How Employer Branding Helps to Recruit Potential Employees

Pop quiz: what costs $4,000?

(Besides four Apple monitor stands, of course.)

We won't make you wait for an answer: each new hire your company makes costs $4,000 on average, according to OfficeVibe. And no, that doesn't include their first paycheck or any complementary Apple monitor stands.

Here's another stat for you: each new open role takes an average of 27 days to fill.

That's a lot of time and money to invest in bringing on a new team member. Time and money well spent, to be sure -- but it sure would be nice to reduce the legwork and resource drain, wouldn't it?

That's where employer branding for recruiters comes in.

By establishing and maintaining a public-facing employer brand, you can eliminate many of the headaches that come with recruiting and interviewing ill-fitting candidates, and build a more cohesive and effective team over time.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Here's how you can use employer branding to recruit more efficiently and effectively.

Helps Surface The Most Relevant Candidates

By thoroughly communicating your company's culture and mission, you're more likely to appeal to the candidates whose priorities and values align with those of your company. For instance, if your company emphasizes sustainability, has a composting program, and does annual beach cleanup retreats, you are far more likely to win the hearts and minds of talented candidates who also value sustainability -- but only if you properly tell that story through employer branding.

Gives You A Leg Up In The Race For Top Talent

Did you know that the most highly sought after candidates are off the market within 10 days on average? That's a tight window -- one you'll likely only be able to squeeze through if you've gained a hefty amount of market share through your employer brand.

Another quick fact, courtesy of OfficeVibe: candidates are twice as likely to accept unsolicited emails if they've previously engaged with your brand. In the race for top talent, you're going to want to leverage every possible angle, and a strong employer brand can help you do that.

Attracts High-Quality Passive Candidates

According to OfficeVibe, more than 75% of professionals are passive job candidates. Just because they're not necessarily looking for a job right now, they'd certainly be open to an ideal opportunity. The more high-quality employer branding content that you publish, the better the odds that your message will reach somebody who's a perfect fit.

Empowers Every Employee To Be An Employer Brand Ambassador

It's no secret that the #1 way candidates find their new job is through a referral, making your current employees perhaps the most powerful recruiting tool in your arsenal. By aligning your entire organization on an authentic employee value proposition and utilizing each employee's feedback in your employer branding efforts, you can empower every member of your team to bolster your talent attraction efforts. It's paramount that you leverage the megaphone that is word-of-mouth -- regularly request feedback from candidates after interviews, view employee survey results, and refer to employee review sites like Glassdoor so you can take intentional action to shape your employer brand.

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Enables A More Inclusive Recruiting Process

Though word of mouth goes a long way in attracting top talent, it's vitally important that you not rely too heavily on interpersonal networks -- that's often how homogenous and exclusive teams are born.

Well-tailored employer branding content can help to ensure that your message reaches a broader scope of talent communities. A single mother with limited child care resources or a recent immigrant battling a language barrier may not feel welcomed by some employers. In effectively communicating how and why your organization values diversity and inclusion while ensuring your message reaches a wider of breadth of channels, events, and communities, you can speak directly to great candidates that are often overlooked.

Humanizes company

Never underestimate the power of transparency. Too few organizations make a real effort to humanize their workplace and recruiting efforts suffer accordingly. By showcasing the everyday lives of your employees, you can enable jobseekers to more easily envision themselves on your team.

A happy employee might tell their network about your company's mission and benefits, sure -- but that same happy employee is far more likely to speak glowingly about their coworkers. Use your employer branding campaign as a loudspeaker for that sentiment, and be sure that any employer branding content puts members of your team front and center. (And no, only featuring executives doesn't cut it.)

Better Employee Engagement And Retention Longterm

According to OfficeVibe, employee turnover is reduced 28% by investing in employer branding. By building an authentic employer brand, you can attract talent who actually fit your organizational values, and will therefore be far more likely to stick around and contribute to your team longterm. After all, why trick candidates (and your organization) into a partnership that's doomed to fail?

Better candidate experience

According to OfficeVibe, 60% of candidates have given up on an application process that's too long. Additionally, 64% of applicants said they'd share a bad application experience with friends and family. Not great, right? Providing a lean, efficient application process is a great way to show candidates that you value their time -- and will set your employer brand apart from your competitors, even before the first phone interview.

Easier Onboarding

By offering transparency into company culture and workflow, you can set the stage for a faster and more successful onboarding process. If a new engineering hire has already seen an employer branding video that, for example, details which cloud computing tools your team uses, then that's one less bit of information they'll have to seek out on day 1.

Saves Time and Resources, Now and Later

Still think employer branding is an exercise long on buzzwords and short on bottom line impact? Think again: according to the Harvard Business Review, a negative reputation can cost companies 10% more per hire. That's money spent finding qualified candidates, and money spent replacing employees whose experience working your company just didn't live up to what they'd been promised.

Strengthens Consumer Brand, Which In Turn Strengthens Employer Brand

This one's pretty simple -- if consumers hear that your organization treats its employees well, they'll be more likely to support your company. Conversely, a stronger consumer brand will earn your company additional brownie points from top candidates. Like these two Very Strong Gentlemen you see above, your employer brand and consumer brand will both excel when working in tandem.

ABOUT UNCUBED STUDIOS

Launched in 2016, Uncubed Studios is a full-service creative agency with a client list representing the most influential employers on earth along with the high growth tech companies.

The team that brings the work of Uncubed Studios to life is made up of award-winning experts in cinematography, journalism, production, recruitment, employee engagement, employer branding and more.

Uncubed Studios is part of the Uncubed Group, which also includes Mediabistro, the leading talent & professional community in the media sector, and Finalist, the curated sourcing platform for early professional tech talent.

Interested in speaking with Uncubed Studios for a media opportunity? Contact studios@uncubed.com