We asked HR managers and business leaders to share their best insights on actionable employer branding initiatives to help you develop a strong reputation. From testing brand messages to encouraging employees to share their experiences, here are several initiatives that companies must actualize to develop an employer brand that readily wins over candidates.
Make Employee Benefits Part of Your Brand
Now more than ever, employers need to connect with their workforce in a meaningful way. Employers should look for ways to engage with employees year-round through an employee resource center, or microsite, that showcases their unique employee benefits, onboarding materials, supplemental health and wellness information and DEI initiatives.
Another great way to boost excitement around the experience is to add a personalized, branded welcome video, something that captures the energy of the company and culture. A well-designed employee benefits portal can boost engagement with your brand, create a strong culture and increase workers’ appreciation for all the fantastic benefits you offer.
Heather Smith
CPO and Senior Account Executive, Flimp Communications
Build a Creative Work Environment
Brand your business as a place with the freedom to create. Establish an environment of creativity to empower team members to collaborate and invest in their work. Unlock the creativity of every team member by removing obstacles that prevent creative and efficient workflows. Giving people creative freedom and encouraging collaboration can give everyone involved the feeling they are helping to create something special. Build up your people and give them room to thrive.
Stephen Skeel
Co-Founder, 7 Wonders
Develop an Employer Value Proposition
One actionable employment branding initiative that can help develop a strong employer brand is developing an employer value proposition (EVP). This is a clear statement that articulates the unique benefits and experiences that your company offers as an employer. The EVP can be used to attract and retain top talent, improve employee engagement and build a strong brand.
The key to developing a strong EVP is to truly understand what your employees value most about working for your company. This can be done through surveys, focus groups and interviews with current and former employees. Once you have a good understanding of your EVP, you can start to communicate it through your website, social media, job postings and other marketing materials. By taking the time to develop a strong EVP, you will be better able to build a strong employer brand that attracts and retains top talent.
Travis Lindemoen
Managing Director, nexus IT group
Offer Employee Wellbeing Programs
Offering employee wellbeing programs is one actionable initiative that can help develop a strong employer brand. Well-being programs can include health and wellness initiatives, employee assistance programs and employee resource groups. When employees feel supported and valued, they are more likely to feel satisfied at work and loyal to their company.
Admir Salcinovic
Co-Founder, Pricelisto
Develop Video or Blog Content Around Your Teams
Employer brands are very tough to grow because you’re essentially growing a company’s reputation in the workplace. That takes a lot of money, time and coordination. One way to develop a strong employer brand with faster time-to-result is to think niche, i.e., how can I grow my company’s reputation within the circles of influence that my teams are in? For example, if you’re a healthcare provider you probably have a big nursing team. Candidates who are in nursing won’t care too much about what your brand means to non-nurses like your admissions team or your IT team.
So, one step you can take is to develop video or blog content around your nursing team. You can do this by conducting interviews about topics that matter to nurses, using questions such as, “What tools are you using?” or “What does your average day look like?” Your recruiting or marketing teams can then publish and share this content, making your recruiting efforts more efficient.
Justin Vajko
Principal & Chief Strategy Guy, Dialog
Create a Careers Website for Your Company
One actionable employment branding initiative that can help develop a strong employer brand is to create a careers site for your company. A careers site is the first thing an applicant will see when they are looking for a job, and it’s an opportunity for you to make a great first impression on them. It should include information about the company and its mission statement, job listings, benefits information and other perks, as well as a section where candidates can upload their resume. This type of site can also serve as an archive of past employees’ experiences at your company, which can be helpful if you ever need to refer back to them during interviews or when talking with potential new hires.
Amer Hasovic
Content Writer, Love & Lavender
Demonstrate That Your Company Listens to Feedback
One thing that could help your employer brad is using statistics and data to “prove” that your company listens to feedback. Use data from company surveys, exit interviews and anonymous feedback to show that you listen and implement solutions suggested by employees. One of the most frustrating things for many employees is that they don’t believe they are listened to enough by management. By using this feedback as an employer branding initiative, potential talent will see this as a breath of fresh air and be more likely to be interested in joining your business. Everyone wants to be heard in the workplace!
Dawn Wood
HR Manager, Woodyatt Curtains
Focus on Employee Brand Messaging
Ensure your employment brand messaging is consistent across all platforms. This includes not only your company website, but also social media accounts, industry event attendances and more. Having consistent branding across these platforms helps demonstrate to potential employees that you are committed to improving the image of your company. Additionally, it can help build trust between your company and candidates.
Peter Beeda
COO, fhalend
Build Diversity and Inclusion into Your Brand
Companies should focus on building up and implementing DEI initiatives. Confronting and changing gender and racial disparities within your company is one step toward strengthening your brand. Many Millennials and Gen Z workers place high importance on a company’s culture and want to work for a company whose values they support.
A few ways to focus on DEI are to make sure the company’s career page shows different employee representation and uses gender-neutral language. When interviewing candidates, bring in a diverse group of employees to speak with them. When possible, create remote teams whose members are located in different countries, so that employees can gain an understanding of different cultures.
Serdar Ozenalp
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Ocoza
Ask Your Employees to Share Their Experiences
One of the best ways to entice others to work for your organization is to have great employee ambassadors. That said, for this to work, it has to be genuine. The best way to do this is to enable employees to share what they want to share and only to share if they feel comfortable doing so. You can ask those interested in sharing their experiences a set of questions, record short video clips, and use those to support sharing more about what it is truly like to work at the organization.
Vanesa Cotlar
Head of People, PolicyMe
