What Is Employer Branding and Why Is It so Important

A positive employer brand can make all the difference in attracting and retaining top talent in today’s competitive job market. 

In fact, according to a survey of HR professionals, 86% agree that recruitment is becoming more like marketing. Additionally, 50% of people say they wouldn’t consider working for a company with a negative reputation, even if offered a pay increase. 

Suppose your company is known as a great place to work. In that case, candidates will be more likely to view it as a place where they can excel and thrive, whether it’s for the salary and benefits packages, advancement opportunities, or fun events like happy hours. 

Since talented, motivated workers drive businesses forward, establishing your employer brand is critical to your company’s success.

Lastly, having a strong employer brand can also save you money. You could save as much as 50% per new hire!

So, how do you create a strong employer brand? 

In this post, you’ll learn more about employer branding and why it’s key to the success of your business.

What is employer branding?

Employer branding is how you present your company to potential employees. It involves marketing your company to people in hopes of attracting top job seekers to work for you. 

You can do this by showcasing:

• Your company’s unique traits
• What makes you special
• Your mission
• Your organizational culture 

Much like a corporate or personal brand, your employer brand is all about crafting how you want to be perceived by the public. However, in this case, it’s about how you’re perceived by job seekers and potential employees. 

According to Glassdoor, there are four components to a strong employer brand:

1. Culture
2. Employee opinions
3. Candidate opinions
4. Corporate opinions

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Essentially, your employer brand is the sum of:

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• Your culture
• Your public perception
• The opinions of your current and prospective employees

3 benefits of employer branding

Building and maintaining a strong employer brand has quite a few benefits. 

Not only can it save you money down the road, but it can also contribute exponentially to your overall growth and stability as a company.

Recruit and retain talent

People want to work for companies with established, positive reputations. They like to know they’re working for an organization that:

• Cares about their wellbeing
• Is mission-driven and focused 
• Provides a space where they can excel and thrive 

Your employer brand is where you set yourself apart as an employer, and it’s where you highlight the unique value you can offer your employees. This helps with recruitment because you’ll automatically attract talented people to your jobs. 

If you’ve crafted an effective brand, it also helps retain your employees, making them less inclined to leave and look for work elsewhere. 

Increase employee engagement

People want to be a part of something. Give them something cool and unique to participate in, and they’ll be more likely to get involved and stick around. 

Consider creating a fun, inclusive company culture when establishing your employer brand. For example, you can host company outings and events that build a sense of camaraderie and cohesion across your organization. 

Engaged employees are more productive, which leads to better outcomes across the board. 

Save on recruitment costs (cost per hire)

If your reputation precedes you, you don’t have to spend as much time, money, and energy recruiting. Instead, talent will come to you because they already know you and what you offer. 

This can save you a significant amount of money (as much as 50%!) per hire, which adds up to:

• A better bottom line
• Faster business growth
• More success for your company

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Think of Google, for example. They’ve crafted an incredibly strong employer brand. Even people who aren’t affiliated with them have a general idea of what it’s probably like to work there. 

Their organizational culture and value is well-known. After all, who doesn’t want to bring their dog to work and have access to food and other fun things as part of their job? 

84% of their employees believe they work in a positive environment, and 73% are proud to be a part of the Google brand. For a company of that size, that’s quite significant! 

How to optimize your employer brand

Convinced that you need to work on your employer brand? Great!

By keeping the following tips in mind, you’ll be able to craft strong employer branding and start attracting and retaining more employees. 

Create a strong EVP (employee value proposition)

A compelling employer value proposition focuses on the personal fulfillment or potential global good a job offers a potential candidate. It should be:

• Unique
• Tuned into the deeper motivations of why someone might want to join the team
• Focused on providing a superior work experience over compensation

Prioritizing meaning over compensation will help draw truly motivated and passionate people to your team and establish your employer brand in a meaningful context. 

Simply being the highest-paying employer isn’t enough to draw the best talent, and it won’t do much to develop your company culture. 

Use content and media to your advantage

How do you spread the word about your company? 

Think about the avenues you already use for your other marketing purposes, and then use them to build your employer brand. 

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. You can harness the power of your current social media channels and profiles to highlight your:

• Culture
• Policies
• Job postings
• Benefits 

All these things will help generate more awareness and interest in your company. 

Content marketing for job seekers

If you’re an employer who understands the importance of content marketing for job seekers, you know that a company blog can be a great way to attract talent. Potential employees often check out your organization’s blog to get to know you personally and learn more about your culture.

You can use your blog to share news about your company and articles written by employees or leaders in your organization. This way, candidates get to see what it’s like “behind the scenes”. 

Your blog can also highlight the unique people, practices, and programs that show your commitment to creating an awesome workplace for employees.

Use videos and photos to:

• Tell your company's story
• Celebrate diversity
• Show off your office spaces 

For example, a welcome video from your CEO or hiring manager is a great way to introduce the company to anyone who visits your website or is looking for a job.

If this sounds like a lot of extra work, don’t worry! 

You can take advantage of plenty of tools to make your life easier, such as Copy.ai’s technology. These tools instantly generate tons of written material based on just a few prompts. 

Give it a try for free and see how it can help you further your brand and reach more people. 

Hire from a diverse range of backgrounds

Who you hire says a lot about your company culture. 

Hiring people from different backgrounds means you're not only walking the walk as an equal-opportunity employer but also extending your brand’s reach. This is true with both customers and new employees.

It’s 2022, and it’s time to bridge the gap in minority representation in companies. Make sure your workplace is inclusive and welcoming to everyone, regardless of background.

Finally, make a dedicated effort to reach typically underrepresented groups, such as:

• People of color
• LGBTQIA+ individuals
• People with access to fewer resources, education, and employment opportunities 

Start from the inside out

It doesn’t matter how strong your employer brand looks on the outside if your company is rotting away internally. If your employees aren’t happy with the culture, your executives aren’t good at leadership, and your metaphorical ship is sinking, no one will want to sign on to that. 

So, start at home! 

Make sure to invest in your current employees with: 

• Quality onboarding
• Training
• Extended learning opportunities 
• A healthy, engaging, and positive workplace environment 

Doing these things goes a long way towards establishing a successful and effective employer brand.

Conclusion

If you’ve made it this far, you hopefully have a better grasp of employer branding, why it’s necessary, and the steps you can take today to improve your employer brand. 

The secret to attracting and retaining top employees is about marketing your company as a brand and emphasizing what makes you great. Focus on your culture, benefits, team, and why prospective hires should want to work for you. 

An employer brand is more than the union of its parts. It is the perspective that you want everyone to have when they think of working for your company. You are targeting a genuine and virtuous expression of your brand. To make it stick, you need buy-in from each level: from individual recruiters, to your executive team and everyone in between.

Finally, don’t forget to check out Copy.ai’s free copy generation tools to help jumpstart your employer branding journey! 

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