Up until now, employer branding referred to a company’s positioning and messaging as the employer of choice to a desired audience. Social media, however, has since changed the face of employer branding.
Instead of being a one-way message for positioning your company as a great place to work, it’s now a marketplace of thoughts and opinions. Branding is now in the hands of the very talent you seek — otherwise known as your talent brand. This is how talent views and socially brands a company, incorporating what talent thinks, feels, and shares about a company as a place to work.
How can you be sure what you’re saying and what talent is saying about your company is in tune? Here are three signs that your talent brand and employer brand don’t match, and how to better align them:
A strong employer brand results in an even stronger talent brand. So a negative talent brand — or having far too many negative comments on social media — means there’s something amiss with the employer brand.
How to align: Look at the reviews by talent for common issues with your brand and then seek out ways to solve those problems. Address negative comments or reviews as soon as possible. Offer an apology and a solution to demonstrate your company’s commitment to current and future employees. Remember the old adage: The customer talent is always right.
Not getting the desired results you want from your recruiting efforts? Unresponsive job candidates are likely uninterested. Having a strong talent brand, however, can give your recruitment efforts a much-needed boost.
How to align: Your company career site is one of the few platforms where you have control of the message, so embrace visual tools to help talent realize your employer brand.
For instance, feature employees sharing what it’s like to work there. Ecommerce software company Shopify does this by featuring several videos on its career site aimed at informing and attracting job seekers.
If your best employees are leaving you, reevaluate your employer and talent brand. After all, having a strong talent brand can boost retention and lower employee turnover rates by 28 percent, according to a recent LinkedIn survey.
How to align: To keep employees satisfied in their positions, perform “stay” or retention interviews to get insight on why employees choose to stay at the company. For employees who are set on leaving, conduct exit interviews to find out why they moved on to avoid having other employees follow suit.
What do you think? What are some other key signs that your talent brand and employer brand aren’t in line? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below.
