What is Employer Branding?
It’s difficult to successfully attract new employees and at the same time retain existing ones if there is not a good strategy for how to do it. Regardless of whether a company put energy into it or not, there are perceptions of the employer as a brand. By working actively with employer branding, companies can control and influence these perceptions. With a relevant and credible employer branding strategy, it is therefore easier to compete for the attention of candidates and employees. Only when a company sets a strategy for the creation of an employer brand can the brand identity be defined. By thinking about the EVP, employer value proposition, and how you can convey it, there is a good foundation to stand on. So, what do you offer your employees that is unique to you compared to competitors in the same industry that is of great value to candidates as they consider their career choices and how do you convey that?
Employer Branding Strategy
Strategic employer branding is briefly about the process of marketing an employer as the most attractive in its industry to reach, attract, recruit and ultimately retain the most skilled. The word Employer Branding has gained momentum recently as the labor market is constantly changing. It has become more difficult to attract and retain good talent and a traditional application and recruitment process is making it increasingly difficult to compete with more digital tools and processes. A company that fails to attract the right skills needs to review its employer brand, and it is not only large companies with HR departments or an employer branding team that need to have a strategy for their brand. Being an attractive employer requires ambassadors at all levels because it affects the company as a whole.
A good way to look at employer branding is to think of it as a brand for the employer. It is about the process of marketing the employer as the most attractive within their specific target group. To make it easier to understand, an employer brand can be seen as a brand where the employer is the product. An employer’s employer branding campaign (the way of marketing itself) aims to influence the relationship with both current employees and active and passive job seekers, customers and others who have an interest in the organization.
A company’s activities and employer branding theory should also concern the maintenance of relationships with former employees. The work with an employer brand must be long-term and have a clear objective. In concrete terms, an employer brand must concern both financial, practical and psychological benefits that employees within the organization receive. In addition, a brand is expected to create clear expectations about what an employee is rewarded with when they choose to work for the company.
