For some time, the norm in the recruitment process seemed to suggest that the employer held the privileged role of the job-giver and the potential employee was put in the position of having to jump through hoops and say the right things to land the position. The employer held the power and could afford to hand-pick from a large talent pool while the employee had to show off their best skills to distinguish themselves from the crowd.

Now, attitudes have shifted tremendously. No longer are employers able to be picky. If we are to believe 90% of recruiters as polled in the MRI Recruiters Sentiment study, recruitment is now a candidate-driven market. As companies like Google and Bain & Company have redefined what a workplace can be and the demand for niche skills has sky-rocketed, employees are now in the privileged position of being able to choose where exactly they will fit in best.

Thankfully, recruiters can use employer branding strategies to target talent. By tailoring their recruitment process to not only advertise the position but also the benefits and perks, the company culture, and most importantly, the company’s goals and vision, employers can influence the talent pool’s perception of their company and increase the acquisition and retention of talent.

The Argument

For some companies, a revamped recruitment process may sound like wasted time, money and resources trying to fix something that isn’t broken. It’s understandable why many would like to keep things as they are, but the truth is, if you are not willing to be open to more innovative, forward-thinking recruitment processes, it will be a whole lot harder to stay competitive in a talent-hungry job market.

There’s no denying that a successful business is driven by the people that make up its team. By tailoring recruiting content that stresses not only your knowledge of this fact but a promise to nurture each individual team member in their growth and well-being, you will set yourself apart from your competition. If not, you could be giving your competition the chance to thrive with the creativity and talent of the lost skill-holder.

See, the message here isn’t just that you need to offer an enviable workplace and team culture, but that you need to communicate this effectively too. You may have the most satisfied employees in the world, who love the perks you offer, who enjoy the work-life balance and feel supported professionally and emotionally at all levels. Unfortunately, if this fact isn’t being filtered out to the rest of the world, you’re going to have a harder time acquiring the same quality of people in times of growth.

How Do You Do It Effectively?

To get the most out of employer branding, it’s important that you have a strategy. There are both internal and external factors to employer branding that can affect its overall success, so by developing a holistic approach that considers not just your recruitment process but your team and your business-leaders, your strategy will be able to weather every step of talent acquisition.

Internal factors include things like understanding your business operations, your company culture and your current employer brand. This will require you to work with your employees in knowing if your self-perception is aligned with that of the rest of the team. If goals and attitudes are fragmented, it’s going to be harder to sell your value. Your internal strategy could be in refining the inner workings of your workplace and spending time maintaining and improving your company culture.

External factors include things like how you communicate your brand, understanding your value as it relates to the job market and knowing how to get your message to the right candidates. Whether you encourage your team in sharing employee-generated content, hold recruitment events or commit to heavy market research, there are a number of ways that you can ensure that your employer branding strategy will yield the best results in recruiting and retaining the most relevant staff for your needs.

In the end, the question isn’t really, “do we need employer branding?” but, “how can we be the best at employer branding?” Sure, you can always ignore the benefits that have been outlined in this post in favor of sticking to traditional recruitment methods, but if so, you’d be robbing both your business and your current staff the opportunity to stand with or even above the best companies to work for in the world—all of whom no doubt utilize the best employer branding strategies there are.

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