What is employer branding?

At a time when many companies are competing for the same candidates, it's crucial that companies know how to brand and market themselves so that they stand out from the crowd as an attractive workplace. Here we will tell you a lot more about what employer branding is and how to create a well-executed employer branding strategy in your company - it helps to strengthen your employer brand.

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What is employer branding?

Employer branding is a term that describes a company's attempt to "sell" itself as an attractive workplace. Employer branding is therefore aimed both atpotential new employees, but is also intended as part of a company'sretention strategy forcurrent employees. A company's employer branding helps reflect the company's identity and core narrative. It also says something aboutthe work culture, the company's core values and the career opportunities for employees.

Employer branding is for everyone

Every company has an employer brand, and just as you market yourself safely and strategically with a targeted brand strategy to reach potential customers, you should also have strategic employer branding in mind when you want to retain your current employees and recruit new employees. So let's move on to some tips for creating a good employer branding strategy.

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Tips for strategic employer branding

What are the benefits of a good employer branding strategy?

There is a long list of benefits to a company having a well-executed employer branding strategy that is transparent to employees and potential new employees. We list these benefits below so you can quickly get an overview of what you gain from an employer branding strategy:

• Your company gets more qualified applicants

• The company avoids making recruitment mistakes

• Increased job satisfaction among current employees

• All of the above results in lower costs for the company

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How do you execute strategic employer branding?

When it comes to creating a well-executed employer branding strategy, it can be a bit of a jungle to navigate. When you sit down to create your employer branding strategy, you also get to define your company's messages, channels and target groups - it's a win-win!

We've tried to make the process of strategic employer branding clearer by creating six steps that you can steal for free:

1: Know your business

When you buy a second-hand sofa, for example, you want to know in advance if there are scratches hiding up and down the side. This doesn't necessarily reduce the value of the sofa in the buyer's eyes, but rather creates a credible image of the seller. Similarly, you need to sell your business with the same credibility. You need to be honest about what your company can andcannot do when creating your employer branding strategy. Your company story should also resonate from the top office down to the reception desk.

2: Know your target audience

When creating your employer branding strategy, it is important that you have defined the target group of candidates you are looking for in your company from the start. Are you looking for a manager with many years of experience, or are you looking for apart-time student assistant? Either way, it's important to start researching how you can reach your target group. You could start by looking in-house and finding out how the different target groups would prefer to be met.

3: Get a handle on your employer value proposition

An employer value proposition (EVP) is, like a good stew, a compilation of the biggest benefits that your intended target group has noticed about your company, which is clearly where you need to turn up the charm. If you can define a clear EVP, your employer branding strategy will be able to communicate clearly to your target audience and even better across different departments and channels.

4: Define your company's golden ratio

If you think back to your elementary school days, the concept ofthe golden ratio will certainly resonate. To refresh your memory, the golden ratio is about a certain harmony in the structure of an image. Through the (invisible) line segments of the image, you can identify the most important elements of an image - your eyes do it automatically. And that's what you need to do in your employer branding strategy. It should be clear what you as a company can offer, what your target audience wants and how your company differs from all the others.

5: Mix the right employer branding cocktail

When you're making a quick gin & tonic, you don't want to reach into the liquor cabinet for vodka and juice. The philosophy behind an employer branding cocktail is similar; you need to know your mixing ratios and ingredients. Depending on the choice of target audience, you should send your job postings out on relevant channels where you know your target audience is already watching.

6: Follow your target to the door

To achieve successful employer branding, it's important that you set yourself some goals that you must remember to follow through on. Otherwise, your employer branding strategy will end up being kindling for the cold winter days.

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Your employer branding strategy is ready to be written

Get started with your employer branding today - we hope this article has given you the tools you need. And remember that the best picture of who you are as a company comes from your current employees. It's therefore important to keep your finger on the pulse and take stock of your employees to make sure they'rehappy and motivated. And if they are thriving, it's always worth encouraging them to share their success stories on LinkedIn or internally in your newsletter or similar. Prospective employees research your company just as much as you research them before hiring, and you will be much stronger against competitors with good stories from your current employees.