Why you should create an employer branding strategy

In Talent Acquisition, one of the major points that you must consider is how your brand as an employer is perceived by applicants. You can have the most amazing, diverse, and talented talent pipeline, but if your employer branding falls short then you will lose potential employees to companies that are willing to put the effort into this area of the hiring process. 

In the next article of Talent2Win, you will learn more about what employer branding is and why it its important during your recruitment processes.  

What is employer branding and how to use it to your advantage?  

Employer branding is how you present yourself as a company to potential employees. This includes things that you can control, such as how your website looks and the information you put out about your company. It also includes things that you cannot control to a certain extent, such as reviews that existing and past employees have said about you.  

In fact, reviews are one of the most important aspects of the process of branding. While it is necessary to focus your time in creating a nice site and videos that are meaningful to prospective employees, reviews and opinions cannot be left apart. 

The best employer branding strategy and the way to take it to the next level is to really focus on the culture of your company. By focusing on different aspects of the culture within your working space, you will turn existing employees into brand advocates. 

In recruitment, having your employees as advocates for the brand is one of the best ways to ensure that you will have a solid talent pipeline when searching for a new position, especially if you offer a referral incentive. If your work is great then they will bring their friends on board, especially if you offer an incentive to do so. If they hate coming to work every day, they will tell everyone about to stay away.  

What is brand-advocacy and why is it important? 

By having your employees as brand advocates, several immediately positive outcomes may occur. The first and foremost is that you can enjoy an amplified reach as your staff share your product or service with their friends, social media allies, and more.  

In addition to that, having your employees as brand advocates will lead to a sales boost, and in turn, your product will become more cost-effective, and your profit margin gets higher as brand advocacy will mean that you are making sales that are not directly attributed to the marketing budget.  

Something like a team-building weekend away may seem like it is simply throwing money in the hole, but it is an investment into your company and employee’s future. By building a team that works well together, you are naturally encouraging the growth of company culture, which will lead to a longer working life for employees within your company. In fact, a great employee benefits package will not only encourage those to stay but also encourage others to join your team. Again, if your employees are having a great time with your company, then they will feel much more inclined to bring their friends and previous colleagues in.  

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If your initial thought of employee referral takes you back to school, where there is tension, lack of productivity and increased disruption when two friends sit together, think again. Ove half of organizations cite employee referrals as the best source of candidates. By taking advantage of employee referral, you are bringing in talent that you already know fits with your office culture, and you do not need to worry about a sudden change of mind after just a few months within the company.  

 How can you use referral bonus to your advantage? 

Especially in the tech industry, it is becoming increasingly common for prospective employees not to have a traditional CV but to work on a gig-to-gig basis. This means that while they may not have experience with the exact programs you use or have the exact skills you are looking for, they may have relevant experience in something similar.  

Existing employees who have worked with potential candidates before may have a better understanding of what the candidate is capable of. It also does you the huge favor of saving time and money with long and complicated hiring drives.  

However, it is worth considering the potential downsides of employee referral programs. If you are not careful, you may create a divide in your team by seeming to ‘play favorites’, and employees both old and new may feel more self-conscious about bringing their ideas to the table if they are working with a previous colleague or a friend.  

You are also setting yourself up for a lack of diversity within the workplace, both with fresh ideas and perspectives. It is also worth remembering that there is absolutely no guarantee that the person who is referred to you is the best fit for the job, so it can bring negative consequences if you choose to exclusively explore this route. It’s likely the best option for you and your business when hiring a new employee to explore employee referral as a single prong in several pronged approaches, including social media drives and job search sites. 

At Talent2Win, we strive to align your company’s business objectives with the best Talent Acquisition strategies available. If you want to learn more about the services we offer, do not hesitate to contact us.