As the challenge to find talented workforce increases, employer branding is soon becoming a quintessential tool to connect with experienced employees and allure them to get on board. Employer branding is increasingly deployed as a strategic tool to hire and retain talent, because employees find a sense of recognition and pride working for companies with brand names like Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, to name a few.

What makes these employer brands stand out amidst the competition besides the salary, prestige and growth offerings is their commitment to creating the best work spaces for exceptional talent to learn and grow.

Why Employer Branding?

Human resource professionals are now using “employer branding” as a strategic tool to attract talent, recruit and retain them. The term “employer branding” is a recently coined phrase and a relatively new strategic tool to allure “passive” candidates who might be the best talent looking for a suitable role.

The very intent behind employer branding is to be considered among the best brands to work and to make people believe that the company goes beyond offering just a positive environment to work and build a career.

The concept of employer branding helps companies carve out a niche for themselves in a competitive market place. Aside from the benefits in terms of talent acquisition and retention, committed staff also tends to be more productive and innovative. It also allows businesses to develop a sustainable competitive advantage – in the form of corporate culture – that is not easily replicated by competitors.

See: Building Recruiter Brand on the Most Popular Professional Network

Benefits of employer branding strategy

There are compelling benefits to formulate and maintain an employer branding strategy, as it protects and strengthens the human capital investment that businesses make to maintain their competitive edge.

The benefits of an employer branding strategy are:

1. Elevating the level of motivation among employees and encourages healthy competitiveness among staffers to help create efficient work spaces. This also helps deliver more creative solutions through brainstorming sessions, quickly and easily.
2. Enhancing the sense of commitment within the business, as employees on board are confident and highly reliable when it comes to entrusting key job responsibilities. Also confidentiality of data in certain cases is maintained and norms are adhered to.
3. Reducing attrition rates, since it creates a situation where the staff employed are committed, educated and qualified to suit the right position. They are also extremely proud of the fact to be an integral part of the employer brand. This helps HR save time, money and costs incurred on training and development and recruitment processes for new staffers, time and again.
4. Since the commitment of employees is high, the companies can now allocate resources to train the professionals and groom their careers better. At some point, these employees will become valuable asset to the brand. The learning imbibed by the creative workforce within the company can be used for increased productivity and professional expertise to expand presence into new areas of development.
5. When your company is rated as a decent place to work, as an HR manager you will be able to attract the next generation of talent easily. This professional workforce is undoubtedly looking for a long-term association with the company and not for some short-gap arrangement. They are not just good resources, but exceptional talent.
6. With enhancement in your brand image, you also attract important customers and investors alike, who directly influence business economic benefits.

Hence employer branding is a creative strategic management tool today that helps attract exceptional talent on board, facilitates retention, reduces attrition rate and helps increase employee engagement and advocacy. It is a win-win strategy for employers, recruiters, the talent on board, benefitting the brand and the customers at large as well.

Also read: Positioning HR as a Business Partner

Image credits: HarvestSolutions.net