The key to attracting the best candidates today is to develop and maintain an employer brand. But what is an employer brand? What is it so important? How can you create and build your employer brand?   

Understanding the Employer Brand 

Employer branding is the reputation you have with your employees, candidates, the public, and even your sales targets. From a recruiting perspective, your brand is how outsiders view your company and the values you offer. You use your brand to attract candidates and retain your existing employees. The better your brand, the easier it will be to attract top talent. 

Did you know 86% of workers say they wouldn’t apply for a job or continue to work for a company that has a bad reputation with the public or with former employers? Your brand is what your teams believe in and how they feel about their work. It’s not about having ping-pong tables, rather promoting work/life balance with your employees. A good company brand can reduce turnover rates by 28%. 

To get started building your brand, we recommend four crucial steps: 

  1. Understand what your brand is now by conducting a brand audit. You simply may not know what candidates think of you. You may not even know what your employees think, either. When was the last time you checked your glass door ratings? Have you ever done an employee survey? You could even hire a firm that handles reputation monitoring to do an audit. Your goal is to find out what your employees and candidates like and dislike about your company.  
  2. Develop a corporate value proposition. This should include a mission statement, vision, and values. Most companies have a mission statement today and that’s a good starting place to develop corporate values. Work backward from your mission to determine what’s important for the organization. But don’t do this in a vacuum; your employees should participate in this process. Your brand audit will help you begin this process. Ask yourself; where are we know and where do we want to go? 
  3. Make positive changes based on the brand audit. Again, involve your employees in this process. Communicate with them what steps you’re taking to change things. Together you can work to improve your company’s brand. 
  4. Update your marketing materials to reflect the changes you’re making. Your website careers page should list your values. The values should work their way into your hiring practices. You should even add these to the employee evaluation process.  

Changing your brand doesn’t happen overnight, but working with your employees will help your organization change how current employees and candidates view your organization.

Exelare works with companies to use our software to help them improve the hiring process. Talk to our team about how we can improve the candidate application process.