The job market has changed a lot in the past few years and, for some sectors where recruiters struggle to find the right candidates, employer branding can really make a difference.
Whether you have ve already thought about a strategy or not, you need to realise that your employer brand already exists. It is defined by the reputation you have not only among your current employees, but also among potential candidates. That is why working on this image and building a coherent strategy can turn out to be very helpful for your company.
It doesn’t matter if you have just started thinking about your employer branding strategy or if you have been working on it for a long time: this article will still be useful for you. We are going to share some tips to help boost your employer branding, whatever stage you are in. Let’s start by analysing the current situation and then move to what can be improved.
WHAT DO YOUR EMPLOYEES (REALLY) THINK ABOUT THE COMPANY?
Have you ever thought about conducting a satisfaction survey within your own company? Not yet? Well, don’t worry: if you go online, you might still be able to find some pretty interesting information about what people think about working at your company.
For instance, you can browse websites such as Glassdoor, Indeed or Choose My Company that will allow you to read comments and ratings left by current or former employees. You will also find different rankings (best places to work, people’s favourite company in 2020, etc.).
If you monitor your own company page, you will not only be able to reply to the different comments left by your employees, but also gather some heartfelt feedback.
We also recommend that you share surveys with your staff and conduct regular interviews to understand what are the reasons that motivate your workforce to stay and what are the pain points to work on to increase the retention rate. When conducting job interviews, don’t hesitate to ask candidates how they heard about you. If several answers point in the same direction, you won’t need to look further to identify the best platforms to attract more talent.
HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT DEFINING YOUR KPIS?
*Key Performance Indicators
To make sure that your efforts pay off, define in advance which performance indicators you will be monitoring. Here are some examples that may be useful for you to check the evolution of your employer branding strategy: the retention rate, the level of employee satisfaction, the application completion rate and the turnover. Once you have selected the most relevant data, establish a periodicity to analyse it.
This will allow you to compare the results in the future.
HAVE YOU ALREADY IDENTIFIED YOUR CANDIDATES PERSONAS?
For each new recruitment process, create a persona to help you figure out the ideal profile for the role. Persona candidates should include information such as experience, soft and hard skills or place of residence. Thanks to this data, you will be able to better define how to approach them. For some jobs or sectors, recruitment via general employment platforms such as LinkedIn or Welcome To The Jungle may seem like a good idea, while for others you may choose specialised websites. For example, employers looking for developers will favour sites like We Love Devs or Behance when it comes to recruiting creatives.
WHAT ARE YOUR COMPANY’S MISSION AND VALUES?
More than ever, candidates care about the impact of the company they work at.
Therefore, they need to know its mission and its values to ensure that they are aligned with their expectations. You have probably established these principles before, but consider updating them if the culture or vision of the company changes over time. Again, your people can be a valuable resource.
Ask those who have been with you for a long time to write down the elements that make up the mission and vision of the company and analyse the common points.
WHAT IS YOUR COMPETITORS’ EMPLOYER BRANDING STRATEGY?
If you want to be the leader in your sector, you need to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors in every aspect, and that includes the employer branding as well. Do not hesitate to study their recruitment processes (the platforms they use, the information they put forward in their job posts, etc.). Identify their most viewed or most engaging content on social media. Even if you don’t have direct access to their data, it can give you clues on what works best for them.
BOOST YOUR EMPLOYER BRANDING
Once you have analysed your current situation thanks to the feedback of your employees, evaluated your performance and learned about the best practices of your competitors, it is time to boost your employer branding strategy.
1. HOW ABOUT LAUNCHING YOUR EMPLOYER BRANDING INTERNALLY?
Your employees are your most valuable asset: your organisation and your business model have no secrets for them. To improve your reputation as a recruiter according to potential candidates, you must first win over your employees. By recruiting the most suitable profiles and offering them a clear value proposition, your internal employer brand should grow organically stronger over time.
Interview your employees to find out what they consider your company to be an employer and why they chose you. Also ask them about the less positive aspects to identify areas for improvement. Involve all the teams to have the most realistic vision possible.
Remember to keep your employees informed of the evolution of your employer brand so that they can see for themselves that their feedback is appreciated and their comments heard. It will also help them get the right message out when they talk to other people about the organisation.
2. WHAT ABOUT INVESTING IN YOUR CORPORATE CULTURE?
Your employer brand will necessarily reflect your corporate culture. So if it doesn’t keep up, your employer brand will not be able to develop properly. A strong corporate culture promotes a good working atmosphere and also helps strengthen your employer brand.
No matter what the current status of your culture is, you should always test new initiatives to improve your team’s experience and make your organisation more desirable to potential candidates. Want more? A good corporate culture contributes to the creation of branded content.
3. ARE FRINGE BENEFITS SACRED IN FRANCE?
Do not hesitate to highlight the perks that will make jobseekers tilt the most: meal vouchers, health insurance, children daycare, gym membership, team building activities, etc. The options are wide-ranging, but you don’t need a magic formula to determine which benefits are the most suitable for your organisation. Favour those who are most aligned with your values and who contribute to the cohesion between all employees and promote a better work environment.
Again, conducting surveys among your workforce can help you identify what benefits are most appreciated and those that would be welcomed in the future. Investing in qualitative benefits will increase your retention rate and your application rate at the same time.
4. IS MARKETING THE KEY TO ATTRACT MORE CANDIDATES?
You can’t control every aspect of your reputation, that is a fact. Nevertheless, you can implement your own content strategy. The goal is to share the most relevant information as well as your organisation’s milestones with your employees, key players and potential candidates.
To do so, you can activate several levers depending on your goal: newsletters, social media posts, blog articles, etc.
And, in terms of format, the possibilities are just as wide, although there is a strong trend that has emerged recently and may be worth considering: employees’ testimonials. This option will highlight your employee’s profile, as well as humanise the recruitment process and allow candidates to imagine themselves working in your company.
5. WHAT ROLE DO YOUR COLLABORATORS PLAY IN YOUR EMPLOYER BRANDING STRATEGY?
As said before, your employees are a valuable source of feedback to improve your employer brand, but did you know that they can contribute in other ways too?
Some corporations are setting up mentoring programs targeting young people to give visibility to the company’s various professions among the new generation.
An idea that seems obvious when you know that no one will explain the reality of a job to a young person better than the person who occupies that role. A great action to reveal vocations and attract talent!
TRANSPARENCY AND AUTHENTICITY ARE A MUST
Candidates are smart and can see when a company is not being sincere about employer branding (they can check your employees’ online reviews too!).
Don’t hesitate to highlight the most positive aspects of your organisation, but always be consistent with reality. To remain relevant and effective in the long run, your employer branding strategy should always be a priority and evolve accordingly with changes in the business.
