Want to position yourself as a company that only the best talent should be working for? Here’s why you need to use an employer brand strategy.

Companies around the world are increasingly focusing on creating a strongly identifiable corporate brand. Having an employer brand might sound like just another buzzword that’s floating around the workplace industry, but identifying what it is that makes your company worth working for is important if you want to market and establish yourself as a workplace that holds incredible drawing power for potential candidates.

But what exactly is an employer brand?

During interviews, a common question recruiters and hiring managers often ask is: “why should we hire you?”

It’s a question that, at face value, seems so easy to answer but one that often trips people up. How do you present yourself in the best light? What makes you stand out?

This question is often asked to candidates, but what more employers are beginning to realise is that candidates have become far savvier and are asking the same question in return.

Building an employer brand allows companies to market themselves to candidates by not only positioning themselves as a working environment where employees can enjoy important and relevant job perks but one where the company’s culture and reputation becomes a big part of the enticement package.

READ MORE:Attention recruiters! Why you should include company culture in your job adverts

So why should you invest in your employer brand?

A solid environment and work culture mean happy employees. Happy employees often help the recruiting process through referrals. And according to Entrepreneur.com, the more positive the work experience for current employees are, the higher the rate of referrals are.

And through an engaging employer brand, you create a working environment where current and future job candidates are more likely to be more invested in the company’s future and would also be far likelier to be more productive and communicative in creating a balanced and communicative workflow all round.

This results in employees who will actively seek to refer only the best and most qualified candidates for your company.

Think about what you do and why you’re doing it

A good employer brand strategy would be to consider your current position. Think about your position and find out what needs to change internally in order to market yourself in a way that sees more value for money, doesn’t result in a turnover rate that has people questioning whether or not they really want to work for you and sees less money being spent on recruiting.

Consider the kind of brand you want to sell to candidates and create a narrative that reflects the values that align with what both current employees and future applicants look for in a corporate company.

You are your brand and your reputation matters – but cultivating that reputation starts by addressing and engaging with your current employees.

Through workshops, you can engage your employees in helping with the core pillars of what the company represents, what you want it to represent and what needs to be improved on. Engaged employees produce and generate referrals that often save more time in future recruitment processes.

READ MORE: How to recruit passive job seekers

Work culture goes a long way to cut down on high staff turnover rates Gone are the days where job candidates are merely seeking a role that ticks all the right boxes in terms of employment requirements. People look at track records and the environment that they’re going to be working in.

Does your company offer a competitive and market related salary with medical aid and retirement fund options? What is it that makes it fantastic to work for your company? And most importantly, what kind of opportunities for growth does your company offer?

Part of establishing an employer brand means providing candidates with an honest sense of what they can expect should they accept your job offer.

According to webrecruit.co.uk, employer branding also provides companies with the opportunity to engage with both active and passive job seekers by showing applicants the more human side of the company.

Job seekers are technologically shrewd which means that branding through the use of social media not only provides you with an opportunity to show candidates the voice behind the brand but also gives them a glimpse of what it’s like to work there.

So incorporate the use of both social and multimedia elements into your brand because, in addition to reaching immediate candidates, you’re also creating a consistent presence that will encourage people to want to work at your company even when you’re not hiring.

Contact our experts to assist with your employee value proposition. 

Writer | Tammy February