How to Build an Employer Brand

May not be able to hire dedicated experts to handle this function, but there’s no reason you can’t build a compelling employer brand. Breaking things down to the most important tasks will make the process much more manageable, so let’s cover the basics.

Conduct an Employer Brand Audit

You can’t hope to influence or manage your employer brand if you don’t know what it is people think about you, so an employer brand audit is the first step.

This is a two-pronged fact finding mission designed to uncover how the company is currently presenting itself to candidates and employees and what those people actually think about the company.

First, examine everything, and we do mean everything, you’re saying to candidates and employees that could impact their perception of the company. Your job descriptions, career page, social media profiles, acceptance/rejection letters, onboarding materials, internal communications, performance reviews — if it exists, analyze it.

Next, it’s time to get some feedback from candidates and employees. Remember, the idea here is to understand how they really think and feel about the company, so be sure to ask questions that will provide meaningful information.

How would they describe the company to a friend? Why did they choose to apply? Why did they choose to accept/reject their offer? Why do they stay with the company year after year? Why are they leaving the company? Do they feel the company “walks the walk?”

You want to speak with enough people to feel confident you’ve gathered meaningful data, but don’t overdo it. Collecting too much information will make data analysis nearly impossible.

Once complete, the employer brand audit will help you identify and correct the gaps that exist between how the company is presenting itself and how it is perceived by candidates and employees.

Craft Your Employee Value Proposition

Armed with the information collected during the employer brand audit, you’re ready to craft your employee value proposition (EVP).

The EVP is the “people deal” that exists between an organization, its employees and the talent it’s looking to recruit. It answers two important questions:

·         What the individual employee or candidate can expect of the company.

·         What the company expects of the individual employee or candidate.

Think of your EVP as the guiding light of your employer branding efforts. While you may never share it publicly, your EVP will shape your communications moving forward.

Developing your EVP is no small feat, but fortunately we’ve covered the topic in depth and can help get you started.

Implement Your Employer Branding Strategy

At this point, you should be ready to take your message to the masses. But what channels are most important? There are countless avenues you can utilize to promote your employer brand, but when getting started we recommend starting with the lowest hanging fruit.

  Job Descriptions - Job descriptions may not sound like the place to let your personality shine, but they’re often the first interaction job seekers will have with your company so make sure they reflect your desired employer brand.

  

·         Career Page - Your career page is the anchor of your employer branding materials, making it one of the most important touchpoints with potential candidates. Compelling photography or video, employee testimonials, your core values and more can all help convince candidates that you’re the place to be, so spend some time dialing it in.   

·         Online Reviews - These days, almost every job seeker reads employer reviews before applying to a job, and coming across a negative review can stop them in their tracks. While you can’t control anonymous reviews, you can respond to them, and that can have a serious impact on perceptions. 62% of job seekers say their opinion of a company improved after seeing it respond to a negative review, so pay attention to what people are saying about you and don’t be afraid to respond.

·         Candidate Experience - If you’re lucky enough to convince a great candidate to apply, at some point you’ll interact with them offline. Whether it’s an initial phone screen or in office interview, the experience that candidate has must align with your employer brand or you’re almost guaranteed to lose them.