Attracting Top Talent With a Strong Employer Brand

Post-pandemic competition between businesses for talented candidates is at an all-time high.

Reuters report that 93% of small business owners have fewer or no suitable candidates for their vacant positions, so what does this tell you?

Employers must stand out among their competitors in a candidate-driven job market as attractive and compelling workplace places.

Employer Brand

Employer branding plays a more pivotal role in attracting the type of talent required to help a company excel.

Due to social media, HR and hiring managers now better understand the impact the business brand can have on attracting and retaining top talent.

For example, when thinking about solid employer brands, there are many. However, it’s worth mentioning that Salesforce, Zappos, and Hubspot have worked out they need to focus on employee experience and market their success to attract top candidates.

Did you know 92% of employees would leave their current job for a role at a company with an excellent reputation?

This statistic is enough to keep you awake as it means the majority of your company would take an interview if a recruiter from a top company sent them a note on LinkedIn.

Use Social Media

So what is the fix for your business? Start crafting your strong employer brand and promoting that image through LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Facebook, and other social media platforms.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, i.e., start from nothing, as successful businesses are using this strategy, and you can learn how your company can also stand out as an employer of choice to attract the candidates you want.

Recruiting and Marketing should work together on content

To add to this idea, 86% of those in HR think recruitment is becoming increasingly similar to marketing.

Content is king and needs to be appealing and engage on a personal level.

Candidates increasingly use social media to find positions and learn more about the companies they want to join. This is an opportunity for businesses to share engaging stories about adding value to their employees and have more authentic conversations with candidates.

When developing or revamping your employer brand, it’s imperative to focus on the following:

Create an engaging employee experience

The first step to creating a strong employer brand is to create an engaging employee experience. It all starts here. If your employees are authentically engaged, they’ll be more likely to evangelize their experience on social media and their networks, helping you expand your hiring pipeline.

Culture of inclusion

Creating an engaging employee experience takes a real investment in talent.

HR and company leaders should strive to create a culture of inclusion, belonging, and empathy to ensure that employees feel comfortable bringing their whole selves to work. It also means fostering connections throughout the organization and supporting an environment of transparency and communication.

What are you doing to excite employees to work at your organization?

A potent combination of learning and development opportunities, comp and benefits packages, and events or programs that support employee socialization and development goes a long way toward engaging employees and making them excited to be at work.

Consider every touchpoint in your hiring process.

Employer branding also consists of every aspect of the hiring process.

Did you know 6 out of 10 job hunters have given up on an application that was too long or complex?

An unnecessarily long or clunky application process can discourage a candidate who otherwise would have been excited to work at your organization.

The hiring process is a candidate’s first experience with their employee experience. Therefore if it’s outdated or takes too long to respond to a candidate, they might get the impression that they’re not a priority or that the company doesn’t prioritize innovation. Information for potential candidates should be clearly communicated on the company’s website, and the application process should be simple.

By following up with candidates quickly to let them know the next steps, you’re proving that you respect the time they’ve taken to apply. Intentionally creating a positive candidate experience goes a long way toward building trust with the talent you want to attract.

Communicate your efforts in-house and online

Partnering with your marketing team to highlight your efforts throughout the organization and online can increase positive attention towards your employer brand to attract top talent. Marketing teams are experts in messaging and communication. They can help HR teams share successes or the results of cultural initiatives more effectively, inspiring more employees to share the great things your organization is doing.

Brand awareness campaigns can highlight your company as an employer of choice on social media, helping qualified candidates find you with minimal legwork.

Working smarter

Businesses need to work smarter to attract top talent. Bridge the gap by using marketing resources.

Marketing can help refine messaging for specific role demographics. For example, machine learning specialists might have a different focus than finance candidates, so it’s essential to know how to reach both with your content. This is also true across generations and locations.

By tapping marketing resources to communicate internally and externally, you’ll have a much easier time sharing your message across different candidate personas to find the ones that are the best fit for your company.

Summing Up

First impressions are everything, and this is especially true when you’re trying to attract top talent.

Highly qualified candidates know they are in demand and are no longer swayed by hefty compensation packages. They want to partner with a company that will provide a holistically engaging experience and supports them in doing their best work.

Promoting an authentic and engaging employer brand on social media attracts the top talent that helps you continue to add to that brand: it’s a win-win situation.

Use marketing to craft content that appeals to and engages with candidates.