Every company has a reputation. It could include thoughts about your products, services, leaders, team members, history, and more. Your company’s reputation can inspire a specific perception — emotional, instinctive, intellectual — in the people who see your ads, use your products, and speak to others about you. That reputation is known as your consumer brand, and it can be a powerful if somewhat mysterious force.
There’s another brand related to your consumer brand that encompasses how you’re viewed in the talent market. This is your employer brand and it lives and breathes in the minds and hearts of your candidates and employees.
A positive employer brand is critical in today’s competitive job market. Without one, hiring and retaining talented employees becomes challenging — and costly. You need skilled team members to drive your business forward and the best way to attract, engage, and retain them is to build your reputation as a great place to work.
What is employer branding?
Employer branding is how you proactively manage your employer brand to market your company to desired job seekers. You can do this by showcasing your organization’s unique cultural differentiators and amplifying them to position your company as a desirable place to work.
An employer brand that resonates is about defining the essence of your company — both how it’s unique and what it stands for — and aligning that with the candidates you want to attract. It communicates that your organization is a worthy employer, which boosts recruitment efforts, employee engagement, and retention.
Done well, employer branding will spark buzz around your company, which will attract motivated job seekers and build an army of happy employees. Those people often broadcast their positive experience to job candidates, clients, customers, and other stakeholders, further broadening the reach and impact of your employer brand.
What is an employer value proposition?
An employer value proposition (EVP) encompasses your organization’s mission, values, and culture, and gives employees a powerful reason to work for you. It describes what your company offers to employees in exchange for their skills, experience, talents, and contacts.
An organization benefits from a well-designed EVP, communicated often to both potential and current employees. A strong EVP can attract and retain the best people, help prioritize company goals and agendas, help reengage a dispassionate workforce, and reduce hiring costs. Most of all, it contributes to a favorable and robust employer brand.
An EVP is considered an employee-centered approach because it’s been discovered, defined, and tested with existing employees. Include the things that enticed your team members to join your company — and what makes them stay.
Elements you might incorporate into your EVP include:
- Company mission, vision, values, and culture
- Compensation
- Career development
- Flexible work options
- Remote work opportunities
- DEI commitment
- Job security
- Work-life balance
- Employee benefits and perks
- Employee recognition
- Opportunities for travel and client exposure
- Social responsibility
- Office location and facilities, including accessibility and convenience
What is the value of a strong employer brand?
Two-thirds of HR leaders globally say the labor shortage is getting worse. For example, there are nearly two open jobs for every unemployed job seeker in the United States.
Your company needs to stand out if you want to attract and convert skilled candidates. A positive employer brand can help you do that.
Three in four job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job and almost 6 in 10 employees choose a workplace based on shared values. And expected values alignment doesn’t stop there; 40% of workers said they would quit their job if they didn’t agree with their employer’s stance on key issues.
An attractive employer brand can help improve metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) like time to fill, cost per hire, and employee retention, saving your organization $5,000 per employee.
Who is responsible for employer branding?
There’s often confusion about who owns employer branding. At smaller organizations, the CEO may control the messaging or it could be owned by talent or HR leads. Some businesses might lean on their HR, communications, or marketing department to help them craft and hone their employer brand. Larger organizations may have a dedicated recruitment marketing team to lead employer branding initiatives.
But your employer brand isn’t entirely owned by your company. Like it or not, employer branding starts and ends with your candidates and employees. Your people team might inform the words used and the way they’re said, but your employer brand is primarily tied to your candidate and employee experiences.
Your candidates’ and employees’ social media posts, employer reviews, testimonials, conversations, and referrals can impact your company’s reputation. This can work to your advantage when those people are brand champions. But it can work against you if your employee or candidate experience doesn’t mirror what you’re communicating via your employer brand.
No matter who owns the responsibility of crafting and promoting your employer brand, it’s imperative to remember that candidates and employees can have a bigger impact on your reputation. If your company work environment and culture aren’t healthy, your job is to work on that first. But if you already have a strong company culture, you’re in a good spot to amplify it.
How to craft your employer brand
As with all branding, good storytelling is essential for crafting a strong employer brand. It’s about how you want your organization to be perceived in the talent market, using specific messaging to help attract and retain the talent you want on your team.
But it’s also about living out that story. Satisfied candidates and employees can be your biggest advocates and help you amplify your employer brand, while dissatisfied candidates and employees can tarnish your reputation. Build a brand that’s true to the essence of your company so your candidates and employees know what to expect from working on your team.
Step 1. Get familiar with your company
It’s easier to hone your employer brand and EVP once you’ve defined your company’s unique attributes. Get to know your organization’s core business, vision, mission, values, and culture. Understand your company’s objectives and what sort of talent is needed to accomplish those objectives.
For example, do you want mission-driven employees or people who care deeply about DEI? Do you prefer teammates who aren’t afraid to try new things — even if it means they fail — or people who take calculated risks to maximize their chances of success? Do you value lifelong learning, adventure, or social responsibility? There are no right or wrong answers; focus on what’s right for your unique business.
Step 2. Audit your existing employer brand
Get familiar with how your company is viewed in the candidate market and how it’s perceived by your current employees. You can use candidate and employee surveys, internet and social media searches, and reputation monitoring firms to conduct research both internally and externally. Pay attention to what’s working and which areas need improvement.
For example, do you value transparency, but get called out for poor communication during your hiring process? If you share your commitment to DEI, do your candidates and employees feel a sense of inclusion and belonging from their interactions with your company? Would your rejected candidates reapply for another role in the future and would your former employees consider coming back to your organization?
Step 3. Define your employer value proposition
Now comes the part when you can make your corporate messaging sing. Draft an EVP that clearly communicates the values of your corporate brand, while reflecting what’s special about working at your organization. Your employer brand should align with your consumer brand, but also speak directly to candidates and employees.
It can be helpful to enlist the talents of your own marketing and communications departments or outsource this work to an agency. Branding experts can help you fine-tune your EVP and other employer brand messaging so it’s accurate, consistent, and effective.
Step 4. Promote your employer brand
Leverage various channels to help your EVP shine through in your customer- and employee-facing communications and materials.
For example, make sure that your careers site and social media profiles accurately represent your employer brand and showcase your employees’ accomplishments and experiences. Share testimonials, success stories, and a behind-the-scenes look at your company culture so candidates can get a true sense of what it’s like to work at your company.
Step 5. Track your progress
Measuring the success of your employer branding efforts is vital to understanding your impact and refining your approach.
You can utilize several key metrics to gauge the effectiveness of employer brand initiatives, including:
- Cost per hire
- Time to fill
- Quality of hire
- Offer acceptance rate
- Retention rate
- Source of hire
- Application rate
How to amplify your employer brand
Amplifying your employer brand is an ongoing process that requires a multifaceted approach. By consistently showcasing your company’s culture, EVP, and opportunities, you can strengthen your employer brand and attract the best talent to your organization.
1. Build a robust careers site
Your careers site should be more than a list of job postings — it should work to engage and convert your candidates by sharing what makes your company special.
Build out your careers site to include information that’s relevant to your employer brand. This may include your:
Use high-quality videos, photos, and slideshows to tell your company story, celebrate your DEI initiatives, and show off beautiful workspaces. A welcome video from your CEO is an ideal way to make an introduction, as are employee interviews talking about their experiences working for your organization. Plan and budget for these projects as part of your recruiting strategy.
2. Write compelling job descriptions
Job posts are often the first contact candidates have with your company, so they’re a perfect way to amplify your employer brand. Your brand can stand out by sharing the things that make your company unique, describing a day in the life of an employee, and discussing the projects earmarked for the role.
3. Build engagement among current employees
To help you become a trusted employer, look no further than your own workforce. Candidates are more likely to trust your employees over your carefully curated employer branding materials. Encourage your team members to share their experience working at your company on social media, through employer reviews, and while networking.
Your employees also shape your company’s work culture, live your values, achieve your objectives, and manifest your company’s mission. Without their participation, your employer brand would be nothing.
4. Start an employer blog
If you’re a recruiter with a marketing mindset, you know that content — and lots of it — can be a perfect strategy for standing out in a competitive talent market. Start an employer blog where you post company news, culture updates, and articles written by your employees or company leaders. You might also use your blog to highlight the unique people policies, processes, and programs that demonstrate your organization’s commitment to employee happiness.
5. Use social media
Take advantage of employer branding opportunities on LinkedIn and other social media platforms by sharing information that would appeal most to your ideal candidates. This may include sharing company values, employee benefits and perks, and testimonials from existing employees.
Candidates may also view employee profiles after learning about a job opportunity. Encourage your team members to update their social media profiles so they’re current, professional, and attention-worthy.
How to improve your employer brand
It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t entirely own your employer brand — your candidates and employees do. The best way to make improvements is to listen to them and adjust accordingly.
In general, you can improve your employer brand by creating positive candidate and employee experiences.
1. Review your compensation practices
Compensation is the top priority for candidates globally, but it’s not always about the exact pay an employee receives. Pay equity and pay transparency can be just as important, especially as new laws give your team members access to pay ranges.
It’s more important than ever to build competitive pay ranges, apply them consistently, and be able to explain how pay was determined for any given team member.
2. Ensure work-life balance
Work-life balance is the second most important priority for candidates this year. This is followed by flexible working arrangements, which is a key way to improve work-life balance.
Employees who say their organization provides flexibility around when and where they work are 2.6x more likely to be happy working at their company. They’re also 2.1x more likely to recommend that others work at their company, providing a significant boost to employer branding efforts. Consider offering flexible work arrangements, such as flex hours, remote work, and part-time schedules to help your employees balance work with their personal obligations.
3. Offer career growth
Advancement and skill development round out the top five most important priorities for candidates this year.
Providing opportunities for career growth can bolster a positive employer brand and help you attract and retain top talent. Offer leadership training, special certifications, and plenty of avenues for career progression to capture job candidate interest and ongoing commitment from your employees.
4. Prioritize employee wellbeing
If employees feel cared for at work, they are 3.2x more likely to be happy at work and 3.7x more likely to recommend working for the company.
Prioritize employee wellbeing by offering things like a robust benefits package, paid time off, and realistic goals. Being known as a company that cares about employees can provide a significant boost to your employer brand.
5. Build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment
Demonstrating a genuine commitment to DEI initiatives sends a positive message that you care about building a fair, supportive work environment for everyone. This positions your company as an employer of choice, attracting top talent who actively seek out workplaces that value DEI.
When employees experience a truly inclusive environment, they become enthusiastic brand advocates who are more likely to share their positive experiences. This can further strengthen your reputation as a desirable place to work.
6. Revisit your recruitment process
The way you manage the hiring experience has a significant impact on how your organization is perceived by candidates and the broader job market. A positive candidate experience is crucial for building a talent pipeline, converting candidates into employees, and maintaining a positive employer brand.
From the initial contact to the final decision, treating candidates with respect, maintaining open communication, and providing timely feedback creates a good impression of your company. For example, an easy application process and periodic status updates demonstrate that you value your candidates’ time. Even applicants who aren’t selected should leave with a positive view of your organization so they’ll apply again in the future and encourage others to do the same.
Employer branding using Linkedin
LinkedIn is a great place to reach and engage both active and passive candidates at every stage of their career path. Though launching an employer brand can be hard, the good news is that 90% of LinkedIn members are open and interested in new job opportunities. All it takes is getting in front of potential candidates in compelling ways.
1. Build out your LinkedIn Company Page
Your free LinkedIn Company Page is your official business presence on LinkedIn.
Take advantage of all the features to showcase your employer brand and attract the right talent for your company, including:
- Commitments. You can add a new section to your LinkedIn Company Page called Commitments, where you can showcase your organization’s values. These include DEI, environmental sustainability, work-life balance, social impact, and career growth and learning.
- Workplace policies. Include your workplace policies to help candidates understand your company’s guidelines for remote, hybrid, or onsite work, COVID-19 vaccinations, and location-based pay adjustments. You can also include information about your workplace benefits.
- Career page. Add a LinkedIn Career Page to access additional features to showcase your employer brand, including highlighting company news and updates, sharing employee testimonials, and introducing your leadership team.
2. Join the conversation
The more your company and employees join conversations on LinkedIn, the bigger the opportunity for your employer brand to grow.
Your team members can follow industry influencers, join Groups, and publish long-form articles and newsletters. And when your employees comment, like, or share news and opinions, they increase your company’s virtual presence.
Your Company Page can also react or comment on LinkedIn posts, follow other Company Pages, and publish a newsletter. Each activity represents a unique opportunity to build your employer brand and reach more candidates.
3. Become a LinkedIn Recruiter power user
LinkedIn Recruiter gives you unique access to Linkedin’s members so you can proactively source a diverse, skilled talent pipeline. This includes the ability to identify candidates who have already expressed interest in your company through your Talent Interest Pipeline.
Recruiter makes it easy to reach out to candidates via InMail, so you can build relationships. And as a bonus, recruiters who use InMail have a 31% higher response rate than those who don’t.
4. Reach targeted candidates with LinkedIn Jobs
LinkedIn Jobs delivers your job postings to the most relevant candidates. When you post a job on LinkedIn, you give potential candidates a curated window into who you are as a company. And when candidates get to know you as an employer, they’re more likely to want to come aboard.
Be genuine to help your posts stand out. Do coworkers get together for lunch every Friday afternoon? Do you have a “no meetings more than an hour” policy in your office? Describe what it’s really like to work at your company through your open roles so candidates are enticed to apply.
5. Encourage career growth with LinkedIn Learning
When employees see that you’re invested in their careers, they become more invested in your organization. Having access to a learning platform like LinkedIn Learning enables employees to make development an easy habit and encourages new hires to stay and grow.
Offering opportunities for career growth can help you build a more engaged workforce that positively contributes to your employer brand.
6. Utilize “Work with Us Ads”
LinkedIn “Work with Us” ads enable you to promote your company and your open roles on your employees’ profiles. These personalized and targeted ads get up to 50x higher click-through rates than typical recruitment ads to help build brand awareness.
These ads may spur candidates to reach out to your employees and learn more about working at your company, giving your team members an opportunity to advocate for your brand.
7. Create a Showcase Page
LinkedIn Showcase Pages serve as extensions of your Company Page that can be used for more specific content. This is a great use case for employer branding content.
Share articles, photos, and videos on your Showcase Page to give candidates a behind-the-scenes view of your organization. These may include pictures of company events, a video office tour, and a-day-in-the-life posts from your employees.
Final thoughts: Overcome the skilled talent shortage with employer branding
Most U.S. company leaders say it’s challenging to attract top talent — and recruiting skilled candidates is only going to become more difficult. Skill sets for jobs have changed by around 25% since 2015 and this number is expected to double by 2027.
Employer branding can help you compete in a limited talent pool so you can win the talent you need to achieve your organizational goals.
So, the choice is yours: Will you put in the work to build an employer brand that helps you attract and retain talent or will you be left to compete with every other company?
