As the power of employer branding continues to gain pace, how can your organisation effectively communicate your employer value proposition to build a consistent message both internally and externally?
At a recent roundtable hosted by PRWeek Jobs and Wonderful Workplaces, we discussed how, at a time when the recruitment market faces great uncertainty, employer branding is of particular significance when hiring PR and communications professionals due to fierce competition for the best industry talent.
The following approaches were discussed as possible ways to address your biggest employer branding challenges:
A personal touch
Candidates can interact with your organisation in so many ways – through your website, social media, job boards, review sites and via current and past employees, to name a few. Each of these interactions provide a unique opportunity to personally engage with a candidate or customer. For example, if you see a negative review on Glassdoor about a particular team, make sure a senior person from that team responds personally and promptly.
Recognise each employee
Recognition of employees’ efforts within your organisation can boost individual and team morale. This can go a long way as each motivated individual will radiate their high morale to others and help create a positive work environment.
Nurture employee relationships
Go the extra mile to understand the needs of each individual and address their concerns and career goals.
Bring everyone together
Activities such as bike rides and work clubs can bring everyone together, but make sure there’s something for everyone. One of the round table attendees addressed this directly, concluding that there must be a sense of belonging, employees believing in what they’re doing with belief in the organisation, not just a functional job and cog in a wheel.
Creativity
For your employer brand to stand out you need to be creative in terms of what you offer your employees to address the above points. The days of simply uploading a standardised job description on your website to find the right talent are gone.
Transparency and honesty
It’s important to be clear and honest about what you’re offering employees in order to portray a realistic view of the role and company. Impressions count and misleading your candidates can affect that impression and not gain you trust and loyalty in the long term!
Rewards and incentives
When it comes to retention, rather than rewarding the masses, focusing on rewarding key individuals.
Adopt a marketing mindset
Employer branding is where recruitment and marketing meet, and in our increasingly candidate-driven market, you need to adopt a marketing mindset in order to attract the right talent. HR and marketing teams should collaborate to create a valuable EVP content strategy. If you don’t have a marketing team then consider outsourcing.
Ultimately, the people who work for you are all brand ambassadors and will be the ones who promote the organisation both during and after their employment.
Pre-order your free copy of the 2019 Employer Branding Insights Report here. And join our employer branding conversations during Employer Branding Awareness Week (10-16 June) #EBAWeek
PRWeek Jobs can help you build your employer brand to attract and retain top PR and communications talent. Email prcamembersjobs@haymarket.com for information about special member packages.