Employer brand

Employer brand

Employer brand

Employer branding is defined as a long-term strategy for managing the awareness and perceptions of current and potential employees and stakeholders, including direct and indirect experiences of contact with the organization. Organizations need to invest in branding themselves as employers just as they do for their products, because employees are the organization’s internal customers. Today, an effective employer brand is essential for competitive advantage. Employer branding is the process of identifying and creating an organization’s brand message using traditional marketing principles to achieve a position as a superior employer of choice  .  The term employer brand was first used by Ambler and Barrow. They defined employer brand as a set of functional, economic, and psychological benefits provided by employment and recognized by the employer organization.

Employer branding is defined as a strategy by which an organization differentiates itself as an employer from its competitors, with the aim of ensuring that it attracts qualified candidates and retains talent within the organization. Examples of employer branding objectives include :

  • ·  Increasing attractiveness for future talent
  • ·  Creating alignment of employees with the organization’s values
  • ·  Highlighting the role and importance of employees in missions
  • ·  Encourage sharing and self-awareness, satisfaction/belonging to the job
  • ·  Attention to equality in pay and working conditions

Employer brand can be defined as the characteristics of an organization (as an employer) in the minds of internal employees and job seekers in the labor market about that organization. A positive brand of an organization represents the characteristics that make that organization, in the minds of employees and job seekers, have characteristics that determine it as a suitable environment to work.

Employer branding is considered the foundation of building an effective recruitment strategy that can make a significant difference in winning the battle to attract skilled and talented employees.

Employer branding is now more important than ever. The challenges of attracting talent, especially those in the fields of software engineering, sales representatives, healthcare professionals, and senior managers who possess a wealth of skills and knowledge, have made it even more important.

The key to attracting, retaining and building employee engagement is to creatively and holistically use what the business believes in and reflect it in its employer brand. This way, the  right people with the right skills are secured and retained in the right jobs. When employee relationships are built on trust that leads to a sense of belonging, the organization ultimately acts on its strategies and delivers on its commitment to customers, all of which  is built from within the organization. A brand can only be committed to its customers outside the organization if it has first delivered on the commitment it has made to its employees inside the organization and is built on internal beliefs. In this case, business leaders fulfill their commitment to employees, and employees fulfill their commitment to customers .

Also, considering the increasing development of social networks, whether you like it or not, your employer brand is in the public eye, and if you don’t define your brand, others will do it for you, against your will.

  A strong employer brand has several benefits because:

  • Reduces recruitment costs
  • It sets you apart from your competitors.
  • Improves employee retention.

Practical steps that, if implemented, will promote the company’s brand among employees and applicants:

  •  Brand strategy development
  •  Taking care of your reputation
  •  Aligning the client and employer brand
  •  Creating a visual identity for the brand
  •  Keeping your brand real
  •  Being social media and mobile-friendly
  •  Maximizing the applicant tracking system
  •  Transforming employees into brand ambassadors.