Employer Branding: How to build a brand for hiring

Building a strong employer brand can often be overlooked. However, it is crucial for a top recruitment and retention strategy to develop robust employer branding that will set you apart from your competitors. An employer brand is the way an organisation can differentiate themselves in the jobs market. It enables them to attract, hire, retain and engage the right people (CIPD).

Why does having a good employer brand matter?
Building a strong employer brand matters as it:

• Establishes a strong reputation which positively impacts hiring
• Leverages competitive advantage as you differentiate yourself to competitors
• Increases interest from candidates when hiring
• Increases loyalty and engagement, as well as retention from employees
• Improves brand credibility
• Reduced costs such as recruitment and turnover costs
• Displays consistency

How can you build a strong employer brand?
There’re many ways to build a strong employer brand, including:

• Increasing your social media presence
• Entering business awards
• Acquiring testimonials
• Attending networking events
• Maximising on PR Opportunities
• Utilising job boards / review sites
• Participating in CSR activities
• Reviewing your employee benefits
• Enhancing your website

Entering awards
Entering business awards allow you to showcase your business and receive the positive recognition it deserves. They highlight all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes, as well as successes. This can increase your brand awareness, recognition and visibility. When it comes to hiring, more candidates will be attracted to your firm as they have seen the business be represented well in a well-respected setting such as an award ceremony. Not to mention, who doesn’t want to work for an award-winning company? Winning awards, or even being finalists, gets you ahead of competitors, which will do wonders when it comes to your recruitment strategy.

Social media presence
Using social media consistently is key to building a strong employer brand. There is no point in posting the odd thing here or there. Consistency on social media can promote your company positively when used correctly. When it comes to hiring, social media is one of the first things a potential candidate goes to, to research about your firm. Do you post consistently? Do you have a theme? Is your content engaging and relevant? If the answer is no to these questions, then a potential candidate will struggle to be engaged with your company based on lack of presence.

Consult with your marketing team and develop a content a content strategy. Also, involve all your employees, incentivise them to be active and post on LinkedIn.

Stand out employee benefits
Having employee benefits that differentiate from competitors sets you miles ahead when it comes to hiring. Job seekers will associate the best benefits with your brand as you establish your firm as one that sets themselves apart when it comes to employee treatment and benefits. In our annual Employment Trends Survey 2024, we found that 89% of people collectively consider employee benefits when applying for jobs. From this, it’s clear that being open about employee benefits and having them stand out from competitors makes your employee brand more transparent. Therefore, potential candidates are attracted to your firm from the get-go.

Testimonials
Testimonials from both clients, customers and employees build credibility.

There’re many ways you can collect feedback from clients or customers, including:

• Feedback survey – create a survey that can be emailed or physically completed at the end of your survey.
• Google reviews – send them a direct link to your Google profile to leave a review for your company on Google. A review link can be generated from your Google My Business account.
  Also, you incentivise people to leave a review through prize drawers and competitions.

Job Boards / Review Sites

Be active on job boards and review sites by responding to reviews and taking ownership of your company profile. Make sure you have an active company profile on all the review sites that your customers, clients and employees use. Furthermore, complete the company profile section on the job boards that you use to advertise your job vacancies. Many job boards and review sites will allow you to upload your company logo and add a company bio. Some review sites that customers / clients will use to review your services include Google Reviews and Trustpilot. In addition, there’s review sites for workers to review you as an employer, which include Glassdoor and job boards like Indeed.

Your website – add an Work for Us / Careers section
This is a key part of employer branding that businesses often miss, and is one of the most important parts of attracting people to work for you. When people are preparing for job interviews viewing the company’s website is often one of the first things that they will do. Also, if you are well-known in your geographic or are focussing on building your brand reputation, people are likely to research your company to see if there’s any job vacancies. As a result, it’s important to have an engaging and attractive careers section on your website.

There’re many elements that you can add to a careers section on your website, including:

• An overview of your company, company culture, values, and what it is like working at the firm.
• Information on the benefits of working at the firm and the benefits package you offer.
• Latest job vacancies.
• Employee testimonials.
• Photos / videos of your premises, teams and working environment, especially if you have a modern or unique office / working environment.

In addition, having a modern, easy to navigate website with a meet the team page will be beneficial for when you are hiring. Furthermore, it will help you stand out to customers and help sell your services.

Networking
Attending networking events are beneficial for connecting with professionals who you might like to employ in future. Search for both local business and wider sector specify networking events to attend. Networking events are great for increasing your brand’s visibility, building a positive reputation and building working connections in the business community.

Furthermore, if you have a large or quirky office space you could host your own networking events. Alternatively, you could offer the space to your local Chamber of Commerce or business networking groups for their networking events.

CSR Activities
Aside from giving back, conducting charitable and CSR activities will enhance your company’s reputation and position your firm as a caring employer. Your employees’ values are more likely to align with your company if the firm’s culture is based on more than just making a profit. Also, teams within the firm can get involved in charitable and CSR activities, which will boost team morale and teamwork.

PR Opportunities
Maximising on PR opportunities will enhance your brand reputation and raise awareness of your company in your local geographic and sector. Getting published in the press will enhance your employer brand and it isn’t as difficult as you may think, as long as you have a newsworthy angle. It could be that you are hiring due to expansion or that you are hoping to raise £10,000 for a local charity, for example. The key is to ensure that it is newsworthy, and your content isn’t just an advert selling your services.

If you have a company blog giving advice away, these blogs can be turned into articles, then sent to the media. For business-to-business (B2B) firms, utilise your Chamber of Commerce, Business Networks and business news publications.

Advice on your employer branding
If you would like to discuss employer branding in more detail or would like tailored advice on your recruitment plans please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected] or on 01524 34400. We’re dedicated recruitment specialists with over 100 years of combined experience in Law, Finance and Financial Services.