Employer Branding
Why are Hiring and Retention a Problem?
The Pandemic
During the pandemic, scores died, millions lost their jobs, parents were overextended and exhausted, and many people felt isolated. Add to that, political polarization and work simply became less important.
The pandemic also fundamentally changed what people want from a job —which is more work-life balance, flexibility, and a sense of well-being and purpose. And, of course– better compensation.
In addition, the pandemic spurred the Great Resignation. In 2021, roughly 47 million people quit their jobs– 23% of the total U.S. workforce (Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). And despite growing economic uncertainty, the resignation rate as of 10/ 2022 is still 16% above the pre-pandemic norm.
Quiet Quitting
Then there's the trend of "quiet-quitting," which reflects employees contributing no more effort than absolutely necessary in performing their jobs. In 2021, BambooHR surveyed over 1,000 U.S.-based HR professionals and businesses and found that at least 50% of respondents are disengaging from their jobs, the lowest in almost a decade.
The Harvard Business Review says,
The Solution is Employer Branding.
What is Employer Branding?
Employer Branding is a human-focused approach using branding to attract and retain top talent, which becomes a sustainable competitive advantage.
Employer Branding helps attract the best talent, provides a lower cost per hire, and reduces the time-to-hire. In a candidate-driven market, it's the candidates that have the power. Companies must invest in Employer Branding to stay competitive.
High salaries and unique perks may have once been the keys to attracting top talent. However, a recent survey of over 5,000 respondents from Glassdoor shows that:
A company's brand,
reflecting its mission, purpose, story, values, and culture,
matters most to job seekers.
Employer Branding also directly impacts Employee Branding, which focuses on stimulating current employees to embrace and embody the spirit of the company's brand, its values, and its messaging. It also engages them in delivering on the "Brand Promise" –what you say and what your customers expect. This results in higher morale, greater collaboration, lower turnover, and improved retention.
Employer Branding has become an essential tool for recruitment.
A strong Employer Brand can
increase the number of qualified applicants by another 50%.
You may be asking yourself, are we investing in the development of our Employer Brand and sharing the essence of our brand as much as we should?
Here are some thought starters for developing an Employer Brand.
Create an Employer Branding Plan and a Process.
Creating an Employer Brand requires an honest evaluation of your organization, the brand itself, management, present employees, and processes. This allows you to build a strategy based on insight from employees, potential employees, customers and partners.
Before we start, it's critical to understand the power and impact your brand has on employees and recruitment.
75 % of job seekers consider an Employer’s
Brand before even applying for a job.
A Brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that
taken together, account for a candidate's decision to choose your brand and your company.
Your brand combines the brand experience that lives in the hearts and minds of your candidates, employees, customers, and stakeholders. It includes the company's authentic application of its purpose, mission, values, culture, attributes and associations; the name, logo, style, symbols, graphics, look, feel, colors, sounds, and all the senses. It’s also a result of the quality of your products, customer service and the total brand experience.
Branding is the discipline of defining the brand, ensuring the quality of your products, creating a competitive position, and paying off your "Brand Promise.”
Your branding is the magnet and
marketing push of the brand and the brand message.
Create an Employer Branding Plan.
Build a Candidate-Employee-centric strategy:
Get management on board and engaged
Pick a team
Develop metrics
Build a strategy based on insight from employees, potential employees, customers and partners.
Define your goals, objectives, metrics and measurement plan.
Assess Your Brand
Ensure your Employer Brand is clear, differentiated and authentic.
A brand is driven from the top down. It is critical that leadership fully understands their brand and how it impacts both employer and Employee Brand Alignment. Leadership must be engaged in communicating and managing critical messages and objectives to their teams.
Below are some steps to getting clarity on the present state of your Employer Branding. (If you find your company brand is unclear, dig a bit deeper with a Brand Audit. )
Do an Employer Brand Audit and find out what is working and what is not.
Get objective, third-party input from multiple stakeholders.
Clarify your organization's Purpose, Why, Mission, Story, Values and Culture. Brand authenticity and trust are paramount.
Review your critical brand messages.
Review outside factors: your market and competition.
"Job seekers want to be paid fairly, but they too want to work for a company whose values align with their own and whose mission they can fully get behind,"
~ Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor President and COO
Check-in with current employees.
Take their temperature. Are they aligned with management/the company on the brand, mission, purpose, culture and the brand messages you send? Employees will appreciate that you listened.
Understand their views on compensation, well-being and personal growth.
Do they trust management?
Allow employees to be involved in hiring solutions and understand how doing so benefits them and the company.
Get your employees on board, and excited. Reconnect with your mission; that's why they joined you in the first place.
If employees express issues, solve problems before they get too big. Address concerns.
You don't want your employees' reviews on Glassdoor to look like this!
A poor Glassdoor rating of Company X
Define the right target candidate.
Based on insights gained from employees, candidates and customers, identify the optimal target candidate. A well-defined candidate persona helps recruiters obtain the best results.
Understand current trends and changing job candidate sentiments.
Create segments to match the different targets that may be interested in the job.
Look to other industries.
Develop or refine your Employee Value Proposition (EVP), the unique value employees can expect to receive from the organization (e.g., career development, training opportunities, etc.) and the value they are expected to contribute (e.g., commitment to growth).
Develop or review a "Candidate Journey Map." This identifies problem areas that need attention. I can develop this with you.
Source: Peoplescout.co.uk
Sweeten the job.
To make up for a poor employer brand, companies may offer
a 60 % pay increase to attract the right candidates.
If you have a powerful Employer Brand, you may not have to do that. However, as balance and well-being are more important than ever, consider additional benefits and perks, balanced with the needs of your customers, and the financial health of the company. Some benefits and perks you may want to highlight include:
New workframes that offer greater flexibility to employees: remote work options, variable work hours, four-day work weeks, job share, and/or reduced workloads.
Training Opportunities. Offer to uptrain the employees, especially for hard-to-fill positions. Employees that are given internal opportunities are 3.5x more likely to be engaged than external hires.
Consider mentoring programs that help employees build meaningful relationships within the organization.
Demonstrate how you leverage technology to enable employees to work at the top of their field.
Review your application process and technology.
It’s vital to understand the applicant's point of view. Conduct a survey and secure feedback from employees, recent hires and candidates about their recruitment and hiring experience.
Revisit your structures, processes, and systems. Identify immediate steps you can take to make the workplace more efficient and agile.
Highlight what makes your candidates’ experience unique throughout the application and hiring process. Many organizations are hiring; what makes your company different?
Humanize the tech in the recruitment process. Build thoughtfulness into your workflows.
Treat candidates with dignity and respect. All letters, including rejection letters, must embody the brand's spirit and reflect your appreciation for their interest. Who knows, they may be your next golden candidate or boss!
Create strategic messages and use them consistently.
Be consistent and authentic in sharing your brand throughout all channels and messaging, recruitment and marketing.
Customize content to engage with different audiences, various generations or segments.
Share your purpose, mission, values, culture, and the position you may take on important issues.
Offer a day-in-the-life story providing insight into the job’s role and responsibilities. Use staff’s personal stories (which also functions to engage employees on a deeper level).
Write job descriptions in such a way that job seekers can envision themselves at the organization and understand what it takes to be successful in the position.
Reconsider channels and media outlets.
Review your present channels and media outlets. As older generations retire, Millennials and Generation Zers will soon make up most of the workforce. All your channels should consistently reflect your culture, brand message, look and feel.
Review Sites
Monitor all review sites that impact your reputation regularly. Most candidates will research these in detail before deciding on their next employer.
Review sites include Glassdoor, Indeed, Career Bliss and Vault.
Respond to negative reviews as much as positive
95 % of candidates identify reputation
as a critical factor when considering a new job.
Salesforce says "Follow us on Social." on six different social sites Including Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and podcast. And you will also find them on the most popular recruitment tool LinkedIn.
Other US recruitment mediums that can reflect the Employer Brand include Quora, GitHub, Reddit Medium, and Pinterest. For pros and cons check out this Talentlyftarticle,
Video
Maximize the multi-sensory benefits of video.
Check out Google’s Intern Recruitment This recruitment video, which has more than 11.5 million views, aptly reflects Google’s brand. It demonstrates its culture, what is like to work at Google, how they’ve contributed, and what they’ve enjoyed most about the experience.
Other
Make your Website Career Page come alive, reflecting the organization's culture.
Email is still important. Email is ranked the most used (51%) and most effective (39%) channel to reach candidates.
Networking hosting and attendance opportunities.
LinkedIn says companies can expand their talent pool by 10x by recruiting through their employees' networks.
Job Ads and Follower /Group Campaigns.
Use text messaging whenever appropriate.
Go beyond health care. Be open to bringing in talented people from outside the that may live digitally in other non-healthcare channels and outlets.
Start building your Employer Branding today.
Don’t underestimate the importance of your Employer Branding, as it impacts just about every facet of your business, from recruiting and retention to performance and profitability.
If you haven’t yet devoted time and resources to building your Employer Brand, there’s no better time than to begin now.
What will it cost you now, and in the future
not to have a powerful Employer Brand?
If you know of anyone who needs this kind of support, please share.
https://www.brandsthatdeliver.com/post/challenges-with-hiring-and-retention
Brands That Deliver™ and Laurie Pillings Rinker, a brand-driven marketing strategist.
Laurie is a consultant, author, speaker, podcaster, and Principal of Brands That Deliver™. Clients hire her to clarify, define, and transform their brands and revenue using her step-by-step process. After refining the brand and implementing the strategy, we develop successful brand-driven marketing programs while encouraging social good.
You can reach Laurie at BrandsThatDeliver.com/Contact.