Employer Branding

Employer branding refers to all the actions a company takes to present itself as an attractive workplace. The aim is for the organisation to be known as a good place for personal development and career building, with a pleasant atmosphere where employees are prioritised. In short: to become an employer of choice. The audience for employer branding includes not only potential candidates but also current employees, as well as customers and contractors.

Employer Branding – what is it?

The concept of employer branding is relatively new. It is generally recognised as first appearing in 1996 in the article “The Employer Brand” by Simon Barrow and Tim Ambler. Its popularisation is also attributed to one of its creators; Simon Barrow published the book “The employer brand: Bringing the best of brand management to people at work” in 2005.

Due to the broad group of people who have a real impact on how a company is perceived, employer branding activities are today divided into two basic types: internal and external.

Internal Employer Branding

Internal employer branding is aimed at a company's current employees. Its goal is to ensure that all employees feel as good as possible within the organisation and come to work with pleasure, performing their duties with genuine commitment. The most desired effects of these actions include:

• reducing employee turnover,
• increasing employee loyalty, thus retaining the best people in the company,
• employees recommending the company to friends and on online forums,
• increasing the number of customers and contractors – due to higher employee engagement,
• greater effectiveness of projects and changes implemented in the organisation – satisfied employees, who believe the company is trustworthy, are more willing to express their honest opinion on its functioning, thereby contributing to its improvement.

External Employer Branding

External employer branding is directed at people outside the company: candidates, customers, and contractors. Its purpose is to make the organisation an employer of choice and attract new individuals wanting to collaborate with it. As a result, it becomes not just one of many companies to which a potential employee sends a CV, but the one whose positive response they hope for the most. In turn, contractors proactively send collaboration proposals, and customers eagerly await new products. This, in turn, is associated with:

• natural promotion of the company's products or services – in the form of recommendations from satisfied customers,
• increasing recruitment effectiveness,
• increasing the number of promising CVs received from candidates,
• increasing the number of new employees who envision their future with the company,
• increasing company turnover.

Effective Employer Branding Actions – Examples

Given the division of employer branding into internal and external, the actions included in it should also be discussed according to this division. The appropriate selection of methods for the desired effects has a huge impact on their effectiveness.

Internal employer branding – examples

1. Regular employee satisfaction surveys – anonymous employee surveys are a simple way to find out what employees expect from the company. They also help determine what aspects of the organisation's life or structure need improvement according to employees (e.g., internal communication) and what brings them great satisfaction (e.g., quality of training).
2. Recognition systems tailored to employee needs – benefits and bonuses are important factors in increasing employee motivation and satisfaction. However, it is even more important to correctly match the benefits package and bonus or commission system to the actual expectations of employees. The same applies to competitions, team-building trips, and other events aimed at motivating teams.
3. Fostering a positive atmosphere – numerous studies have shown that there is a large group of employees for whom a good atmosphere at work is more important than high earnings. An example is the 2020 report “Young Poles in the Labour Market”, where when asked “What is most important to you at work? Choose the 5 most important areas”, a friendly atmosphere ranked first (50%) and high earnings only third (42.5%).
4. Appreciating employees' work and involving them in important projects – "a sense of purpose in the work performed" was another answer that topped the list of the 5 most important areas for employees in the report “Young Poles in the Labour Market”. Employees who feel that their work has a real impact on the company's operations or the lives of others (e.g., customers), and thus is meaningful, become significantly more motivated to perform their duties.
5. Caring for employee development – organising internal and external training, whether related to the specific industry or focusing on soft skills, allows employees to associate their workplace with their personal development. Equally important in this regard are real opportunities for advancement; an employee who knows they will not progress further in their company will strive less than one with a vision of career development ahead of them.
6. Conducting internal recruitment – hiring an external person for a position that could be filled by an experienced current employee gives people the feeling that the employer does not trust them and closes off opportunities for further development.
7. Employee referral system – inviting employees to help find a new person for a job. Usually, under this system, the person who refers a candidate who is ultimately hired receives a discretionary bonus. Incidentally, the entire team feels that the employer trusts employees and values their opinion.

External employer branding – examples

1. Participating in job fairs and university career days – such events provide an opportunity to demonstrate the company's openness or the recruiters' friendliness, as well as to address any candidate concerns during direct conversations or answer questions.
2. Actively managing corporate social media – an active presence on social media is the simplest way to build an engaged, loyal brand community. This, in turn, translates not only into loyal customers but also potential job candidates who will approach their tasks with passion. Posts and stories are also a great way to show that the company is a friendly place for employees.
3. Filming a recruitment video showing life at the company – and sharing it on social media, job ads, or the company's Career page. A short video showing the office interior, team fun during training, a fragment of a team-building event, or employees involved in interesting projects, distinguishes the employer from other brands and attests to its openness and positive approach to employees.
4. Indicating salary level (or ranges) in job offers – "surprise egg" type advertisements make candidates feel that the employer does not take them seriously. Hiding the salary level can waste their time participating in recruitment. Moreover, such a practice gives the impression that the company has "something to hide."
5. Engaging in charitable activities – corporate social responsibility is of great importance to millennials and Generation Z. Young employees want to feel that they work in a good place, meaning one that cares for people, animals, and the environment.
6. Personalised job offers – adding a company logo to job advertisements or maintaining brand-consistent colours makes the brand more memorable for candidates and appears more professional – much like a good, distinctive CV.

Employer Branding – useful tools

Both in internal and external employer branding, many different tools are used to help employers reach new people or increase the satisfaction of current employees. These include:

• recruitment forms with personalisation options,
• company Career page,
• employee surveys,
• professional Intranet,
• e-learning courses,
• individual employee profiles in a professional HRM system, where they have ongoing access to their payslips, hours worked, and documentation.

And tools derived directly from marketing:

• employee-based influencer marketing,
• programmatic advertising,
• real-time marketing,
• behavioural targeting.

Employer branding on social media and employee activity

Employee activity on social media is very important for building a company's Employer Branding. Candidates trust employees significantly more than the HR department, CEO, and official notes or Facebook posts (Edelman Trust Barometer 2016 study). This means it is worth implementing a social media policy within the company that ensures employees are aware of their actions, and that their activity on social networks benefits the company rather than harms it.

Involving employees in social media activities must be well-thought-out. Firstly, it must comply with the law, and secondly, it should be conducted in such a way that employees' reactions are natural and spontaneous.

How and can an employer use employees' private social media channels for employer branding purposes?

An employer cannot require an employee to use their private social media channels and personal data publicly. Therefore, an employer cannot require an employee to:

• Post information about the company, recruitment projects, or any work-related information on their private social media profiles. An employee has the right not to publicly disclose where they work if they do not wish to.
• Liking and sharing company or recruitment posts.
• Posting opinions about the employer or company online, especially with their personal data (exceptions apply to employees in PR, recruitment marketing, or Employer Branding roles. For these individuals, the job description may include the necessity of publishing information – also under their own name).

However, an employer can require:

• Refraining from publishing opinions that could negatively affect the employer's image (unjustified and unconstructive criticism).
• Not engaging in activities on competitors' company profiles. This mainly refers to actions that could put the company in a bad light (e.g., comments clearly favouring the competition or criticising them).

An employer can also encourage employees to participate in building the employer's brand through Social Media. To avoid misunderstandings, it is best to include rules regarding what employees can and cannot post on social media (both publicly and privately) in a policy or set of guidelines (social media policy).

To ensure employees are familiar with such a document, it is worth including it in onboarding. A very good idea is to prepare a test that checks understanding of the company's social media stance, including examples of statements and comments. An example of such a test can be found in our system by tomHRM users and those testing tomHRM demo.

In addition to ensuring familiarity with the company's social media policy, it's worth periodically reminding employees of the significant impact they can have on building their workplace's image. This can be achieved by:

• Facilitating the sharing of company information (social media buttons next to news items),
• Reminding about events and encouraging liking and sharing them on personal profiles,
• Informing employees about the power of their support (e.g., by communicating the effect of their sharing a recruitment post).

It is important that this reminding and encouraging is not perceived by employees as pressure. Publicising company information through employees' private social media channels should also not be used as a measure of engagement in company life. Let's remember that despite living in an era of digital transparency, many people strongly protect their privacy.

Real-Time Marketing in Recruitment and Employer Branding

This is marketing that leverages current events in the real or virtual world, linking them to its own advertising. An example you're surely familiar with is IKEA's ad mocking Balenciaga's bag or instructions on how to sew John Snow's coat (Game of Thrones).

How can Real-Time Marketing be used in Recruitment? By monitoring what's happening around us and reacting appropriately. For example, if you know a competitor has laid off some employees, you can publish an invitation on your social media channels for their employees to apply. If an important transport hub in your city is undergoing renovation and many employees will have difficulty getting to work, prepare a map of alternative routes to your company.

For RTM to work, it must be fast, current, and preferably amusing. Such content is very willingly shared by employees (and even people not associated with the company).

Targeting recruitment ads based on real-world behaviour

Next to your company's headquarters, there's a bus stop. Every morning, your employees get off there. But the bus isn't empty. It carries other people further. Maybe there are a few programmers among them? Exactly the kind you need? They're wasting time on the bus, but they could be working closer to home and getting off now. Oh, if only you could send them a message on their phone that they can send their CV and shorten their commute! Wait! You can!

Programmatic Advertising

Automatically controlled personalised ads are currently the future of display advertising, increasingly adopted by advertisers. So, why not use this technology in recruitment marketing? Programmatic technology allows ads to be targeted to specific users who meet defined criteria, regardless of their location. The technology used in programmatic advertising can recognise a user (e.g., it can determine it's dealing with a man aged 30-50, earning above average, living in the capital, interested in new technologies. BIG Data analysis indicates that such individuals often work in international corporations in specialist and managerial positions. An advertising campaign for a recruitment agency specialising in managerial roles will therefore only be shown to such recipients).

Instagram Stories for EB

Employer Branding videos are already standard. Company information on Facebook too. However, few brands use other social media platform formats. Meanwhile, Instagram Stories is a tool that is perfectly suited for use in recruitment marketing and Employer Branding – for example, just like Verizon uses traditional Instagram photos to show its employees pursuing their hobbies!

Employee-based influencer marketing

It's possible that some of your employees run blogs. It doesn't necessarily have to be a work-related blog. It could also be about private interests. However, there's a chance that this person has followers (and that they are similar to them, as that's usually how an audience is built). You can therefore ask an employee to allow you to purchase ad space on their blog for a banner, an ad, or simply to create a post about working at your company.

Such a proposal is, on the one hand, an option to appreciate what an employee does outside the company, and on the other, an opportunity to reach an interesting group of potential candidates.

It's worth reaching for unconventional tools in Employer Branding!