We all know what branding means in terms of marketing: it’s your company’s identity and what distinguishes your business from others in the eyes of customers. You could even say your branding is the “promise” you make to your customers — it tells them exactly what they can expect from your company.

But branding isn’t just about marketing to customers; you have an employer brand as well that helps you market your business to prospective employees. And since your employer brand is a big part of a successful recruitment and retention strategy, we’ve decided to answer some FAQs about employer branding and how you can use it to make more hires. 

What is employer branding? 

Your employer brand is your business’s reputation as a place to work. The perception of your brand comes from both existing and former employees as well as job seekers who are interacting with you online or moving through your hiring process.

Your employer brand encompasses employee experience, candidate experience, your company culture and more. You can actively take steps to manage your brand both internally and externally to maintain a positive image. This will help you attract new talent and retain your existing team.

Why is employer branding important?

Employer branding is important for setting yourself apart from other companies so that you can find and keep top talent.

Attracting new talent

When it comes to attracting job seekers, the data shows that many of them are using online reviews to inform their search. When you learn that more than half of job seekers abandon their pursuit of a company after reading negative reviews, it becomes clear why having a stellar reputation is crucial for your company’s recruitment success.

Plus, a strong employer brand helps you highlight what makes you unique. It shows job seekers what your company values and what you offer to your employees. This helps you attract people that share your values and are aligned with your mission.

Engaging and retaining your existing team

Employer branding is also important for your existing team. If employee sentiment starts to decline and your employer brand weakens, you will see your team become more unengaged and checked out. Like a snowball effect, more employees will start writing reviews on sites around their experience, and it will become harder and harder to save your reputation.

On the other hand, being a great place to work and maintaining a positive employer brand can lead to increased employee loyalty and a more motivated team.

How do you create an employer branding strategy?

Clearly, your employer brand is important. And the good news is that you can take action to build a great brand and share it with job seekers and employees alike. Let’s go over five of our best employer branding tips. 

1. Create an exceptional candidate experience

The number one factor that affects employer branding when it comes to hiring is the candidate experience, or the experience a candidate has with a potential employer throughout the hiring process, from job posting to job offer. 

Job seekers are not shy about posting both positive and negative reviews online about a company’s hiring process. In fact, we found that 70% have left a positive review online after a good experience with a company — even ones that didn’t hire them!

Plus, 91% of candidates said a positive candidate experience influenced their decision to accept an offer. This means that providing a great candidate experience will not only improve your employer brand — it will also impact your ability to get candidates to say yes to your job offers. Invest the time in creating a positive candidate experience from start-to-finish if you’d like to be in control of your employer brand.

Pro tip: Maintain a positive candidate experience for all applicants whether you hire them or not. For example, don’t “ghost” candidates you’ve rejected. Instead, send a polite message informing them that they haven’t been selected to move forward in the hiring process. You can automate rejections to unqualified candidates in CareerPlug!

Check out the video below from CareerPlug’s Senior Director of People, Natalie Morgan, to learn more about creating a great candidate experience.

2. Build a compelling careers page

Your careers page is the hub of your employer brand. It’s your opportunity to educate potential candidates about your company’s culture and core values. 

A candidate who visits your careers page should get a clear sense of what it’s like to work at your business. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your job posting is the only thing a candidate needs to see before deciding to apply.

An applicant who takes the time to research a role and apply directly through a company careers page is more likely to have spent time considering their own fit for the position and company. This means that higher quality candidates are applying through careers pages.

In fact, in our Recruiting Metrics Report, we found that an applicant who applied directly from a company careers page was four times more likely to be hired than an applicant who applied from a job board.

Learn more about what makes a compelling careers page in the video below. 

3. Showcase employee testimonials

Employee testimonials are examples of social proof because they can act as signals to job seekers that yours is a company they want to learn more about. 

Remember that the best candidates will always have the freedom to be picky about where they choose to work. When we asked job seekers what they felt was the most important factor during the hiring process, the number one answer was, “The workplace culture and how connected I feel to the company and team.”

Seeing that other professionals have positive things to say about working for you can help nudge them toward applying and interviewing for your role. Try to add employee testimonials to your existing recruitment marketing efforts. For example, you can show off employee testimonials on a careers page, or you could create graphics with employee testimonials and share them on your business’ social media pages.

If you have the ability, consider creating video employee testimonials to make the most compelling content for job seekers, like this video from CareerPlug client Hand & Stone.

4. Ask for employee reviews on company review sites

Job seekers now commonly spend significant time researching a company on employer review sites like Glassdoor, and a big part of your online reputation comes from these sources.

Keep in mind that in addition to publishing reviews written by your current and former employees, these employer review sites also publish reviews from candidates who have been through your interview process whether you hired them or not. Again, this is why it’s so important to put your best foot forward with all candidates and be courteous in all your interactions.

Still, the most meaningful reviews will come from your employees who love working for you. It’s a good idea to get into the habit of periodically reminding your employees that they have the option to write your company a review on Glassdoor if they’d like. Let them know that it’s a great recruitment marketing tool and that their positive reviews can help attract great new additions to your team.

5. Increase retention of existing employees 

Your existing high-performing, happy employees are the best ambassadors for your employment brand, which is why the best recruiting strategy is to do everything you can to keep them! 

Low turnover and long-term employee retention can serve as proof to candidates that you’ve created an exceptional place to work. Of course, achieving this is easier said than done.

Some of the most effective retention strategies include:

• Invest in enticing benefits. Think of benefits as an investment in your growth. Benefits signal to employees that they are valued and that your business is committed to caring about your people.
• Be generous with recognition and appreciation. Benefits can be expensive, but being a thoughtful leader who expresses appreciation for your employees is free!
• Develop growth plans or career tracks and talk about them as part of your interview process. Highly motivated candidates will often turn down a job that pays more if they see a clear long-term path to growth at your company and employees are more likely to stay with a company that offers them growth opportunities.
• Develop an employee referral program. Our data shows that employee referrals are 10 times more likely to be hired than applicants from job boards. Employee referrals also have lower turnover rates than other types of hires.

Our advice

Hiring managers tell us that one common pain point is a lack of high-quality applicants in their hiring funnel. Knowing that the best candidates do their homework and research companies before applying, we recommend investing the time to improve your employer brand now to make sure you’re not losing out on a great potential hire. 

Offering competitive pay and compensation, giving your employees a way to share feedback, and acting on that feedback are all cornerstones of a good retention strategy and ways to keep a positive reputation.

Your company careers page is a great place to highlight your brand, mission, and values and attract more of the right kind of applicants. Learn more about other sources of quality candidates here.