Companies go into the business of what they do for many reasons. However, irrespective of their objective, businesses must be profitable to remain functional, relevant, and maintain a sustainable business model. In pursuing this objective, organizations use various tactics and strategies; some tactics more expensive and capital consuming than the other. Nevertheless, most companies are beginning to understand the importance of employer brand and how this impacts not only employee recruitment but also business profitability.
Employer brand refers to a company’s reputation among job seekers or candidates. It’s what employees think of a particular organization. The reputation of an organization among candidates can make or mar an organization’s chances of securing top talents. In this regard, employee branding – the process of managing and influencing an organization’s reputation – can be an important asset to any organization when properly managed.
Without a good employer brand, a company does serious damage to its reputation; thereby, reducing the quality of candidates that passes through their recruitment process. It’s well known that the success of an organization hinges on the quality of its employees.
You might also be interested to read: What Is Employer Branding And Why Is It Important For The Success Of Your Organization
Importance of employer brand
The concept of employer brand gained mainstream publicity in the mid-90s. This was about the time when online job boards became popular. Ever since, the importance of employer branding has been closely tied to the evolution of the internet and social media platforms.
Nowadays, as candidates hunt for jobs, they tend to research the organization whose job vacancy posting interests them. Social media has made it quite easy for job seekers to find reviews and reports about the working environment of many organizations. From this information, candidates have an idea of what’s obtainable in an organization. As such, it’s in the interest of organizations, to ensure they have a positive employer brand. Otherwise, not only will they have a hard time with recruiting, but employee retention will also be a big challenge.
Here are some statistics that further highlight the importance of employee brand.
- 95% of candidates identify a company’s reputation as a key consideration when exploring career opportunities. In other words, almost every candidate will look into an organization’s reputation before they apply
- 66% of job seekers want to learn about a company’s culture and values. Candidates want to know if a company’s work environment suits them.
- 69% of candidates would reject an offer from a company with a bad employer brand even if they were unemployed. Firms simply can’t get away with having a bad reputation.
- Companies with a poor employer brand must offer a minimum of a 10% pay increase to attract top talent.
- 40% of passive candidates (employed people who are looking for new opportunities) would accept a new position without a pay increase if the company has a good employer brand.
- Exactly 23% or higher of workers aged between 18 and 34 would accept a pay cut to work in an organization with a good employer brand.
- Almost half (49%) of employees would recommend their employer to a friend. This means that almost half of all organizations have a reputation for treating their employees poorly.
These statistics are proof that employer brand impacts every aspect of the employer-employee relationship, be it recruitment, employee engagement, retention, or profitability.
How organizations can build a solid employer brand
Firms associate employer branding with recruitment, but that is only part of it. Employee engagement defines the company culture; therefore, it has a significant impact on a company’s brand. Now, as organizations operate virtually, maintaining company culture for a good employer brand has become tougher.
Here are ways firms can maintain a good employer brand.
Authenticity: The leadership of companies plays a crucial role in company culture and employee satisfaction. According to experts, an employee’s perception of the authenticity of business leadership is a vital predictor of their job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and workplace happiness. Essentially, if employees have a bad perception of these indicators, the employer brand of such a firm will suffer.
It’s obvious that the leaders and their leadership influence employer brand. As such, organizations must ensure they have the right people leading and managing daily affairs. When the leadership of a firm is authentic, employees will buy into the message the organization wants to pass across, and wholeheartedly maintain the company’s culture. This will translate to a positive employer brand for any firm.
Being humane: Gone are the days where maintaining a sort of facelessness made an organization revered (if ever there was a time as such). Today, people – customers and job seekers – want to see the human and humane side of an organization. They want to feel they’re communicating with people, not faceless organizations. Firms need to espouse a brand personality that focuses on building relationships and has a human side to it. These are all important ingredients to creating a strong employer brand message.
Organizations communicating with potential candidates using online conversations is a great way to showcase their humane side. By offering advice, answering questions, and asking for their opinions, firms will build a very strong connection with the outside world. This appeal to emotion will help any organization boost its employer brand.
Transparency: Maintaining transparency is also crucial to building a solid employer brand. The internet is flush with a myriad of job-hunting apps where job seekers can meet with employees from other firms. On these forums, people share information about the internal workings of the organization. If people have a feeling of a lack of transparency in a company, it will negatively impact its employer brand.
As a tradition, organizations divulge information on a need to know basis, and this is a bad strategy for a company looking to improve its employer branding. People need to know what they’re getting into. They want to know the experience working with an organization. If an organization makes a step that can impact the work environment, the people affected must know.
Without transparency, it will almost be impossible to build an employer brand. Even without the company saying anything, the information will come out through current and former employees. These stakeholders are massive tools for advertising and beefing up a company’s brand. When all they have are negative reviews, the employer brand will suffer.
References:
- 11 simple steps to improve your employer branding | Barry Chingnell | November 29, 2019
- Employer Branding: definition, benefits, and strategies | Built In
- Employer brand is the biggest asset: Netflix overtakes Google | Simran Oberoi | September 22, 2020
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