10 Quick Ways to Boost Your Employer Brand
Recruiters are so busy sourcing talent, trying to get acceptances, and onboarding people as quickly as possible that they often don’t have the time (or bandwidth) to work on their employer brand. Trust us, we get it. There are just so many hours in the day.
At the same time, employer branding may be more critical than ever — the competition for talent remains fierce. In the U.S. alone, there were 10.7 million open jobs at the end of June, up from the 9.3 million 14 months earlier. And, according to research from McKinsey & Company, 40 percent of workers globally are still thinking about leaving their jobs within the next three to six months.
A solid employer brand can be the make-or-break factor in attracting and retaining top talent.
Surveys have shown that 86% of people would not apply to, or continue working for, a company with a bad reputation — and your employer brand is your reputation among both current and future employees.
An attractive employer brand can help reduce time to fill and cost per hire and improve employee retention rates. So how can you cultivate your employer brand while you’re focused on source and hire? Here are 10 tips to consider.
1. Improve your candidate experience by making your application process quick and easy
Applying for a job should take minimal effort. To make your application process easier, remove any unnecessary extra steps, such as asking candidates to upload their resume and then manually fill out their job history. This will improve your candidate experience and leave job seekers with a better impression of your company.
2. Trim the word count on your career page
Candidates often turn to a company’s career sites or their Company Page when they’re interested in a job. If either is long, trim it. Career sites that are brief and to-the-point best convey your company’s culture and benefits — while also acknowledging your candidates’ busy lives. For a great example of a company that nails this, check out the career page of the mobile software company, Phunware. It’s short, sweet, and to the point.
3. Highlight flexible work opportunities
While editing your career site, highlight your remote and hybrid work options, and do it as briefly as possible. More than ever, job seekers want roles that provide flexible work opportunities. The Australian software company Atlassian got this right on their career site, with a banner at the top that says, “Welcome, we’re Atlassian and we work from anywhere.” They then tout their virtual workplace, asynchronous communications, and the opportunity for employees to work in any country where Atlassian has a legal business entity. Also: Atlassians can live and work outside their “designated” location for up to 90 days a year.
4. Emphasize your company’s commitment to DEI
Broadcast your company’s commitment to DEI. According to a survey by The Manifest, 70% of job seekers want to work for companies committed to diversity. Again, Phunware has this down, displaying a 39-word summary right up front on its career site: “A diverse workforce makes for a better company, period. We value bright minds, curious learners, and anyone with an ambitious appetite. Phunware welcomes and celebrates backgrounds of all kinds and we never discriminate based on any lawfully protected status.”
5. Shine a spotlight on the right benefits
Candidates can tell a lot about your company by the benefits you offer, so mention those up front in job postings and your career site. But be sure to focus on the right benefits. Yes, health insurance and retirement plans matter (a lot), but also mention benefits that make your company stand out, such as help with student debt, parental leave, and childcare subsidies. And don’t forget to highlight opportunities that focus on career development, such as networking, educational benefits, and mentorship programs.
6. Use the banner image of your LinkedIn Company Page to stand out
The top image on your LinkedIn Company Page is prime real estate and a great place to boost your employer brand. Use it to spread general brand awareness or to announce a new product, celebrate an award, or promote an upcoming event. The financial services Affirm does this well, highlighting its award for being one of “100 Best Remote-First Places to Work” and setting it against a background of the company’s tagline, “People come first.” That’s a lot of messaging, for very little effort.
7. Crowdsource content from your employees
To keep your employer brand fresh, it helps to regularly put out new and compelling content — and you can do this quickly by crowdsourcing content from employees. Consider the example of the software developer Epic: It offers employees four weeks of sabbatical every five years, and even helps fund employees’ trips if they’re visiting a country they’ve never been to. To highlight this great perk, Epic has a Sabbatablog on its career site, where employees write brief descriptions of their trips.
8. Create a better candidate experience by asking for feedback
When candidates have a bad experience during their recruiting and hiring process, they often tell their family and friends and according to a 2018 report, 35% will share about it publicly online. You can improve your employer brand by asking for candidates’ feedback at multiple touchpoints throughout the process, through brief, automated surveys. If there are any problems, you can nip them in the bud right away and improve the candidate’s view of your company.
9. Send a thank-you note to all your candidates, even if it’s autogenerated
Everyone loves to be thanked. That’s why it’s a good idea to send thank-you notes to candidates after interviews, whether they’re going to advance in the hiring process or not. You can use templates and autogenerate the notes, to save time. Candidates will think better of your company after receiving such a note, and it will help to build your brand reputation.
10. Take two minutes to post content that makes your company look great
It only takes a few minutes to post or repost a press release, article, or announcement, and it’s a quick way to communicate your employer brand. That was true for Airbnb after CEO Brian Chesky recently announced that the company’s employees could live and work anywhere they wanted and that the company would no longer base compensation on location.The company got the word out and, in the days after Brian’s announcement, Airbnb’s career site received more than 1 million visitors.
Final thoughts: It’s OK to start small
If you feel totally overwhelmed by sourcing and hiring right now, consider starting small. You could schedule a short period of time into your day and tackle just one of these things. You can also ask your team to help. If each team member commits to one small task, it can still add up to a big impact.
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