How to build Your Employer Brand to Recruit Talent Better
Hiring talent is getting harder, but it’s often not because people aren’t available. In countries like the US for example, massive numbers are leaving their jobs as part of the Great Resignation, all while companies are struggling to hire.
So what do businesses need to do to attract the talent that they need?
We’ll focus on a tactic that we’ve done for ourselves that has led to a +400% increase in job inquiries without breaking the bank. But first, let’s understand today’s landscape.
How work has changed
Recruiting talent has been trending towards being more digital and more global for a while now, but the pandemic has accelerated the shift. Hybrid working styles have become mainstream, and having that flexibility is expected.
The pandemic has allowed many people working in fields ranging from IT to e-commerce to education the ability to consider alternative work options, even ones that aren’t nearby. People can expand their search radius now, enabling a comparison of more potential employers and their offerings.
People are reflecting on their lives, and many realized they have more options now.
This inevitably forces many employers to reconfigure the way they’ll proceed with business as working in a set office at a set time feels increasingly out of step with the times for many.
It also, however, gifts employers an opportunity to pull from a larger, more global pool of talent. And companies are already doing so.
After Stripe CEO Patrick Collison tweeted that their non-local hiring nearly doubled over the last couple years, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky replied in agreement saying,
"It now feels like the place to be is the internet (which is everywhere). I expect this trend to only accelerate.”
Chesky later shared in a Twitter thread how data from bookings point to a trend leading to a '“decentralization of living” and how there will be increasing competition to “attract these remote workers”.
So what’s needed to attract talent going forward?
There’s no set answer, but businesses should focus on adaptability, providing benefits, and recruitment marketing.
Adaptability is about how an employer can be flexible and work around each of their employees’ needs. Each person is different, and their priorities and needs will change with time, but the ability to work with them as people is required.
Providing benefits relates to what’s being offered for someone’s work, experience and skills. This can be salary, vacation, stock, etc., but at the end of the day, it’s the employee that decides whether or not things are a benefit to them or not.
Japanese companies in particular struggle with this because many are based on acquiring cheap labor right out of college and then training staff over the course of their careers rather than putting together an offer for more experienced talent. This is why salaries at Japanese companies for IT-related positions are 1/2 or sometimes even less than that of their American and European competitors.
Finally, recruitment marketing - how you market yourself as an employer - should be thoughtfully done. This requires building an employer brand, which is what we’ll focus on as it helps to increase competitiveness in recruiting over time.
Building a strong employer brand is a must.
Consider stats like these:
75% of active job seekers are likely to apply to a job if the employer actively manages its employer brand.
86% of HR professionals say that recruitment is becoming more like marketing.
- iCIMS
A strong employer brand can reduce cost per hire by as much as -50%, and turnover by -28%.
What is an employer brand?
As explained simply on Wikipedia:
Employer brand describes an employer's reputation as a place to work, and their employee value proposition, as opposed to the more general corporate brand reputation and value proposition to customers.
Reputation is largely built online now, which is why companies will often have corporate sites with pages dedicated to recruitment.
Just like digital marketing for your product or service, however, website visits often happen when someone is already a little interested. The top of the funnel, starting with awareness, still needs to be addressed.
The talent acquisition funnel for employers looking to recruit talent.
Most companies ignore the top phases of the talent acquisition funnel while paying more to search and recruit talent.
However, more should be done in building their employer brand because it will help them receive more job inquiries, go beyond the local playing field to acquire global talent, and recruit more efficiently overall.
How can you build your employer brand?
1. Get ready to be more transparent.
You’ll need to communicate how it is to actually work at your company.
In order to do that though, it’s important to make sure that a foundation is set. Not doing so will make it uncomfortable to be transparent about your company’s work life, and your recruitment marketing will be done in a half-baked manner.
Millennials and smartphone-native Gen-Z are able to sniff out inauthenticity rather quickly, and in the age of social media, the truth often finds a way to come out anyways.
The good news is that it’s not perfection that’s expected, it’s honesty and accountability.
Instead of playing defense, this is the opportunity for employers to go on offense and take more control of their reputation.
2. Produce content around staff.
People make decisions because of people, it’s part of the reason why we conduct interviews. Someone considering a job will try to imagine what their day-to-day may look like and who they’ll be working with.
This means that a company’s staff members are marketing assets for their employer brand.
Within your “office”, there are probably many different personalities, personal experiences, and unique day-to-day activities. Sharing this externally will work to round out your employer image in a way that is highly relevant to the job consideration process.
Even if your benefits aren’t industry-leading, some people care more about whether or not they’d enjoy working with your existing team. These are the people you’d likely want working for you anyways.
The simple fact that there are staff members being showcased in content already helps a company appear more employee-driven and open. Consider content that we’ve created for our holding company, TAM Inc., for example.
The blog titled “made by people” is a deep dive into the realities of their staff, shining a light on their perspectives and how they think, even when there’s a bit of friction against the company itself.
Not only will readers get to know about potential colleagues, they’ll also be able to better perceive the employer’s reality since they are okay with creating this type of transparent public content.
This blog has helped increase inbound job inquiries by +400%.
3. Distribute the content properly.
Many considering social media have probably asked themselves: Which social media should I use? Just as important though are: Which social media am I best suited for? Which can I maintain?
Consistent messaging over time is a big factor in marketing, and it’s no different for employers.
Most of the major social networks already have at least several million domestic users, so it’s a given that your targets are there. The focus should instead be on consistently producing content and distributing it in the channels you use.
Have staff who can write? Consider a blog.
Maybe there’s someone whose skilled at talking? Think about a podcast.
Is someone good at visual content? Youtube, TikTok, Instagram.
Whatever communication style your company is best suited for should be the type considered first. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just honest.
Take the content produced around staff and make it contextual to the communication platform.
Let’s consider this Instagram video series about how staff members celebrate New Years, for example.
It showcases a bit about who the employee is and does so in a way that is suited for Instagram. It’s light, posted in the vertical format, and includes captions for the many who have their sound off.
The benefits of building your employer brand
Here are just a few of the benefits.
1. You take more control of your reputation.
Rather than only letting outsiders talk about you, thus deciding who you are as an employer in the public eye, you and your internal staff are already communicating it.
This gives you more of a say in controlling how you’re perceived.
2. You attract talent that fits your company culture.
62% of job seekers use social media channels to evaluate the employer brand of a company, according to business software marketplace G2.
With virtually everyone using social media and with most of them researching employer brands before applying, applications will be from people who already have a better sense of how it’ll be to work at your company.
This then saves costs on hiring and training someone only to have them quickly leave because of a mismatch.
3. You’ll open your company up to more possibilities.
The more people know about how you are as an employer, the more likely you’ll come across a positive team member or partner.
Furthermore, because most major social channels are global, communicating your employer brand is no longer only to a domestic audience.
Services like our own enable localized communication in Japanese and more, better positioning your company to pull from a wider range of talent.
