What Is External Employer Branding?
Your employer brand is a key element of your recruitment strategy. It attracts candidates to apply for your job and encourages employees to stay with your company.
In this guide, we will discuss the distinctions between external and internal employer branding, as well as how they can work together to create a more holistic strategy.
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Difference between external and internal employer branding
External employer branding is a company's strategy to manage and influence its reputation among job seekers and key stakeholders, with the goal of positioning itself as an employer of choice.
A company's internal employer brand can be promoted to potential candidates through recruitment marketing efforts.
Internal employer branding is the reputation an employer has with its current employees. An internal employer brand includes, but is not limited to, an employee value proposition (EVP), perks and benefits, compensation, company culture, core values, and anything else that a company has to offer employees in exchange for their work.
With a better understanding of internal and external employer branding, you can now start to construct an external employer brand that is both loved and trusted by job seekers.
EXTERNAL EMPLOYER BRANDING
A company's external employer branding strategy is designed to manage and influence its reputation among job seekers and key stakeholders, with the goal of positioning the company as an employer of choice.
Creating an external employer brand
It is essential to understand and define your internal employer brand before attempting to create a successful external employer branding strategy. The most successful strategies are data-driven, so begin by reviewing key employer branding metrics, such as retention rate, application rate, source of hire, employee satisfaction and employee engagement. In addition to analyzing these statistics, you should also conduct an internal employer branding survey in order to gain a more holistic picture of your brand and how your employees view it. All of this information will help you understand how people became employed at your company and why they stay. You will be able to identify pain points and gaps between the EVP you provide employees and the external employer brand you pitch to job seekers. Having employees create and share employer branding materials will make your brand more authentic and transparent.
8 External Employer Branding Strategies
Earlier, we mentioned a few tactics you can use to create an employer branding strategy. It's crucial to have an external employer brand that accurately reflects your internal employer brand. The following are a few ways to make sure your content is consistent with your brand while being transparent with job seekers.
ESTABLISH CANDIDATE PERSONAS FOR OPEN ROLES
It is important to create specific candidate personas for each open role in order to tailor your external employer branding efforts based on the roles you are hiring for. The personas will also help you identify the most effective platforms to connect with your ideal candidates. For example, if you’re seeking a marketing professional, it would be most advantageous to focus your employer branding efforts on social media platforms. However, if you’re hiring for a technical role, it would be a better use of your time to attend hackathons or connect with professionals through a platform like GitHub.
SHARE EMPLOYEE AND TEAM SPOTLIGHTS
Employees are the best brand ambassadors because they know the company culture and values from the inside out. These spotlights can take many different forms, from a quick pull quote answering a question about your company culture to an in-depth blog post about their experience working at your company.
If you are hiring for an in-demand role, or multiple roles for one team, create a series of employee spotlights. This will provide candidates with a wider breadth of individuals they can expect to work with if they get the job.
CREATE AN AUTHENTIC SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
Employer branding on social media should be a part of your strategy since the majority of candidates find jobs through social platforms.
Social networks allow you to create content that is more candid and personal, which gives job seekers a better understanding of what it is like to work for your company.
You will need to change your employer branding content to fit each social network, but your social media recruiting strategy should be different for each one. By optimizing your social media posts for each platform, you can better connect with your target audience.
It is important to create a content calendar in order to stay organized and differentiate content by platform.
SHOW OFF YOUR INTERNAL BRAND WITH A VIDEO
It is undeniable that video content has been increasingly popular for years, and this trend seems to only be growing. In fact, 54% of people want more video content from their favorite brands. Creating a recruitment video may be intimidating, but it is worth the time and cost to produce a video that can be shared across multiple platforms.
You can add personality to your employer brand videos by creating a music video or clip that showcases the fun side of your company culture.
CONNECT WITH CANDIDATES THROUGH RECRUITMENT EVENTS
It is essential to create experiences that connect with candidates and increase brand awareness through personal interactions when developing an employer branding strategy. Hosting recruitment events is an effective way to increase awareness of your employer brand and to create meaningful connections with potential candidates by having open and candid conversations about what matters to them.
Make your event stand out with creative activities, keynote speakers, and giveaways or incentives for people to apply on-site. If your office has a more casual dress code, we suggest you create a casual event that allows candidates to experience your culture before they even apply.
KEEP IN CONTACT WITH YOUR TALENT COMMUNITY
It is important to keep in contact with candidates and maintain your employer brand. You can do this by creating a talent community of professionals who have shown interest in your company as a prospective employer. Maintain regular communication with these individuals through a monthly newsletter or by sending specific job descriptions to people who have the requisite background for an open role.
Talent communities can be very beneficial to your company by helping to source candidates and promote your employer brand.
MAKE YOUR CAREER PAGE INFORMATIVE
Your career page is like a window into what it's like to work for your company. Your career page should be the best place for candidates to apply to a job, no matter where they first learn about your company.
Your career page should be a comprehensive source of information for all of your employer branding efforts. It is essential that your employer branding materials are consistent across platforms to ensure that potential employers can learn about your company through your website.
INCLUDE EMPLOYER BRANDING IN JOB DESCRIPTIONS
Most job descriptions include information on specific job requirements, responsibilities and an equal opportunity employer statement. Although the aforementioned information is important, it is not enough to make top job seekers choose your role over others.
While you certainly need to include the basics in your job descriptions, don't forget to also include employer branding information that will help you sell your company as a top choice employer. Please include information on benefits, salary, and other perks in your job posting. If you have been following this guide, you should now have a clear understanding of the key difference between internal and external employer branding. With the tips and tricks provided in this guide, as well as our other employer branding resources, you should be well equipped to deploy a successful strategy that attracts top candidates and effectively grows your team.
