Tips on delivering an employer branding programme
A successful employer branding programme is key to attracting and retaining top talent. It involves crafting an insight-driven narrative with a compelling tone of voice and executing it consistently across campaigns and touchpoints. Here are some tips to achieve this:
1. Start with an audit: What’s working and what’s not. Understand what sets your company apart as a workplace. Conduct external research of your company on social media and review sites. Internal research is key. Identify key stakeholders and extend your reach throughout the organisation and departments. Use a mixture of employee surveys and interviews to focus on identifying core values, culture, and benefits. The insights you gain here will drive your messaging and attraction campaigns.
2. Define the Employer Value Proposition (EVP): A great EVP helps companies stand out and build credibility. It’s a promise to your employees both now and in the future. It essentially packages up reasons why your company is a great place to work. Done well it will improve your reputation and increase the quality and quantity of attracting the best fit candidates. Your EVP should resonate with your target audience and align with the company’s overall vision, mission and brand values.
3. Get the tone of voice right: Create a tone of voice guidelines for the employer brand (this could be an additional section to your main tone of voice guidelines). Invest in training. Train everyone who writes externally to apply this consistent voice. Go one stage further and give the rest of the team basic training to understand the importance of tone of voice. Build a messaging platform with key proof points and boilerplates. This is how you’ll convey your company’s culture and personality on platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed.
4. Leverage Multi-Channel Campaigns: Use a mix of digital and offline channels to reach potential candidates. Tailor your campaigns to specific platforms, whether it’s LinkedIn for professionals, Instagram for culture showcases, or job boards for active seekers. Consistency in messaging across channels is crucial. This should feel like part of the brand, not a whole new identity. Deliver a creative route which leverages and builds on the best of the brand assets, but is also visually distinctive for candidates.
5. Highlight Authentic Stories: Authenticity is key to building trust and engagement. Showcase real employee experiences to make your brand relatable. Video testimonials, day-in-the-life content, or blogs from employees can give an insider’s view of your company culture. Use local employees for local campaigns.
6. Measure, Learn, Evolve: What’s your goal? Set clear, achievable KPI’s that your leadership have brought into and that you can report on. The simplest are cost per hire, candidate quality and candidate retention. Track the performance of your campaigns using metrics like engagement, application rates, and hire quality. Use these insights to refine your strategy and enhance future campaigns. Check-in with candidates and employees and get their feedback. The job’s not done once a campaign is live. Campaigns can and should evolve.
By uniting a compelling EVP, authentic storytelling, and insightful, data-driven strategies, you can create an employer brand that inspires, attracts, and engages top talent.