Branding and marketing are important for finding your next client—but also key for finding your next employee.
Building a strong employer brand is a powerful tool for recruitment and retention and deserves just as much of an investment of your energy as your traditional marketing. Below, we explore what an employer brand is, what you need to consider to build yours, and what it looks like in action.
What’s the difference between an employer brand and your main brand?
Your main brand is the heart of all of your marketing efforts, especially when it comes to attracting clients and managing your overall brand presence.
"In the face of the talent crisis, many organizations are devoting a significant part of their social media presence to employer-related content that showcases team members and culture."
An employer brand is an offshoot of the main brand—not separate, but an extension created with both internal and external talent in mind. This can mean having particular elements, like iconography and taglines, that are only associated with employer brand-related assets.
What are the benefits of building an employer brand?
It might not seem meaningful or necessary at first, but prospective and current employees do take note of your brand.
"Building a strong employer brand is a powerful tool for recruitment and retention and deserves just as much of an investment of your energy as your traditional marketing."
According to Glassdoor’s 2022 Employer Brand Survey report, 69% of employees expressed it’s “extremely/very important that their employer has a brand they are proud to support.” In addition, “Employees are hungry for more information about the company, salary, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. More than a third of respondents would like greater transparency.”
Building an employer brand and accompanying marketing program can play a significant role in meeting these needs.
In addition, an employer brand:
Helps you stand out
It’s no secret competition for talent is fierce in the face of pipeline issues. Standing out as an employer in the market can only help you attract potential new employees. This is especially beneficial for smaller organizations without the widespread brand recognition and history behind them.
Prevents you from hiring people who aren’t cultural fits
Not everyone is right for your organization, and that’s okay! Mishires waste time and resources. A strong employer brand publicly puts culture front and center to help attract the right people.
Helps drive and maintain culture
An employer brand isn’t just about communicating to future employees. It’s also about helping to keep the internal team connected, engaged and informed. As the Glassdoor survey noted, transparency is high on employees’ wish lists and makes a significant impact on culture.
What does employer branding touch?
Employer branding can impact almost every aspect of marketing and communications. Here are just a few examples of what it can look like in action:
Website recruitment hubs
Does your website showcase who you are as an employer, or is it simply a place where job postings live?
A website recruitment hub allows you to showcase your culture, spotlight team members, and share benefits and crucial company information prospective talent is eager to learn. This is a great opportunity to pull in video of employees sharing their stories and experiences.
Your employer brand should also be reflected in job descriptions. Don’t just cover the basics. Use the language of the brand to craft compelling stories about job roles and what it means to work for your firm or organization.
Email marketing
How do you communicate with prospective employees? Current employees?
Having an email marketing program that’s dedicated solely to talent can be a powerful way to communicate. This doesn’t just mean the run-of-the-mill company memo. It means taking time to craft content that’s meaningful to talent at every stage of their journey, from interviewing to onboarding to the seasoned professional.
Social media content
Your social media channels are also a tool for building and maintaining an employer brand. In the face of the talent crisis, many organizations are devoting a significant part of their social media presence to employer-related content that showcases team members and culture. Others are building career and culture accounts specifically for recruitment.
Video marketing
Put your leaders and team members on video. This can include internal content, like fireside chats and video memos from leadership, and marketing content like day-in-the life videos of various team members, overviews of events, interview tips and more.
How do you build an employer brand?
Ready to get started? Here are some steps and considerations to guide you through building an effective employer brand.
First, consider your recruitment and new hire experience. Put yourself in their shoes.
- What are their key questions and concerns?
- Are there any current disconnects or gaps in communication throughout their experience?
- How can you improve their onboarding experience through communication channels?
Don’t hesitate to talk with current employees to glean more information.
Next, identify your internal ambassadors. Every team has enthusiastic employees who would be happy to be an ambassador. These individuals can be great for featuring in content. They can also be a source for ideas!
Once you’ve done your research, consider how you want to present the brand. Getting started, you’re probably going to produce content under the existing branding. But as you grow, consider other elements, like:
- An employer brand specific tagline
- A designated color palette or a designated dominant color from your existing brand color palette
- Visual patterns unique to the employer brand
- Special names for newsletters and video series part of the employer brand communications
From there, start building your content calendar. Identify the channels you’d like to pursue (remember, you don’t have to do them all at once!) and start building out ideas and a designated frequency for producing and distributing content.
Don’t forget to consider swag and gear! This is always a nice touch for recruitment events as well as building pride internally.
Employer branding in action
Need some inspiration? Check out these examples from Indiana firms.
Katz, Sapper & Miller, LLP
KSM does a great job of considering culture content as an employer brand; their Instagram handle is even @lifeatksm. They generate content that highlights employee experiences and happenings, like KSM Unplug Day, their way to celebrate crushing another tax deadline.
BGBC Partners
BGBC takes pride in their award-winning culture, which is heavily showcased on their Instagram feed that highlights team faces and events. Their photos convey the team’s energy and give a great representation of what working there could be like.
Barnes Dennig
Barnes Dennig presents a fun tagline for their recruitment: “Start looking forward to Monday.” They use this as both a call to action on the home page of their website and the main headline for their recruitment page, which also features a strong video and copy to differentiate themselves as an employer.