Do you have a cool company but, nobody seems to know it? Much less, want to work there? Then, chances are you need to spruce up your employer brand. For the sake of clarity, your employer brand is your company’s reputation as an employer and the sum of its efforts to communicate why it is a desirable place to work. If you have a good employer brand, you might get mentioned here or here. If you are not good at giving the love to your employees, then you might have to take the proverbial “walk of shame,” which will make it that much harder to recruit in the future.

How To Build an Employer Brand

 

There are a couple of ways you can go about promoting a positive employer brand. One is easy, the other takes more time than you might have to spend. Its up to you, either way. The easy button is to reach out to my beloved employer – Bernard Hodes Group. We can do the research and let you know where you stand in the employer marketplace and help you improve your standing if need be and/or assist in promoting your employer brand to new heights (if interested). If you have never had an audit of your employer brand before from us, it is so worth it. The looks of shock and awe from certain clients when they realize what has been said about them is always interesting to witness.

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But, I digress. The more time intensive method is do exhaustive research on what makes companies a great place to work and imitate their strategies when possible. Add to that, due diligence on what makes a company a bad place to work and shun those practices like the plague. Here are a few suggestions to guide your research and to get the hamster running in the wheel of your imagination.

Okay, consider what comes up when doing a Google search on “I love working at.”

The top Google suggestions are Starbucks, McDonalds, Walmart and Macy’s.

Let’s do another search. Say… “I want to work at”

And leaving no stone unturned, a few other searches to mull over.

.Now once you have done the research, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is it about the company culture that is so beloved by their employees?
• What benefits are the most appreciated? Pay? Personal Days? Healthcare?
• What type of people tend to work there?
• Why do (some) people tend to hate working at certain companies?

Take out a spreadsheet (or a pad and paper) and make a list of the good stuff companies do and the not so good stuff, then ask yourself the following:

• Which of these positive programs can I implement at my company?
• What are some things that people dislike about companies that I need to insure does not happen at my company?

Of course, how your recruiters treat candidates goes a LOOOOONG way towards how your employer brand is perceived as well. This has always been a challenge for companies across the board as indicative of the Google Suggestions below.

After reviewing a few results, some common complaints stand out:

• Recruiters post fake jobs
• Recruiters often try to coerce candidates into jobs they don’t want.
• Recruiters never return my calls

It would not hurt to look up the best practices of other successful recruiting organizations. Just sayin’…

So, was this helpful? Let me know in the comments below.

–Jim