Employer branding is necessary for developing a good reputation of your company for potential candidates. This is important to attract new people to work at your organization and help it grow in the process. Therefore, it is necessary to have an effective strategy. Here are 9 employer branding mistakes you should avoid.
1. Not Thinking Long-Term
Don’t treat employer branding as a short-term project. Your company’s reputation can change at any given time. It is, thus, important to consistently work on developing a good reputation for your company as an employer.
Design your strategy in a way that won’t require you to make drastic changes frequently. Leave some room for alterations and improvements along the way, but think of how your company is going to be represented for the next 10 years at least.
2. Not Having a Clear Target Audience
Design your employer branding strategy to cater to specific group of people. A one-size-fits-all strategy is often not effective when it comes to marketing according to CEO and analyst, Daniel Newman. Know who you want to target as new potential employees so that you get the best applicants for the job. You know what your company needs and make that apparent in your strategy.
You don’t want to be sifting through resumes of under-qualified applicants or of those who are from an entirely different background than what you’re looking for. Tailor what you do for promoting your employer brand according to your target audience. This way, the chances of you attracting who you want to will be greater.
3. Not Having a Clear Company-Identity
You have to be consistent with how you portray your company as an employer. Think of something that is an important feature about your company or something unique you can offer to employees. Develop your campaign around that.
Everything you say should be related to that and should help you drive that point home. You have to be consistent and clear about what your company can offer employees. Juggling multiple things will just make things can make potential applicants stay clear from your confusing company-identity.
4. Overusing Content
Think of a specific message that you’re trying to promote about your company and then create new content which helps develop that idea. Don’t stick to using one advert on multiple platforms with the same few lines time and time again. Be creative with generating your content and come up with new and interesting ways to make a similar point.
You won’t hold people’s interest if you go on like a broken record. New content that is creative and interesting can give people something to talk about. Don’t stick to saying the same thing. Be creative with how you impart your message to others. Ben Plomion, a Chief Marketing Officer discusses the necessity for creativity in a workplace for generating new ideas.
5. Focusing Only on the Job Description
There is more to a workplace than the job an employee is expected to do. The work environment and culture are also important for people to know before they apply to your organization. Include images of the office, videos of your employees going about their day, and testimonials of your current employees.
This will give candidates a better understanding of your company, and some insight into some of the work-ethic that your organization is focused on. Give candidates more reasons to want to join your company than just telling them about the job they’ll be doing.
6. Not Asking Your Employees for Input
Include input from your employees when you’re developing a new employer brand strategy. They will give you insight into things you may overlook. This may include some reasons why they choose to work at your organization. Employer branding is about attracting employees, so don’t leave out the people whose say matters in this situation.
Your employees are the driving force of your company and will be able to give you an internal perspective on how your company is an employer. Asking them for their input is also a good way to show them that you value what they have to say, writes CEO and serial entrepreneur, David Hassell. It can improve employees’ job-satisfaction, helping them bring in their best to work each day.
7. Not Delivering on Promises You Made
Every promise you make during your employer brand campaign should come to fruition once your new employees join your company. This is why it is important to effectively budget the strategy before you begin your recruitment process.
If you fail to allocate your resources well, you risk making empty promises. This, in turn, can damage the reputation of your company as more employees will speak about it to others they interact with. This can result in your company getting fewer highly-skilled applicants during recruitment.
8. Not Staying Up-To-Date
Your employer branding has to flexible in order to stay up-to-date with the changes in the world. It is important to have a long-term strategy, but in those strategies, you must have enough room for you to introduce changes as the discourse changes on certain subjects.
You don’t want to be focused on ideas and principles that are considered out-of-date or are getting obsolete. Also, use all forms of technological platforms so that you can reach a larger audience. To stay updated: keep a close eye on the market, ask your employees for their input, and request candidates for feedback on your recruitment process.
9. Trying to Emulate Other Companies
Be unique. Let people know how you stand out from other companies. Your goal is to have them pick you over others. Therefore, to do that, you must make it clear to them that you can offer them that which they can’t get from other similar employers. According to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, people’s attention is drawn to those organizations that stand out from the rest. That should be your goal too.
You are ruing your chances of setting yourself apart by trying to imitate other organizations. You also run the risk of pretending of being an organization that you’re not. It is also not helpful to borrow similar designs and ideas from other companies or competitors.
Last Few Words
Employer branding is an important long-term process in making your company a leading choice for candidates. Thus, be sure to do it well, and avoid mistakes that organizations make far too often.
