What You Need to Know about Developing an Employer Brand

As a recruiter or HR specialist, you should be constantly thinking about ways to attract the strongest applicants when you need to fill open roles. It’s crucial that you attract candidates who will benefit your organization.

Developing your employer brand can help. Although all companies have brands they use to engage customers, a brand for engaging potential employees is also essential. These tips will help you understand how to develop one.

Survey Your Employees

It’s easier to develop an employer brand after you learn your current employees’ perspective on that brand. Distribute anonymous surveys among your staff, asking people about their impression of the company’s internal brand before they joined and during the hiring process, or whether they had an impression at all. In addition, ask if and how that impression changed once they actually started working at the company.

Your goal is to identify weaknesses to correct. For instance, perhaps you want job applicants to get the sense that your company culture is fun and collegial. However, if your current employees report that they didn’t get that impression during their recruitment, it’s clear you need to make changes.

You should also ask about specific negative impressions workers may have had when they were in the process of getting hired. That’s why it’s important for these surveys to be anonymous. People need to feel comfortable making critical remarks about the organization without fear of punishment. For example, with an anonymous survey, you may learn your employer brand comes across as too casual during recruitment. Maybe candidates feel that working for your company will be fun, but it’s probably not the kind of organization someone should work for if they expect growth opportunities. Again, when you know what’s wrong with your employer brand, you’re better equipped to solve the problem.

Highlight Your Employees

People play the biggest role in determining the culture and employer brand at any company. Thus, you should highlight your staff in your recruitment materials.

There are various ways you can do this. Perhaps your company has a young, diverse staff who share a high-energy, “work hard, play hard” attitude. You could thus include a virtual tour of the office to show candidates who their future coworkers may be, and how they interact on a daily basis.

That’s just one tactic. You can also consider sharing pictures of employees in various work situations (with their permission of course!) on social media and on your careers website. You might want to include statistics and other information about your workforce, such as how diverse it is. You could even include quotes from employees about their experiences working for the company. The main point to keep in mind is that you want to help candidates understand who your employees are. This will give them a better overall sense of your employer brand.

Update Your Careers Website

Does your company have a separate careers website? If not, it’s important to create one. You need a platform where you can separate your employer brand from the brand you show customers. If you already have a careers website, review it to determine if there are ways to improve it.

Your careers website shouldn’t merely promote open jobs. While that is its main purpose, it should also serve to introduce applicants to your employer brand.

You can do so by including pictures that illustrate the company culture. The site should also highlight any growth opportunities and career development resources you provide to workers — this is key to attracting ambitious people. Of course, you can also include any other details that represent your employer brand. Does your office feature unique amenities that substantially impact the experience of working for the company? If so, list them somewhere on your careers website. Be sure to include branded imagery whenever it makes sense to do so as well!

Recruit with Your Values in Mind

An organization’s mission and values also contribute significantly to its employer brand. Luckily, the recruitment process can embody those values.

For example, maybe you’re handling recruitment at a technology company. There’s a good chance one of your core values is innovation. Your company’s goals might focus on the need to identify new ways to leverage technology to customers’ benefit.

Thus, if your job listings are fairly traditional and generic, consisting solely of text, there may be a disconnect between your stated values and the values on display in your recruitment processes. You may be better off using video, photos, infographics, and other dynamic media, in addition to text, to describe open positions. This shows candidates you embrace innovation and unique approaches in all the company’s operations.

Keep in mind that developing an employer brand is a process. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t come easily right away. By consistently applying these tips, you’ll eventually see major results.