David SmookeThe employer brand is a part of your organization’s overall brand. It denotes an organization’s reputation as an employer. Employer branding is essential to attracting active candidates, converting passive candidates, closing all candidates, and retaining every employee. It’s the people. It’s the product. It’s the culture. It’s the chairs. It’s the customers’ smiles. It’s the customers’ frowns. It’s the office’s walls. And the tone of voice. Employer branding accumulates your brand’s impact on customers, employees, and society at large. At the end of the day, a company cannot exist if no one wants to work for it.
Here are four questions you should be asking/demanding of company to improve in each of the five components that define employer branding. The questions extend beyond yes or no. Take a moment to reflect, then answer:
Consumer Satisfaction
“A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all,” wrote business author Michael LeBoeuf. An employer brand – like a company’s brand – requires customer satisfaction. Your top customers are great place to start the discussion on what attracts who to your brand:
1. Why do people consume my product, good or service? What attracts people to your employer brand is a part of what attracts people to your overall brand.
2. Who – specifically – gains the most value from my company? Are you empowering these people to be advocates not only for your product, but also, as a place of work?
3. Does my candidate experience turn ‘rejected’ candidates into company advocates?
4. Are you actively recruiting from customer base? How are you turning fans into hires?
Company Purpose
“To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity,” said Nietzsche. Creating, instilling and marketing a purpose greater than the bottom-line will increase demand in working with your smart company.
5. Other than profit, why do you and your colleagues do what you do?
6. Do all employees know the company’s purpose? Consider polling a few colleagues to uncover the state of your company’s purpose.
7. What are the top three ways you are contradicting your company’s purpose? How can you rectify it?
8. What are the top three ways you are embodying your grander company purpose? Is the companies’ marketing team amplifying it?
Employee Satisfaction
“If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much,” said Steve Jobs. Plus, satisfied employees are more likely to refer someone to hire.
9. What was the tipping point that convinced your last 10 hires to join the company? Are these reasons prominently featured in your recruiting marketing messaging?
10. What was the tipping point that convinced your last 10 former employees to leave the company?
11. What are the three greatest factors in hindering employee motivation? How can you rectify it?
12. What are the three greatest factors in growing employee motivation? Are employees amplifying them through social media?
Messaging & Content (increasingly on social media)
“Word of mouth marketing has always been important. Today, it’s more important than ever because of the power of the internet,” wrote Joe Pulizzi & Newt Barrett in ‘Get Content, Get Customers.’ A company’s’ greatest social asset is its employees; empower your employees to market what they do.
13. What are people saying about your company on Facebook, Twitter & GlassDoor?
14. What percentage of employees have shared a positive status update about your company over the last month? 6 months? 1 year?
15. Do you have a video of what it’s like to work here? Do you have any fun videos, like this Zappos song or SmartRecruiters art?
16. Are you sharing authentic images of your workplace on your career site and social networks?
Be Awesome. Share Awesome.
“I woke up and realized life is great and people are awesome and life is worth living,” said Hulk Hogan. Does the world know that your colleagues are ‘awake’ and thriving in the workplace? Awesome people are the top ‘recruiters’ of awesome people.
17. What company or employee social media accounts (such as Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, or Google+) capture what it is like to work at your company? If none, consider starting a social media account just for employer branding purposes.
18. How do you celebrate your accomplishments and milestones? Are the recognitions of accomplishments something employees want to tell their friends about?
19. Does the company sponsor any team bonding events? Company lunches, attending TEDx talks, or even trivia nights can do wonders for workplace collaboration.
20. How can this workplace be more awesome? Ask yourself once a day every day.
A smarter employer branding will build your brand’s social media audience, increase the number of organic candidates, and improve your job offer acceptance percentage. Learn more about the SmartRecruiters hiring platform with a demo.
Have any additional questions to evaluate and improve an employer brand? Add them in the comments below.
Lee Ann Prescott
Anh Nguyen