Today more than ever, companies are having to compete for talent. To do this, an employer brand is highly critical. As an employee branding agency, we have seen the ups and downs of companies and their brands. When an organization is able to create an employer brand that is attractive and strong, they are able to bring in the best talent, retain them, and ensure they are engaged and working at their best.
Creating a strong employer brand is as important as creating a strong employee brand. The two work hand in hand. If your employee brand is weak, your employer brand will also be weak. If your employee brand is strong, your employer brand will also be strong. Both need to be considered in tandem with each other. This article will shed some light on why this is so important and how to use employer branding and employee branding effectively together.
In this blog, we’d take you through 12 importance of employee and employer branding.
What does employer branding mean?
Employer branding is a term that refers to the way companies present themselves to potential employees. Employers want to attract top talent, but they also don’t want to come off as too corporate or impersonal. They want to create an environment where their employees feel comfortable and valued.
Employer branding is a powerful tool for employers who want to increase employee loyalty and retention. By creating a positive image of the company, employers can improve recruitment and hiring processes, and ultimately boost productivity.
Employer brand describes an employer’s reputation place to work, and employee value proposition, as opposed to the more general corporate brand reputation and value proposition to customers.
While the concept has been around for decades, it didn’t gain widespread attention until the mid 90’s when the first online job boards were launched. Almost overnight, employees had access to millions of opportunities across the country. The workforce became more fluid than ever before, and the days of sticking with one company for the long haul were over.
Employee versus Employer Branding
But wait, this sounds like employer branding. Isn’t this the same thing? Both yes and no.
When it comes to definitions and goals, employee branding and employer branding do have some overlap. They do, however, have some significant differences that are worth noting and comprehending.
What similarities do they share?
If you’re familiar with employer branding, you’ve probably noticed some similarities. But first, let’s look at how these two terms are related.
Both approaches:
- Influence how potential employees perceive your company.
- Assist you in attracting better talent in order to improve company results and reduce turnover.
- Persuade customers (and potential customers) to be more trusting and enthusiastic about working with your company.
What distinguishes them?
The main question here is, “How do employee branding and employer branding differ?” Here are a few key distinctions.
- Employer branding is primarily driven by your human resources team and company executives, who direct the brand’s mission and values.
- Employer branding primarily focuses on work culture, company perks, and opportunities for advancement.
- The emphasis of employee branding is on the communications and experiences employees have with the organization and their work.
- Employee experience guides employee branding, emphasizing what it’s like to work for the company, how enthusiastic employees are about the company, and whether these employees are organic brand advocates.
How Can Employee Branding Benefit Your Business?
Employee branding efforts, like employer branding, have an impact on how people who want to work for you, as well as your current and potential customers, perceive your company.
Organizations that have a strong employee brand can turn their employees into powerful brand ambassadors. They are also more likely to increase employee loyalty, contribute to solid brand reputation management, boost employee motivation, contribute to customer experience management, and attract and retain top talent.
1.Employees Should Be Encouraged to Become Brand Ambassadors
Today’s most successful brands are implementing “employee branding” programs to accompany employees — including C-suite and leadership team members — on their digital journeys and assist them in communicating on social media.
Employees, on the whole, exhibit very low brand engagement on social media, frequently not following or “liking” the company’s pages on social media sites.
Employee branding comes into play here. The goal is to be able to guide or shape employee behavior so that employees can effectively and creatively project the organization’s brand identity through their work, public, and social media behavior.
2. Teach Employees About Your Company’s Brand
The first stage is to develop, teach, and inculcate the brand message in your employees’ thoughts.
Naturally, this message must be uplifting and appealing, with which employees can identify, increasing their likelihood of identifying with your firm.
3. Carry out Brand Training
Employee branding necessitates procedures such as brand education and interface training. These are intended to teach your employees how to represent the brand through their behavior while also providing structured occasions for them to practice representing the brand and become ambassadors.
4. Motivate Internal Communication
It’s critical to discuss (and keep talking) about your organization’s mission with both current and new personnel. Your messaging should represent the organization’s mission, values, and desired brand image in a clear, frequent, and consistent manner. Internal communications, human resource operations and initiatives, and informal social events can help to set expectations and clarify employees’ roles.
5. Fine-tune Recruitment and Hiring
It’s impossible to turn employees into brand ambassadors if your hiring and recruitment processes don’t attract the proper people to begin with.
Proactively maintain and monitor your employer brand, listen to and resolve uninvited employee feedback, present accurate and specific job previews, and commit to growing your organization by hiring the appropriate individuals for the job.
6. Pay Attention to Employee Feedback
The employer-employee feedback loop is an important part of the employee branding process.
More employees are making their opinions known through online reviews, thanks to the advent of business review sites such as Glassdoor and Indeed.com. They’re giving feedback on their interview and employee experiences. They are providing details about their work lives and expressing their feelings about their CEOs and leadership team by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down (or smileys or frowns).
When employees express themselves in their own words, you have a tremendous chance to listen, respond, and act in ways that help your organization thrive.
Employer brand monitoring does not have to be a time-consuming manual activity that entails devoting a large amount of labor to reading through employee reviews and comments. You can effortlessly monitor employee feedback on the leading job and review sites using a software platform like ReviewTrackers to maintain tabs on your brand reputation, expedite the recruiting process, and increase staff retention.
7. Employee Experience is Critical to Effective Employee Branding
Create an environment in which all employees feel a stake in sharing and communicating the brand message.
Launch activities to boost employee retention and happiness, as well as to build a culture of candid feedback sharing, openness, and open communication. Remember that engaged, driven employees are more likely to become brand ambassadors than uninterested workers.
Importance of Employer Branding
Employer branding in recruitment is part of the external side of employer branding. That’s because it focuses on recruiting new hires. All your external initiatives should be designed with (potential) new candidates as the target group.
Hiring employees is one thing, keeping them is another. This is where employer branding comes in, because it is designed to help you retain employees and increase their productivity and overall effectiveness.
1. Attract Excellent Employees and Retain Current Employees
A strong employer brand will make your current employees proud to be a part of your company. Being a part of a company with a great work culture is vital for today’s job seekers, and firms must be conscious of how they present that culture. Most job searchers will check out your company’s social profiles before applying, so utilize them to reflect an employee-centric culture and make the most of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
2. Lower Recruitment Costs
Candidates will flock to you if you have a strong employer brand, which means you will spend less money on recruitment marketing.
3. Convert Your Internal Army Into Brand Advocates
Employee reviews are relied on by more than half of all job candidates. As a result, when your top performers share their own great work experiences with their social circles on social networking sites, it will help your company’s recruitment initiatives.
Make your staff brand champions by inviting them to share their experiences, from their onboarding through corporate announcements to events and rewards. Your brand power will instantly attract and influence potential applicants when they pin, post, tweet, and publish their personal and organizational triumphs.
4. Boost Employee Engagement
Intentionally engaging employees becomes an integral component of your company culture when your organization commits to an employee-centric company brand. Intentional employee engagement leads to higher productivity and revenues. The low turnover that results provides a solid foundation for your company to attract more potential candidates for new opportunities (rather than being stuck in a loop of continuously back-filling vacant roles).
5. Communicate the Value of Your Brand
The market is dominated by top industry talent, who have a plethora of options. Skilled workers would always prefer to work for companies that have strong brand recognition and shared values. Ensure that your brand value is properly communicated so that you can recruit the finest of the best to work for your firm.
6. Showcase Your Distinctive Culture and Diversity
Many individuals want to work for a company that has a thriving culture and a diverse staff. They want employees to be both enjoyable and fulfilling. As a result, recruiters must exercise extreme discretion while marketing their employer brand, work environment, business culture, and rewards. Look for ways to highlight what makes your culture special, as well as the variety of your personnel. All of these factors have the potential to make or break the deal for you.
7. Target Tech-Savvy Candidates
Employers who show digital ability will attract tech-savvy applicants. For firms that want to stay competitive, technology is the way of the future, and you can start by updating your employment site.
While you’re rebranding and making your careers site more user-friendly, you might wish to combine it with an applicant tracking system. This is a wise decision that will provide potential employees with a compelling incentive to choose you above your competitors!
Conclusion
In the last two decades, ‘branding’ has become a central concept in organizational and social life. Many people professionals have embraced the language and techniques of branding to enhance their strategic influence and credibility. We hope that you were able to take away some useful information from this post and apply it to your business! Please contact us if you have any further questions about this topic or if you’d like to learn more.
