6 Tips to Improve Your Employer Branding
In a recent blogpost, we discussed how to recruit using social media, where you’ll find useful tips on how to advertise on your social channels directly through our e-Recuitment system.
This time we’ll take it a step further to Employer Branding.
What is Employer Branding?
Employer branding is the main part of a company’s efforts to attract potential applicants and new talents. Hence, where you attract qualified applicants by making them aware of you online.
To get started, you can focus on the five topics we have gathered below. Of course, there are other strategic and tactical things you can do, not mentioned in this short intro, which will also expand your employer branding.
1. Agreement within the organisation
One of the first things that should be completed is making clear agreements within the organisation that everybody contributes to employer branding. From the CEO to the lowest level employee, there needs to be an understanding that at any moment they might be in charge of the company’s Instagram profile or might be publishing content on Facebook.
Keep in mind that some people do not seek the spotlight, while others thrive in it. We may all use social media, but some prefer to only use our personal profiles. Make it clear for everybody what the company is thinking and what types of posts and updates you want to publish.
2. Tone of voice
Employer branding is different to “regular” marketing. This is the time to put products and services as second priority and to highlight the work space and people. There are a lot of different ways to go about the communication. What’s important it that it’s sincere, truthful and fair towards the employees. Keep in mind that if the work space is more serious, this is not the time to become comedians. Embrace the professionalism that the company exhibits. Start with positive aspects that you work with and see how it is received. Make small adjustments until you find a style that suits you.
3. Choice of media
The company’s employer branding needs to be communicated one way or another, but it can be difficult to identify which channels suits you best. A good starting point is Instagram. As a picture based media, Instagram can easily show the company’s work spirit. Here it is possible to find all the good angles for the work environment, employee benefits, activities and surroundings. Remember to have links on your company website to your Instagram page, and vise versa.
4. Website – vacancies
A prospective employee will almost always visit the company’s website. Therefore, it is important that you display your best qualities. It is easy to “upgrade” your website, by including some more general information among the jobs vacancies.
How is the work life and activities? Try to forget your regular customer communication and focus on what it means to be an employee. Give a compelling reason encouraging people to apply to the company.
5. Vacancies template
If you’re looking for a simple task which will improve your employee branding, think about making a template for vacancies. By doing this, you ensure that relevant information is always included when the company is seeking new hires.
Have you considered that the language you are using can be adjusted to fit the type of people you are seeking? For example, if you are seeking three different groups of people then you should have three different templates. Each template should be specific for each group. It is a good idea to include some information about the company at the button of each job post.
6. Communicate it internally
It’s essential that you communicate news and other easy-to-share content with your employees. Communication is an essential part of successful employer branding.
Things you can share, that you might not do at the moment:
- Internal news – everything from welcoming a new colleague to product news
- Share your values more than once a year – people tend to forget
- The good and the bad – cheering is one thing but keeping the team spirit in bad times is another
When you communicate the above you can make easy-to-share examples that employers easily can share on their favorite social media.
Leave space for employers to add their own touch to the material. Nothing is better than an employer which shares authentic content.
An extra tip
During the interview you can ask the applicant about their opinion regarding your tone of voice and appeal. Keep in mind they may only say nice things, however it is possible to discover something you can use in the future.
Examples of good Employer Branding
To see an example of a company who we feel is doing an excellent job with their employer branding, click here Hesehus to see their career page and here to visit their Instagram.
Other that is doing an amazing job is Lego, Starbucks and Umbraco.
Please also check out our own LinkedIn-profil. We have expanded our career page, which gives a good impression of HR-ON as a work place.
What is Employer Branding?
Employer branding is the main part of a company's efforts to attract potential applicants and new talents. Hence, you attract qualified applicants by opening up to them online. You could also call it marketing of your company culture.
Why is Employer Branding important?
Employer Branding differentiates you from your competitors. Employer Branding gives your company a unique advantage in terms of making you attractive to possible candidates by giving them insight into your specific work environment.
What is an Employer Brand Strategy?
An Employer Brand Strategy is a strategy which allows you to control and positively change the communication surrounding your company and the culture within. Its primary focus is to ensure higher talent acquisition and retention. Basically, Employer Branding is how you market your company to job seekers and what employees say about your company as a workplace.
