If you are having a difficult time finding and attracting the right talent, a strong employer brand may be the solution. Employer branding is key, so to attract top talent, you must prioritize employer branding in your digital branding efforts.
According to a recent Bureau of Labor Services report, there has been an increase in job vacancies. With so many positions available to job seekers, a strong employer brand can distinguish your company from other companies with openings.
Candidates Trust Employee Opinions
In the 1990s, when employer branding first became widely adopted, it was handled from the top down. Companies decided how to present their brand, and it was mostly under their control. Employees didn’t really have a way to easily make their voices heard.
Now, in the days of social media, employees can go online and tell the world what they think of a company.Whether you like it or not, your employer brand is being built and maintained by employees every day.
SEE ALSO: How to Use Social Feedback to Manage Your Brand Reputation
Not only can they influence how your brand is perceived, but their voice may also be more powerful than yours.
Studies confirm that people trust their peers over companies when it comes to an employer’s brand. Candidates are less likely to trust a company telling them how great it is to work there than an employee talking about their actual work experiences.
To strengthen your employer brand, create a culture and provide an experience where employees become brand advocates.
Employer Digital Reputation Matters
Your digital reputation as an employer can attract or deter talent. Here are a few interesting ways a company’s digital reputation can affect hiring outcomes.
- Companies with strong employer brands received more than twice as many applicants as companies with poor employer reputations.
- 2 in 3 employees would work for less money if the company has a positive employer brand.
- 50 percent of survey respondents wouldn’t work for a company that had a bad reputation as an employer, even if they were offered better pay.
In other words, having a positive reputation as an employer can improve credibility, increase your applicant pool, and reduce costs.
SEE ALSO: 5 Easy Ways to Protect Your Brand Image
Tips to Build Your Employer Brand
To establish a strong employer brand, help connect potential candidates to the voices that’ll influence their brand perception.
You can lead candidates to positive reviews of the company, share employee LinkedIn and Twitter accounts that reflect positively on the company, and help to amplify those voices through your company’s social media.
Knowing your audience is also a big help. If you understand the challenges and desires of candidates, you can create content that speaks directly to those challenges and desires.
Here’s a three-step process to help you do that.
- Go to Google and enter a search like this: “inurl:forum [position you’re hiring for]” for example, “inurl:forum nurses.”
- Review forums in your results and look for challenges or complaints of the position. With nurses, a common challenge is high patient loads, which are the number of patients taken on during a shift.
- Create valuable content that addresses the challenge or desire. Continuing with the nurse example, let’s say your company offers lower than average patient loads. You could post a video to Facebook with nurses talking about the benefits of lower patient loads. Also, in the titles of your job postings, include keywords ex. “Registered Nurse – Come work for a practice that offers reasonable patient loads.”
The general idea is that you can research what really matters to your ideal employees, and then use your findings in communications with them. They’ll be more interested in your employer brand when you’re talking about the issues they care about.
By helping to curate and amplify positive employee messages about your company, you can strengthen your employer brand and attract the talent you seek.
Employer branding is key. How do you create a winning employer brand? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
