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Employee Brand: The Key to Attracting Talent in 2023

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In this article, Katherine Tyndall, Marketing Manager for Lincoln Cornhill Executive and James Andrews Recruitment Solutions, explores the importance of harnessing your employer brand to attract talent and retain staff.

As the latest UK Report on Jobs, released by KPMG and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, highlights the skills shortages ‘still dominating jobs market with no signs of progress’, and a continued rise in starting salaries, attributed largely to attempts at attracting key talent, cultivating a strong employer brand is key in attracting, recruiting and retaining highly-skilled employees.

What is an ‘Employer Brand’?

‘’Employer branding is simply how you market your company to desired job seekers. You can do this by showcasing your organisation’s unique cultural differentiators, and then working to amplify them so you can position yourself as a top place to work. An employer brand — or what is also known as your “talent,” or “people” brand — that resonates is about defining the essence of your company, both how it’s unique and what it stands for, and then crafting and aligning those aspirations with the people you’re looking to attract. It communicates that your organisation is a good employer and a great place to work, which boosts recruitment efforts and the engagement and retention of your current employees’’

Sarah A. Lybrand, ‘LinkedIn: What Is Employer Branding and How Can It Grow Your Business?’

The CIPD states that in the last year alone, 75% of organisations have taken action to improve their employer brand, with larger organisations most likely to have done so. Moreover, LinkedIn data shows that companies with positive employer brands can get up to twice as many applications as companies with negative brands - important stats to consider in a market wherein competition for talent has increased over the last year and recruiting for senior and skilled roles has been the most challenging. 

Redefining your Employee Value Proposition 

Your employee value proposition, or EVP, is the part of an employer's branding strategy which tells a prospective employee everything of value that your organisation has to offer them should they decide to join the business, including your company mission and culture.

The CIPD notes that ‘organisations are increasingly offering better pay and/or benefits to address recruitment difficulties (36%, up from 29% last year). This is now the most common step organisations take to improve retention. There are considerable sector differences, however, with private sector organisations far more likely to increase pay than public sector organisations’.

While it’s of course important to consider salary, employee benefits and career progression here - with stats showing pay and benefits have risen from second to first place in employers’ rankings of which elements of employer brand are most important when it comes to attracting candidates, particularly in the private sector - it is the companies who are also taking heed of what is currently in demand, understanding what employees truly want, who will reap the benefits in attracting today’s top talent. 

Post-pandemic, the opportunity for flexible or remote working is a huge deciding factor for many of the workforce, with recent statistics released by Deloitte stating that 77% of Gen Z employees, and 71% of millennials, would consider leaving their current role if they were asking to return to the office full-time. 

It is the ‘employers who recognise this desire for choice and support this [who] are more likely to attract, retain and motivate the best talent from these two generations’ Kate Sweeney, Parter and Human Capital Lead at Deloitte, commented following the release of these survey results. 

In order to align your EVP with what employees in 2023 are looking for, it is key that you speak to staff to find out what is most valuable to them. Consider as part of this research that you should speak to a wide range of employees to paint a full picture of what employees at different stages of their lives, and with different lifestyles, are looking for and ensure your offering allows for flexibility to reflect this. 

Resources such as the CIPD Good Work Index can also provide great insight into what UK workers value in a job and can be used as a valuable tool in helping you understand how you can improve your EVP, and overall employer brand. This annual benchmarking report measures job quality across various dimensions and gives a definitive view of what ‘good’ looks like for workplaces. 

The Future of Employer Brand

As talent remains more difficult to retain now than last year, and organisations are now taking proactive steps to improve their position situation, such as increasing their recruitment and talent management budgets, it’s more important than ever to consider the value of a strong employer brand. 

But where to start? Here are the key actions the CIPD recommend in their article,‘How To Harness Your Employer Brand to Recruit and Retain Talent’ in order to get ahead of the competition and attract the best talent in your industry. 

  • Review what’s possible when it comes to pay, but also take into consideration any changes that might be helpful to your overall benefits package. Think about pay transparency and flexible working when advertising roles and be realistic about what you position as a benefit. 

  • Advertise salaries in job adverts and give information about pension schemes and other core benefits. Don’t ask about previous salaries during the recruitment process. Following this approach will help you support fairness and reduce the risk of pay gaps in your workforce. 

  • Now is a good time to critically assess your employee value proposition. Employees value different benefits at different life stages, so be flexible in your offering and allow for personalisation – let people choose what is most important to them.  

  • While pay is important, people also want to work for organisations that stand for something positive. Take steps to make your organisation a purposeful, inclusive, flexible place to work that supports staff wellbeing. Career development opportunities are also important, as is job security, so ensure your organisation offers these, too. 

  • Finally, don’t forget to measure the impact of your employer brand, otherwise, you won’t know if it’s working. In our report, just 12% of organisations said they’d taken steps to measure the impact of their employer brand and fewer said they’d monitored or actioned feedback received through other websites and social media.

By taking the above into account and taking the steps to carefully define and develop your organisation's employer brand and employer value proposition you can introduce your company to the people you’d love to join your team, creating a positive company culture and retaining talented staff.