personality and culture that is uniquely your company’s, that thing that your employees, shareholders, and the public perceive to be the true nature of your company. Your brand is your company’s public face – and creating a positive brand should be at the forefront of your priorities as a leader and employer. You may wonder how exactly you’re supposed to cultivate a positive brand in the workplace. We’ll cover why it’s important, how you can develop an employer branding strategy, and even how you can boost it!

Projections has had decades of experience helping employers connect with their team members. With powerful and professional video, web and eLearning, we’ve helped multiple organizations communicate with their employees and leaders alike to create a more involved and focused workforce. In addition, we’ve found that leadership training can make all the difference when it comes to increased employee engagement and retention, and it’s no secret that your brand will play a huge role when it comes to hiring the right talent and, in turn, attracting the customers you’re looking for!

Why Your Brand Is So Important

Recruiting employees and marketing your company go hand in hand, and your branding has a significant impact on the process of both. Without the right branding, your customers may not fully appreciate your company or its products. Recruiting and hiring the best employees becomes more difficult if prospective employees don’t understand who the company really is, and retention rates could potentially decrease if new employees find that the company just wasn’t what they expected it to be.

Ultimately, your brand is what makes your company stand out – both to potential job candidates and to the customers who are seeking out your products. In fact, 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agree that it has a significant impact on hiring, and even more so has a significant impact on your business’s success. To further put into perspective just how critical employer branding is, consider this: LinkedIn shared that a company with a stronger employer brand than its competitors on average see a 43% decrease in the cost per hire. Since they don’t need to spend as much money on marketing and advertising to those potential employees, they naturally attract the right candidates more easily. It’s no secret that the development of a strong brand would prove to be a wise way to spend resources.

It’s not just important for your employees or potential ones. Your branding strategy should also be equally aimed at bringing in more customers. Customers are more likely to repeatedly select brands they recognize and that they ultimately trust. One survey from Edelman showed that 81 percent of consumers said that they need to be able to trust a brand in order for them to buy from them. No matter how long you have been in business, your brand strategy should be to be authentic, trustworthy, and deliver a great customer experience.

Creating a Positive Employer Brand

So, what’s the best way to cultivate your employer brand? First, identify your primary target audience(s). Once you know with whom you’re communicating, craft communications that will address the topics most important to your company. You may have a rich history, a backbone of unfailing ethics, the best benefits in the industry, or any of a host of other strong points. Once you know who your audience is, you can speak directly to them, and ensure that your brand aligns with their likes and fits their needs.

Implement an Employer Branding Strategy

We’ve written about some of the ways you can boost your employer brand. But where exactly do you start? How do you ensure your employer brand is a strong one? The idea is to take those assets we mentioned above and communicate them in a way that makes your employees feel part of something bigger than just the job they do. In a small community, that may mean that the town’s identity is intertwined with the company’s – a sure point of pride. In medium sized towns and cities, it can mean that your employees’ friends and neighbors know its’ a great company and want to work there. And in the biggest companies, it means that your employees speak highly of the company and the work they are accomplishing every day.

Think about a company with an amazing employer branding strategy, like Google. What is it that sets them apart from the competition, and has potential candidates clamoring over job openings right and left? Their strategy is fairly simple: they offer competitive pay, provide a fun and engaging workplace culture, and they invest in the development of their employees. And of course, we’ve all heard about their additional perks, like paternity leave for fathers, nap rooms, and slides on campus. Yes, slides! They also provide feedback to not only the employees they hire, but those who are searching for a job within their company.

While you (understandably) may not be able to install playground equipment in your office, and you may be paying your employees as much as you can afford, you can still take a page out of Google’s book. Think about what’s important to you and the candidates you want to attract, and build a culture where employees enjoy their work and want to share their experience with others.

Final Thoughts

Your brand sells your products to customers, sells your company to potential hires and sets the tone for your all of your company’s interactions – so take the time to be thoughtful about what your company stands for, and commit to communicating that brand accurately to both internal and external audiences.

If you’re stuck when it comes to employer branding and marketing, and your candidate pool has been less than ideal, we’d love to help you maximize the power of your company’s brand with one-of-a-kind, custom corporate communications!

This article was originally published on the Projections blog at https://projectionsinc.com/creating-a-positive-employer-brand/