Tips to Improve Your Employer Brand

Employer branding is a term referring to how potential employees see your company in terms of being a place to work. For years, employers were somewhat in the driver’s seat when it came to hiring because unemployment was stubbornly high. Now, however, unemployment is at record lows, and employers really have to be creative in how they recruit and retain employees. 

Many industries are feeling the squeeze in terms of not having enough qualified employees to fill open positions. For example, industries with a lot of open spots range from truck driving companies to highly skilled fields like nurses, doctors, and health care specialists. 

So, with that in mind, how can you improve your own employer brand and fill empty spots with great employees?

How can you stand out above other employers and build your reputation?

Be Authentic

Authenticity is important when you’re building a customer brand, and the same holds true with your employer brand. You want to show that you have employer values that are clear and defined, but also that you truly uphold them. 

As well as being authentic, you want to be transparent.

Let people know what they can expect when they apply, interview, and work for your company.

If you’re not accurate in these areas, it’s very easy to see it based on information on sites like Glassdoor. 

What some HR departments and employers don’t yet see is that their employee brand can greatly impact the rest of their branding. If customers are consistently seeing disgruntled applicants or employees, it’s going to tarnish your reputation overall and not just for people seeking work. 

As part of your efforts for transparency, include real people who work for your company as part of your branding and imagery. Skip the stock photos. 

Make Sure the Application Process Has a Human Touch

There’s nothing more frustrating as a job seeker to feel like you’re never in touch with a real person. You may be filling out a lot of applications online and never hearing from someone, and that’s demoralizing and can also be damaging to your employer brand. As much as is possible, when employees submit applications or contact your company, try to have a real person contact them back. 

You also want candidates and applicants to feel like it’s easy to get in touch with an HR representative if necessary. 

Conduct Exit Interviews

Whether someone is laid off, fired or quits, make sure you’re conducting exit interviews. These interviews are extremely important and can provide you invaluable information you can use to develop your employer brand and appeal to quality candidates in the future.

Exit interviews can also help you see areas where you can improve the overall employee experience, and that can lead to better employee retention and engagement. 

Monitor Your Reputation

You should be aware of what’s being said about your company and what it’s like to work there. Your HR team should regularly look to sites like Glassdoor and see what past and present employees are saying. Also, build out your Glassdoor profile and respond to reviews you see there.  

As well as researching and monitoring your own reputation, do the same of your competition. See what’s being said about them as employers, what they’re doing well and where they could improve. This can help you find gaps that you could fill as an employer. 

Follow-Up with Applicants

When people are applying for jobs, they want follow-up. It’s only fair to provide this to them in a timely way when they’ve taken the time to apply. Even if someone doesn’t get the job with your company, let them know and if possible may even give them feedback. 

If someone makes it to the interview process but then doesn’t get the job, similarly you should follow-up. It can feel disrespectful of an applicant’s time not to give them anything after they spend so much time trying to get the job with your company.

Finally, part of your employer brand also relies on the experience current employees have.

Even if you can’t make employees happy with massive bonuses and raises, what you can do is show they’re valuable, you believe in them, and you’re willing to invest in them.

Set up mentorship and coaching programs and try to build your talent pipeline internally whenever possible. This will keep employees engaged and show that you value them enough to want to see them move forward in their career. 

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