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Employer branding definition
Today, companies are more concerned than ever with attracting talented employees and retaining them in the long term. This competition for the best employees is no longer decided solely by the salary on offer, but increasingly also by successful employer branding. A company’s image plays a decisive role here – and with it all measures and strategies that make it an attractive employer and help to convince young talent to join. Examples of such measures include the organization of graduate events, the creation of a company blog or podcast and the implementation of social media campaigns. In essence, it is about building a profile, i.e. creating an employer brand that is attractive to skilled workers and emphasizes the advantages and special features that set the company apart from its competitors.
Employer branding basically has two target groups, which result in different objectives. Both are equally important for companies:
– Recruiting/employee recruitment: The target group is the applicants, for example young talents.
– Loyalty/employee retention: The target group is the employees.
Employer branding in practice
Recruiting/employee recruitment
A one-off event is not enough for successful employer branding. Instead, companies need a sustainable strategy to build an image with recognition value and a strong employer brand that stands out from other companies.
Caution: Good employer branding is not aimed at deceiving employees and potential applicants and attracting them with false promises. Rather, the attractive aspects of the company are communicated to the target group in an authentic way in order to inform and activate them.
In order to develop a concept that is effective in the long term, employers must ask themselves the following questions at the outset and answer them as honestly as possible:
- What makes our company unique?
- What is our current employer image?
- How do our employees perceive us? (Attractive/unattractive and what are the respective reasons?)
- How do we appear to potential applicants? (Attractive/unattractive and what are the reasons for this?)
- What does this target group find attractive?
- Where can we reach them and how?
- How can we become more attractive?
- How can we position ourselves more clearly and differentiate ourselves from the competition?
Once there is a clear idea of the brand image and the core target group has been determined, channels that are suitable for reaching them must be found and developed. Depending on the company’s focus and target group, there are several options here. Various social media channels and popular business networks such as Xing and Linkedin continue to attract the desired attention – provided they are used correctly. Corporate blogs and podcasts are also becoming increasingly popular. The choice of channels depends primarily on the demographic aspects of the respective target group. Instagram, for example, is ideal for targeting a particularly young, media-savvy target group; Xing tends to be limited to the German job market, while LinkedIn is more international.
Once the right channels have been found, it is a matter of conveying the right content and thus creating a uniform, targeted brand communication. It is therefore important to formulate a content strategy that defines which content should be published how, when and how often. The content is also geared towards the target group and their needs and interests.
Loyalty/employee retention
Employee participation and motivation are an important part of human resources management and indispensable for retaining employees. Employees who feel good at work are more motivated and therefore perform better.
Employee retention measures include, for example
- Opportunities to work from home
- Flexible working hours
- Company kindergarten
- Employee parking spaces
- Company parties
- Cultural offers