How To Increase Employer Branding

Employer Branding plays a crucial role in today's great challenge of attracting and retaining the best talent. However, building a strong employer brand is not an easy task. In this article, we are going to explore some practical tips on how to increase your employer branding to stand out in the job market.

WHAT IS EMPLOYER BRANDING?

Employer Branding, also known as employer branding, is a set of actions taken by an organization to reinforce its positive aspects with the aim of attracting, motivating and retaining workers.

In a competitive market like the current one, companies are increasingly focused on having a good Employer Branding, as attracting the best talent can be a challenge.

Employer Branding aims to outline the image that the company hopes to convey, making it attractive in the job market. At its heart, Employer Branding is what job seekers and workers think about your company.

Although Employer Branding is not tangible, it is something that requires constant and ongoing effort to reap rewards over time.

A GOOD EXAMPLE OF EMPLOYER BRANDING

Google is an example of excellence in Employer branding. According to LinkedIn, every year this company receives about 1.1 million applications. The implemented Employer Branding actions showcase and highlight the advantages of working for Google, while encouraging a positive work culture and employee engagement. One of the best Employer Branding campaigns that Google did was having its own production of a Hollywood movie “The Interneship”, where you can see the workspaces, type of events that the company organizes and much more.

EMPLOYER BRANDING EM PORTUGAL

Workers' preferences have changed over the years and it is necessary to adapt the company's employer branding based on the public it wants to attract.

According to Employer Brand Research (Randstad, 2022) data collected in Portugal indicate that workers consider salary and benefits, balance between personal and professional life, and a pleasant work environment as the most important employer branding factors at the moment. of choosing an organization to work for.

This study reveals which are the 10 companies with the highest level of employer branding in Portugal, and among them, the first three are Delta Cafés, Farfetch and Bosch.

Source: ANA AEROPORTO LISBOA

EMPLOYER BRANDING BENEFITS:

Among the various benefits to companies and individuals that employer branding can bring, within talent management processes, there are two areas that stand out: employee engagement and recruitment and selection.

INCREASE ENGAGEMENT

The concept of work engagement or involvement “refers to a positive, high-energy affective-motivational state, combined with high levels of dedication and a strong focus on work”.

There are those who say that, currently, engagement is synonymous with employer branding, since the most important ambassadors of a company are the workers themselves. These have the power to transmit a bad or a good image of a company (employer branding), which will have repercussions on its degree of attractiveness and demand.

On the other hand, a company with a high employer branding and strong reputation has high levels of employee satisfaction and pride, and consequently, they end up getting more involved in their work and showing greater engagement. In addition, these companies have less costs associated with turnover and absenteeism, thus increasing financial results. The company with a high employer branding is then able to retain employees and boost their performance, with positive implications for the quality of service and customer satisfaction.

Thus, having employees with high engagement will have positive repercussions on your Employer Branding, and vice versa. Engagement and Employer Branding are two sides of a coin that cannot be separated, and that influence each other.

SPEED UP THE RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS

Taking into account the current paradigm and the age of digitalization, human resources had to adapt their previously traditional recruitment and selection techniques, evolving into a digital employer branding strategy that captures more the attention of future candidates, and improves employer branding . LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Google are some of the companies that are investing in employer branding through online talent communities, in the development of marketing campaigns in academia and job fairs. Ford or General Motors, on the other hand, invest in employer branding through online blogs so that fans of this industry can have closer contact and perhaps even work with these organizations.

When companies have a strong employer branding, financial expenses and man-hours to carry out recruitment and selection processes are much lower, since the ideal candidate is chosen quickly.

During the recruitment and selection process, interviewers come into contact with numerous candidates. This one-on-one interaction leaves an impression on the candidate (whether chosen or not) that shapes your company's image, impacting employer branding.

A strong Employer Branding allows the employer to choose which candidate they want, and serves as an indicator of quality for the job market. As a result, potential workers consider statements given by companies with high Employer Branding to be more reliable.

For a better understanding of the importance of recruitment and Employer branding, we used the brand equity theory, usually used in marketing studies and Employer Branding. The concept of brand equity can be generalized to recruitment and selection contexts in which job candidates face problems similar to those faced by consumers.

Customer-based brand equity refers to consumers' beliefs about the brand of a product or service (perceptions of the name or logo) that impact their preferences and purchasing decisions regarding other products or services with similar attributes. This brand equity plays a critical role in consumers' decisions by increasing the chances that the brand's product or service will be among those considered when purchase is imminent, generating a positive effect on the product, creating points of differentiation and motives - Employer branding - to choose the brand over competitors.

Thus, just as consumers do with products and services, candidates form beliefs about companies; these beliefs are the basis for decisions about seeking or even accepting job offers. A person's decision not to apply is equivalent to a decision to reject the organization. When consumers/workers hold strongly favorable attitudes and perceive brands to have unique and desirable attributes – through Employer Branding – they are more likely to distinguish and buy that brand or choose a particular organization over others.

TIPS FOR DEVELOPING A STRONG EMPLOYER BRANDING

Here are some of the numerous strategies that, in our opinion, can help you build a successful employer branding:

1. Delineate an authentic message that reflects the organization's values in the Employer Branding - the HR strategy must reflect this message in order to influence the organizational culture, and thus, increase the present Employer Branding;
2. Align the goals of the team and the organization – workers who defend the same ideals and identify with the goals of the organization will invest more in their work and are more likely to speak positively about the company, which impacts the company's Employer branding. In addition, aligning with the organization's goals will increase employee engagement.
3. Invest in internal and external communication – in order to attract employees who identify with the company, the company must be concerned with communicating its employer branding on channels and social networks that are frequented by its target audience; moreover, adapting its internal communication to the needs and interests of workers conveys an image that the organization really cares about them.
4. Ask for feedback – trying to find out what employees think and listening to their suggestions will make them feel more integrated, simultaneously increasing your Employer branding; you can apply feedback and engagement questionnaires or even set up team meetings with the purpose of obtaining different points of view, increasing Employer Branding.
5. Focus on well-being – focus on implementing employer branding practices that promote the well-being of your employees, such as allowing flexible work when it comes to starting and leaving hours or giving the choice between remote work or in person. Having a Plan to promote diversity, inclusion and Gender Equality will also contribute to the well-being and engagement of employees and the company's employer branding.
6. Recognize and reward – about 79% of workers change jobs due to lack of recognition, which directly and negatively impacts Employer branding; therefore, managers need to dedicate time to recognizing their team's efforts, either through bonuses or rewarding them in front of the team/department, keeping them happy, motivated and highly engaged.
7. Provide transparent and authentic information – candidates and employees alike want to know what happens within a company. Providing real information makes people feel close to the organization and that they trust them - essential to promote Employer Branding.
8. Engage workers – insert them in decision-making processes or increase their autonomy; as mentioned, employees who show high levels of engagement are more likely to stay at work and also contribute to a positive organizational culture. Indeed, Employer branding has a strong impact on employee engagement.
9. Adjusting the organizational culture to workers so that they are proud of the organization they work for, praising and praising its positive aspects on a daily basis. Workers can act as ambassadors – your best talent can help you attract other talent. The decision on organizational culture must be created with strong consultation with all employees so that it contributes to Employer Branding.
10. Measure the effectiveness of the company's Employer Branding – the company must be willing to invest in a metric that evaluates the costs involved and the return on investment in Employer Branding. This implies time to assess employee productivity and engagement and candidate satisfaction rates.

It should be noted that, just as an organization's reputation can be intentionally built through Employer Branding practices, it can also be unintentionally negatively influenced. When, instead of a good engagement, little perceived support is happening, little trust on the part of the organization, little equity in the sharing of rewards and breach of the psychological contract, the quiet quitting phenomenon appears. Workers adopt this measure with the aim of imposing a limit on overwork, not working overtime or performing tasks that are not their responsibility. A company that puts obtaining results above well-being and that has a reputation for having employees who use quiet quitting as a way of imposing themselves, will have its Employer branding damaged and will have difficulties in attracting and managing talent.

In conclusion, Employer Branding actions display and highlight the advantages of being employed by a given organization. Employer Branding gives potential employees an idea of what it's like to work for a company and encourages a positive work culture and engagement for current employees.

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Mariana Zuzarte |Trainee Bright Concept