The employer brand, an essential role in achieving success by attracting the best candidates!

In the context of recent transformations in the labor market, generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as employees’ preferences to work as much as possible from home, declining membership in the organizational culture and according to the latest studies in the field, increasing staff turnover, companies must give an increased importance to the care towards its own employees but also on the way they are seen in the market.

Maintaining a good reputation, communicating organizational values, in a word the employer brand is an element that can make a difference between companies and can bring competitive advantages on one side or another, especially in a context of crisis, such as the one we have been through.

How important it is to have a strong employer brand during this period

The COVID-19 pandemic has somewhat changed the criteria for choosing a job, in the sense that now, candidates are much more careful about the safety of the job they are going to choose and the way companies have handled this atypical situation. in relation to its own employees.

Thus, empathy and care for employees, both in terms of physical and emotional well-being came first. Employers who have cultivated an internal climate based on communication and understanding the needs of employees throughout this period will benefit in the future. In addition, transparency at company level, flexibility in terms of work schedule and the inclusion in the salary package of specific benefits to meet current challenges; such as certain well-being sessions, coaching sessions or yoga, extended medical insurance are certainly attributes that increase the degree of retention of current employees and arouse the interest of market candidates.

All the things mentioned above are related to the development strategy of a strong employer brand. This aspect should be a must have for companies in this period, in which people with potential choose their employer not only according to the salary package, but also the way in which companies manage to overcome moments of crisis, how to communicate that they care about employees and how involved they are in building and maintaining a positive climate.

The benefits of building a strong employer brand

• Increasing the number of spontaneous applications. 95% of candidates see the company’s reputation as a key factor when looking for a new job
• Increasing the quality of recruited candidates. A strong employer brand can increase the number of qualified candidates by 50%
• Shortening recruitment time
• Reducing recruitment costs. Hiring costs are reduced by 50% if the employer has a strong brand

Tips for attracting and retaining talent in companies

Regardless of the specific period we are going through, building an employer brand is a long-term process, focused on well-defined actions. Below we have made a selection of the main actions, absolutely necessary for any company interested in permanently developing its brand and communicating as applied as possible with the different categories of stakeholders:

• Establish the profile of the ideal candidate. It is very important in the process of building the employer brand to try to achieve, as much as possible, a profile of the future employee and the necessary skills or roles that you may be missing from the company at the moment. In order to do this, it is necessary to first analyze the current employees and decide which of their attributes you want to be found in the profile of your future employees. Equally important are the company’s strategic objectives for the coming years and what kind of new employees can help you achieve these goals.
• Identify the most appropriate channels in communicating with the target audience. Another extremely important step is to decide on the channels you will use to communicate with the candidates. When choosing communication channels, you must take into account the profile of the ideal candidate you want to attract in the company and thus you will realize what is the most appropriate way to send the message so that it reaches directly to the target.
• Develop a constant presence on social media. Be proactive in using social media, publish stories from within the company, highlight its strengths and build an authentic and attractive employer brand reputation.
• Make sure your employees understand the importance of the employer brand. Every employee in your organization must understand the value of a strong employer brand in the success of the business, as well as the key role it plays in sustaining a consistent brand experience and an excellent reputation.
• Optimizes the use of branding channels. According to LinkedIn, in the top of the three channels that companies can use to build a strong employer brand are: the company’s website (69%), online professional networks (61%) or social media channels (47% ).
• Turn your employees into brand ambassadors. Employees can provide other people with valuable information about the company, related to both management and good practices, as well as the impact that the organization has on their lives.
• Develops a consistent CSR action policy in accordance with brand values.

The employer brand is also important for current employees

Although most discussions regarding the employer brand focus on attracting new talent, companies can also use this branding to retain current employees.

It is about keeping the promise made at employment and materializing the expectations of those who trusted the company. The employees of a company are the best ambassadors that it can have and often the most reliable sources for outsiders. They are the company’s representatives and they will build its image for all interested actors, either potential customers or potential employees. Retention is ultimately a matter of aligning the skills, personalities and particularities of current and future employees to the organizational culture of the company. This is where the employer brand intervenes, the organizational culture being formed with the help of the constant monitoring of the echo that the employer brand message has internally.

Among the most consistent benefits obtained from building an employer brand in relation with the current employees are the increasing of the level of existing employees’ satisfaction and reducing staff turnover. Thus, once a company has satisfied employees, they can be a magnet for attracting new talent because people trust a company based on what its employees say rather than on recruitment campaigns significantly focused on the company. advertising.

The strength of the employer brand can have a major effect on the quality of the work done, the pride and the level of involvement of those employees who deal with the delivery of brand experiences for end consumers. Over time, many studies have shown that there is an obvious link between happy employees and happy customers, so aligning employer and consumer brand strategies will become a core practice among large companies in the coming years.