Over the past years, the war for talent has strengthened, and attracting people to work for you is becoming tougher by the day. The fast-evolving local job market is making the function of HR more crucial. In the war for talent, having a strong employer’s brand can help you attract and retain the most talented employees.
Attracting this generation’s top talent is not easy. Companies are having to realise the value in creating a strong company culture and an employer’s brand that is more than just a vision and mission statement, or a nice attractive advert on the newspaper.
The value of an employer brand structure is more than just that. Finding ourselves in a highly competitive market, we need to understand that the only real chance of bringing talent towards our organisation over other competitors can only be done through a strong employer’s brand and a great company culture.
Employer branding has evolved from what many believed to be just a marketing buzzword to an essential element of an organisation’s strategy. Having a winning employer brand nowadays has a significant impact on hiring the right people and an even bigger impact on the overall success of the business.
Those who work in HR and recruitment all know how costly the recruitment process can be. Different studies show that companies with a strong employer brand all see a decrease in the cost per candidate they hire. By investing in your employer brand, you don’t have to spend all of your profits on advertising and marketing campaigns to create awareness for your business.
However, with a consistently looked-after employer brand, you will reap the rewards it brings in its stride through natural attraction. As a result, most companies with a great employer brand have people knocking on their doors, while CVs are submitted on a daily basis without a call for application.
Attracting this generation’s top talent is not easy
Furthermore, reputation carries more weight than money. If you were to disregard developing your employer brand and not build upon a culture where current employees have a reason for being, it will be even more difficult to attract the right talent. In one of his TED talks, Simon Sinek says: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” The reason for being is the answer to why you do what you do.
In most cases it’s not just to make money, particularly for today’s generation of talent. From experience, candidates will accept lower pay if the company they are interested in has very positive reviews. Therefore, it is crucial that no company, from the well-established ones to the start-ups, should ignore their employer brand.
Within employer branding falls another so-called buzzword – retention. Just like with recruitment, it requires a lot of time and effort. In most cases, the lower the turnover, the better the reputation. The majority of people making a move from one company to another will look at the company’s reputation as an employer before applying for a job, while the majority of millennials believe that being part of the right company culture is very important.
Having a strong employer brand that potential candidates can access at any time, especially online, allows them to measure their potential fit within your company. Ultimately, this works both ways as it essentially acts as the matchmaking platform for the company and all potential candidates. Social media platforms are a great take-off point and help make recruiting easier.
Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, among others, are an access point for candidates to take a better look into the company.
The point in question is that a strong employer brand leads to more qualified applicants. Employer branding becomes even more important in highly competitive sectors where niche skillsets are in serious demand.
Employer branding has been statistically proven to make a huge impact on your business’s talent attraction and retention efforts. Having a reputable employer brand is a must for an organisation’s strategy because it helps companies recruit better candidates, reduce hiring and marketing costs and improve productivity.
Therefore, for organisations still in doubt about investing in employer branding, what are you waiting for?
Matthew Psaila is head of operations at Finest Human Capital Ltd, a Famalco Group company.