Talent is hard to find. And it’s getting harder with each passing moment.
The best candidates for any post are snatched up within ten days from the market. 69% unemployed people prefer staying without a job than working for someone with an awful rep.
So, if you, as an employer, carry a tarnished, stinky, substandard reputation, forget the star-players of your industry. You’d have trouble getting even the poor candidates on board.
How to Develop an Employer Branding Strategy
Explore some of the best employer branding examples in yours as well as other relevant industries. You’ll find that it’s a lot like telling a story, albeit with utmost clarity, in a compelling yet informative manner, backed-up with solid research.
You want to say, ‘Hey, It’ll be great if you could come work for me.’
Then, you follow it with a brand image that inspires your target employee, resonates with them, and attracts them. Once they’re engaged, you work on retaining them.
How do you do that? Consider these five tips.
- A Crystal Clear Purpose
Why focus on employer branding activities? Why now? Before you sit down to brainstorm the method, make sure you know-
- The need to hire a specific kind of employee
- The number of candidates needed
- The department responsible for the task
- Budget constraints
- Deadline
The strategy could change if you need five web designers in two months as opposed to when you need ten app developers in twelve months. The chances of accomplishing the goal rise when you set actionable objectives.
- An Engaging Platform
It could be your LinkedIn page, website’s career section, social media campaigns, or a blog. Have them designed such that any information is easily located and well-elaborated.
What’s in it for a candidate who decides to join you?
Talk about the job, about what you need from an employee precisely. Showcase your company culture, work environment, diversity. Include video testimonials from your staff.
Just, don’t sugarcoat it. Keep it transparent, honest, but interactive.
- Better Networking
62% candidates look at social media, 76% at LinkedIn, to determine whether you are worth working with. However, the right candidate won’t just stumble across you by chance.
You need to grow your network, connect with professionals across diverse backgrounds, agency heads, branding leaders, and build a pipeline of candidates worth considering when you need one.
- Excellent Candidate Experience
Three-page long forms for applying? No!
Generalised rejection emails, vague job descriptions, poor communications, unrealistic expectations, terribly designed hiring process? Just No!
You may not hire everyone who applies for the post, but you must build a relationship with the worthy ones for the sake of networking and future requirements. Don’t let them remember you by a horrible experience.
- Appropriate Retention
What’s the point if you attract talent only to let it slip away after a few years?
Lost employees reflect poorly on companies & employer branding processes. Plus, they can hurt revenues. Keep them in the loop, and you’d increase employee engagement, profit, and productivity.
Clearly, employer branding is your messiah here. But, you need to do it right. Understand that it’s not the employer branding strategy that gets you the cream of the crop, it’s how you’ve implemented the said strategy to extract best effects.