In order to both retain and attract new talent, it is very useful to promote an Employer Branding strategy, or, in other words, the image that the company gives off to the outside world as a good place to work.
Employer Branding is one of the most relevant talent retention strategies and is usually one of the most important areas of work for the Human Resources departments of any company. This strategy focuses on the brand image that a company generates and through it attracts and retains talent.
Brand image determines the opinion and vision that employees have of an organization, therefore, if a company has a positive brand image it will attract more talent than a company with a bad reputation.
Nowadays, companies have to face countless challenges that are changing the role that HR departments have played up to now, and this is where Employer Branding comes into the picture.
Younger employees entering the labour market have different values to other generations that have preceded them. For them, the stable job with a high salary as a method of attraction and retention has lost its appeal.
Younger people are increasingly looking for flexible work, innovative companies or organizations that provide them with additional training and with which they share common values.
We are now seeing the Baby Boomers slowly retiring, and at the same time we are seeing digitalisation expanding. These two things combined have increased the demand for young talent (not forgetting senior talent and the experience they bring), making it increasingly difficult to find and retain.
Employer Branding will therefore be of great use, allowing us to both attract and retain this in-demand talent.
9 keys to implementing an Employer Branding strategy.
Employer Branding Strategies need a long-term vision and close collaboration between marketing and HR departments. In addition, having software to help you carry out this strategy is also a fundamental part of it.
- Define the target audience: just as you would not carry out a marketing strategy for one of your products without having first analysed your customers, when developing an employer branding strategy you should analyse your employees.
For example, your employees may want more flexible working hours and others may want to have more telecommuting in the company. - Analyse the current situation in the company: find out what your employees need and what your candidates want. This is usually done through empathy maps, internal surveys or external consultancy reports.
- Through this analysis you will be able to define the best strategy for your employees to become brand ambassadors for your company.
- Analyse the desired situation: the marketing and HR departments must work together to ensure that the initiative is carried out in the best possible way. And from here, define where you want to get to and what objectives you want to achieve.
- Define the objectives to be achieved: specific objectives to be achieved must be established in order to be able to see the degree of fulfilment of the strategy based on your actions.
- Create a value proposition: just as you communicate why your product is unique or better than those of your competitors, you should do the same with your employees and candidates.
- Communication channels: define both internal and external channels to communicate your initiatives as a brand. On an internal level, the internal communication tools of HR software are particularly interesting. Externally, social networks such as Linkedin, Twitter or Instagram stand out.
- Internal actions: the objective you should pursue is that the employees themselves are ambassadors of your company's brand. It is not about employees receiving your communications, but about them participating and getting involved in spreading the word about what you do well.
- External actions: This is about communicating your brand as a good employer. You can do this through employment events, talks at universities, or through social media.
- Monitor and evaluate the strategy: you should measure and analyse what you are doing to know if it is working or if you are wasting your time and should change your strategy.
In addition to paying attention to the company's image, it is also necessary to get to know your employees and identify any gaps they may have, to value their work and to reinforce the shared values between employees and the company.
Valuing employees and attracting more talent to a company based on existing gaps can be done through performance appraisals, which play an important role in discovering, describing and evaluating the work of employees.
