The basics of Employer Branding
What is it and who needs it?
What is employer branding?
Employer branding is the advertising of a company as an employer.
In the same way that advertising is the concept of showing products to people who might potentially buy that product in the future, employer branding is the same. You are showing a company to people who might potentially apply for a job at that company in the future.
The aim of employer branding is essentially to portray such a powerful message and image of your company that you will stand out as an attractive employer proposition to the right candidates and they will want to work at your company. You’re trying to create die hard fans of your brand who see your company as the perfect employer for them. Want to get an idea for what other brands are doing? Here’s some inspo for the different ways brands can convey their employer branding message.
There are some very compelling statistics out there as to why you can financially benefit from employer brand. For example, strong employer brand reduces turnover by 28% and cost per hire by 50%. In fact it’s working so well that budgets for employer branding are increasing by 10% year on year. We’ve got an ever-growing list of very useful statistics and persuasive evidence of how effective employer branding can be free and available here.
Who needs employer branding?
The general rule is that there are two types of businesses (B2C and B2B) and both need employer branding but on different levels.
B2C are lucky because employer branding is often a byproduct of people using their products and services. Lots of consumer brands have queues of people desperate to work for them because they are enormous fans of the products they create. For example, if you want to work in the music industry and use Spotify all the time, it’s likely that they would be high on your list as a very desirable employer.
B2B have to be more strategic about their employer branding because on the whole, they operate in the background so they have to shout to be seen. So they have to work extra hard. If you want to work in the music industry but you have never come across music data analytics, you wouldn’t be aware that exists as an option, never mind knowing the different employers you could work for.
Ok, I’m in. Where do I start?
Well, now you need to decide how early you want to start your employer branding messaging (here’s a list of the 5 core employer branding messages, in case you want to brush up). Your strategy and messaging will depend on the stage your target audience are at.
Luckily, I’ve written an article all about ‘When’s the right time to start Employer Branding?’.
Sam is CEO & Co-Founder of ERIC and is an employer branding expert (especially when it comes to targeting Gen Z talent).
Want to know the latest in employer branding news & practice? I’ve got an ever-growing list of very useful statistics and persuasive evidence of how effective employer branding can be free and available here (email me for the password at sam@meet-eric.com).
