Having worked with Utility People for the 6+ years helping them build their brand and utilise their marketing strategy, we wanted to pass on some tips on just why Marketing and Branding are so important when it comes to recruitment.
Branding
“80% of HR Leaders think that an employer brand has an impact on their recruiting”
Whether your business is conscious of this or not, your brand plays huge part in attracting the best talent to work for your business – it differentiates your business from the rest. This isn’t just down to the marketing department, it also needs to connect with your business values and run consistently throughout the business from your customer service people, engineers, sales, accounts and every department in-between. It is the way you are perceived not only by your exising employees, but also how you are perceived by prospective employees.
There are many different elements to consider when thinking about your employer brand but the three most important are:
- Company Culture
- Reputation
- Brand Awareness
Company Culture
Company culture is key to making your business stand out to potential employees. When your values and behaviours match those of a potential employee, it means you not only make your business more attractive to them, but also helps to retain your existing employees.
Be honest about your company culture – and if you don’t want to be honest about it, then you should probably change it!
As an example, between the two job offers below which one would sound more attractive? The only difference is the Company Culture!
Reputation
“69% of job seekers wouldn’t take a role with a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed”
Candidates will research your business! So, if you are known as a “cowboy” business or have a toxic office environment, people are not going to want to work for you.
One thing you can do to combat this, is utilise sites like Glassdoor and indeed where you can ask your employees to review their experience with your company, together with a range of issues such as salary, training and working hours.
Utilising a strategic marketing strategy within your business, will make your business stand out and make your jobs more attractive to potential employees.
Brand Awareness
“94% of jobseekers would take into consideration an employer’s brand before applying for a role.”
Having a recognisable brand means there is already an element of trust when people start the recruitment process, because they already know the business and what you stand for.
Often people will have that one business they would love to work for, and that’s normally because they are a company that stands out from the crowd. If people are able to recognise your brand easily, they are more likely to understand your business, culture and what you stand for.
How your brand is perceived by a potential employee is definitely a deciding factor when they are looking for a new job.
How can we develop a good employer brand?
Developing a good employer brand is essential to recruiting and retaining employees.
To develop a good employer brand first off you need to understand how your brand is perceived by senior management, current employees and existing customers (your stakeholders). To do this it may be a good idea to carry out surveys or audits within your business.
Next would be to analyse what you stand for, as in your vision, mission and value propositions, which can help to define your brand attributes and the behaviour of your brand.
Once you have got these in place, it is key to launch your brand internally first, so that the internal stakeholders fully understand your brand and what it stands for, because no one will sell your brand better than the people that currently work for you. They are part of the brand.
In the end, once you have all of your brand guidelines and research in place, monitor how well the brand is working for you, is it improving your recruitment and retention process? Are you staff “living your brand”?
We have a good brand; how do we stand out?
The past year has had a massive impact on the recruitment landscape – and it feels like many employees have been ‘marking time’ waiting for the pandemic to end. This, combined with those who are still furloughed, or who have sadly lost their jobs, means there is a massive pool of talent out there just waiting for the right opportunity. Missing out on finding your perfect candidate can be really costly for a business, and marketing can really help your company stand out not only to potential customers, but to those amazing candidates you want to attract.
It is a lot easier to sell a job to a candidate if they know the company already. So, if you aren’t marketing your business, you are definitely making recruitment a lot harder for yourself.
There are a number of strategies you can use to demonstrate what you do, who you are and what you stand for. Here are a few different ideas you could use:
- Utilise Social Media. Show off your company culture and current employees. Whether that is shouting about something you stand for, or telling everyone how great one of your employees is. It shows people that you care about your staff and that you are all part of one team. Also, talk about the great things your business is doing – whether that is a new contract or great reviews from customers.
- Have a strong brand. Making sure you have a professional logo, the right colour pallette, values and tone of voice – is what makes your brand recognisable.
- Communication. There are many different ways you can communicate with potential employees (and customers!)
- Blogs
- Emails
- White papers
- Videos
- Webinars
- Infographics
- Competitions.
Need support for your business?
So, if you are struggling to make your brand stand out, then get in touch, we would be happy to have a conversation about how we could help you to stand out from the crowd!!! ambermountainmarketing.co.uk/contact/
Guest Blog, Written By: Tamzin Klyen at Amber Mountain Marketing.
