What is an employer brand and how to develop yours?

Put simply, your employer brand is your reputation as an employer – good, bad or in between. Organisations with a good employer brand are the ones that consistently attract and retain the best talent, even though they don’t necessarily pay the highest salaries.

Your employer brand is more than just the perks you offer, like a funky office environment, tasty office snacks or a ping pong table. Perks make coming to work easier but they aren’t going to keep people working for you and they aren’t what sets you apart from other employers.

Your employer brand stems from your organisational culture, your values and mission and the opportunities your offer employees.

Recently we helped small cap miner Northern Minerals promote its employer brand and attract operations staff for its new Browns Range Project. See the full case study here.

In a tight employment market, we highlighted certain aspects of Northern Minerals’ employer brand to attract potential candidates:

• We communicated the vision of the company to be the first significant producer of rare earth element dysprosium outside of China.
• We outlined the opportunities this provided for employees to learn and develop in a highly exciting and cutting-edge space.
• We put the candidate experience at the forefront of the recruitment campaign as part of Northern Minerals’ culture of ‘People first’.
• We highlighted Northern Minerals’ genuine care and commitment to its people.
• We emphasised the opportunity to take part in helping the local Browns Range community which experiences a number of tough social and economic challenges.

When developing your employer brand you need to be proactive, otherwise your brand will be created for you by others. Here are three steps to develop a stronger employer brand.

1. Understand the current perceptions about your employer brand – this can be done by undertaking internal and external research, such as surveys. This will give you a benchmark and also highlight areas for improvement.
2. Develop an employee value proposition (EVP) – An EVP is like a blueprint of why employees want to work for your organisation. Read our blog on what an EVP is and how it can help attract and retain talent.
3. Communicate your EVP – this is a critical step in having a good employer brand. You might have a great EVP but if it isn’t communicated potential employees won’t see what makes your workplace great. Your EVP should be communicated internally and externally, through channels such as your website, job ads, newsletters and social media.

Developing your employer brand is part of our 3-step recruitment model. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you attract great people and build a strong employer brand, get in touch with our friendly team.