Employer branding refers to a branding strategy that focuses on two aspects: recruitment and current employees. When it comes to recruitment, the goal of the employer is to attract valuable candidates. On the other hand, in terms of the current employees, the employer’s aim has to do with retaining high-performing employees. In some cases, these two aspects overlap, as by keeping the employees satisfied, the company keeps a good reputation, thus drawing in more potential workers. Here are ten tips to help you build a top-notch employer branding strategy.
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Upgrade online presence & keep up with current trends
In today’s day and age, having an online presence is practically inevitable in regard to branding. Creating social media accounts and blogs marketed in a way that engages your target candidates is an effective way of attracting job applicants, as well as enabling your remote workers to easily stay informed. Managing these online accounts and promoting the brand isn’t a one-person job, which is where corporate influencers come in handy. Trends come and go, so companies always need to be on the lookout and stay up-to-date with the current trends. Incorporating corporate influencers as a means of promoting a company is an emerging trend in the sphere of employer branding. Companies are now training employees to become corporate influencers or employing individuals who are skilled in this area. These employees are extremely helpful as they can create engaging posts with catchy captions and keep all your online profiles active.
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Keep applicants & remote workers in loop
One thing that job applicants and remote workers have in common is that they aren’t present in the office. This means that it’s easy to neglect them, which often happens due to a large number of candidates and/or remote workers. When it comes to the candidates, one way to keep them in the loop is to schedule automatic emails, or even include chatbots. While chatbots are nowadays a common tool used to boost customer service, they can be used in the recruitment process as well. Regarding those working from home, you can have them virtually attend meetings, and interact with them regularly through a social platform of choice.
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Present the experience of current employees
Showcasing the current state of affairs in the company can be a very effective method to attract potential future employees. This refers to posting pictures and videos of different events or conferences that took place, where the employees would hopefully leave some comments. You could also take a more active approach and make short interviews with the staff for a promotional video. The key is to be transparent and present true events. Keep in mind that the goal is to have the current employees stay in the company, and not just attract new ones. Therefore, it’s best to avoid being untruthful or twisting the facts at all costs.
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Include esports tournaments
Introducing activities that make you stand out from the crowd can be a powerful move when it comes to employer branding. Since many people are interested in video games, you could include esports tournaments. Although this may seem difficult to set up, reputable employer branding agencies can help you organize online or offline esports tournaments for your employees without too much hassle. Mentioning activities such as that one in your job ad is bound to make some candidates extremely happy to apply. Also, your current employees will have the opportunity to relax, de-stress and have a wonderful time.
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Be mindful of the employees’ health
Being mindful of both the physical and mental health of workers is an essential step to encouraging your employees to stay and catching the eye of new candidates. In terms of physical health, in the case of office work, you can provide comfortable chairs and monitors that cause less eye strain and do your best to remove potential safety hazards. Although physical health is important, it’s mental health that is often neglected. Everyone’s aware that work can be very stressful. When it comes to problems at work, things such as rushing to meet deadlines and handling unpredicted issues are only the tip of the iceberg. All of these things can eventually lead to burnout, and in turn, affect the performance even of the most proficient employees. That’s why setting up reasonable deadlines is crucial. Although, in reality, it’s not always feasible to prolong the deadlines, if you notice that hard-working employees are struggling to meet them, that’s a sign that something needs to change to keep the stress out. The solution could be to employ more workers, for example. If the company can’t afford to pay that many employees, hiring freelancers to take care of certain tasks can be very useful. Apart from that, being open about mental health and encouraging the employees to talk about it creates a more relaxed atmosphere.
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Promote equality in the workplace
One way of making employees comfortable in the workplace, as well as having the potential candidates wish to apply, is promoting equality. Factors such as ethnicity, age, gender, or a particular disability are no valid reason to pay someone less or to deny them the job opportunity if they can perform up to the company’s standards. Statistics have shown that not only does a majority of employees wish there was more inclusion in the workplace, but also that diversity leads to more productive work. Diverse teams are at an advantage because they have their own distinct experiences allowing them to approach the same tasks from a different angle.
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Stay true to company’s core values
What the company stands for should be clear both to potential and current employees. More importantly, the company should abide by these values. This pertains to what the company stands for, such as being mindful about mental health and encouraging diversity. It’s not enough to write about these values in the job ad, but you also ought to stay true to them. Only that way will your brand gain credibility.
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Inquire feedback from your employees
One of the most efficient ways to make sure that you’re keeping your employer brand up to standards is to simply ask your employees for their opinion. Since people tend to be more honest when they’re anonymous, creating a survey can offer you valuable insight into the quality of your current employer brand. Apart from that, encouraging the workers to give feedback whenever they feel it’s appropriate can also be effective. In any case, don’t take the comments you get for granted as they can be a powerful tool that helps you stay on the right track.
In sum, satisfactory working conditions and keeping up with the times by means of creative online promotion will do wonders for your brand. Clearly, one part of successful employer branding has to do with catering to your employees’ needs. However, the key is to establish a pleasant atmosphere at work for everyone’s benefit, instead of doing it for selfish reasons, that is, for the sake of promotion. On the other hand, taking it to the other extreme and “spoiling” the workers isn’t a good idea either. Therefore, the most viable option would be to find a balance.
