A companies Employer Brand is something different from its product or service brand.
Employer Brand is unique to each business and tells people what it’s like to work there. What is a business’s culture, what are its values and ethos? It’s what makes a business stand out as an employer of choice. It creates an organisation’s reputation as an employer.
Most large employers have a marketing team who will be responsible for creating employer brand as directed by HR or the business owners. A good employer brand must connect to organisational values, HR strategy and policies. You should be able to find out what it’s like to work for a particular employer from their website but there are other places to look to find true, credible and inspirational employer branding.
Websites
Have a look at the meet the team page. Hopefully you’ll find information about the people who work there. This could be telling you what their job involves as well as something about them as a person; really important when you could be working alongside that individual should you join the company.
Company websites will also hopefully tell you news about the company; awards they have won, details of any team training events or even a recent charity project they may have been involved with. Does the company value their staff? Are they showcasing how they train and develop their teams?
Social Media
Company pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are another great place to find out what a company and its workforce get involved with. A business should ask their staff to engage with them on social media and share photos and posts of things that help to build the employer brand. Company events, industry seminars that they may attend as well as ‘inside stories’ on what really happens in the workplace are the best types of posts. By showing ‘behind the scenes’, a potential employee will be better able to see themselves working in a particular role. They want to know what it’s really like to work there; will they be happy and enjoy their time at work? That’s top of their list behind salary, benefits and job title.
Blogging
Asking employees to write mini-blogs is a great way to spread the word on why a business is an employer of choice. These can be added to a company’s website and also linked back to via social media. Who best to tell people what a great place this is to work then the people who actually do!
Keeping Their People
A strong employer brand not only attracts the very best talent, it also ensures people already working within an organisation stay! Engaging and asking for existing employees feedback helps shape HR strategy and therefore policy and employer branding.
