Employer Branding: What is it, benefits and how to use it?

A company’s talent is the key to its success, and it is clear that there are strategies to improve a company’s ability to obtain and retain its best professionals. One of the most beneficial strategies is Employer Branding, a series of actions that have numerous benefits in relation to recruitment and retention of personnel, but also in the area of job satisfaction and work environment.

In this post we will tell you what it is, what are the benefits of Employer Branding and how you can use it to improve your company’s recruitment process.

What is Employer Branding?

In this article we talk more in depth about the definition of Employer Branding. This concept refers to all those actions that a company implements in order to improve its image in the eyes of employees, both current and potential. Therefore, it is an internal strategy that seeks to make employees feel comfortable in their job at a global level, influencing from remuneration to the management of corporate culture and job satisfaction.

Although HR is in charge of managing Employer Branding strategies, the truth is that the collaboration of all departments is needed for its successful implementation. Therefore, the role of the HR department is based on the design of the strategy, the management of its communication to the different departments and the correct follow-up.

But implementing an Employer Branding strategy can be a big investment, especially for large companies. Therefore, before making the decision, it is important to know the benefits of Employer Branding for companies.

Benefits of Employer Branding

Encourage the recruitment of talent:

One of the main benefits of Employer Branding is that it facilitates talent recruitment. Having an attractive environment for employees and a good reputation improves the image of companies for potential employees, which makes it easier for them to apply to our offer.

This is a trend that is on the rise. The elements that employees value in companies are gradually changing, and corporate culture, working environment and flexible remuneration are becoming increasingly important. Therefore, a good Employer Branding strategy together with a communication campaign will make it easier for companies to access high-demand job profiles.

Improve employee performance:

There are many variables that influence employee performance, and the work environment is one of the most relevant. Improving Employer Branding means, in essence, improving the working conditions of a company’s employees, which will naturally influence their performance.

When implementing a strategy that allows this Employer Branding benefit, it is essential to take into account the different variables that influence the performance of the staff to know which ones have the highest priority. In other words, an action plan must be drawn up based on the specific needs of the company: each one has its specific problems, and not identifying them correctly tends to translate into poorer results. Therefore, before developing the strategy, it is advisable to conduct interviews with employees to determine which are the most important aspects to improve.

Strengthen corporate culture:

Seeing how your company takes actions to improve your well-being is something we all appreciate. As a result, employees tend to be more loyal to companies that care about them, which improves the feeling of belonging.

At a business level, strengthening corporate culture translates into increased productivity, but better job satisfaction is also reflected in the attraction of talent, interpersonal relationships and personal growth of workers. Therefore, corporate culture is one of the main pillars of any company.

It enhances the company’s reputation:

More satisfied employees, better business performance, a pleasant corporate culture… As long as a good communication strategy is in place, all these factors will translate into an improvement of the corporate reputation of any company.

Improving reputation is something that is becoming increasingly important at more and more levels. Not only does it translate into attracting talent, but it also serves to generate business. Consumers are paying more and more attention to the Corporate Social Responsibility of companies, to those actions that seek to benefit people beyond revenue, and treating employees well is one of these factors.

In addition, a satisfied employee tends to speak well of his or her company, and word of mouth is one of the most effective communication channels that exist.

How to use Employer Branding for Recruiting

The main benefit of implementing an Employer Branding campaign is to improve the recruitment process. But simply improving employee job satisfaction is not enough; a specific plan must be drawn up to achieve this benefit of Employer Branding.

Here are the necessary steps to improve the recruitment process:

Design an action plan:

As mentioned, in order to improve employee satisfaction it is important to know what aspects need to be improved. To do this, it is beneficial to talk to the employees themselves and listen to feedback from those who have left the company. Based on this information, we will be able to design an action plan to improve these specific aspects.

Implement the actions:

This step is the most obvious, but the most fundamental. Once the actions to be taken have been determined, it is time to implement them quickly. To do so, it is beneficial to communicate the company’s plan to employees, as this will improve the final result of the actions: if the work environment improves, but employees do not know why, the benefits of Employer Branding will be mitigated.

Similarly, at this point it is important to have a system for monitoring the plan to know the real effectiveness of the actions and to be able to respond to unforeseen events in the shortest possible time.

Communicate effectively:

The importance of communicating Employer Branding actions internally has been mentioned, but this alone will not help to improve the selection process significantly. At this point, social media management and copywriting are essential to use Employer Branding for the recruitment process.

Most candidates research companies before applying to them, so having a good social media strategy that reflects the actions implemented by the brand is very important to improve its image. Similarly, the wording of job offers also gains importance, as they should reflect these actions in a subtle way, without it being obvious that the company is promoting itself.

Likewise, using language that is in tune with the corporate image is another factor that influences corporate reputation (congruence).

Refine the selection process:

It is useless for a candidate to have a very good image of the company if during the selection process it is not reflected. Interviews with candidates are an opportunity to generate a good first impression, so it is essential that they reflect the image that the company wants to give.

If you want to promote a close relationship, interviews should be personal, and the company’s discourse should reflect the closeness between superiors and employees. A good way to achieve this is to allow the manager himself to conduct the interview, as this will be a way of highlighting how employees are treated.

But perfecting the selection process is not only about improving the company’s image, but also about getting future employees to be aligned with the company. Therefore, one responsibility of the interviewer is to determine if the candidate will fit within the corporate culture so as not to worsen it for future employees.