7 Examples of Great Employer Branding From Top Companies
What you'll learn
What you'll need
Employer branding covers all the activities to improve and manage your company's reputation amongst your future and current employees. Good employer branding results in a strong organization that can attract candidates and retains its best employees. If you want to improve yours, this guide will show you some employer branding examples from companies you can implement with your employer branding strategy.
Great talent is one of the most valuable assets for any company to succeed.
However, attracting, hiring, and retaining great employees is increasingly becoming a significant challenge for HR managers across industries and roles.
The talent-hiring market has too much noise to grab your ideal candidate's attention. Top candidates usually get hired within 10 days of seeking a new opportunity.
So what can you do so that the most sought-after candidates apply for your job openings over others?
One fundamental strategy that the top companies in the world have successfully utilized is building a strong employer brand.
Here are examples of employer branding you can use in your own business.
Examples of successful employer branding
1. Google
Google's employer branding is one of the strongest in the world.
Based on different studies, the company consistently ranks high in the "Best Places to Work" lists.
Every year the company receives more than 3 million resumes for a limited number of roles across functions.
They have, without a doubt, cracked the code to attract talent thanks to their exceptional employer branding strategies.
The company uses several methods to communicate and shape its employee experience narrative.
One notable example is the release of a feature film in 2013, The Internship, that showcases the experience of working as an intern at Google in a positive light.
It highlights the company's perks, like free food, spacious campus, and diverse workforce.
Studying Google's employer branding activities over the years is a great way to learn this employer marketing tool.
2. HubSpot
HubSpot is another excellent example of a company that has established itself as a formidable talent magnet by leveraging employer branding.
Employee referrals and inbound applications are the primary channels through which the organization fills its candidate pipeline.
Focus on an employee-centric work culture has been key to HubSpot's success in becoming a top employer brand in the technology sector.
They have a documented culture code in the form of a slide deck that is available for everyone, including potential employees, to access online.
The document has garnered millions of views and helped spread HubSpot's idea of what work culture should look like, strengthening its reputation as a top employer.
3. Chipotle
Chipotle has proven its strong employer branding by providing great benefits to their employees, higher wages, and pursuing to promote within the company for their employees to earn more and reach their career goals.
In 2021, Chipotle announced an accelerated job path that starts with higher starting wages for line workers and puts you on a plan to make $100,000 in four years or less.
This shows potential employees that the company cares about their financial and career path enough to show them how to make a six-figure salary in a few years.
Chipotle aims to fill 70% of their open manager positions with employees within the company, proving even more how they want to help you succeed.
They also offer tuition assistance and bonuses for successfully referring other employees to a manager position or for referring a new employee to become a crew member.
Source: Facebook
If you’ve been to a Chipotle, you feel the good energy from their employees as they prepare your food down the line. They know the company they work for cares about them, which shows in their work.
You can see some of their employee success stories on their Facebook page, Chipotle Careers.
4. Salesforce
Salesforce is consistently in the top 10 of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” every year, among other top awards for best places to work from Glassdoor and LinkedIn.
As a leader in the software industry, Salesforce prides itself on innovation, diversity, employee growth, and philanthropic work.
They especially thrive with their volunteer work by giving their employees seven paid days off every year to volunteer and being eligible for volunteer grant programs. The company also matches up to $5,000 in charitable donations annually.
Other work that the Salesforce philanthropic program has done with their employees is to adopt over 120 Circle Schools around the world and over 70,000 volunteer hours dedicated to helping teachers and students succeed in school.
Salesforce also wants their employees to blaze a new trail in the workplace, as they want their employees to love the company culture, equal gender pay, and dedication to helping their communities.
5. Zappos
Another great company regularly discussed for its charitable work and favorable company culture is Zappos.
As a shoe and apparel industry leader, Zappos partners with charities to donate and recycle shoes and clothing to those in need worldwide.
Their program, Zappos for Good, allows anyone to donate new or gently used clothing, helps reduce waste through their recycling program, and makes clothing donations for students in their Closets for Good program.
Besides their philanthropic work, they also give a transparent view of what it’s like to work at Zappos using their Twitter account, @ZapposCulture. Company culture is very important at Zappos; they show how they celebrate any holiday and employee appreciation events throughout the year.
6. General Electric
When you think of General Electric, you probably don’t think of a digital industrial company. But that is what they set out to do the past few years with their employer branding strategy.
On social media, their corporate pages are loaded with videos from their employees worldwide sharing their work, what they enjoy, and a bit of an inside look at what makes GE a leader in their industry.
In 2020, General Electric set a goal to hire and employ 20,000 women in technical STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) positions. To introduce this goal to their world, they created an employer branding video called “What If Scientists Were Celebrities” for their #BalanceTheEquation campaign that they first showcased at the 2017 Oscars.
This employer branding content resulted in nearly a million views of the video while showing the world their dedication to making General Electric an inclusive place to work for top talent.
7. Starbucks
A big part of Starbucks’ employer branding strategy is through user-generated content (UGC) on its Instagram social media profile, Starbucks Jobs. With UGC, current employees, job seekers, and potential candidates can see what it’s like working at Starbucks.
They also don’t see their employees as employees. Instead, they call them partners in their company.
They also use social media to celebrate their employees’ achievements, congratulate their employee partners on graduating through their 100% tuition coverage program, and share a Starbucks Jobs playlist on their YouTube channel to share success stories from current employees.
Starbucks knows that younger generations may research potential companies to work for on social media. This is why they strongly emphasize employee engagement and their work culture to show prospective candidates what it would look like working at Starbucks by creating brand ambassadors that share their experiences on social media.
How to implement these employer branding examples
As you can see, many of these companies with strong employer brand examples utilize social media and their employees to share their experiences and stories with the world.
So look at what your employees love about working with your company. What is the employer value proposition that other companies don’t have? Show potential employees what makes you stand out from other companies in your industry through your social media platforms and website.
Create volunteer programs or benefits for employees who want to give back to their community. Let others know about these benefits and programs by showing your employees in action on social media.
You need to take steps to develop an employer branding strategy that showcases your company goals, like employee retention, attracting top talent, developing a strong company culture, and so much more.
Final thoughts on employer branding examples
Learn from these companies and their examples to create your own unique employer branding benefits that separate you from your competition.
Give your current and prospective employees a reason to be proud to want to work with your company every day.
Not only does it create brand awareness, but it helps to create a company culture where people want to work and grow their careers within your company.
Start building a strong employer brand from these examples of companies doing it right, and you’ll be on your way to standing out from your competition when top talent job seekers are looking for a new career path.
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