9 Genuine Practices to Bolster your Employer Brand (7 Mins Read)

An attractive and strong employer brand can make your company stand out from the crowd in today’s competitive hiring market. An insight into the company’s culture, career progression and the colleagues with whom they would work is now a must for the job seekers. The in house recruitment function has a big opportunity here to be a key influencer of the employer brand and make sure that your company attract the top talent.

The employers must be open all the time in using new and different strategies to help them recruit the best talent out there. In order to achieve that establishing, nurturing and maintaining a strong employer brand is one of the best and highly effective ways to attract the top candidates.

But, how you communicate your company’s culture is the key to your recruitment process. Here are some major steps which you can take to develop an attractive and strong employer brand.

1. Be honest

Your company’s leadership has a significant impact on both the company culture and how happy the employees are in their roles. Research shows that an employee’s perception of an honest and authentic leadership is the strongest predictor of the employee’s job satisfaction, commitment towards the organisation and their happiness at work. Being a good leader doesn’t mean putting on a new personality. The key is in being authentic in your style which will come from your experiences, values and strengths. Your authenticity will help you in addressing the voices of employees and amplify your message and the values of the company. Most often, trust is an issue when it comes to allowing your employees to openly discuss about the organisation, but it shouldn’t be if you are honest and authentic.

It doesn’t matter if you like it or not, your people will be sharing and discussing their experiences of working for you on the social media. Instead of trying to control or stop them from doing so, you should use these conversations to communicate your strong employer brand.

2. Be transparent

Today the websites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor have completely changed the way people hunt for the jobs. Now, only the companies with motivated, happy and well looked after employees will flourish, while those companies which fail to appreciate the benefits of openness and transparency will suffer badly. If you’re not portraying an accurate image of what it’s like to work in your company then you may be missing the whole point of your employer branding. If it’s relevant to what you do in an organisation, then the people affected must have a right to know. Most often, the critical details regarding the decisions and operations are divulged only on a need to know basis.

Your employee’s (and ex-employee’s) reviews of your company can work as a hugely powerful marketing tool – but, if it’s negative, then it can seriously damage your reputation. The potential customers are more interested in your employer brand now than ever before and taking a more value based approach to business is getting increasingly popular day by day.

Using images of the real staff on your website, rather than the stock imagery, is one of the biggest examples of how to improve the transparency and authenticity of your employer brand. You should also consider including real quotes and stories from your current employees about what it’s like to work in your organisation.

3. Be humane

When a candidate is deciding which roles to apply for, they’ll want to see that your company has a human or humane side to it. People are attracted towards other people whom they like – not faceless corporations or companies. Therefore, showcasing a strong brand personality, thinking like a human being and focusing on the relationships are some of the most important elements in creating a strong and authentic employer brand. Human contact is very essential for an employer brand which means for example how easy is it to contact your recruitment or the HR team.

Another great way to communicate with the potential candidates is through the online conversations. Offering some advice, answering few questions and asking for some opinions are all important elements in sharing and promoting your company’s human side. Your staff too can get involved with this, using their own personal brand to strengthen your messaging and showcase the amazing people you work with. Sharing of the social updates in real time, rather than scheduling all of your content, allows you to tell your company’s story as it happens. These immediate contents also add a human element as these are usually candid and ‘real’. Posting the photos of your employees having fun at the office, social events and showcasing the general culture of your workplace will give a real insight into your company’s culture. Using the same language which you use in a real life conversation while sharing the content shows a more human side of your company.

4. Always ask for feedback and act on it

There are many ways to ask for a feedback from your employees, which includes the regular departmental meetings or in company wide meetings or through anonymous employee feedback surveys. The staff should always feel that they are welcome to offer their advice and feedback without reprisal. If there is no trust between the workers and leaders then honest feedback can’t be expected and won’t be forthcoming. You have to always remember that  inviting and asking for feedback is only the first step in the process: following up on the comments and suggestions from the employees must be something which as an employer, you’re seen to be doing consistently.

As the trust between your employees and the leaders strengthen, so too will be the honesty of the feedback you receive – allowing you to further improve your employer brand and the working culture. 

5. Employees first

Treating your people with respect and valuing their contributions is extremely crucial if you want to have a strong and authentic employer brand. Needless to mention that finding and retaining the top talent isn’t easy or economical: one study estimated that every time a company replaces an employee, it costs the company six to nine month’s salary, on an average. Employees need to feel that they’re trusted to perform by themselves to a certain extent. So, employers should give them a sense of control by offering options for how, where and when they would work. Perhaps they would want to use a personal device for specific tasks, want more choices for working remotely or need flexible hours.

When your employees are happy, then they are more invested in your company’s success. So, this strategy is invaluable. 

6. Flexible rules

Workers expect the employers to offer flexible working options now in order to improve the work life balance and allow personal obligations to be accommodated. Being flexible with the employees is actually good for your business. It helps in building the trust of the employee, helps attract and retain top talent and drives everyone to collaborate in order to find the solutions which work for all those involved.

There are many employers who worry that letting the employees choose their own hours of work remotely may lead to a disengaged workforce. But, as long as the leaders create accountability, flexible environments actually benefit the organisation just as much as they benefit the employees. Offering the flexibility can actually have a significant positive impact on the morale, productivity, loyalty and retention of the top talent. Different religions, cultures and differing employee needs mean that today’s employers should embrace and accommodate diversity. Being flexible enables your brand to accept and accommodate the needs of your diverse workforce more heartily.

7. Let the employees have fun

Today we spend so much time at work, so it makes sense to have a bit of fun at our workplace wherever and whenever possible. This fun doesn’t only result in smiles and laughs – it also brings a huge increase in the workplace productivity and happiness. An enjoyable workplace makes the individuals perform better in almost every aspect of their lives and contributes to their wellbeing.

The hosting of themed events or competitions around the festivities is a great way to encourage the staff to have fun and connect with their colleagues. Having fun at work gives the employees something very positive to talk about and share on the social media. These happy stories are a great boost for both, your marketing and employer branding efforts and appealing to the prospective staff and the customers alike.

8. Learn from the successes and failures

Employer branding has never been stagnant. There are always new and emerging trends, advancements in technology and differences of opinion about what works and what doesn’t. In order to maintain and improve the employer brand it’s extremely important that you learn from your experiences, mistakes and the feedbacks and apply that knowledge to continuously improve, adapt and create new strategies.

Scheduling a feedback session for the new employees will give you an insight into any changes which are required in the onboarding process, as well as what works well. Don’t be afraid to try new strategies as resting on your past laurels is a sureshot way to fall behind in the competition and lose out on the top talent.

9. Have a nice and pleasant work environment

We spend quite a good number of hours daily in the office, so the workplace should be nice and comforting from all the angles for our body, mind and spirit. Collaborative spaces, healthy lunches and quiet zones are all examples of how a company can improve the working environment for its employees. The better the workplace, the more productive and happier your employees will be. Even if your employees are increasingly working from remote locations, it’s very important to make the office a pleasant place to be for those employees who are working in it.

A pleasant environment includes:

• Keeping the temperature inside the office at a pleasant level
• Using colours and artworks strategically which brightens the mood
• Having small plants inside the office and ensuring there’s plenty of natural light coming in
• Offering free tea and coffee and healthy snacks such as fruits if possible
• Keeping the washrooms clean and sanitized – you might also want to consider stocking them with essentials like deodorants and hand moisturisers.

SUMMARY:

By this time all of us have understood and come to know that there’s actually no wrong way to create an employer brand. Every company is different and unique which will find different techniques and strategies that work best for them and those tactics will undoubtedly change over a period of time. Keeping the employer branding on the top of mind will help you to create content naturally which genuinely reflect the great company and the culture you have. Employer branding is never stagnant so continue improving your employer brand for the benefit of all in the business.