The New Rules of Recruiting: Employer Branding

Employer Brand Matters

If you’re marketing to customers, you should be marketing to job seekers! Inbound marketing leaders HubSpot defines employer branding as “your reputation among the workforce as well as your employees’ perception of you as an employer.” A good employer brand can reduce turnover by 28%, while 75% of active job seekers are likely to apply for a job with a strong employer brand. 

Employer brand is defined by:

• The employer:  What’s your mission? Company culture? What values do you want your employees to imbue? How do you deliver your mission and company culture to the people that work for your organization? Your organization leads the charge when it comes to building and defining your employer brand.

HiringThing Pro Tip: Make sure you’re able to define your company culture succinctly.  “When LinkedIn surveyed hiring and HR professionals, they found that 55% didn’t mention company culture or mission in job postings or the hiring process. That’s a huge missed opportunity. 

• Employee experiences: What would they say about working for your organization? Positives? Negatives? Are they proud to work for your organization? Can they act as brand ambassadors?

HiringThing Pro Tip: Get your employees in on building your company brand! Create a company-experience hashtag they can use to post their positive job experiences on social media!

• Employee sharing: Do your employees talk about work on social media? Word of mouth? Through professional organizations? How are your employees communicating your employer brand to the world?

HiringThing Pro Tip: Give your employees a piece of content they can share! Create a piece of content highlighting an employee’s professional growth in your organization. Employee-advocate company Everyone Social has a guide for how to build an employee story.

• Employee reviews: Employee reviews on websites like Glassdoor, Indeed, and LinkedIn are critical. What are your employees saying? Do you know? Is it a surprise? These are important questions to ask when defining and refining your employer brand.

HiringThing Pro Tip: Do annual audits of your online reviews. Are they good? Bad? What can you learn from them?

• The candidate experience: Employees aren’t the only ones who talk. Job candidates do too. Did your candidates have a good experience? Will they leave a positive review online? Negative? Did you work to ensure that even if they don’t get the position, they have a positive association with your brand?

HiringThing Pro Tip: Collect candidate feedback as part of the hiring process. Not only will this help you strengthen your hiring strategy going forward, but it shows job candidates you value their opinion and experience.

Your employer brand is all about the experience you provide the people working for your organization, starting with recruiting and hiring! 

Employer Brand Affects Applicant Traffic 

If candidates have a bad recruiting experience—overwrought applications, miscommunication, or communication lags—they develop negative connotations with a brand:

• 71% of job seekers say they’d avoid applying for a job in a company with bad online reviews.
• 32% of job seekers are unlikely to continue purchasing or doing business with a company that doesn’t respond to their job applications. 

On the other hand, positive employer branding drives applicant traffic: 

• Research shows that candidates who viewed a positive review of an employer were more eager to apply and recommend the posting to others. 
• Companies that experience positive press report a 32% increase in job applications, a 22% increase in employee job candidate referrals, and a 21% increase in accepted jobs.

HiringThing Pro Tip: Maybe it’s time to dip your toes into the world of PR! 

Remember, you want everyone coming into contact with your employer brand, from your longtime star employee to a first-time job applicant, to walk away with a great experience! 

Building and maintaining an employer brand takes time. This Glassdoor guide for building your employer brand is an invaluable resource. 

Download the HiringThing Guide to Increasing Your Applicant Traffic

Did you know that 85% of jobs are filled through networking? Employees tend to refer colleagues and acquaintances when they work somewhere they love. An employee referral program is an incredibly easy initiative that strengthens your employer brand and increases applicant traffic.

Want additional statistics about how well employee referral programs work? What about tips for writing job postings that get noticed? Or additional ways to take your hiring to the next level? Well then, we’ve created The HiringThing Guide to increasing Your Applicant Tracking just for you.

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About HiringThing

HiringThing is a modern recruiting and employee onboarding platform as a service that creates seamless talent experiences. Our white label solutions and open API enable technology and service providers to offer hiring and onboarding to their clients. Approachable and adaptable, the platform empowers anyone, anywhere to build their dream team.