When we think of ‘branding,’ odds are high, the first thing that comes to mind is something from the marketing dept.

Things like logos, company branded messaging, how a company is perceived to its customers even. This is where most of the budget goes in advertising, so it’s not uncommon to miss out on the value of employer branding.

Times have changed in the way companies recruit and retain employees, mostly due in large part to technology advancements, including social media and career review sites that make I easier for job candidates to find information.

Without a positive employer brand, your company will miss out on top applicants. This means potentially losing money and affecting other areas of the business.

First things first: employer branding explained

This is simply a company’s reputation, both as an employer and with the value that it brings and offers to their employees. It goes without saying that positive branding means great attraction from talented applicants and employees who wont leave. This is absolutely the secret sauce to the success and growth of any business.

Quite often, companies will focus on consumer-facing brand advertising. That’s how your company is perceived by customers and prospects.

Missing out of this picture is employer branding itself. It’s the business identity of your company. It’s what makes your business stand out and comes across as unique to candidates who are on the market for jobs. It’s what will improve your companies’ recruiting team’s ability to attract an awesome talent pool.

By not giving any space to employer branding, your company can quickly sabotage your teams hiring efforts, making the best talent a hard target to reach.

Why is strategy important to employer branding

The best way to explain why employer branding is important and why its strategy matters starts by using real world stats. Let’s take a look:

• 84 percent of job seekers say when making a decision on where to apply, a company’s reputation was number one on their mind.

• 90 percent of job candidates would only apply to an employer who has an actively maintained brand.

• 50 percent of job applicants say a company’s bad reputation would stop them from applying, even if it’s for a pay increase.

So why does this matter? Take a look below at why employer branding is valuable for companies to focus on.

The job pool of qualified candidates increases: With a solid reputation and a genuine interest in employee’s lives, your unique work culture will have no problem attracting top talent. Instead of spending vast amounts of time dedicated to sourcing candidates, your employer brand itself will afford you the opportunity to chill a bit and watch the applications pour in. In short; Selling is your push, Branding is your pull.

Saves money for your company: How can this be you ask? Well for starters, saving on promoting your open positions on various job sites. These can get pricy with no guarantee of success. When your employer brand is positive and proactive, a posting on your own company website or a social share is all you need. You can also save on salaries while still being fair. If your company has a bad rep, you can be sure to pay a bit more for top talent after you find someone. Even then, the salary alone may not be enough as the culture may make them leave after a while.

Social media perception matters: 25 percent of job seekers use social media as the preferred tool of use for job hunting and research. You should know that number is growing. Keep in mind that people trust family, close friends and colleagues over anything else posted online. If they are talking smack about their company brand or culture, those job hunters are going to see it.

Positive employer branding affects other aspects of the business

There is an inevitable trickle-down effect from the recruiting and talent acquisition part of the business.

Consumers want to work with and purchase from companies they know treat their employees fairly. All it takes is a bit of seeing consistent negativity online to make a customer think twice about doing business with your company. They would be thinking, “If this is how they treat their staff, then how I wonder how they treat their customers?”

Revenue and lead growth are impacted in this one example alone.

Establishing your employer brand strategy

Content for candidate personas

Just like marketing will create campaigns based on buyer personas, your team can build content to reflect candidate personas as well:

• Blog posts on company events, work culture, the hiring process and benefits of working there are all examples.

• Social media posts cannot be underrated. Internal work-life, employee highlights can be done using blogs written by employees, photos videos etc.

• Video testimonials go a long way when its authentic and your employees (new and former even) are sharing a positive experience.

Becoming proactive on career sites

Companies often forget about site like Glassdoor, which allows employees to be very candid in their appraisal their experiences and your company. This can raise the red flag if attention to your company brand is neglected.

Address the comments, both positive and negative. Don’t come off as defensive, address it head on politely and show your company is making strides on improving the experience. That alone will show you care.

Always encourage employee training and growth

If you want to keep your employees, one way is to ensure they have opportunities to learn and grow within their careers.

This could be anything from training sessions on new skills in the company to outside certifications etc. It is equally important to make sure not just your employees but also your candidates know about this.

Showing that as a company, you are willing to go the extra mile to see your employees grow, shows just how much you value your teams to anyone interested in working there.

Being active on social matters

Social media is huge in job hunting. Think LinkedIn and how huge this outlet is for a company o see if a potential candidate is a good fit; not to mention the reverse as well.

We talked about it above and can’t stress enough how important this one is. People talk, family talks, colleagues talk. Those closest to you will definitely have an opinion you care about and if it’s a negative one about a certain company, rest assured it will make an impact.

One way to build your employer brand with social recruiting, is to leverage employees as brand ambassadors. If your company is doing some great things, your current employees are more than willing to share those same things on their social media sites. Prospective candidates will take notice.

Final thoughts

You can’t control everything with your company brand 100 percent. However, you can control the narrative and ensure your employees and customers have a positive view of your company’s identity. It will not only benefit employee retention; it will also attract talented candidates and that positivity will spin off to other aspects of your company as well!