A brand needs branding. It builds identity, recognition, and trust among consumers.
And it gives you an opportunity to communicate these things, along with the qualities, values, and stories, that makes your company special – what makes you stand out from your competitors.
Most likely, there won’t be much new in that for you. But how about employer branding? Whether or not you are familiar with it, you are probably here for the same reason: to learn more about employer branding.
Your employer brand
In short, your employer brand is your company’s brand as an employer. Therefore, it tells something about your company’s ability to market itself as an attractive workplace – and thus also how job seekers and employees perceive your company.
Whether you want it or not, your company has an employer brand. And we might as well emphasize it right away: you don’t own it. Your reputation as an employer and your company as workplace arises and exists with job candidates and employees, shaped by their thoughts and impressions.
They have an opinion on you, and if you don’t work to influence it, you are completely under their control. You don’t have a choice: you got an employer brand.
Employer branding is your way of trying to show that your company is a great place to work. A company is only as strong as its employees. Therefore, it is essential that you ensure that you attract and retain the right candidates – who are in alignment with your company and passion and can contribute to the desired development. But this is far from straightforward. That’s why we give you a series of tips on how you can create an employer brand that candidates and employees will long for.
In short
We know that you might be busy, and therefore don’t have time to read the full article here and now. However, we still think you should be able to enjoy it and get an output from it – that’s why you get the most important points here. Don’t worry, of course you can always come back and immerse yourself.
- Align your channels – your employer branding must have a common thread on all channels.
- Your employees are your strongest ambassadors, so let them be the ones to tell why your company is a great workplace.
- Say it with video: it gives a more authentic insight into the company.
- Show exactly what makes your company a rewarding workplace.
- Social media are made for networking and relationships, so take advantage of it.
- Create a comprehensive career page.
- Your company must match the candidates you want to attract.
So, let’s get in depth with them.
7 tips for your employer branding
01 Align your channels
One of the keywords for good employer branding is alignment. There must be a common thread that creates credibility. If your website says one thing, but your social media says something else, and your job postings something else entirely, then a mismatch will very quickly arise. It can easily cause credibility to drop.
Make sure that what you write on your website is also what you write in your job postings, on your social media and other channels. Specifically: align your channels.
02 Use your employees
No matter how much you try to control your employer brand, there is one factor that overshadows all measures: your candidates and employees. It is their experiences and words that count.
Therefore, you can advantageously include statements from former or current employees who say something about what it is like to work for you. You can use them on your social media, website and in your job postings. Also encourage them to share postings and projects from the company, so that in private they become a kind of ambassadors for the workplace.
But remember: it requires happy colleagues. After all, it must be believable.
03 Say it with video
There’s nothing like a visual demonstration of the workplace and the people who work there. That’s why one of our biggest recommendations is to say what needs to be said with video.
The core of any good company is the skilled employees. Therefore, an employer branding film is also an obvious choice. Your employees’ stories, values and dreams are brought to life with film, so let job candidates hear their stories in a way that does them justice.
04 Highlight your strengths
What makes your company a special place to work? Great development potential? Strong community? Offices in several places in the world? Whatever it is, don’t hide it away in the back of the closet. Show it to the world.
Talk about the company’s strengths on your social media, in your job postings, in video and wherever else it makes sense. However, it is about balance. Promoting too much can end up having the same effect as not showcasing them at all. You can accommodate this effect by making sure to use them in different ways, channels and at regular intervals.
05 Use your social media
Social media is created to form and maintain networks and relationships – therefore it is also an obvious place to prioritize your employer branding.
Update your social media with success stories from the working day, behind-the-scenes, company culture, events, and more, which can give candidates an idea of what it’s like to work for you. And don’t forget the most important thing: the nice employer branding film you’ve just made. Let the content come to life in your feed, where it will have an unlimited lifespan, but also create some snapshots through stories. The snapshots can give a feeling of something real – and one thing that is in high demand is authenticity.
Social media also provide a completely unique opportunity to communicate with your potential candidates. Here, the candidates can get in touch with you in a more informal way by liking your posts and stories, or even writing to you directly. Conversely, you can also communicate with them by interacting with their content. Kindness and friendliness are the key words here, so you give the impression of who is sitting on the other side of the screen.
06 Build a strong career page
Instead of just having a page that shows vacancies, you can advantageously include information that tells something about your company as a workplace – why it’s a great place to work. You can include mission, vision, values, company culture, benefits, flexibility, remote work, career paths, an employer branding film and much more.
Fill it with good arguments for becoming part of your company.
07 Alignment between company and candidates
What you brand must be in alignment with the candidates you want to attract. If you want goal-oriented candidates, your company must reflect this.
Start by finding out about the company’s core values and the type of candidates you want – do you want employees who are not afraid to try new things? Or some that are more calculated? When you have a handle on the company’s core values and type of candidates, you must assess whether these fit together or whether some buttons need to be pushed.
There is no wrong answer, it’s just about being true to your company’s identity – or the identity you want to create.
Get started with the strategy
Even if you are not completely in control of your employer brand, you can do a lot to influence it. However, employer branding can be a tough nut to crack, and it can be difficult to discern which strategy leads to results. Let us help you find it.