Insights

Employer Branding: your most powerful weapon in the battle on talent

The war on talent. It sounds dramatic, but it really is a big, long-term problem. So often, it is not the recruiters but the applicants who can ultimately choose between different options. Or maybe headhunters are lurking to lure your best employees away, and then, of course, you want to pull the last straw.

28/9/2021
5 min. reading time
Cindy Van Eester
Talent Manager

How do you ensure that your dream employee doesn't choose the competitor with Nespresso because of your ordinary coffee maker? Right, by demonstrating what else you have to offer as an employer. By improving not only your coffee policy but your entire employer image. Enter: Employer Branding.

Your company is a brand; as an employer, you are too. So inevitably, you have an employer image. And this certainly doesn't have to be a bad thing! With the right strategy, you can create an employer brand that makes the competition pale. This way, your dream new employee will choose you without hesitation, and you ensure that your current employees would rather work in your company than anywhere else. However, this does not necessarily have to cost much money. The aim is to increase the engagement of your current employees and arouse the interest of new candidates. Pull marketing, we call it. The final result? Satisfied employees, a better quality of recruitment, and a lower recruitment cost. Win-win!

Employer Branding is about formulating an 'Employer Value Proposition' (EVP), the USP of your company as an employer. You must then successfully market this EVP. In other words: Marketing meets HR. How do you go about doing this? Take your marketing colleague by the hand and draw up your employer branding strategy. What do you have to offer? How are you doing as an employer? Why would someone want to work for your company? A good employer branding campaign can be just as valuable as a marketing campaign for your products and services. Treat it as such and create a clear employer image.

The following step-by-step plan will help you get started:

How do you determine your employer branding strategy?
Authenticity is crucial for your employer image. But where do you get authentic information about yourself as an employer? Right, from your employees. In most cases, the first step is to ask your employees about their experience. This step concerns all aspects of the employee life cycle: from the experiences during onboarding, internal communication, leadership, about getting career opportunities, training, and coaching to factors such as work-life and remuneration. And to see if you are doing well, you should, of course, compare. Based on the data your employees provide you, how do you stack up against competitor employers? You can translate the things on which you score better than competitors into an EVP. Are there areas where you score less well than your competitors? Don't panic. This information is excellent input for perfecting your HR policy.

We can market the EVP both internally and externally based on predetermined targets and using all techniques and tactics from modern marketing and marketing communication:

  • Define, segment, and target audiences
  • Develop a creative concept
  • On- and offline communication, both internal and external (video, staff magazine, testimonials, events, job fairs, social media, gadgets, office interior, ambassador programs, and more.)
  • Digital Marketing (Career Site Optimization, SEO/SEA, Remarketing, and more.)
  • Content Marketing
  • Recruitment communication and media planning

Let's get to it!
Get to work! Your plan is there, and you still have to execute it. Together with your marketing colleagues, you can achieve good results in no time. Don't forget to measure these results so you know exactly what works and what doesn't. Furthermore, it is a matter of continuous monitoring and fine-tuning based on feedback. And to ensure the proper coffee 😉

Do you not have the right expertise in-house, or would you rather leave your Employer Brand to professionals? Please send us an email, and we will be happy to help you!

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