The basics of employer branding

What is employer branding?

What is employer branding? As talent becomes scarcer and the competition for the best employees intensifies, employer branding has evolved into a crucial component of many companies' strategies. For 78% of leading global employers, employer branding is a top priority, an increase of 11 points in just two years (since 2021). In this chapter, you'll discover what employer branding entails and why it's so valuable for your organization.

I begin with a clear explanation of employer branding and its significance in today's labor market. It's about more than just offering a great workplace - you're building an employer identity that aligns with your target audience. You'll see how an appealing employer brand contributes to finding and retaining employees and to your company's results.

Then you'll learn about the difference between employer branding and recruitment marketing. These terms may seem similar, but have different goals and approaches.

What does employer branding mean?

As a professional, you want people to want to join and stay with your organization. Employer branding helps you achieve this. But what exactly does it entail?

Employer branding is the systematic work on your organization's image as an employer. You develop an employer identity that fits your organization and share it with the outside world. It's about the perception people have of your organization as a place to work.

Your employer brand consists of different components:

• Values and company culture.
• The work environment.
• Growth opportunities.
• Employment terms and benefits.
• Your contribution to society.

The goal? To create an honest and attractive image that fits your organization and appeals to your target audience. This way, you attract new people and ensure current employees continue to work for you with satisfaction.

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IKEA employs workers as ambassadors with Uppdrag campaign

IKEA demonstrates how to use employees as ambassadors for your employer brand. With the Uppdrag campaign, the company adds a personal touch to employer branding by focusing on the motivation of individual employees.

The campaign centers around the Swedish concept 'Uppdrag', which represents one's personal mission. IKEA encourages employees to share their own Uppdrag through vlogs and social media posts. The company has developed a special toolkit with materials that employees can use.

By letting employees tell their personal stories, IKEA creates an authentic image of working at the company. This helps attract new talent who identify with the values and culture of the Swedish home furnishing store.

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Why is employer branding important?

The labor market is tight, and many organizations are searching for the same people. That's where a strong employer brand makes the difference. These are the benefits for your organization:

Finding good people

With a strong employer brand, you're more attractive to potential employees. In a tight labor market, this ensures that you find the right people.

Lower recruitment costs

A strong employer brand reduces your recruitment costs. People are more likely to apply on their own initiative, which means you spend less money on recruitment per new employee.

“69% of candidates would reject a job offer from a company with a bad employer brand, even if they were unemployed.”(source: CareerArc)

Satisfied employees stay

Employer branding isn't just about attracting new employees. It also increases job satisfaction within your current team. With a strong employer brand, people stay longer and are more productive.

“Employer branding increases employee engagement by up to 20%.” (source: LinkedIn)

Good reputation

Your employer brand and general company reputation are closely connected. A positive employer image reflects on your entire organization and can even influence how customers view your company and their loyalty.

Competitive advantage

In markets where products or services differ little, a strong employer brand can provide an important competitive edge. It helps you stand out and attract and retain the best talent.

“82% of employees believe that company culture is a competitive advantage.” (source: Deloitte)

Employer branding in practice

Now you know what employer branding is and why it works. But how do you approach it? These are the main steps we'll cover in detail in the following chapters:

Research your employer image

Start with analyzing your current employer image. How do people view your organization as an employer? Research this through:

• Employee questionnaires
• Exit interviews
• Reviews on platforms like Glassdoor
• Social media responses

Develop your employer value proposition

Create an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that shows what makes working at your organization special. This promise forms the foundation for all your employer branding activities.

Maintain one story

Tell the same story about working at your organization everywhere. Whether it's your job postings, career site, or social media – ensure people see variations of the same message.

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Example: Starbucks' Success

Starbucks' career site showcases how to create an engaging online experience for job applicants. Their slogan "To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time" is brought to life through innovative features on their careers page.

The site offers a unique "Job Match" quiz that helps potential employees find the right position based on their skills and interests. Additionally, an interactive map allows applicants to explore job opportunities in their preferred locations, making the job search process more personalized and efficient.

Starbucks distinguishes between retail and corporate careers, improving navigation for different types of jobseekers. The site is enhanced with special features like "Day in the Life" videos of current employees and inspiring quotes from team members, creating a more immersive experience for applicants.

For entry-level positions in their stores, Starbucks keeps the application process straightforward and user-friendly. The initial application is brief and doesn't require a resume, lowering barriers for potential applicants. This approach has proven successful - in 2023, Starbucks was recognized for having one of the best career sites in the retail industry, praised for its ease of use and engaging content.

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Involve your current employees

Your colleagues are the best ambassadors for your organization. Let them talk about their work and use these stories in your communications. People are more likely to believe stories from real employees than corporate texts.

Measure what works

Monitor what your employer branding activities deliver. Look at things like:

• How quickly you fill vacancies (time-to-hire).
• The quality of applicants.
• Employee satisfaction levels.
• How many people stayed with you after the first year.

Building employer branding together

As a marketer or communications professional, you help shape and communicate the employer brand. Your knowledge of storytelling, content creation, and targeted communication is essential for a convincing employer branding strategy.

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In practice: Google

Google has established itself as one of the most sought-after employers in the world through several key strategies. The company is well-known for its innovative campus-style workspace and generous employee benefits, which have become legendary in the tech industry.

Google cultivates a distinct "work hard, play hard" culture that resonates with ambitious, high-performing individuals. They also excel at showcasing their workplace culture through engaging content, such as popular YouTube videos that follow Google interns through their daily routines. This comprehensive approach to employer branding has been so successful that numerous companies now try to replicate Google's formula for attracting top talent.

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Are you an HR professional? Then you use employer branding to contribute more strategically to your organization. You're not just recruiting people, but also building company culture and people's perception of your organization.

Marketing, communications, and HR reinforce each other in employer branding. By working together, you create an employer identity that convinces both internally and externally.

Tips:

• Start small and build step by step.
• Ensure a solid foundation before launching big campaigns.
• Involve employees in your employer branding plans from the start.
• Measure regularly and adjust where needed.
• Think from the candidate's perspective: what do they want to know and see?
• Ensure your employer value proposition can be delivered.

The difference between employer branding and recruitment marketing

While employer branding and recruitment marketing are closely related and often used in the same context, they each have their own focus and objectives.

What is what?

• Employer Branding: With employer branding, you work on people's perception of your organization as an employer. You show what characterizes your organization: the values, culture, work environment, and development opportunities.
• Recruitment Marketing: This revolves around promoting vacancies and finding the right people for open positions. You use marketing techniques to reach potential candidates and motivate them to apply.

Time and planning

• Employer branding is a long-term strategy. It's about building and maintaining a consistent image of your organization as an employer over an extended period.
• Recruitment marketing is often more short-term and campaign-focused. It targets specific recruitment needs and can be adjusted more quickly to current labor market conditions.

For whom?

• Employer branding targets everyone involved with your organization - from applicants to current employees.
• Recruitment marketing focuses on people who are currently or will soon be seeking employment.

What do you tell?

• Employer branding tells a broader story about your organization as an employer. It addresses the culture, values, mission, and vision of your company.
• Recruitment marketing is more specific and highlights the benefits of a particular position or department within your organization. It often emphasizes concrete aspects of a job, such as tasks, responsibilities, salary, and benefits.

Where do you communicate?

• Employer branding uses a wide range of channels, including your company website, careers website, social media, PR, events, and internal communications. Your focus is on creating a consistent brand experience.
• Recruitment marketing often uses more targeted channels, such as job advertisements, job boards, targeted social media campaigns, and email marketing. The goal is to quickly reach and motivate the right candidates to apply.

How to measure results

• Employer branding is typically measured through long-term indicators such as brand awareness, employer satisfaction, retention rates, and the quality of applications over time.
• Recruitment marketing uses more direct metrics such as the number of applications, candidate quality, time-to-hire, and cost-per-hire.

Coherence strengthens it

Employer branding and recruitment marketing are closely connected and reinforce each other:

• A strong employer brand forms the basis for good recruitment marketing. It makes your vacancies and recruitment campaigns more credible and attractive.
• Successful recruitment marketing contributes to strengthening your employer brand through positive candidate experiences during the recruitment process.
• By aligning both strategies well, you create a unified message that appeals to potential candidates in all phases of their employee journey to your organization.

How to apply it

As a professional, you can apply these insights as follows:

1. Start with a clear employer brand as the foundation for all your recruitment activities. Ensure a clear Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that summarizes the benefits of working at your organization. You'll learn how to develop this in the next chapter.
2. Use this employer brand as a guideline for your recruitment campaigns. Ensure tone of voice, visual elements, and key messages are aligned.
3. Tailor recruitment actions to different target groups and vacancies, but always keep your broader employer brand in mind.
4. Measure the results.
5. Work together with marketing, communications, and HR for an integrated approach that encompasses both employer branding and recruitment marketing.

Tips:

• Build your internal employer brand before going external
• Let employees tell their own story – it's more credible
• Start with one social media channel and do it well before expanding
• Distinguish between general employer branding content (80%) and vacancies (20%)
• Test different recruitment messages with a small audience before rolling out widely

The business case for employer branding

A well-thought-out employer branding approach helps your organization move forward. With the right substantiation, you can convince management to invest in it. These are the main benefits.

Attracting talent

One of the biggest advantages of a strong employer brand is that it increases your chance of attracting good people. In a competitive labor market, this can be the difference between securing the best candidates or settling for a second choice.

• Greater attraction power: With a strong employer brand, you don't just have to actively search for talent - they come to you. According to LinkedIn research, companies with a strong employer brand see 50% more qualified applicants. This increased attraction power can significantly reduce recruitment efforts and costs.
• Better match: Candidates who are attracted to your employer brand usually fit better with your organizational culture. They're already familiar with your values and way of working. This facilitates integration into your organization. According to an HR Daily Advisor survey, as many as nine out of ten employees would consider leaving their job for a company with a good reputation.

Saving on recruitment costs

A strong employer brand can significantly contribute to lowering your recruitment costs:

• Lower advertising costs: With a strong reputation as an employer, you need to spend less on recruitment campaigns and job advertisements. LinkedIn research suggests that a proactive employer branding strategy can reduce cost-per-hire by half.
• More efficient recruitment process: Candidates who apply because of your employer brand are often better informed and motivated. This can lead to a faster and more efficient recruitment process. Organizations with a strong employer brand find people 1.5 to 2 times faster (source: The HERD).
• Lower external recruitment costs: With a strong employer brand, you can become less dependent on external recruiters. This significantly reduces the cost per hire.

Satisfied employees stay

Employer branding doesn't just attract potential employees, it also keeps your valuable people on board:

• Higher employee satisfaction: A strong employer brand often results in a positive work culture and good employment conditions.
• Lower staff turnover: Satisfied employees are less likely to plan on leaving. Organizations with a strong employer brand have 28 percent less staff turnover.
• Higher productivity through connection: Employees who are proud of their employer and feel connected to the organization are often more productive and more engaged in their work.
• Ambassadors who inspire others: Employees who are proud of their employer like to tell others. This has a positive effect on your employer brand.

Strengthening your company reputation

Your employer brand and company reputation reinforce each other:

• More positive image: A strong employer brand contributes to a positive perception of your company, not just among (potential) employees, but also among customers and other stakeholders. 71 percent of applicants research an employer's reputation through online reviews and other sources (source: The HERD).
• Higher customer satisfaction: Satisfied employees often provide better service. In other words: happy employees make happy customers.
• Better PR: A reputation as a good employer can lead to positive media attention and word-of-mouth advertising. This strengthens your overall brand image. Or conversely: two-thirds of applicants won't apply when a company's reputation isn't positive (source: The HERD).

Competitive advantage

With a solid employer brand, you stand out:

• You stand out among other employers: An attractive employer brand distinguishes you from competitors, both in the labor market and according to customers.
• You attract people who aren't actively looking: A strong employer brand appeals to passive candidates who aren't actively looking for a new job but are open to interesting opportunities.
• You bring in new ideas: By attracting and retaining top talent, you increase your innovative power.
• Salary advantage: According to a study by Glassdoor, 76% of jobseekers consider a company's reputation before applying for a job. Furthermore, 92% of candidates would consider changing jobs if offered a role at a company with an excellent corporate reputation, even if the salary was lower.

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In practice: Buffer

Buffer, a social media management platform of about 80 employees, has built its employer brand on radical transparency. They publicly share employee salaries, business metrics, and revenue data while maintaining a fully remote workforce since their early days. Their approach combines transparent practices with values-driven hiring and active content marketing through their blog and social media presence.

This strategy has delivered impressive results: high employee satisfaction ratings, thousands of job applications per opening, low turnover rates, and positive media coverage. Their success demonstrates that smaller companies can create an attractive employer brand by authentically aligning their values with their practices and maintaining transparency throughout their operations.

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Measuring the return on your employer brand

As a marketing, communications, or HR professional, you need to invest in a strong employer brand. But how do you prove these investments pay off? By measuring Return on Investment (ROI), you demonstrate what your efforts yield. This helps convince management to keep investing.

Why measuring helps

By measuring what your employer branding activities deliver:

• You support new investments with facts: Measuring helps make the value of employer branding initiatives visible and justify future investments.
• You see which approach works best: By measuring what works and what doesn't, you can refine and improve your employer branding strategies.
• You connect results to organizational goals: Linking employer branding results to broader business objectives demonstrates the strategic value of these initiatives.
• You adjust where necessary: You gain insight into what works and what doesn't.

What you can measure

You measure the success of your employer brand with these performance indicators:

Directly measurable:

• Vacancy duration: The time it takes to fill a vacancy (time-to-fill). A strong employer brand can reduce this time.
• Application quality: Measure whether you attract more qualified candidates as a result of your employer branding efforts.
• Cost per new employee: The cost per hire. A good employer branding strategy reduces these costs.
• Social media interaction: Engagement with your employer branding content on social media platforms provides insight into how your stories resonate with your target audience.
• Employer brand awareness: Your organization's recognition as an employer in the market.

Through employees:

• How many colleagues recommend you (eNPS): The Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) shows how likely employees are to recommend your organization as an employer.
• How long people stay with you: A higher retention rate can indicate a working employer branding strategy.
• Ratings on platforms like Glassdoor: Ratings and reviews on platforms like Glassdoor can indicate a strengthening employer brand.

How to approach it

1. Start with a baseline measurement

First map out the current situation. Measure where you stand now on the chosen indicators. Consider what goals you want to achieve and choose appropriate measuring tools that help track progress.

2. Track your progress

Regular monitoring shows how you're progressing. Compare new figures with your baseline measurement and analyze development over time. Especially measure before and after implementing new initiatives. Benchmarking against other organizations provides additional insight.

3. Calculate the return

Make clear what your efforts yield. Add up recruitment cost savings. Calculate savings from longer employee retention. Also include what better candidates add to your organization. Calculate ROI like this:

(Returns – Costs) / Costs x 100%.

Points of attention

Measuring employer branding results requires patience - some effects only become visible over time. Use both hard numbers and stakeholder experiences. Coordinate between departments and maintain consistent measuring methods.

Tips for success

Draw from different information sources:

• Data from your HR systems
• Employee input
• Information from recruitment platforms
• Manager insights

Use these tools:

• Website analytics for your careers site
• Application tracking systems
• Employee satisfaction programs
• Clear and concise dashboards

Connect with:

• Finance for the cost aspect
• HR for personnel data
• Managers for input on performance indicators
• All stakeholders to celebrate successes

By making your employer branding investments measurable, you prove their added value and continuously improve your approach.

Tips:

• Start small: first choose 3-4 main indicators to track
• Create a dashboard with your key employer branding indicators
• Share quarterly reports with concrete results and stories
• Translate figures into euros where possible
• Show how employer branding contributes to organizational goals

The science behind your employer brand

Science and research provide a solid foundation for your employer brand. Theoretical models provide insight into why people experience your organization in a certain way. With this knowledge, you build an employer brand that aligns with what (future) employees truly value.

Five models that help you

1. How attractive are you as an employer?

The 'Employer Attractiveness Scale' (Berthon, 2005) helps you measure how attractive your organization is as an employer. The model looks at five areas:

• Interest value: The extent to which an employer offers an interesting work environment with challenging activities and opportunities to be creative.
• Social value: The extent to which an employer offers a pleasant social work environment with good relationships between colleagues.
• Economic value: The extent to which an employer offers economic benefits, such as good salary and secondary benefits.
• Development value: The extent to which an employer offers opportunities for personal development and career growth.
• Application value: The extent to which an employer offers the opportunity to apply and transfer acquired knowledge to others.

By evaluating these areas, you gain insight into aspects candidates value and can respond to these in your employer branding.

2. Identity and connection

Henri Tajfel's 'Social Identity Theory' shows that people connect with groups that match them. This explains why certain organizations effortlessly attract and retain talent, while others struggle with this.

• You shape who they are: Employees build part of their identity through their work. They choose organizations that match their values, strengthen their self-image, and make them proud.
• You attract them: A strong employer brand works like a magnet because people want to be part of a success story, want to connect to a positive image, and recognize themselves in what you stand for.
• You keep them: When employees recognize themselves in your employer brand, they stay longer, put in more effort, and become ambassadors.
• You build a community: A good employer brand creates connection through shared values, common goals, and a strong culture.
• You shape their self-image: Employees incorporate the organization's values into who they are: they live your mission, they express your vision, and they become part of your story.

To strengthen this connection, make clear what you stand for, ensure your culture matches this, give people space to be themselves, strengthen the sense of community, and celebrate successes together.

3. The power of your employer brand

Keller's 'Brand Equity Model' provides insight into how you can create value by building a strong and distinctive employer brand. The model comprises four layers:

• Brand identity: Who are you as an employer?
• Brand meaning: What do you stand for and what do you believe in?
• Brand experience: What do employees and candidates think and feel about you?
• Brand relationships: What kind of bond do you build with employees and candidates?

By optimizing these layers, you build a strong employer brand that attracts and retains employees.

4. What drives people?

Victor Vroom's 'Expectancy Theory' is a motivation theory, stating that people are motivated by the expectation that their efforts will lead to desired results:

• They want to know what their work yields.
• They seek recognition for their efforts.
• They expect fair compensation.

By clearly communicating in your employer branding which achievements are valued and how employees are rewarded, you can increase their motivation and engagement.

5. The right match

The concept of 'Person-Organization Fit' is about how well a person matches the organization, including shared values, culture, and goals. A good fit leads to higher satisfaction and less turnover.

What does this mean for your approach?

By applying these scientific insights to your employer branding, you gain a more profound understanding of the psychological and social factors that contribute to a successful employer brand. Here are some practical applications:

• A first practical application is segmenting your target audience using models like the Employer Attractiveness Scale. This enables you to better understand your target audience and tailor your message accordingly.
• You can use Social Identity Theory when communicating values and culture. By clearly conveying your organizational culture and core values, potential employees can assess whether they can identify with them.
• The Brand Equity Model provides tools for building strong and emotional relationships with current and future employees. These brand relationships are the foundation for long-term engagement.
• • You can integrate the Expectancy Theory into internal communications and reward systems to keep your employees motivated and engaged with the organization.
• • Finally, it's essential to ensure a good Person-Organization fit. You can achieve this by presenting a realistic image of your organization in your recruitment process and employer branding, allowing candidates to determine if they truly fit with your organization.