3 Best Practices for Employer Branding in 2021

Employer Branding has changed. Or at least, how organizations will go about shaping their employer brand has. In the wake of a pandemic, employer branding experts believe that companies will have to pay extra close attention to their reputation as employers.

Inevitably, there will be a great degree of uncertainty in the jobs market, and trust among jobseekers toward potential employers will be broken. The vast majority of job seekers will be those who have been let go by organizations who couldn’t reasonably keep them on board in this time of crisis. While in many cases this has been justified, doubt will have been cast in their minds after losing what they assumed was a secure position.

As a result, job seekers will be paying extra close attention to how companies treat their employees, how they showcase company culture, and the reputation they hold as an employer. Perhaps, more importantly, they’ll be asking, if not researching, “what did your company do to protect employees during the pandemic?”

“People will look at how organizations treated their employees who were leaving as a result of this situation,” – Nick Ulycz (COO at Domestic & General) in a recent round table for Blackbridge Communications.

With that said, what are some of the best practices for companies looking to establish, improve, or maintain their reputation as an employer?

Here are some of our top recommendations.

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• Be Authentic, Embrace Transparency, Establish Trust

• Ask for Regular Feedback

• Invest in Employee Advocacy

How you communicate values and company culture is vital to the recruitment process. People like people and people trust other people. Nothing shrouds a brand in mystery like having a reputation as a faceless corporation. For best practice in displaying transparency, we say put people at the front and centre of everything you do.

Giving employees more freedom in the way of communications can seem a daunting process for marketers and human resources, but if you’ve got nothing to worry about, why should it? Whether you like it or not, your employees will be talking about you with their networks, on social media, and on job review sites. Why attempt to control it when you can encourage it?

In a time where social media is prominent as it is, and job review sites like Glassdoor and Fairygodboss exist, it’s near impossible for organizations to keep things behind closed doors.

Few things look worse on a company than refusing to address or acknowledge controversies and wrong-doings. 86% of job seekers say that they wouldn’t consider working for an organization that had a bad reputation with the general public.

Transparency is especially important in times of crisis, as it humanizes a brand when they’re able to acknowledge mistakes or wrongdoings that have gone on under their watch. Often this occurs in situations that are out of a company’s control, but ultimately they’re held to account. Acknowledging this and vowing to make a change reflects well among consumers, staff, and job seekers alike.

As an employer, how can you expect to improve your workplace and hiring process if you don’t know how well you’re doing it? Whether through team meetings, one-to-one conversations, or anonymous surveys, acquiring feedback from your employees can help you improve your hiring process and workplace, while also improving retention rates.

Not only is receiving feedback beneficial to you as an organization, but it empowers your employees in giving them a chance to have their say. It will let them know that they’re valued and that you’re always looking for ways to improve employee satisfaction, and not just customer/consumer satisfaction.

However, remember, asking for feedback is one thing, actually following through and taking action on feedback is where your employees will really begin to take notice. Not acting on (potentially) negative feedback can have an adverse effect, and invoke a sense of powerlessness.

Strengthening trust among your staff will be paramount to employer branding in the future.

A common misconception is that employee advocacy is a tool used solely by marketers for marketing. While this isn’t untrue, employee advocacy can be used for so much more.

At DSMN8, we believe that employee advocacy 2.0 is Employee Influencers. Not just asking your employees to share your corporate content, but allowing and encouraging them to create it too!

People trust people, and studies show that people are 83% more likely to trust the recommendations of someone they know over any other form of branded content. Your employee accounts could be your most effective job advertisements. They may not all work in PR, marketing, or communications, but you’d better believe they’re influencing your audience!

DSMN8’s solutions allow employees to do everything from sharing more company content to creating and sharing behind-the-scenes photo and video content. We believe employee influence should be authentic, which is why our built-in gamification features and employee-education content make it so that your employees want to create and share, rather than just aimlessly sharing corporate content because they feel like they have to.

Your employees’ networks will include an abundance of potential quality candidates for your company, and as your most authentic influencers on social, utilising your employees’ collective influence is one of the most vastly untapped resources for employer branding.

Ready to showcase authenticity, promote transparency and put the power of communications in your employees’ hands? Simply fill out the below form to get started with any or all DSMN8’s solutions for free!

If you’re interested in reading more on employer branding, social selling, or employee influencers, then head over to our blog. For the comprehensive guide to all things employee influence, download The Ultimate Guide to Employee Influencers.