Employer branding

Employer branding can be defined as the employer's reputation in the eyes of employees, potential candidates and other stakeholders of our society. In short, employer branding is why someone should choose you over your competitors.

In order for employer branding not to be an expense, but an investment, it is necessary to start from within, i.e. with your current employees. The first step of any employer branding project must include an internal survey of employee satisfaction that serves as a basis for creating a further strategy.

When you determine exactly what your employees are satisfied with and how they perceive you, it is time to start building your brand strategy as a recognizable and desirable employer based on this knowledge.

First of all, it is necessary to determine the current state of your employer brand reputation, and the best places to do this are employer review sites, forums and various Facebook groups. This is certainly the starting point for all candidates when researching their potential employer.

Just as in marketing there is a customer persona, i.e. an ideal customer, in employer branding there is an employee persona, i.e. a desirable candidate. Without a clearly defined ideal candidate, there is no point in working on the further development of the strategy.

The most important thing is to create a sample for defining the employee persona, after which the profile can be adapted to the specific needs and profiles of employees.

Employee value proposition (EVP)

EVP (Employee value proposition) is an indispensable step in the very beginnings of creating an employer branding strategy. It is actually a combination of what you as a company need and what your candidates want.

It is often explained as a 'promise' to current and future employees, and precisely because of this, employees, their passions and goals should be put in the center. This is a great opportunity to show how much you really value your employees and what are the benefits they get once they choose you as their employer.

Employer branding is often thought to serve only to attract new talent, but this is far from the essence of employer branding. It serves both to attract new candidates and talents, but also to retain existing ones.

Precisely for this reason, regular discussions with current employees are extremely important.

Conversations or meetings can be 1-on-1, if you have enough resources and people for that, but they can also be in the form of focus or brainstorming groups where you can get feedback from a larger number of employees in a relatively short time.

It is very important that your current employees believe in your employer branding strategy, because only then will the future talents you want to attract believe in it.

When it comes to employer branding in our region, it should be noted that there is a lot of room for improvement, since this topic has only recently experienced its "boom".

Many companies in our region still perceive employer branding exclusively as a process of branding to the outside, while at the same time neglecting the current situation within the company, which often ends up with money spent on PR and advertising, while the results are mostly absent.

It is necessary to accept the fact that any process of creating a desirable employer brand must start from within, so that it is an investment and not just an expense.