Work has become such an integral part of life that an average of 75% of applicants want to make sure that the company values and practices align with their own before investing their energy and focus in various rounds of interviews. For this reason, during the last decade employer branding has become a vital element alongside the recruitment process. Keep reading this blog article to gain insight into the best practices for building a successful employer brand for your company and stay on track with the current trends.
The 3 main benefits of an effective employer branding
Before diving into the best practices, let’s take a look at the benefits that a successful employer brand can offer you
Stand out from the crowd
Largely due to the pandemic, people have been re-evaluating their work-life balance. Many are demanding better conditions and prioritizing companies that show they care about the well-being of their employees. This movement has given way to a more candidate-driven work market. For this reason, it is important to make it easy for potential employees to see what the values of your organization are and what daily life at your company looks like. As a result, you will stand out as a company from competitors.
Save costs and time
One of the main benefits of an established employer brand was highlighted by a survey conducted by LinkedIn, which found that you will save an average of 50% in terms of cost-per-hire. The reason for this is that more potential employees will trust you as a company and the chances of employees contacting you with an open candidature will also be higher. At the same time this will also speed up your hiring process, making it on average 2 times faster compared to companies who do not invest in their employer branding.
Establish a better connection with your employees
The same survey also reported that when a company invests in their employer branding 50% of their new hires are more qualified, as qualified employees will be more receptive towards job listings and offers coming from companies that have an established employer branding. By having an established employer branding they look more trustworthy and caring, as they showcase their achievements, benefits and values more clearly. However, employer branding does not only have an effect on potential employees: the survey also shows that businesses reported a 28% reduction in the organization’s turnover. Current employees can identify themselves more in a defined employer brand and are therefore more loyal to the company they work for.
The 7 best practices to build a successful employer branding
Now that we have seen the main benefits of a successful employer branding, let’s take a look at the best practices that will make your IT business stand out from the crowd.
1. Cover more than one platform to be more inclusive
The best approach to a well thought out employer branding strategy is to spread it across different platforms to be sure to reach different generations of potential future employees. This allows your company to appeal to a younger as well as a more experienced and qualified workforce. Platforms you should definitely consider are Instagram, Tik Tok and LinkedIn.
2. Adapt your employer brand to each platform
Every platform has its own purpose, formats and audiences, posting the same content across all platforms would not be effective. Here are a few pointers to best adapt your employer branding to each platform:
- Instagram allows for a great variety of content through posts, slideshows, stories, reels, and IGTVs. This platform is used by a large variety of users, aged 18 to 44 years old, with 60% of users being between the ages of 18 and 34. The content on Instagram should include a variety of informal but still polished content: make sure that the pictures, infographics or videos posted to your company page are visually appealing to users. Last but not least, try to include at least a few monthly trend-based reels, as this format is a user favorite and it is being prioritized by the platform more and more.
- Tik Tok is the newest addition to the platforms used for employer branding. It rose to popularity as recently as 2020 and it became the 7th most popular social media platform worldwide. It is especially used by an audience between the ages of 10 and 29, but is becoming increasingly popular with users aged 30+ as well. The most used format on this platform is 30 second long videos, but other available formats include 1 or 3 minutes long videos. All of the videos can be directly edited on the app and should be less polished as the ones shared on Instagram. Most importantly, they should feel authentic. The best way to find ideas for content to publish on Tik Tok is to keep an eye on current trends and reinterpret them through the eyes of your brand. In other words, use current trends as mediums to say something about your values or the life at your company.
- LinkedIn is the most classic platform when it comes to employer branding. 71% of users on LinkedIn are between the ages of 36 and 55. This platform is also considered one of the most formal ones and your content should definitely reflect that. Usually posts on LinkedIn communicate the achievements of your business or should contain useful industry related knowledge that can help establish your organization as a thought leader in the field.
3. Involve your current employees through behind-the-scenes content
Including your employees in the storytelling of your employer branding is one of the best ways to convey what life is like at your organization. It also helps humanize your employer brand by associating it with real life experiences. Finally, including your current employees in your communication will also validate the message to the eyes of other potential employees, as candidates trust the company’s employees 3 times more than the company itself to provide credible information.
A great example of this strategy on Instagram is Google’s profile, where employees are regularly interviewed and asked about their experiences at the company throughout the years. This is especially powerful, as it makes your current employees direct ambassadors for your employer brand. Now if we look at the employer branding of the same company on Tik Tok we can see how the content is more authentic but the strategy remains the same: there is no official company page, but employees become ambassadors of the brand by using hashtags such as #google and #worklife while for example giving a tour of the San Francisco office.
4. Promote your internships the right way
One of the best ways to reach young interns and show your employer brand in action is to promote your internships the right way. A classic job listing of course can do the job as well, but posting about your internship on platforms such as Tik Tok or Instagram with a tone of voice that aligns with your brand’s values is even better nowadays.
The Washington Post is a good example to get inspiration for this: they chose to use humour to convey their company culture while promoting their internship through this Tik Tok. To scout for more inspiration be sure to have a look at the #interns, a highly popular hashtag with more than 5 million views!
5. Choose a person to be associated with your brand
If you scroll through many successful company pages on Instagram or Tik Tok, you will notice that many profiles are associated with one person in particular. This will help you even more in building a successful employer brand: having one employee specialize in one or more platforms will make them aware of the newest trends and more knowledgeable about the do’s and don’ts of the formats used on those platforms. Another great benefit of always associating one person with your brand, is that users will start to recognize your employer brand as soon as they see one of your posts or videos, which will also boost your company page engagement.
6. Support social issues that align with your brand’s values
Selecting one or a handful of social issues that align with your brand’s core values is the perfect way to show that your company is actively engaged in supporting those values. Showcasing this on your social media pages and website is going to inspire current and future employees, especially if they already support the same values on their own. Another benefit of this practice is that your customers might also feel more inclined to choose your company over other competitors because they feel more aligned with the values and social issues you are supporting.
Marriott is a great example when it comes to actively advocating for their core values: the company has built a social impact platform called Serve 360 which allows them to participate in a great variety of social projects. Examples of these projects can be found in this post about protecting Sea Turtles’ habitats or in this post about organizing monthly events to support women in business.
7. Catch applicants’ attention through your LinkedIn “Life” section
All LinkedIn company pages include 4 main sections you will probably be familiar with: Home, About, Jobs, and People. These sections do an excellent job in showcasing your employer branding and getting the attention of potential employees, but if you want your organization to stand out in the crowd you should also include an extra optional section called “Life”.
This section allows for more freedom in expressing your employer brand. The top of the page displays a large header picture you can use to showcase your mission or vision and below you have the option of adding different sections. One of these sections, for example, allows you to feature the executives of your company, which is a great way of introducing your leadership team to future applicants and allows them to directly visit their LinkedIn profiles to get a better idea of their personality and interests. You can also include plenty of pictures, showing what life at the office is like, your company culture, or what makes your company a great place to work at.
Including all of these aspects in your LinkedIn company page will give a well rounded idea of your identity as a company to applicants without them even having to leave the platform while job hunting! Great examples of “Life” sections to look at for inspiration are Deloitte, HP, and Unilever.
How does Leadgate help?
Leadgate Europe can help your IT organization with building a successful employer brand. We create a content marketing strategy in which we determine what topics would suit your employer branding best, while also defining which platform they would be better suited for and when they should be published. Additionally, our content creators can write content pieces in line with your brand’s style or create visually striking infographics for your social platforms.
If you want more tips or have questions about how to build an effective employer branding feel free to get in touch with us and request a consultation with our specialists through the button below.
