If you are a business owner, you surely have heard about corporate branding. But, have you heard of employer branding?
Here is the perfect place to find out.
Employer branding includes the market’s perceptions of the company as an employer. It is also what you offer to prospective employees in exchange for their skills, experience and many more.
To put it simply, employer branding is the way you present your company to job seekers. It should reflect the essence of the company, its uniqueness as well as its aspirations.
Your employer brand should reflect that your organisation is a great employer and a good place to work with.
This is to make sure that you attract valuable prospective employees which will aid your company to grow.
Are you clear on the meaning of employer branding?
Great, we are now step closer to what you seek for from this article.
Before we jump into the strategies to employer branding, let us first look into the importance of employer branding to your company.
Why is Employer Branding is Important
With a good employer brand, your company will be able to attract job seekers who seek the same value as your company.
Your employer brand also helps to convey the reputation of your company as a place to work at, which then will increase recruitment efforts.
How does this happen?
If your company lives up to your promise, a positive reputation about your company will be spread word-to-mouth by your employees.
Many prospective job seekers will be interested in joining your company which then will contribute to a positive growth in the company.
From that, your company will benefit from having a solid employer brand as people in the industry have perceived your company positively.
Now that we have looked into the general concept of employer branding, let us look into some strategies to establish a solid employer brand.
READ MORE: 10 Classic Ways to Showcase Your Corporate Identity
Employer Branding Strategies
1. Identify The Company’s Needs and Values
Every branding strategy should be tailored to the company’s needs and value within the market. Therefore, ask yourself, what does your company value?
Unlike corporate branding, employer branding requires you to present your company’s values and needs to the job seeker. You would want to have an employee with the same mindset as your company.
Therefore, with the visions, missions as well as the message your company aims to deliver to the public, divert the values into what you seek in employees.
For example, if your company aims to provide innovative digital solutions in the industry, you would want to tell the job seekers that you are searching for innovative individuals.
At the same time, try to also deliver on your workplace culture.
Following the previous example, you would want to present your company as a company who embraces innovative ideas in order to provide for the best.
With the statement, like-minded job seekers will get the idea that their ideas will be valued in order to improve the company’s products or services.
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2. Conduct Employee Brand Audit
If you are going to set a reputation for your company, it is important to know how people perceive your company at the current moment.
Most of the time, you are not aware of what people think of our company.
Employee brand audit helps for employers to be aware of the current reputation of the company, especially among employees.
To do that, try sending out internal surveys or check the reviews of your company at sites such as Glassdoor. You could also try hiring a firm that offers reputation monitoring services.
So, how does employee brand audit help with your employer brand?
As mentioned before, the first benefit would be that you get to be aware of your company’s current reputation. It provides information in order for you to plan some improvements for your company.
Other than that, employee brand audit also helps to highlight your employee’s favourite aspect of the company.
Therefore, when presenting your employer brand, you can highlight the aspect as one of the qualities that job seekers seek in a company.
With a thorough employee brand audit, you will manage to understand an outsider’s perspective of your company and plan your employer branding strategy around the information.
READ MORE: How to Create a Company Profile that Produces ROI for Your Business?
3. Prepare Employee Value Proposition
As you discover your reputation through employer brand audit, it is now time to utilise the information to good use.
It is now time to craft your employer value proposition.
The question now is, what should you include in your employer value proposition?
The employer value proposition includes a marketing message as well as the company’s aspirations and promises.
Your employer value proposition should be based on the truth and information you have gathered. You would not want to make up stories, as it is not a good look to your current employees.
In crafting your employer value proposition, it is important to focus on evoking meaningful feelings among your future candidates.
For example, try highlighting how impactful their contributions would be if they joined the team.
With the messages, it will then provide your prospective employees with work satisfaction as they feel that they are doing something meaningful to the work.
4. Offer Learning and Development Opportunities
Many job seekers, especially new graduates, seek learning and development opportunities in their prospective job.
Therefore, it would be wise to start sketching some plan to fulfil the need.
Why is learning and development opportunities important to job seekers? This is because people in general like challenges.
Ever since we were little, we were taught to upgrade ourselves year by year at school.
We do not learn the same thing throughout our school years, instead we learn a higher level of education as we grow older.
Hence, when people are stuck at the same level for a long time, they get bored and decide to leave the job. There is no opportunity for them to develop themselves into better people.
By providing learning and development opportunities, there is a high chance for your employees to stay longer at your company.
Other than that, as their skills improve under your company, they will also become valuable for your company’s growth.
Your employer brand will also be recognised as the company who emphasises employees’ growth which will sure to appeal to many job seekers.
READ MORE: What is Branding: How branding helps SMEs in Malaysia?
5. Highlight Positive Workplace Culture
As mentioned before, your employer brand audit will help in delivering information on your company’s current reputation. It will also provide an opportunity for you to plan for improvements in the company.
Therefore, when strategizing for further improvements, try to include a positive workplace culture that will attract prospective job seekers.
For example, since Malaysia is a multiethnic country, try highlighting your company to be committed in building a diverse team.
Some people are attracted to such culture, as it aligns with their value in life.
Other than that, try appealing to how your company runs from the inside.
Particular systems used in the company will attract like-minded candidates to your company, as it might fit the systems they used in life.
Therefore, if you are building your employer brand, try emphasising a positive work culture that might attract the perfect candidate for your company.
With great employees, your company will be able to grow further in the market.
6. Be Creative when Presenting your Employer Brand
As you are presenting your employer brand to the public, it is important to do it creatively. This is so that people are interested in considering your company as their employer.
Your presentation should convey your company’s objectives and aims in the market.
For example, if your company provides graphic design services, it is important to provide a visually appealing presentation to your prospective employees.
In the era of technology, there are so many means to spreading awareness for your company. Do not limit your employer branding process to only one social media platform, instead try to be active on multiple platforms.
This is to make sure that your employer brand is noticeable by multiple audiences on different platforms.
It is generally known that people prefer one platform over the other, so try to appeal your brand to the audience on every platform possible.
Other than that, when presenting your employer brand, it is important to utilise every form of media. Use videos, photos, blogs, slideshows and many more to convey your company’s messages, aspirations as well as promises.
A word from the company owner will also attract prospective job seekers as they are able to perceive the company from the higher-ups itself. It adds to the credibility of the company itself.
READ MORE: Brand Building Strategies for Malaysia SMEs on a Budget
If you are troubled in establishing your employer brand, consider reaching out to our team of experts.
Walk Production is a full-fledged Malaysia branding agency with extensively detailed branding service. Here, we are always ready to assist you with your employer branding inquiries.
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