Strategy 1: Build Your Employer Brand

What is Employer Branding?

Employer branding is not about advertising, but instead involves managing and influencing your reputation among job seekers and employees. Perceptions of your company culture, values, and work environment are increasingly important to recruiting top-tier talent – and retaining them.

Surveys of job seeker attitudes reveal the growing significance of employer brand:

• 95% of candidates identify a company’s reputation as a key consideration when exploring new career opportunities
• 40% of passive candidates would accept a new position without an increase in pay if the company had a good employer brand
• As much as 23% of the workforce between ages 18 and 34 would accept a pay cut for an opportunity to join a company with a good employer brand
• 69% of candidates would reject (PDF) an offer from a company with a bad employer brand, even if they were unemployed
• Companies with a poor employer brand must offer a minimum of a 10% pay increase to lure top talent

KPIs to Build Your Employer Brand

Your employer brand is reflected in multiple ways: how many people accept job offers, the reasons employees give for leaving, and overall employee engagement. Tracking these basic metrics can help you assess the strength of your brand as an employer. These suggested Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are not exhaustive – employers should choose the metrics that focus on areas they want to improve. These examples offer a broad pulse check on the health of your employer brand.

Offer Acceptance Rate (OAR)

What percentage of candidates accept a job offer?

Administer follow-up surveys to new hires, or have recruiters ask why or why not after extending an offer.

• What are the primary reasons candidates give for accepting or rejecting a job offer?
• Are you effectively communicating job responsibilities and benefits in job postings?
• Are your organization’s values and culture reinforced effectively throughout the hiring process?

Turnover Rate

What percentage of employees leave, whether voluntarily or involuntarily?

Conduct exit interviews and read online reviews.

• What are the primary reasons employees are leaving?
• Is there any correlation between separations and employee attitudes toward company efforts related to diversity, inclusion, belonging, and/or equity?
• How does your turnover rate compare to the industry standard?

Employee Engagement

The extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and put discretionary effort into their work.

Create a climate survey to address key issues important to your organization. Communicate the reasons for the survey, make the results available, and act to
address these concerns.

• Have you assessed your culture by administering a climate survey?
• Does your organization have an inclusive culture that develops, empowers, challenges, and respects all employees?
• Are managers clearly defining expectations, holding employees accountable and focused on delivering results?
• Do managers effectively communicate and motivate their employees to give their best? Are managers building strong relationships to foster a cohesive team?
• Do employees understand the current state of the organization, where it’s headed, and how they contribute to its success?

Tactics to Build Your Employer Brand

1. Be responsive.
2. Grow your online presence.
3. Be inclusive.
4. Be flexible.
5. Be transparent.
6. Customize benefits.
7. Retool and refocus manager training.

Resources to Build Your Employer Brand