The Benefits of Employer Branding for Recruitment Success

As consumers in the modern world, we are all aware of how branding influences our choices in our day-to-day lives, whether it be the values behind a brand, the freebies they throw in, or their attractive packaging. Well, it is no different when it comes to your own company branding. In today’s highly competitive job market, it is vital that your branding as an employer is taken seriously and stands out for the right reasons.

Did you know, companies with a weak employer brand often spend almost double on the cost per hire, compared to companies with a strong employer brand? Some companies believe they can compensate a negative employer brand though higher salaries, but according to a survey by the Harvard Business Review, even offering a 10% higher salary would only attract 28% of job seekers.

In our article we explore:

• What is employer branding?

• What is the difference between employer branding and recruitment marketing?

• Ways to build your employer brand

• Promoting your employer branding for recruitment

• How to measure success

What is employer branding?

Employer branding is how you are seen as an organisation to not only the outside world, but by those working within it. It involves establishing your companies’ values and culture and how you represent yourselves in a busy market. However, it can’t just be about perception and how you want to be seen; it’s about defining who you actually are and living it day to day.

With the rise of social media and job review sites, it is easier than ever to see behind the scenes of company life, and it is apparent that people are now doing their research to find an employer that truly represents values which align with their own. A recent study by Glassdoor has shown that a huge 92% of employees would consider changing jobs, with no salary increase, if the opportunity was with a company that had an excellent reputation. This shows how employer branding is vital, not only at the beginning of the recruitment process, but throughout an employee’s lifecycle at your organisation. Your brand should be reflected consistently from the first messages sent to a candidate, right through to your employees’ exit interviews.

What is the difference between employer branding and recruitment marketing?

In the HR and recruitment world, employer branding, and recruitment marketing, can be used interchangeably, but they are different.

Employer branding is about how to define and position your brand in the market to stand out. It’s your reputation and the messages you share with the world about what you stand for.

Recruitment marketing is how you communicate who you are either internally or to prospective candidates, often by defining an Employee Value Proposition (EVP). EVP is the unique value that your business offers to your employees. This will be a mix of elements unique to you including things like:

• Salary

• Benefits

• Rewards

• Career development

• Work-life balance and wellbeing programmes

• Values, mission, social purpose, and culture

Both employer branding and recruitment marketing are important in attracting people to work for your business. Make sure you use them in combination to have the biggest impact.

Ways to build your employer brand

When building your employer brand, it is important to know how you are currently seen by those invested in your company.

Below are some examples of how you can start to build your brand:

• Align your employee strategy with your overall business strategy: all levels of management should be bought into building and protecting your reputation and brand.

• Employee surveys and focus groups: these are vital tools helping you to review where you are at and where you need to be.

• Know what is important to you: map out your brand values, how they are integrated into the life of your businesses, and how they are going to be reflected in your recruitment process. They shouldn’t just be a few statements or words painted on a wall.

• Internal workshops: holding workshops with a variety of staff from all levels of your business can help you understand where improvements could be made, helping to get buy-in and investment as staff feel listened to.

• Embrace storytelling: make sure your business has a compelling story, purpose or culture that you can describe and tell people about on blogs and social media.

• Demonstrate your values through action: consider helping an aligned charity or community or think of ways to benefit the lives of your stakeholders.

Promoting your employer branding for recruitment

Recruitment marketing is how you promote your employer brand to the outside world. There are lots of ways to do this, with the best companies getting creative in their approach.

Some simple ways for you to boost your own recruitment marketing could be:

• Creating a career section or page on your website, where you can showcase who your business is.

• Using video interviews with your staff talking about their own career development or experience of working for the business to give your brand credibility.

• Creating a gallery that tells your story and culture through images. It could include charity work you’ve done, fundraisers, team building, celebrations, awards ceremonies etc…

• Producing a targeted social media plan that describes who you are as a business, how you make a difference, what your training is like etc…

• Advertising on targeted channels that reach your prospective audience can be highly effective if done right but can be expensive and time-consuming. Using a recruitment agency can outsource this for you, helping to save you time and effort.

How to measure success

One thing many companies forget is how to measure the success of their recruitment marketing. If you have a big internal recruitment team, and sophisticated software, this is less of an issue, but for your average business, understanding success can be difficult.

You need to work out your cost per hire, time to hire, and your staff retention percentage. If you have a few different people hiring for your business, it becomes harder to see what is really happening, and how much money you are spending.

Promoting your employer brand for recruitment takes time, effort, and often monetary investment. This process can be made much more cost effective, time efficient, and improve the retention of your hires, by using a specialist recruitment agency.

A skilled recruitment agency will promote your employer brand from the start of the recruitment process, right through to the end, acting as an extension of your business to protect your reputation. They will reach candidates and tell them about your EVP, helping to sell the opportunity directly to them, ensuring clear and consistent communication, without you having to spend time creating content and money to advertise. They can also help advise you on how you can improve your EVP compared to your competitors.

Contact our specialist team today

Gravitas are a specialist technology, financial services and insurance recruitment group, with local offices across the world. If you would like help improving your employer brand, and using it to attract candidates, contact our expert team here.