Employer Branding

Employer branding has been around for some time now although there’s still some uncertainty as to what it is. From most people’s perspectives, your employer brand is what makes you stand out from other companies as it’s derived from your features and qualities, and many other intangible aspects, which demonstrate to individuals what kind of employment experience you offer. In light of this, all employers have a ‘brand’ but it’s up to you how this is developed to be perceived.
An employer brand can often be associated as a recruitment quality and this is important to help you stand out and attract those who are suited to your organisation. Your brand can also be a reason why some employees stay with you, as many individuals enjoy working for a reputable name. Therefore to have an effective ‘brand’ it is vital that your ways of working are explicit throughout an employee’s lifecycle with you (i.e. from recruitment through to their departure). Thus your employer brand should be an overall reflection of company values, policies, practices, alongside appropriate people management strategies and so should be incorporated in all people management methods, such as induction processes, promotions, reward, etc. too. For example, if your brand encompasses how you are an employer who recognises reward, you should have in place throughout your policies threads of rewards which employees may obtain.
When developing your employer brand utilising any marketing skills you have is often beneficial, as marketers have the ability to promote items/services in successful ways. Marketers will often decipher their target audience and then how to entice them.  Applying marketing techniques when developing a brand will assist you in the design of effective people management schemes and how these are most appropriately communicated to staff, alongside boosting engagement levels with staff. More often than not, communication is vital in all processes because it allows for information to be transferred appropriately– although please remember when marketing your employer brand it is essential for only the key information to be conveyed to support your brand. Many employers who maintain their brand, or wish to update their brand, often carry out reviews with staff regarding how they view the company’s processes to be, because this will provide insightful inside information to establish how their brand is being developed. In addition, by gaining employee’s perspectives in terms of your employer brand this can provide rich qualitative or quantitative data (dependant on your survey method) to rate your brand against competitors, and demonstrate how much your staff believe in the brand you’ve developed. Having staff believe in your brand is essential and amongst the numerous reasons why is because their support will assist the strength of your brand as not only will your brand be spoken about from an employer perspective, but you shall have your employees confirming what you say is true.
An employer brand can be extremely helpful in many diverse circumstances, for instance attracting new recruits or where there has been a culture change – your employer brand will allow individuals to have sound understanding of who their employer is and so where they play a part in the company. The development of any employer brand is an on-going process, due to it being a reflection of the employment experience you have to offer at the time. However, maintaining your employer brand doesn’t have to be difficult as it should be a factor to keep updated alongside any practices/policies which you alter from time to time.