Boosting Your Employer Brand to Fuel Talent Retention

The usual “recipe” for business success is to assemble dedicated teams and let them work their magic within the parameters you set. While this recipe is not altogether wrong, it presents a drastically simplified view of delivering business value. A successful organization is built not only on the principle of entrepreneurship but also on member ownership.

Care and concern for the improvement of various dimensions of employer brand practices can solve some of the key talent acquisition challenges businesses are facing today.

What Is Employer Branding?

The term “employer branding” describes how a company manages the awareness and perceptions of employees and prospective hires with regard to institutional culture, beliefs and values. In a nutshell, employer branding can be summarized as an impression management message meant not to only sell a vacancy but also a company on the labor market.

The concept has been borrowed from marketing and applied to the world of competitive labor markets. The end goal of this process is to help companies align their entire business infrastructure to:

1. Attract and recruit desirable candidates;
2. Attend to shortages within the company;
3. Advance retention rates and reduce turnover rates;
4. Amplify employee engagement, performance, and commitment.

Why Employer Branding Is a Key Priority?

Human capital brings value to the firm, especially when a leadership team invests time and energy to give the brand more exposure. How people feel about their employer brand is alleged to be responsible for the success or failure of a business. The results of several studies carried out by The Economist and The Conference Board report a series of benefits related to the implementation of employer branding actions:

• Improved applicant pool: Finding the most suitable applicant is easier if the company comes across as a very attractive and worthwhile place of work. Based on a positive perception of institutional culture, a larger pool of high-performing and high-potential employees is being developed.
• Decreased recruiting costs: If employees are happy with their brand, they refer to others too. Indirectly, employee branding can reduce the cost of the new hiring process and training.
• Decreased retention costs: When a strong employer brand connects a company’s values with people’s strategy, new hires are much less likely to leave their jobs and create immediate new job opportunities.
• Increased retention rates: Dissatisfied employees are more likely to quit than employees who experience a positive work environment in which training, flexible hours, and career progression opportunities are valued.
• A larger volume of unsolicited applications: Being considered a great place to work offers companies the benefit of getting access to an enlarged pool of candidates from which HR recruiters can easily choose in the future.
• Sustained competitive advantage over competitors: Within the context of talent shortage and motivated employees, a strong employer brand can serve to attract and retain talent.
• Stronger sense of company culture: A strong and unique employer branding designs a personalized employee experience that allows employees to feel needed, seen, heard, and appreciated.
• Enhanced levels of general job satisfaction and internal motivation: The impact of perceived organizational support can result in enhanced morale, a greater degree of job satisfaction, and bolstering engagement levels.
• Long-term positive impact on shareholder value because of positive company image: Favorable institutional reputation reduces uncertainty surrounding the firm’s prospects in its stakeholders.

How to Improve your Employer Brand?

There are various strategies firms can use to create deep and meaningful relationships with external target audiences and make the employer brand stand out.

• Create a business blog: Certain types of content, such as company news, culture updates, and articles written by your employees can be used to highlight the organizational commitment to employee happiness.
• Use social media to start conversations: The more time employees spend online joining conversations, the higher chances of growing the company’s virtual presence.
• Hire for diversity and inclusion: Having a unique workforce tells potential candidates that the employer provides equal opportunities and looks for true potential.
• Utilize rich media employee testimonials: Employees are good ambassadors for promoting your company’s culture and giving your brand both personality and a human face.

Measuring the Success of Employer Branding

Although there has been no consensus on which instrument should be utilized, a holistic evaluation of the employer brand can give companies an indication of how effective their initiatives are. Regardless of the quantitative or qualitative nature of raw data, a good starting point for measurement is to analyze conventional metrics:

• Calculate retention rate: Look at turnover rates across departments.
• Identify the current satisfaction of your employees: Gather monthly data and compare staff satisfaction surveys.
• Measure the quality of hire (i.e., hiring rate): Evaluate the ability to retain star performers and have a people-based competitive advantage.
• Measure employer brand perception: Assess employees’ brand awareness across different teams and over time to track progress in brand personality perception.

Here to Solve Your Problems

Are you struggling to find and retain skilled talent in the Netherlands?

At Your Talent Agency, we source, recruit and relocate. We identify and engage the highest-caliber talent so that the only thing left to you is to hire, onboard, and scale up.

Do you want to learn more about our services? Fill in the contact form and Anthony Seger will soon reach out to you.