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Why should I work for you?

Establishing your Employer Brand

By Tricia Hay and David Tovey

The ability to attract and retain the best talent in the market is key for any organisation, but never more so than in highly competitive sectors where niche skill sets are in high demand.

Right now there is fierce competition for the best ‘talent’, employment levels are high and candidates are ever more discerning about which employers they will consider joining.

What is an employer brand?

“Employer brand is what people say about your reputation as employer when you are not in the room”

Employer brand refers to the perceptions that key stakeholders, and specifically current and potential employees, have of your company, business or organisation. It is about how they view the company; from how you conduct yourselves in the market, through to what they think it would be like to work for you. An effective employer brand presents your organisation as a good employer and a great place to work and can, as a result, help with recruitment, retention and generally affect market perception of your company.

A clear employer brand offers significant benefits to an organisation. It can significantly improve job application rates and put your company and provide a wide pool of top candidates to choose from. In tight recruitment markets, where competition for the best talent is fierce, it can also help keep an organisation top of mind, make your company stand out in a crowded market and provide compelling reasons to join your company rather than going elsewhere.

It’s about retention too

In organisations where values, culture and desired behaviours have been deeply embedded across the organisation, employers are more likely to benefit from an increased level of engagement from employees. Improved employee engagement and motivation has a well-established link shown to greater productivity and higher retention rates; all of which contribute to retaining skills and knowledge, and ultimately improving bottom line results.

Increased engagement with a brand also helps to build employee loyalty, thus reducing the risk of losing your best people to competitors, and avoiding the financial implications of recruiting and on-boarding their replacements.

With such significant benefits it isn’t surprising that employers across all sectors and of all sizes are investing in developing and more effectively communicating their employer brand.

Establishing your brand

Questions to consider when establishing your employer brand include:

  • The current perception of working for your organisation (internally and externally) and how this affects your ability to recruit the people you need.
  • The roles critical to your future success and what you need to do to attract the best candidates.
  • The most attractive attributes of the organisation to existing and potential employees.

When you have a clear understanding of the above you can start to build a picture of what reputation you want to communicate as an employer and, even more importantly, ensure that this is fully embedded into the culture of the business.

 If you would like to know more about how First-Base can help you develop your employer brand contact tricia.hay@first-base.co.uk

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