Employer branding: transforming employees into brand ambassadors.

Employer Branding helps transform your collaborators into ambassadors and ensures that talent, attracted thanks to communication made on social media, knocks on your company's door in a proactive and direct way.

By now all companies know what employer branding is , but only a few are exploiting its full potential on social networks.

Yet, Employer Branding is now the fundamental prerequisite of any self-respecting recruiting strategy: according to LinkedIn, 75% of potential candidates research the company's reputation before applying for a position, and almost 70% of candidates do not would accept an offer from an employer with a bad reputation.

Data that is not surprising, in a historical moment in which we are no longer even willing to order a pizza from a restaurant that does not have reviews up to our expectations; let alone when it comes to signing a contract, perhaps for a high profile position, with a company that does not present itself to the best of its possibilities.

But before we proceed, let's go over the basics:

What is Employer Branding?

Employer Branding is that set of attributes and qualities, often intangible, which defines the identity of the organization as a workplace, highlighting its distinctive characteristics compared to its competitors. It finds foundation in a precise marketing and communication strategy that makes the company interesting and captivating in the eyes of potential candidates, current employees and, in cascade, the customers themselves. The ultimate goal it aims at is for the company to be recognized by its target as an ideal workplace (“Best Employment of Choice”).

The pieces that make up Employer Branding are different but always consistent with the actual Brand Identity : if, for example, a company portrays itself as a dynamic reality, in step with the times and always oriented towards the future, it can only provide employees work experience that reflects these values and, reversing the perspective, screen the applications of potential profiles according to whether or not they are in line with the company's image.

An excellent example of communicating your Employer Brand is the one offered by the social recruiting campaign that Decathlon Italia launched in July 2018

The founding values of Decathlon clearly emerge from the video as a company that is always on the move and that "works as a team": two sporting metaphors that the low-cost sports giant also wants to associate with its brand identity, and not just with the commercial offer. The message is clear: work with us and you will make your passion – sport – the beating heart of your days; you will learn so much that you will be able to say that you have "never stood still" and you will be able to count on a close-knit and competitive team, just like your favorite team.

Why is Employer Branding important for companies?

As anticipated, a good Employer Branding strategy has as its recipients:

• the ideal candidates that the company aims to recruit
• current employees
• all customers and potential customers

The ideal candidates can be both the best profiles presenting themselves for an open position and, from a more strategic point of view, the talents that the company aspires to reach even if there is no immediate and contingent need, i.e. passive candidates . In this second case, which falls within the so-called Talent Acquisition process , Employer Branding is even more essential to hit the mark , because the company will have to focus on an even more consolidated self-image and even more captivating promises.

The ultimate goal of an Employer Branding strategy that speaks to the ideal candidates is obviously to recruit the best profiles in its ranks, reaching them before the competitors. These candidates, if they respond positively to the offer, will be linked to the company and its values by an even stronger bond because they will receive an offer specifically tailored to them.

An Employer Branding strategy must also speak to those who already work for the company, because it will help make them feel part of the organization and therefore to retain them.

The success of a good Employer Branding strategy on the retention rate is proven : according to research by the Boston Consulting Group it can reduce the turnover rate (turn-over) of employees by up to 28% , with all the savings in terms of costs of hiring new resources that we can imagine.

Employees can also be excellent allies in promoting the corporate brand , both from a commercial and a Brand Employer point of view; this provided that they feel valued by the company they work for and that they share its values: all points that a good Employer Branding strategy certainly cannot overlook because, remember, what it promises is what it actually delivers.

Whether it's Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, every employee can become a brand ambassador and be the spokesperson for the values and work of their organization. For this to happen, companies need to establish a constant and engaging communication relationship with their employees, to make them feel such an integral part of the place they work for that they themselves are promoters of the corporate culture. It is also essential to train employees on how to use social networks correctly and how to best manage their online reputation.

The importance of this mechanism is evident in all those advertising campaigns which entrust the promotion of the image of the company for which he works to the direct testimony and face of the "ordinary employee". Who better than he/she could tell you what are the principles that animate the company philosophy?

The benefits of employer branding

In addition to what has already been mentioned, employer branding brings with it great advantages.

On the one hand, for the brand.

• Build trust in the company.

• Humanize the company.

• Increase your social community.

• Increase traffic to the website.

• Improve talent acquisition.

• Improve candidate-to-employee conversion rate.

• Position the company in the industry and differentiate it from the competition.

On the other hand, the internal one, allows you to:

• Improve the professional profile of employees, making it more competitive.

• Enhance your personal branding.

Working with employer branding from the inside out

A good employer branding strategy starts with an employee loyalty program. In other words, the first step is to create a good working environment and offer attractive conditions so that the staff themselves become ambassadors of the company. It will therefore be the workers who will have the task of communicating the advantages they enjoy to the outside world.

For this it is important:

• Motivate employees, promote a sense of belonging and pride.

• Provide training so that they have the basics to make the best use of social networks. They will enhance your personal brand and the company will increase its employer branding.

• Publish news that sees employees as protagonists online and share.

• Recognize and promote the work through social networks, highlighting the excellence and the objectives achieved.

The Employer Branding strategy in the time of the coronavirus

In light of the upheavals that have taken place in the world of work following the pandemic, recent studies highlight the importance of focusing on the present rather than the future, because the great challenges companies face in acquiring talent and being able to retain their resources (according to a McKinsey analysis 40% of workers are ready to leave the company in the next 3-4 months) are now and now.

There are three key components to the HR transformation required at the moment: strategy , i.e. outlining a vision for success and deciding on the metrics that will be used to measure this same success; implementation , i.e. aligning HR strategy for employer branding and talent management with the larger goals and values of the organization; ROI (Run, Optimize, Innovate) strategies must be sustained and must be innovated to derive maximum value from them for the benefit of the organization.

However, the person must always be at the heart of every strategy: as mentioned, improving the overall experience of employees and promoting greater involvement is the way to face today's challenges. In a human approach to the Employer Branding strategy, HR managers cannot ignore 5 key elements: physical – health, safety and a positive environment must be guaranteed especially when working in a physical space; emotional – how an employee feels about the job they do is significant, as is their response to the challenges and rewards of the job; social – community, creativity, sense of belonging must be encouraged, supported and strengthened; spiritual – you can't do without purpose, belief and values when it comes to building employee engagement and improving the overall employee experience; intellectual – finally, access to knowledge and growth opportunities must be made available to all employees.

What are the techniques to improve Employer Branding

We have come to the conclusion that it is a good thing for a company to invest time and resources in consolidating its Employer Branding. But what are the techniques to obtain the best possible result? LinkedIn is undoubtedly today the recruiting platform that provides companies with the widest range of tools and opportunities for:

1. do Talent Acquisition
2. hire your own employees
3. integrate Employer Branding and Brand Identity

1. Employer Branding and Talent Acquisition

The indispensable tool for Talent Acquisition is LinkedIn Recruiter , which allows a very advanced level of research thanks to the use of highly specific filters. The company can actively select interesting profiles even if it does not currently have specific needs related to a position; can then contact the talents via InMail - a feature available only with LinkedIn Recuiter - and start a highly targeted conversation on the recipient, in order to make herself more attractive in his eyes.

If impressed by the proposal, the passive candidate will certainly want to learn more about the company's profile. Where will you look for material to get a clearer idea? Obviously on the company page, which must be full of interesting content and in line with the Employer Brand.

2. Employer Branding and Employee Engagement

The contents published on the company page will also have to leverage the sense of belonging of the employees, who will recognize themselves in the Brand image and will be more inclined to interact and share posts. A good idea could be to create a column, "Life in the company", which tells the role and specificity of some company figures through ad hoc interviews, showing the faces and stories of those who make up the company: the employees.

3. Integrate Employer Branding and Brand Identity

A good Employer Branding strategy also has repercussions on sales, because it integrates with the promotion of Brand Identity and helps to strengthen the positive image that customers have of a company.

As anticipated, the role of employees is fundamental in this process. This is why it is important to encourage employees to open their own LinkedIn profile, to write down their role within the organization they belong to and to share company updates – technically called Company updates – which, in the first instance, make it possible to enrich the same professional experience and relational network of the employee and to strengthen their "Personal brand" and, at the same time, contribute to the dissemination of the brand's contents, expanding its potential to be seen and noticed by the direct connections of the employees themselves.

Also in this case the LinkedIn company pages act as a place to converge content and interactions: only recently has the possibility been introduced for companies to re-share the public posts of their employees.

An opportunity that should certainly be exploited, given that these posts on LinkedIn generate an engagement up to 8 times higher than the same content published solely on the company page : we are much more inclined to believe and trust "people like me" than a very often anonymous and distant voice like that of a Brand.

4 tips on how to improve your employer branding

In addition to an employee retention strategy to turn them into brand ambassadors on social networks, you will need something else.

1. Apply the 3T trick

For your employer branding strategy to be successful, you need to apply these three guidelines:

• Transparency : Show the company's values, way of working and goals to both the team and the outside world.

• Talent first of all : it is important to humanize and put people first.

• Whole team: To be successful, all employees must be involved.

Reach is greater and engagement increases as people interact.

2. HR and marketing must work hand in hand

Employer branding requires a multidisciplinary team in which marketing, human resources and communication are equally involved. All parties must be equally involved to achieve the objectives.

3. Share good content

Social networks allow you to be creative, use different shapes and create a story around your brand. Make followers imagine they work at your company.

You can talk about the day-to-day life of the organization, communicate training events, job offers and anything else that makes the workplace special.

4. Choose the right channel

When creating your Employer Branding strategy, you need to be clear about your goals and which channels will help you achieve them. If, for example, you want to attract creative talent, the best channel is certainly Instagram.

Define the channels and adapt the content to each of them. Respect the nature of each one and you will be able to better connect with your audience.

Start working on your Employer Branding together with your employees. Work on the corporate culture, make your employees proud ambassadors and loudly promote the results… this way talent will knock on your door.