5 Reasons Why Employer Branding Will Help You Hire Better Candidates

What is Employer Branding? In simple terms, employer branding is all about building a brand’s reputation among the workforce as well as the employees' perception of the brand. Now, how does it matter for employees/candidates while recruiting? When a candidate looks for a job in an organisation, the first thing that they might do is read about the company, its culture, values, employee network, reputation and such. Here comes the importance of employer branding in recruitment. Employer branding helps companies be a brand that the employees look up to. It helps the brand leave a good impression about itself in the market, among job seekers and also employees. Thus, the role of employer branding in recruitment is very crucial. The better your employer branding, the more you attract the job-seeking community as well as drive the employee community to retain for a long time. The more you are visible in the market, the higher the chances for you to hire top talent! 

The metrics used for measuring the success of employer branding strategies also help in improving the brand and attracting top hires. These metrics are called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and they compare the company's performance against its objectives. KPIs for a branding strategy include social media engagement - clicks, shares, likes, conversion rate, bounce rate, impressions, cost per hire, and job-seeking platform ratings, e.g., Glassdoor ratings. Out of these, the rating ad social media engagement directly benefits the brands by driving prospective candidates to choose their company over others to work with.

Let’s take a look at 5 reasons why employer branding aids in hiring top talent!

1. Attract Top Talent 

Efficient employer branding can attract top talent to your brand, as job seekers are more likely to be interested in working with an organisation that has a good reputation. When your brand is authentic and has a good reputation, it will attract the right talent. Thus, your brand outlook will help you make the recruitment process a lot easier. As we say, “first impression is the best impression”, employer branding helps brands build a good impression among job seekers, through their social media and website. It is important to retain a good brand culture to attract better candidates. And, to maintain the brand culture companies should go beyond culture and make it the root of the company, from which it emerges as a trustworthy brand. 

Employer branding tells recruits why they would want to join a company. It showcases the work culture and values of the company and attracts candidates by showcasing the brand in the best way possible. 

2. Better Candidate Experience

Investing in employer branding helps your company provide a better experience to the candidate by creating a more positive perception of your company among the job-seeking community. This will increase the chances that top candidates want to work for your company. Providing a better candidate experience through a professional and communicative approach will increase candidate engagement and transparency, building trust towards your company. Trust is a key element that will drive a brand sustain. It will also increase the chances of future candidates believing in the brand and choosing to work with them.

To provide a better candidate experience, it’s important to have a robust online presence. It should provide clear information about your company through social media, website and other platforms. The next important thing is to create a detailed job description, which has all the necessary information about your company and the kind of work that the candidates are required to do. Also, use personalised email templates with a professional signature, so that the candidates feel connected to the brand even before being a part of it. Finally, make sure to be strictly organised for interviews and the entire hiring process. It will help create a great experience for the candidates as well as your hiring team.

3. Increase Employee Retention

Employees are more likely to stay with a company that provides a great culture to work in. If employer branding is done right, employees that stay for long will definitely impact the job seekers by leaving a perception of a great place to work. Current and potential employees are major targets of employer branding, as the right employer branding strategies would make the current employees stay with the company for a long time, and make the potential employees want to join the company. If the employees remain happy with a company there are high chances that they bring in more referrals, making the job of finding top talent easier! 

If the retention rate of employees goes higher, it will give a very positive outlook on the brand and it helps in slowly building a very strong employee network. The stronger the employee network, the more will be the number of referrals and thus higher the chance of hiring better candidates. Happy employees are also a key factor for a company to emerge and successfully continue as a brand! Employee engagement is an important employer branding strategy that companies could use to retain employees in the company for a long time. This would be added as a plus in the hiring process. Thus it is important to build an inclusive and inspiring team, celebrates team wins, and set company goals. It’s crucial to think beyond company cultures, provide a realistic work-life balance, and lead with empathy, to retain employees and also attract the right talent.

4. Keeps Up Your Reputation

Employee branding is crucial in bringing out the good reputation of the company to its client and candidate network. It helps the company leave an impression of a great environment to work in which indeed attracts top candidates towards the company.

 “Every organization is known for certain things when it comes to how it treats its employees. This “employer brand” is a key part of what attracts talent to a company.” - Edward E. Lawler, Director of the Center for Effective Organizations and Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. 

Employees also play a huge role in keeping up the reputation of the brand. A word of mouth can reach thousands, eventually creating a greater impact.  Employer branding strategies come into play when it is required to bring out employee satisfaction and the good reputation of the brand. Employer branding helps to bring out the culture and values of the brand, thus helping it keep up its reputation. 

5. Helps Your Brand Stand Out

it is very crucial to make your brand stand out in the competitive job market. Employer branding helps in differentiating your brand from your competitors, thus, attracting job seekers to choose you over your competitors. Your brand should stand out for job seekers to find you easily in the market. Job applicants visit the company’s website and social media accounts to get an overview of the company to get a glimpse of its brand culture. Job seekers, these days, prioritise brand culture over just the nature of work itself. This role of helping the brand culture and reputation get a wider reach can only be done through employer branding. Employer branding strategies help your company grow as a brand first, and then eventually show that world, what you are as a brand. Who wouldn’t want to work with the best brand? Once your brand stands out in the market, it attracts the top talents towards it, making the job of the recruiters a lot easier.

Employer branding will not only help hire better candidates but also make the hiring process a smooth ride for both the candidates and your hiring team. It also makes hiring more cost-efficient and less time-consuming. According to research, a company which constantly works on employer branding as an employer tends to decrease its hiring cost at least by 43%.  The major reason behind this is that a company with a good reputation would not have to spend a lot of money on marketing openings in the company or the company itself. The reputation of the company attracts customers and the right talent to it. This will eventually lead to the company becoming more successful. Now, you can clearly see why employer branding is a key to hiring better candidates. Research has shown that 69% of candidates change their jobs and switch to companies with better reputations. 

Thus, it is important that brands work on employer branding to be more successful and reach out to the right talent, hire them, and retain them to build a strong employee network. According to a survey, 78% of candidates tend to look at the reputation of a company before applying for a job in that company. Candidates will be more likely to accept a lower salary job in a company with a higher reputation than a higher salary job in a company with a reputation lower than the other. This shows us how the good reputation of a company can attract more prospective candidates towards it, resulting in positive growth for both the company and its employees. In short, the right employer branding strategies will help your brand reach out to the right audience, including job seekers and thus hire the best candidates out there!