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When it comes to attracting and retaining top talent, understanding employer branding is crucial, especially in today’s digital age.
With the rise of professional platforms like LinkedIn and job review sites such as Glassdoor and Fairygodboss, it’s nearly impossible for organizations to keep things behind closed doors. Your reputation as an employer is out there — and it matters more than ever.
Understanding Employer Branding
What Is Employer Branding?
Employer branding is the way your company’s reputation and value proposition are communicated to both current employees and potential candidates.
Think of it as how you market your company as a great place to work: your unique story as an employer.
Why Employer Branding Matters
By effectively showcasing your company culture, values, and growth opportunities, you’ll build an image that sets your organization apart from competitors and attracts people who align with your mission.
In a competitive job market, a strong employer brand doesn’t just help you attract talent; it helps you retain it too.
Employer Branding Best Practices: Crafting Your Message
Your employer brand is only as strong as the story behind it.
Crafting that story thoughtfully is one of the most important steps in building a strong employer brand.
To make your message resonate, it needs to be authentic, consistent, and people-first.
Define Your Core Values and Employee Value Proposition
Start with clarity.
What makes your company a great place to work? What can employees expect from you — and what do you expect from them?
Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) should capture this in a few short, powerful sentences. It’s your promise to employees and candidates alike.
Tip: Involve employees from different teams in shaping your EVP. Their input helps ensure your message reflects reality rather than aspiration.
When in doubt, ask: Would this sound believable if I didn’t work here?
Communicate Your Brand Values and EVP Effectively
Your goal should be to create a cohesive message across all channels — from your careers site and onboarding materials to external platforms like Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and social media.
Highlight what makes your workplace stand out: your values, mission, leadership style, and employee experience.
Consistency in messaging builds trust. It signifies to candidates that you’re a dependable and stable organization that knows what it stands for.
Showcase Employee Testimonials and Success Stories
Employee stories are the heartbeat of your brand.
Feature them in blog posts, short videos, podcasts, and social posts. Showcasing the faces behind the brand is a real game-changer.
Authentic stories of growth, mentorship, and belonging will always resonate more deeply than polished corporate copy.
Embrace Transparency to Establish Trust
How you communicate your values and culture is vital to both recruitment and retention.
Few things damage a brand faster than appearing faceless or evasive.
Instead, put people front and center.
Transparency builds resilience — especially during challenging times.
In fact, 86% of jobseekers say they wouldn’t work for a company with a bad public reputation (even if they were unemployed).
Acknowledging mistakes and committing to improvement humanizes your brand and shows that you walk the walk when it comes to your values.
Leveraging Employee Advocacy on Social Media
Highlighting employees on social media is great, but why not take it a step further with employee advocacy?
For the unacquainted, employee advocacy simply means that your employees are active on social media, representing your company as brand ambassadors.
This can range from commenting on your CEO’s latest LinkedIn article to sharing their own insights on industry trends, celebrating work anniversaries, and posting behind-the-scenes photos from events.
A common misconception is that employee advocacy is purely a marketing tool.
While it’s true that advocacy helps boost brand visibility and social media engagement, it also plays a major role in employer branding.
At DSMN8, we believe in taking advocacy to the next level: Employee Advocacy 2.0, or, as we like to call it, Employee Influencers.
It’s not just about asking employees to share company posts. It’s about empowering them to create their own authentic content too.
People trust people. In fact, studies show that audiences are 83% more likely to trust recommendations from someone they know than from any other form of branded content.
Your employees’ profiles could be your most effective job ads.
They may not work in PR or marketing, but they’re influencing your audience every day.
With DSMN8, employees can easily:
- Share curated company content.
- Contribute original employee-generated content.
- Stay up-to-date with company news.
- Engage with your senior leaders’ thought leadership.
Our built-in gamification features help teams feel excited to participate, not pressured to.
Your employees’ collective influence is one of the most underused resources in modern employer branding. It’s time to tap into it.
Watch the short 90-second demo video below for a quick overview:
Employee Engagement Strategies
A positive reputation starts from within.
The stronger your internal culture, the more powerful your external employer brand will be.
With this in mind, focusing on employee engagement initiatives will be critical to maintaining and improving your employer brand.
Best practices include:
- Fostering a positive work culture rooted in respect, inclusion, and purpose.
- Implementing recognition programs to celebrate individual and team success.
- Encouraging professional development through mentorship, training, and clear career progression.
A positive company culture helps retain talent, leads to higher productivity, and overall company success. Don’t underestimate its impact!
Plus, when your employees feel valued and invested in, they naturally become advocates for your brand.
Monitoring and Measuring Your Employer Brand
You can’t improve what you don’t measure.
Monitor Your Online Reputation
Track what’s being said about your company across review sites, social media, and employer forums.
Respond to reviews (even negative ones) with transparency and empathy.
Track Key Employer Branding Metrics
Measure performance across:
- Application rates and quality of hires.
- Employee retention and engagement scores.
- Social media reach and advocacy participation.
- Sentiment analysis across Glassdoor or LinkedIn comments.
Make Data-Driven Improvements
Collecting data is only the first step, of course. The real value comes from turning those insights into action.
Analyze patterns across your recruitment metrics, social engagement, employee surveys, and review platforms to understand where your employer brand is thriving and where it needs attention.
Use this data to:
- Identify which messages and campaigns resonate most with candidates.
- Spot early signs of disengagement or reputation risks.
- Optimize touchpoints throughout the candidate journey, from awareness to onboarding.
By continuously refining your messaging and experience based on measurable feedback, you’ll strengthen trust, improve retention, and ensure your employer brand evolves in line with employee expectations and market trends.
Continuous Improvement and Innovation
Engage Employees for Feedback
How can you improve your workplace and hiring process if you don’t know how you’re doing?
Gather feedback regularly through team meetings, 1:1s, or anonymous surveys. Acting on feedback (not just collecting it) is what truly builds trust.
When employees see their input leading to real change, they feel heard, valued, and connected to the company’s mission.
Experimenting With New Content Strategies
The best employer brands never stay still.
Remember, you’re showcasing your company’s mindset: are you forward-thinking and open to new ideas? This is a key factor jobseekers consider when choosing their next employer.
Consider exploring initiatives like:
- Video storytelling on social media.
- Employee-generated podcasts or blog posts.
- Culture spotlights featuring real employee stories.
Continuous innovation keeps your brand relevant and candidates engaged.
Additional Resources
Ready to showcase authenticity, promote transparency, and empower employees to become your brand’s most trusted storytellers?
👉 Book a Demo to learn how DSMN8’s employee advocacy platform helps companies like yours elevate their employer brand.
More resources to explore:
FAQs
What is employer branding and why is it important for a company?
Employer branding refers to the perception of a company as an employer. It is crucial as it helps attract top talent, improve employee engagement, and enhance the company’s reputation in the market.
What are some best practices for improving employer branding?
Some best practices include defining your company’s unique value proposition, showcasing company culture through social media and employee testimonials, creating a positive candidate experience, and actively engaging with current employees.
How can employer branding help retain employees?
Strong employer branding can lead to increased employee satisfaction, loyalty, and motivation. Employees are more likely to stay with a company that values their contributions and provides a positive work environment.
How can employer branding impact a company's bottom line?
A positive employer brand can lead to increased productivity, reduced turnover costs, and higher profitability. It can also attract customers who prefer to do business with socially responsible and employee-friendly companies.
What are some common mistakes to avoid when working on employer branding?
Some common mistakes include neglecting internal communication, not aligning employer branding with company values, ignoring feedback from employees, and failing to adapt to changes in the market. It’s important to regularly review and refine your employer branding strategies to ensure continued success.
How does employee advocacy help employer branding?
Employee advocacy plays a crucial role in enhancing employer branding by leveraging the power of employees’ voices to promote the company’s image and values.
When employees actively share their positive experiences and insights about their workplace on social media platforms and other channels, it not only boosts the company’s credibility but also helps in attracting top talent and engaging current employees.
By encouraging employee advocacy, employers can create a strong brand presence, increase brand awareness, and ultimately, build a positive reputation in the market. Overall, employee advocacy is a valuable tool for strengthening employer branding and fostering a positive work culture.
Lewis Gray
Senior Marketing Manager and Employee Advocacy Program Manager at DSMN8. Lewis specialises in content strategy, growing brand visibility and generating inbound leads. His background in Sales lends itself well to demand generation in the B2B niche.
