Why Is Employer Branding Important

In a candidate-driven labor market, the way potential employees perceive you as an employer can mean the difference between hiring the top talent — or having to make do with the leftovers.

That’s why companies that know why employer branding is important invest heavily in employer branding strategies and practices that help them stand out in the crowd. Such strategies can truly make the difference when it comes to differentiating yourself from your competition and getting one step closer to becoming an employer of choice in your industry.

Why should you be concerned about your employer brand?

After all, you’ve gotten this far without ever thinking about it, right? Well, that might be true, but times are changing, and they are changing fast.

Today’s labor market is primarily candidate-driven because of three things:

• Record unemployment rates in the United States and the European Union
  
  
• An uptick in small and medium businesses across the globe
  
  
• The need for (almost) all employees to be computer literate and tech-savvy.

What this resulted in was a power shift from the employers to the employees. If an employee has marketable skills and can execute, they will get five offers the minute they hit the labor market. Most companies will bend backward to give them what they want: more money, more autonomy, flexible working hours — anything. And because candidates get to choose, it’s down to businesses to prove that they are the ones worthy of being picked.

Companies with a strong employer brand get the employees that they want and need. But, that’s not all — they get something else, too. They get to save money in the long run, which increases their year-over-year profits.

• According to Harvard Business Review, companies with a bad employer reputation pay, on average, 10% more in salaries for key employees.¹
  
  
• They also have a 43% higher cost per hire because their recruiting process is not streamlined and they often hire candidates that turn out to be a poor fit for the culture.
  
  
• Also, if a candidate doesn’t like your reputation, you might not even get the chance to interview them or even hear about them — 50% won’t consider applying for your open positions.²

You can easily sidestep these issues and hire and retain the best people for your company. The only thing you need to learn to do is to treat your pool of potential employees like you treat your paying customers. 

You need to identify them, spend time on social media sites where they hang out, engage in a meaningful way, and create engaging and informative content that shows the human side of your company.