An organization’s employer brand is its reputation – what candidates and employees say about the organization and how they define its culture and values. To attract and retain quality talent, it’s critical to cultivate a positive employer brand and ensure the brand continues to resonate with candidates and employees as their expectations evolve.
In a world where up to 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before applying, organizations must develop an employee value proposition (EVP) that paints an honest picture of the organization and actual employee experiences. However, crafting a well-articulated EVP is only one step organizations must take to bring their culture and values to life. To build an employer brand that speaks to candidates and employees alike, talent acquisition teams need effective strategies for promoting the brand across all relevant channels.
The employee value proposition is at the heart of every great employer brand. Research has found that developing and delivering an effective EVP improves recruitment and overall talent engagement. According to Gartner, a strong EVP enables organizations to reach 50% deeper into the labor market and achieve a 70% reduction in employee turnover.
For all the benefits a beautifully crafted EVP brings, building the employer brand can’t stop there. Employees must own the EVP, and recruitment professionals must adopt tools that successfully attract target candidates.
Here are five steps to make it happen:
Conducting an audit of where the company’s brand stands and how candidates and employees view it helps to pinpoint what’s working and what’s not. Ultimately, the audit allows the talent acquisition team to identify any missed opportunities to influence applicant and employee attitudes about the company’s employer brand.
Recruitment marketing professionals should ask the following questions to better understand the current state of the organization’s branding strategies and tactics:
Creating a more effective employer branding strategy doesn’t happen overnight. It requires ongoing effort over time to yield results. Therefore, before jumping in and making changes, creating a list of priorities is critical to act as a roadmap for the future. When building this list, it will be helpful to incorporate findings from the employer brand audit. For example, suppose the audit highlighted a need to expand beyond Facebook as the primary social channel for employer branding content. In that case, the recruitment marketing team might add expansions into Instagram and TikTok to the list. Similarly, organizations wanting to learn more about where to find target candidates could prioritize persona development. As the organization tackles each element on the priority list, there will be more clarity about which tactics yield the best results and deserve additional investment.
Another key benefit of creating a list of employer branding priorities is that it helps to distinguish between “must-haves,” “nice-to-haves,” and which actions require additional resources and budget dollars. For example, posting video content to recruitment ads and social media pages is an excellent way to engage prospective candidates and employees. If the talent acquisition team doesn’t have the budget to create ongoing video content until the next fiscal year, an alternate strategy could include adding more content to Instagram, affording the use of static imagery in addition to video. Another option to consider is cost-effective employee-generated videos, where employees share their work experiences using their own phones to record with a video curation platform like Jamyr.
Tip: Investing in employer branding priorities pays for itself over time by boosting applicant conversions and employee engagement. With the support of a trusted recruitment partner, organizations can enjoy an even higher employer branding ROI.
Employer branding usually calls to mind lessons in recruitment, but successful branding must also include employees. Employees have first-hand experience with the organization’s culture and EVP, and they can confirm (or deny) the brand messaging as an accurate representation of life inside the organization.
The EVP must speak to employees and be so compelling that they live it and enthusiastically promote it. Some ways to make this happen include:
Branding efforts can scale exponentially as recruitment professionals talk more about the company and continually look for new ways to engage candidates and employees.
Not everyone will be eager to hop in and help generate employer branding content, so recruitment teams can get the ball rolling by working closely with company leaders and managers who can recommend willing participants. Individuals who could act as effective brand champions are those who are already company advocates and would be excited to help boost brand awareness and engagement. Brand advocates may also be individuals who reach specific milestones, such as an anniversary, and are willing to share their stories. Once other employees see content rolling out, they may be more likely to join.
Tip: Candidates are three times more likely to trust employees than the organization to tell them what it’s like to work there. RX Studio by Recruitics helps organizations harness the power of employee advocacy to build a strong connection with prospective applicants and employees.
With a well-crafted EVP, a compelling employer brand, and employee advocates to get the message out, organizations can keep the momentum going by tracking the right metrics. Data analytics help the recruitment marketing team understand which branding channels are performing well and which aren’t. Analytics also helps consolidate reporting across all channels, geographies, and job postings.
Keeping track of key performance indicators enables the recruitment team to make data-driven decisions about where to invest branding dollars and how to tweak future content and messaging. Helpful metrics to track include:
Though data analytics offers a more holistic view of employer branding ROI, it’s essential to keep in mind that it can take months to see the full impact of a new EVP and employer brand activation. Reviewing recruitment metrics at the six and 12-month mark is a reasonable guideline. From there, measuring progress year-over-year will clarify the impact of subsequent refinements. By doing so, companies can measure how well the values are resonating and whether employees are feeling the effects of the value.
Tip: Insights from recruitment data enable better real-time advertising decisions. Dubbed "the Google Analytics for Recruitment" by ERE Media, Recruitics’ AI-powered analytics platform provides data visualizations and integrations that help recruitment marketing teams understand ad performance at the most granular level.
There’s no denying the power of an EVP and employer brand that helps attract quality applicants and build an engaged workforce. Organizations can hire and retain quality talent more effectively by taking steps to evaluate, enhance, and measure the success of employment branding strategies.
Just remember, focusing on the EVP and employer brand has to become a daily practice in how professionals talk about the company, how they look to attract new employees, and how they engage with existing employees. Push these values out, consistently showcase them to the world, and ensure employees are constantly speaking about them!
To get started, the team at Recruitics is here to help! Recruitics’ RX Studio solutions offer strategic support to aid organizations in EVP and brand development, creating compelling digital experiences, and activating omnichannel advertising campaigns. As a result, organizations can hire better and cultivate highly motivated employee advocates.
