Switchback Creative

Simple ways to Bolster your Employment Brand

May 10, 2015 | Business Journey

By Suzy Rounce

Your employment brand needs to differentiate you from your competitors. It is not enough to say you have an open door culture where work-life balance is important and learning and development is available to all employees. Most companies say that. And, although it may be true, you must find a genuine and compelling way to show potential employees how that actually translates in your organization.

Sure it will take some time, but it doesn’t have to cost a lot. The key is making it a group effort. HR, and particularly the people who are in charge of recruiting, are important for the focus and defining the target market. Marketing is a key player for branding expertise and the link to the larger company brand. And, of course, your employees are critical to provide content and be your brand evangelists.

Here are a couple of simple ideas that many organizations have used with some good success:

  • Use video to tell your story. If you have a little money in the budget, hire a video production company to explain your employee value proposition – what you have to offer employees and what makes you different.
  • Ask your employees to create short video clips of what they like most about working with your organization. Lay out some basic grounds rules and review the videos to ensure they are suitable. Then put these live testimonials on your YouTube channel and connect them to your careers site, LinkedIn page, Facebook account, etc.
  • Create an Instagram account and upload employee pictures of corporate events and activities. A sneak peek into the corporate culture.
  • If you have a career site or a page on your website where job seekers land when they come looking for information, update and refresh it.
  • Make it easy, and OK, for employees to use their own social networks to get the word out about what it’s like working with your organization. For example, provide them with wording for their profile/status updates to support specific recruiting activity.

I hear from business leaders in both large and small organizations that finding the right talent is top of mind. Putting a bit of time and effort into your employment brand can go a long way to easing some of this stress. And, if you get your employees involved, you may increase their excitement and loyalty.

Ridgegate Consulting   Twitter:@RidgegateHR


Deanna is an HR practitioner who provides practical and tailored talent attraction and retention solutions to small companies. Her goal is to help owners find, and keep, the right people for their business.