We are used to thinking of marketing as that set of techniques which help the company to sell its products through brands. But, even before selling the products, the company must know how to do Employer Brandingi.e. know sell itself to potential candidates.
Human resources are an intangible asset, and attracting or retaining talent is not as simple as it seems, especially in a complicated working situation like the current one. But let’s take a step back to better understand the phenomenon.
What is employer branding?
The term employer brand, one of the main trends in the labor market today, was introduced at the end of the previous century, exactly in 1990, by Simon Barrowpresident of People in Business.
The intent of employer branding is to apply marketing and brand management techniques to resource management humanitywith the aim of enhancing the company’s reputation as an employer, effectively representing how the company sells itself to potential employees.
It represents to all intents and purposes a marketing activity that considers the workplace exactly as a brand, with the aim of enhancing the corporate identity for attract and maintain human resources over timewhich in this case constitute the reference target.
It is an activity that links communication to marketing and human resources, with the aim of showing the company as the best to aspire to in the workplace (best employment of choice).
Why is the reputation of the employer important?
Companies with a good reputation in the labor market are more likely to succeed inattract talent.
Before sending their application for a job, in fact, candidates carry out targeted research on the potential employer: according to a survey by Talent Now 84% of respondents said that the company’s reputation is critical, in turn, 80% of managers believe that employer branding has a significant impact on hiring.
Il involvement of employees represents a good sign of employer branding: if employees are satisfied it will be easier to retain them and they will be more inclined to “word of mouth”, one of the most effective forms of in the world.
Furthermore, 96% of companies agree that a good employer branding activity can have a positive effect on revenues.
Having a solid reputation allows you to retain talent: according to research by CR Magazine, 92% are willing to consider changing jobs if they receive an offer from a company with a good reputation.
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6 best practices for creating an employer branding strategy
- The first step is to evaluate the employee satisfaction. Recognition is the best way to motivate employees, 50% say that feeling appreciated has improved relationships with management, and 60% of companies admit that employee recognition is invaluable in improving business performance. Rewarding, in addition to the salary, positively affects the employee’s well-being and increases their sense of belonging, for example by offering training courses to grow, developing personalized career plans and maintaining fluid communication with and between employees.
- Define your own EVP (employee value proposition), the value proposition should answer the question “What does my company offer as an employer and how is it different from others?”. The best way to answer this is to interview your employees, asking what they value, what aspects of the job they enjoy, and why they chose to work for the company in question.
- Locate the candidate profile, understanding what the typical candidate is helps to improve their position and consequently individual satisfaction. In tracing the profile of the worker it is useful to ask yourself some simple questions: what are the main skills possessed, what type of personality does it reflect, the career goals he considers important, what frustrates him at work, etc.
- Create maps of contact points with the employee, it is particularly strategic in order not to lose the best employees over time, or even following the interview. In fact, a positive experience makes them inclined to accept the job with greater serenity.
- Create captivating content, which attract potential candidates to introduce themselves: blog and social media posts regarding corporate events, corporate culture, career growth opportunities, future company projects, testimonials from employees and exes with positive experience; make the training webinars promoted in the company available.
- Engage employees in content dissemination, companies whose employees participate in content dissemination enjoy a greater sense of external credibility, which can potentially lead to more job applications being received.
Difficulties in employer branding
Often the human resources sector does not have many economic resources, despite everything there are many companies that, if given the opportunity, would invest more in the employer’s marketing activities.
This also affects the employee involvement: A study shows that 1/4 of the employees surveyed say they do not feel aware of information from management. 40% underline that they are willing to share more content on social networks if only they were more informed.
Furthermore, it must be borne in mind that, especially following the Covid-19 pandemic, work no longer has distances. Much of it takes place remotely, between different parts of the world, so you need to know how to hire without borders and have a deep understanding of the culture of the various employees.
Just the experience of the Coronavirus made us reflect on the need to keep the focus on the present, as demonstrated by a seminar conducted by Jason AverbookCEO and co-founder of the HR consultancy Leaping.
The importance of having amabassador employees
The sharing of content on social networks, and not only, by employees, is an element of considerable importance. The last frontier, in question, is to make the worker an ambassador of the workplace.
The ambassador they are characters who, by virtue of their influence and interpersonal communication skills, manage to have an influence on others. They represent the “face” of the brand on communication channels, with a greater force than traditional , they allow to increase brand awareness and increase trust in the recipients.
As well as a well-known influencer, in the same way the employee might become the character that potential candidates might listen to the most. According to data from the survey conducted by Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust more those in their circle, only 1/3 say they trust traditional .
For most subjects, in a situation of over information, like that of contemporary society, in which it is tiring to manage the countless communicative stimuli, it is necessary to make a selection. In this case, the satisfied employee can set an example to follow.
Curiosity in numbers
86% of HR professionals surveyed indicated that recruiting is becoming increasingly similar to marketing, which is why employer branding is now considered a must-have activity for the company, in various aspects.
Employer marketing plays a huge role in the perception of candidates: 55% of job seekers say they abandon applications following reading negative reviews online, 50% say they would not work bad reputation, not even for a pay raise. A Bad reputation can cost a company up to 10% more per hire.
In addition to reputation, it can also positively affect turnover: almost 30% of job seekers left their job within the first 90 days of starting (indicating a misalignment between the candidate and the employer brand). By investing in employer branding, it might decrease turnover by 28%.
96% of companies believe that employer branding and reputation can have a positive impact on revenues, but less than half, just 44% monitor this impact. The top three channels in which companies intend to communicate their employer brand are, in order, the company website (69%), online professional networks (61%), social media (47%)
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