Four States Small Business Blog

Why Employer Branding is Key to Recruiting Top Talent

Posted by Chad Elliot on January 4, 2019 at 8:00 AM
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employer brandingAttracting top talent can be challenging, and with today's low unemployment rate, the competition is high. Fortunately, employer branding can help your company stand out as a good place to work and improve your chances of attracting the best candidates.

Furthermore, it can give potential employees an inside look at your company before they even apply. This allows them to determine whether the open role fits their needs in advance. As a result, establishing an employer brand can help you reduce turnover; however, it also means that you must take active steps to effectively promote your company brand.

What is Employer Branding?

Creating an employer brand encompasses several elements that demonstrate what it's like to work at your company. This may include your company's mission, values, brand personality, and culture. Studies also show that employer branding plays a critical role in recruiting top candidates, particularly as they seek information about potential employers. In fact, 69% of candidates are more likely to apply at a company that actively manages its employer brand, according to Talent Works International.

3 Marketing Tools for Employer Branding

There are several tools that you can use to promote your company brand, but three stand out as being especially effective. These are social media, radio, and digital advertising.

1. Social Media

Social media is a great tool for reinforcing your employer brand, especially since 59% of candidates use social media to research companies of interest. Conversely, 70% of recruiters say they’ve successfully hired with social media, according to Better Team.

To effectively use social media as an employer branding tool, be sure that your page showcases your company culture, values, personality, and day-to-day operations using photos and videos. You can even feature current employees to share their experience at your company.

2. Radio

Radio is another powerful tool for promoting your company brand to a large pool of candidates. According to Nielsen, 93% of adults tune into AM/FM radio on a weekly basis. In addition to its expansive reach, 76% of radio listeners between the ages of 18 and 64 are in the workforce. This gives you an opportunity to reach passive job seekers, which are considered attractive candidates to most employers. For these reasons, it makes sense to harness the power of radio to build your employer brand, and thus, recruit for specific positions.

To be effective, you can place a radio advertisement that describes your company culture, represents your brand personality and/or features an employee testimonial. The goal is to position your company as a great place to work, and in turn, attract top talent.

3. Digital Advertising

This form of advertising can be highly targeted, allowing you to reach a specific type of candidate. Ads can appear on specific sites, display when certain triggers are met, and be fine-tuned to only target certain geographical areas.

Digital advertising is also great for raising awareness and driving action. For instance, you can run an ad that encourages your ideal candidate to fill out an application after viewing an employer-branded video. To effectively use digital ads to establish your brand, be sure to incorporate your company logo, colors, messaging, personality and other defining elements into the ads.

Employer branding is essential to successfully recruit top talent to your company. It lets potential employees know that your business will be a good fit for them prior to applying for a position. Leverage the above three tools to establish and promote your employer branding, thus attracting and hiring the employees your company needs.

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Topics: Recruitment