Top 5 Benefits of Employer Branding

We’re sure you spend a lot of time building your consumer brand strategy and marketing yourself as a company your customers can trust. But how much do you consider the other side of your branding – your brand as an employer and the benefits of employer branding? From startups to established brands, there’s a lot to be said for how you market yourself as an employer, it can be the difference between easily meeting your hiring goals and not. Accordingly, there are lots of benefits of improving your employer branding; but first, it’s helpful to know exactly what we mean by your employer brand.

What is Employer Branding?

Your employer brand is how you come across to your current employees and how you are perceived by potential candidates. It covers your values as an organization, your workplace culture, the experiences employees have throughout their journey with you and your employee value proposition (EVP); the benefits and rewards employees receive in return for their performance.

Your employer brand and your reputation as a place to work has a huge impact on everything from talent attraction to employee job performance and can even impact your consumer brand with happier more engaged employees providing better levels of service.
Done right the benefits of employer branding are many.

Benefits of Employer Branding in Recruitment

1. Attract Higher-Quality Talent

A good employer brand can be more powerful than a high salary, with 40% of employees more likely to move to a company with a positive employer brand even if it meant no pay increase.

Good employer branding can help talent attraction in other ways too. Almost two thirds of candidates check review sites, like Glassdoor, during their job search. Having good reviews from current and previous employees can make attracting top talent much easier even at pace and volume.

2. Reduce Your Cost-Per-Hire

Companies with positive employer branding and strong workplace cultures are more attractive to potential applicants, which means you will attract a higher volume of applications for each open role making it easy to fill. Additionally, you may find that your current employees are more likely to refer applicants. Employee referrals are the most effective applicants when it comes to ROI with research showing positions are filled 55% faster via referral.

3. Experience Lower Employee Turnover and Retain Key Talent

Research by LinkedIn has shown that employers with a strong employer brand have 28% lower employee turnover than those who don’t. When you have invested time and money in attracting the highest quality talent, a strong employer brand can help you protect that investment.

4. Improve Employee Morale

Not only does creating a strong, welcoming employer brand give your employees a sense of pride in working for you, it also goes a long way in showing your employees that you care about their well-being, are invested in their future, and will take care of them.

5. Deliver a Better Customer Experience

Happy employees are more innovative, more productive, collaborative, good at problem-solving, and better placed to serve your customers well. Not only that but attracting higher-quality employees in greater numbers will help you build better products, meet customer needs, and have more favorable interactions. More positive consumer experiences will help build trust in your consumer brand, services, and/or products.

Best Employer Branding Campaign Examples

Now you know the benefits employer branding can have on your recruitment, productivity, and morale, be inspired by these great examples of employer branding campaigns done well:

1. General Electric

Around since 1892, General Electric has been repositioning itself as both a ‘digital company and an industrial company and has been using its employer branding to do so. Using smart, funny, short, videos in social media campaigns and as commercials they have highlighted aspects of their employer brand to show how engaged, innovative and inclusive they are. For example, they demonstrated and emphasized their pledge to employ 20,000 women in technical roles in a video called ‘What if Millie Dresselhaus, Female Scientist, Was Treated Like a Celebrity’.

This strategy not only positioned General Electric as a brand that was engaged with its workforce and their concerns but encouraged people to have conversations on social media about its position as a digital-first employer. This is a great example of an employer using its brand to relate to its audience and show it understood issues affecting them.

2. Marriott International

The hotel chain has led the way in two areas when it comes to employer branding campaigns. Firstly the ‘Marriott, Where I Belong’ brand campaign was instrumental in using digital tools to attract diverse talent. Designed with Marriott’s internal millennial advisory group ‘Next M’ it featured a mobile-first approach, dedicated social media presence, and an interactive gaming experience to reach candidates and sell Marriott’s brand image as an international, welcoming employer.

Marriott has also been forward-thinking when it comes to their use of employee testimonials. By using their current employees’ experience on social media and their careers page, they drive engagement and new hires.

3. L’Oréal

In 2012 L’Oréal reworked its entire employer branding strategy through the lens of its employee value proposition (EVP). They asked for extensive input from current employees and created a new direction for its employer brand based on three key EVP pillars:

• A thrilling experience
• An inspiring company
• A school of excellence

These three key values have been built into all their employer branding campaigns. L’Oréal is also a pioneer of social recruiting with their careers site full of short, informational videos on applying for a role at L’Oréal that can be used across multiple digital platforms. We love that L’Oréal chose to build its employer brand from the bottom up.

Build Your Own Employer Brand Strategy with Pierpoint

Our all-inclusive hiring solutions can enhance your candidate experience whilst building your employer brand. Get support and reap the benefits of employer branding and access the expertise and technology you need to hire the highest quality talent quickly and efficiently. Contact our solutions designers today to discuss driving your business goals forward.