Last Updated on Feb 2, 2020 by James W
Employer branding is the process by which employers stand out while recruiting candidates. Every company wants to have the best talent, but does that talent want to go to the so-called best companies? This is where now the employer branding comes into the picture, as we will elaborate on this later in the article.
Some of the best employers in the world are always branding themselves to get the best candidates. They set up the right processes, have crystal clear procedures, and are generally considered employee-friendly. While salaries are necessary, employee-friendly companies go several steps further- they make the employee the centrepiece of all activity. These organisations are people-centric, and while performance is the ultimate yardstick, employee satisfaction is no less critical.
In brief, employer branding is all about what an employer thinks about your company as a recruiter.
Necessarily, there are six elements of employer branding. These are:
- Get a clear understanding of what your employer brand is all about
- Clear values and mission of the company- create and communicate
- Defining employee value propositions for different employee groups.
- Promote your efforts for external recognition
- Share your employee stories
- Use social media effectively.
To know more about how employer branding works for your company, here is an excellent resource. There is another term related to employers and employees, and it is called employee branding. This is the process by which employees ingest the image of the brand they work for. There is an effort on the part of the employees to be seen as an integral part of their parent organisations.
The layman’s definition of employee branding is getting employees on board with the very core of the company. The organisation is all about the people it has, and if the people are not in agreement with the quality of the services of the organisation, the business model will not shine!
You can achieve optimal employee branding by undertaking these three steps:
- Educating your employees on your company’s core values, mission, etc.
- Building bridges or creating alliances between employees and the company products or services
- Broadcasting and sharing notable wins and success stories
- Clear communication and correspondence to build trust and transparency
- Taking instant feedback so that corrective steps can be taken
In short, employee branding is about building bridges between the company and the employee, so that the latter becomes a brand ambassador of his employer. Are the two forms of branding inter-connected?
Definitely yes. It is the employee who is in the centre of both the two activities. In employer branding, he is roped inside a ‘desired organisation’. Once he is inside the system, the same employee becomes the brand ambassador of his employer. Therefore, in one situation, he becomes a target, while in the other, he becomes an instrument.
Benefits of employer branding:
- You get a better talent pool.
- Lesser cost of hiring
- Lesser time is taken to hire
- Engaged employees
To know more about this subject, click here. Let’s now look at the benefits of employee branding:
- The greater commitment of employees to brands
- More sales
- More profits
- Greater market share
- Overall, brand communication becomes sharper and more integrated.
If a company executes the employer branding strategy correctly, it gets the best talents. But, for them to retain the best, it is essential that the recruits feel like they belong to a broader community of talented recruits. This is where employee branding comes into the picture.
If a company does employee branding right, they would have a community of people sharing the dedication for their employer, which would aid in creating more business and reputation for the organisation. The more steemed a company is, the more likely would someone prefer to work there, and thus, directly enhancing its employer branding strategies too!
As battles for market share become even more heated, employees will become even more critical. Companies will go an extra mile to retain their prized employees and later convert them into valued assets. Employees will become brand extensions and add to the marketing muscle.
