What is Employer Branding?
Employer Branding is a term that sets an employer apart from its peers in the industry as a great place to work for prospective employees through its distinctive work culture.
The market is always brimming with ample chances for the skilled, employable talent, no matter what the average worker may feel. The employer must have a specific employer branding strategy to attract these super-talented employees. Why should the deserving candidate choose you? What can the employer do to retain them for longer?
It's the small things that help in employer branding.
Just like small habits build an individual's personality. In the same way, a transparent and smooth hiring process creates the employer's brand perception. Employer branding strategy calls for a positive first impression on potential employees.
Small factors like how a company expresses itself on various job boards, how it contacts and follows up with the candidates create a brand image. The quality of interaction put across by hiring professionals also plays a vital role in putting across a distinctive brand image of the company.
It might feel insignificant, but a neat career page with pictorial or video representation of the company's culture helps promote the employer brand for the company in the long run. It helps not only for active candidates but also in encouraging passive candidates. It works better than trying to get in touch with the candidate over email or phone, again and again, to disturb them during their busy schedules and ultimately damaging the image of the company.
Role of employer branding on Active versus passive candidates
Aggressive follow-ups might be attractive for responsive candidates who are actively looking for a new job. But for the passive candidates, the company must have a subtle yet powerful brand language through the way of channels like social media recruiting. It needs to direct their mindfulness towards the company's good points, instead of a reverse impact on their mind.
The last thing employer branding communication should be doing is to make the potential candidate dislike the brand itself. A smooth application and recruitment process are a must. Candidates are ultimately customers who need proper convincing. It can sound like online shopping, but people are 'window shopping' for jobs! Why not showcase your brand that way?
Brand advocacy can be an employer's best bet when branding self because most people prefer peer to peer recommendation when picking a job. Let your company's good work do the talking. Be so good that your current employees talk about your good points. Give them the environment to spread the word and recommend you as a good workplace.
It enables better responsiveness in both active and passive candidates.
Recruitment Agency autonomy – adverse effect on employer branding strategy
Perhaps the most significant blow to employer branding strategy arrives in the form of HR agencies overtaking the recruitment process nearly completely. The agencies are least bothered about the company's 'look' or 'feel' in their communications as they have to handle multiple openings for various companies at the same time. A great brand appeal cannot be upheld when the image handling is in a third party's hands.
This issue is resolved to a great extent by the applicant tracking systems as they make sure the application process remains seamless. Equipped with the latest technology like ML, they keep engaging with the candidates on behalf of the recruiter building the brand of the company.
Conclusion
The employer branding strategy must be such that it explains the brand values of the company as a great workplace for prospective employees. And it can only be done through a great candidate experience in the hiring process.
Even studies say that 9 out of 10 candidates are likely to apply to a job from an employer whose company's public image is actively maintained on social media. And hence, even if a company has a conducive work environment, if it's culture is not appropriately shown through a smooth hiring process and other public appearances, it will be a challenging task to attract skilled talent.
