How to Build A Strong Employer Brand
Marketing and recruiting used to work as two silos, rarely interacting, and working toward different goals. Since then, the recruiting environment has become increasingly competitive with more companies competing for the attraction and retention of the best candidates. As a result, the need for a strong employer brand has grown tremendously, with 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agreeing that their employer brand has a significant impact on hiring.
We sat down with leaders in the employer brand and recruitment marketing spaces to get their definition of a strong employer brand, best promotional practices, and tools for measuring success.
What is an employer brand?
Your employer brand is how your company is known in the job market. It’s similar to traditional marketing, but your audience is quite different. Rather than your typical B2B or B2C consumer, you are serving both internal and prospective employees. “You are bridging the gap between marketing and talent acquisition” is how Kara Hendrick, Sr. Manager of Employer Branding at Chewy, describes it.
How to start building your employer brand
Create a cross-functional team.
Get together with key decision-makers and set realistic recruiting goals and KPIs. According to Megan Bieber, Employment Brand Manager at Buildium, “Your employer brand is what people say about you when you’ve left the room”. What do you want people to say about your employer brand? How do you tell your brand story? Bring in people from marketing, HR, PR, and other departments to help you.
Get to know your audiences and personas.
The first, and perhaps most important step, is getting to know your audience—starting with your current employees. Find out how they feel about their employer and encourage feedback. Move on to the types of candidates you’re looking for to better understand what they are looking for in a job and how you can reach them.
Conduct a SWOT analysis.
The SWOT analysis is a framework that will help you pinpoint where your employer branding stands by assessing your internal and external factors to help you plan strategically. This is key when identifying your pain points and strengths.
Build your Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
An EVP is the set of unique benefits that your employees receive or “the nucleus from which your content flows” as Jason Jones, Sr. Recruitment Marketing Specialist at DraftKings, puts it. Start with your employee data and see what they value in a workplace, why they chose your company, and how they found you. From there, start drafting your EVP and move on to the next steps of your employer brand-building journey.
Remember, your employer brand will evolve as your company grows, so be sure to revisit your EVP every 1 - 2 years to ensure it accurately reflects the culture of your company.
