Building your brand as an employer can play a significant role in the success of the business overall. Additionally, brand recognition and awareness may impact recruiting efforts. Explore how to build a brand that candidates want to work for and how your brand plays a role in hiring efforts.
What is Employer Branding?
Employer branding refers to the image and reputation of a company to its employees and potential new hires. The process of building an employer brand includes shaping the perception as a place where people should want to work, both among its existing workforce and any jobseekers with skills that align.
Some of the key components of employer branding include:
Employee retention levels
Talent acquisition and recruitment efforts
Company culture
Communication practices
Employee advocacy
Creating an Employer Brand that Candidates Want to Work For
No company can afford to ignore how it appears to those on the outside world. Customer loyalty is significantly impacted by the overall reputation of a business. And beyond how customers perceive it, your brand should be seen as appealing to its employees and those who may be looking for new professional opportunities.
This step-by-step guide highlights how to create an employer brand that supports your hiring and recruiting efforts.
Define your employee value proposition (EVP)
The first step in creating your brand as an employer is defining the value proposition. We covered this concept in detail, offering insights into why it matters as an employer and how to create one. As you define what you offer as an employer, you can more clearly outline the benefits and overall appeal to potential employees. This information should go a step further than simply describing the compensation and benefits offer, highlighting what makes your company stand out as an appealing place to work.
Outline your unique selling proposition (USP)
We also discussed the importance of a unique selling proposition, and its value can’t be overstated in your company’s recruiting processes. When applicants compare workplaces and the overall values of different organizations, they may opt to accept a position at one that more clearly defines what sets it apart in its industry. If your company hasn’t established such a definition, you may find it more challenging to find and hire candidates.
Build a strong company culture
Building your organizational culture is a vital aspect of creating and maintaining your employer branding. The culture incorporates the behaviors and procedures of those in the workplace, determining what it’s actually like to work for a specific company.
As you consider what you want your organizational culture to reflect, make sure to think about how to incorporate the following aspects:
Implement competitive compensation and benefits: Employees should receive fair compensation and appealing benefits in exchange for the work they do. Make sure your open positions (and even the ones that are already filled) offer competitive wages and benefits.
Promote career growth opportunities: Hardworking employees want to know what their futures look like, so make sure to outline opportunities for growth and advancement within the company as part of the overall culture. And if you emphasize that internal candidates will be given preference over external ones, be sure your hiring and promotion practices align.
Invest in employee development and recognition: Employees deserve to be recognized for their contributions, as well as have access to opportunities to progress. Offer development programs, such as in-house training or funds to take relevant courses. Implement a formal recognition program that allows top performers to be recognized for what they bring to the table.
Promote diversity and inclusion: Creating a diverse workforce can boost overall workplace morale while directly impacting the success of an organization. Inclusion is vital to the workplace because it ensures that everyone feels involved and that their voice is heard. Actively look for ways to include all team members in discussions and procedural changes.
Involve employees in the branding process
Another aspect of building your brand involves tapping into your most valuable asset — the employees. Ask for feedback from members of the workforce as you establish the culture and brand aspects that make it unique. Those who work for the organization will have unique insights, as they’re the ones representing on a day-to-day basis. Plus, if they feel involved in the branding process, it’s more likely that you’ll develop brand ambassadors who represent the organization in a positive way and boost recognition and loyalty.
Take Advantage of the Tools Available
Even with a strong and appealing employer brand, hiring can be a challenge, especially in today’s climate. Explore the tools available to you and make the most of them to gain a competitive edge when seeking top talent. ApplicantStack is a powerful hiring tool with features that simplify the process of creating, posting, and filling jobs. Want to learn more or try it for free? Get started now!
As a business owner, striving to build a reliable team that you can count on to get the job done is paramount to hiring success. Finding high-quality, loyal talent can be a very tough yet necessary challenge to endure in today’s job market. Employee turnover is an increasingly extensive problem across many industries and it’s costing companies a non-negligible amount of money.
According to Investopedia, companies spent over $92 billion on training in 2021. This statistic is already daunting — and it doesn’t even include integration expenditures. That’s why taking the time to develop an effective recruiting process — one that’s active and targeted — is essential if you want to attract an ideal candidate for an open role.
Developing a robust and effective hiring process not only helps you better identify excellent potential employees who are motivated to grow with your company, but it also saves you time and money. Here’s how.
The Basics: What Is Recruitment?
Recruitment is a crucial business strategy that involves identifying a need for additional staff, appealing to prospects, attracting candidates and hiring the right person for a job. The system of recruiting is often a team effort where all members should maintain a holistic overview of the entire hiring process.
To streamline and optimize the entire workflow, recruiters must have a comprehensive understanding of the job description at hand. They need to be able to look for people with skills and qualities that align with the role. However, they must also be very careful about who they hire. Making snap decisions without doing due diligence — and hiring the wrong people — can quickly affect a company’s reputation and success as a business.
With that in mind, why else is the recruitment process so important?
Why Is Recruitment Important?
Quality assurance: Oftentimes, the quality of a business as a whole is determined by the quality of its employees. The recruitment process helps ensure that prospective candidates are fully qualified for the open role and hold all the desirable certifications and characteristics necessary to meet and exceed expectations.
Value alignment: For most organizations, it’s important to maintain the workplace culture they’ve built. Throughout the hiring process, an HR professional is able to determine whether or not candidates hold the same values that the company highlights as essential to their work environment, so as to increase that value through prospective employees who share similar beliefs.
Creates a better candidate experience: Facilitating a positive interview experience helps to attract and hold the attention of candidates you may wish to hire. Without a meaningful hiring experience that puts emphasis on candidate engagement, qualified job seekers may lose interest in working with your organization altogether. This can have a ripple effect if they then choose to share their experience with other prospects in your industry, who may not even give you a shot afterward.
Building for a brighter future: Having a qualified team made of employees who are a good culture fit, align with your organization’s values and are dedicated to their roles boosts productivity and helps the company’s annual growth goals.
6 Overwhelming Benefits of an Excellent Recruiting Program
Having a coveted recruitment process isn’t just for show. Organizations stand to experience myriad benefits when they take the time to truly understand candidates’ needs. Developing a recruiting process that is conscious of prospects’ time, communicative, responsive and straightforward is an easy win for the candidates and your company.
We’ve outlined some of the top benefits of investing in your recruiting efforts.
1. Access to Top Talent
Requirement processes that are enjoyable and informative can help pique the interest of top talent in your industry. Drawn-out, unoptimized workflows may unintentionally leave qualified candidates behind or scare them away before they have a chance to show you what they’re made of.
2. Enhanced Company Culture
An engaging recruitment process can better assess a candidate’s skills and qualifications as well as their cultural fit within the organization. The better a job seeker aligns with company culture and values, the easier it is to foster a harmonious and productive work environment.
3. Higher Retention Rates
Higher retention rates can be attributed to many elements of a company, such as their willingness or aptitude to give recognition to their employees. But before a candidate is brought on board, those who have a clear understanding of a company’s culture are more likely to stick around.
4. Reduced Time-to-Hire
Engaging in recruitment processes tends to be more efficient. They can help streamline the hiring process, reduce the time it takes to fill open positions and ensure that the right candidates are selected more quickly.
5. Positive Employer Brand
A positive and engaging recruitment experience can significantly improve your company’s reputation as an employer. Candidates who have a good experience, even if they don’t get the job, will see you as a positive brand entity. This means that they may be more likely to speak positively about your organization both online and offline.
6. Long-Term Growth and Sustainability
Companies that focus on creating an engaging recruitment process are more likely to continuously evaluate and refine their hiring strategies. This commitment to improvement can lead to a stronger, more competitive organization in the long run.
How To Improve Your Recruitment Strategy
There are a few integral steps to building a successful recruitment strategy. They involve points for everything from identifying your needs to taking action and everything in between.
Identify gaps. Are there aspects of your recruitment process that seem time-worn or ineffective? To find gaps, it’s helpful to make note of your current workflow, what’s working well and elements that could use updating.
Review your mission statement. What are your company values and long-term goals? Do they align with the potential hires that you’re after?Evaluate these aspects of your brand identity and update them as necessary to achieve complete alignment with prospects.
Understand the 5 W’s (and 1 H) of your strategy:
Who is the candidate? (The title of the position).
What requirements does the job seeker need to be successful?
When are your recruiting efforts scheduled to start and end?
Where will the job posting be listed?
Why are you looking for additional staff?
How will the recruiting process unfold?
Employ software solutions. Software solutions, like ApplicantStack, streamline your recruitment processes and make it easier to formulate an effective hiring strategy. Features like intuitive data storage, comprehensive dashboards, clear workflows and checklists help you track and communicate with candidates faster and easier.
Enhance Your Recruitment with ApplicantStack
ApplicantStack is an all-in-one platform that includes features for creating, posting and managing job listings. Using our platform, recruiters can:
Post open roles to job boards and social media sites quickly and easily.
Qualify candidate scoring with prescreen and knock-out questions.
Schedule interviews and provide standardized feedback so you can hire candidates as a team.
Communicate with applicants more easily using email notifications and text messaging.
Hire the most qualified candidates, who are also a good culture fit, faster and with less resource expenditure.
Want to check out the platform for yourself and see firsthand how it can streamline your hiring process? Jump in by starting your free trial today.
Finding and bringing on top talent can feel like a full-time job, especially in a competitive labor market. But one thing that can help your organization stand out from others in your industry is establishing a unique selling proposition. Explore the meaning of a unique selling proposition and its purpose, especially in the recruiting process.
What is a USP? Unique Selling Proposition Definition and Purpose
A unique selling proposition (USP) is a concept that communicates and identifies the compelling benefits of a specific organization or brand. Its purpose is to set the company apart from competitors, particularly in the minds of consumers. But beyond the selling advantage that a strong USP can provide, crafting one can also play a role in recruiting efforts.
An organization’s USP should include the following components:
The unique benefit offered by the brand, including what makes its products or services different from others.
Relevant messaging that speaks to the target audience members, addressing their specific wants and needs and explaining why the brand matters.
Differentiation that helps the brand stand out from competitors, emphasizing why consumers should choose its products or services.
Language that makes it memorable, easy to remember, and simple to understand.
Support for any claims made, such as social proof or evidence, to strengthen brand trust and credibility among those who read it.
Incorporating your USP in a consistent manner can reinforce the unique positioning and get the word out about what you’re trying to achieve.
USP vs. EVP: Differences and Why You Need Both in Recruiting
We recently covered the importance of an employer value proposition (EVP) on our blog, going into detail about its importance in the recruiting process. But you may be wondering, how do the two differ?
Ultimately, an EVP outlines what you offer as an employer, while the USP defines what the company provides to its customers. But the two go hand-in-hand in modern recruiting efforts, as over 80 percent of employees are looking for jobs that align with their personal values. Jobseekers may look at what you claim to offer as the employer, as well as your statement around what the organization offers to its target audience.
The Benefits of a Solid USP for Business and Recruiting
Review some of the benefits of a solid USP in your business and recruiting efforts.
A clear USP supports your brand mission and values
Part of establishing your company culture is creating the brand mission and values. Your unique selling proposition should support these aspects of the brand and its efforts to make a difference in the industry in which it operates. Your USP can also serve as a vital aspect of the brand identity and foster long-term loyalty when paired with strong values and a mission that appeals to the target audience.
A defined USP makes it easy for employees to talk about your solutions
Your employees should feel confident when facing questions about what sets your organization and its products or services apart from others in the industry. But without a clearly defined USP, existing team members and potential new hires may not know the answers to even the most frequently asked questions. When crafting a USP, consider how it can clearly define what sets your brand apart for someone who may not be familiar with the industry.
A meaningful USP can resonate with prospects who support your cause
Emphasizing the reason behind what your organization does can resonate with those who support the cause. This is also true of those who may be seeking employment with a business that aligns with their personal views.
The Parts of a Selling Proposition
As you consider how to craft a unique selling proposition that captures what sets your business apart, think about how the following four parts fit.
What it is
First up: What is your unique selling proposition? What makes your brand different from others in the space, and how do your products or services differ or add value? You need to clearly state what the proposition is when defining it.
Who it’s for
The next aspect to consider is who you’re speaking to when repeating or sharing your USP. Figuring this part out might require some research on the target audience, or who your products/services are geared toward in the market. As you identify members of the target audience, you can determine how to speak to them in a way that resonates while clearly defining what to expect.
What it solves
A USP should also identify the problems solved by the business and its offerings. For example, if your company offers housecleaning services, the USP might describe the struggles with maintaining a clean home and how your team members can make it easier to achieve that goal.
The unique point: How is it different from others?
Of course, any business can describe what it does and the problems it solves, but that doesn’t necessarily help it to stand out. The key aspect of your USP is the unique aspect, or what sets it apart from others offering similar products or services. Consider what makes your offering different and craft a statement that clearly defines the value proposition.
How to Develop (and Improve) Your Unique Selling Proposition
With a better grasp on what a USP looks like and how it fits with your employee value proposition, you can follow these steps to ensure a well-crafted statement.
Define target market: As mentioned, the first step is defining who fits into your target market. You might consider creating personas to assign characteristics to different members of the ideal audience, as well as look at what these individuals are usually searching for to solve their concerns.
Identify what makes your product/service unique: You need to be able to clearly define what is unique about what your brand offers, whether that’s lower pricing, more personalized service, or something else. Without this aspect, your USP is simply a proposition around what you sell.
Position your USP to highlight benefits: When positioning your USP, consider how you can highlight the benefits of what you offer and how they serve the best interests of both the target consumer and those who work for the brand.
Make your USP clear and concise: Eliminate any unnecessary language to keep your USP as concise and easy to understand as possible.
Test and revise your USP: It’s always worthwhile to test any marketing strategies on members of your target audience, so try launching the USP in your ad campaigns, social profiles and other efforts to see how it resonates with those who see it.
Promote your USP: It’s also worth spending some time and money to promote the USP and make sure all members of the target audience are aware of and familiar with it. Additionally, you can promote it internally with existing employees and in recruiting efforts to ensure a consistent message.
How to Communicate Your USP
Utilizing multiple channels to communicate your USP will help generate more brand awareness and loyalty.
Advertising
No matter what advertising efforts your company uses, make sure the USP comes through consistently. Traditional media and brand marketing campaigns can always benefit from the addition of points that communicate the value and uniqueness of what the business offers. After all, the average person receives 121 emails per day, and a significant chunk of those are promotional in nature. You need to determine how to stand out if you want your efforts to get noticed.
Social media
As you engage with users through social media platforms, consider how your outreach efforts can incorporate and communicate your USP. By doing so, you can ensure that even passersby are familiar with what the brand stands for and why a consumer should choose you over others in the industry.
Content marketing
Content marketing is a valuable tool for communicating a brand’s USP because it allows marketers to go into more detail. You might create blog posts around specific pain points, tying in the selling proposition when identifying how your products or services solve those issues.
Digital marketing
Your company’s digital marketing efforts should also reflect the USP, including website taglines, ad copy and headlines, and even the design elements when possible.
Recruitment marketing
When recruiting, your company needs to clearly define what sets it apart in the market to encourage jobseekers to choose to work there. Incorporating both the employer value proposition and the USP can help you achieve this goal while helping potential applicants determine whether the company aims align with their desires for a workplace.
Examples of Effective USPs
Need some inspiration? Check out these effective unique selling propositions from well-known companies.
Coca-Cola: Refresh the world. Make a difference.
FedEx: When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
Nike: Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete.
The North Face: Shaping the future of human/nature.
Shopify: The platform commerce is built on.
Stripe: Payments infrastructure for the internet.
By making the effort to create and refine your brand’s USP, you can improve your positioning in the market while boosting recruitment efforts. Attracting top talent is a shared goal of recruiters and hiring managers, regardless of industry or company size, so any competitive advantage you can gain is certainly worth pursuing to build strong, successful teams.
When it’s time to bring on a new hire, it can be a challenge to know how to handle compensation. This is especially the case when you’re filling a brand-new position without an established salary range or looking to bring on someone who is more experienced than the individual they’re replacing. Our guide to handling salary discussions in the recruiting process can help you move forward with confidence.
When to Discuss Salary
The first question that often comes up in the hiring process is when to start discussing salary with a potential candidate. The consensus is generally to at least include a range in the job listing to avoid wasting everyone’s time. A potential applicant may not want to take the time to apply for a job if the salary isn’t close to what they expect to earn. Additionally, it wastes the hiring manager or recruiter’s time when reviewing applications and interviewing people who aren’t really interested because of the salary.
Still not convinced? In our recent webinar with Indeed, we discussed some interesting stats with participants. Approximately 12 percent of job postings include salary information (up from 8 percent in 2019), yet more than 60 percent of candidates say that pay is the most important aspect. Your listings can stand out in a sea of competitors when you include pay information, offering transparency that jobseekers will appreciate.
Of course, you don’t have to give an exact number right away. Providing a range or asking the candidate to provide an expected salary when applying helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
How to Discuss Salary
It can also be challenging to discuss salary requirements if you’re not familiar with the process or comfortable talking about numbers. Take some time to familiarize yourself with common salary negotiation tactics and average pay rates for similar positions. The more information you have, the better equipped you’ll be to have a discussion.
Steps to Manage Salary Requirements
Ready to get started? Follow these steps to better manage salary requirements and discussions in the hiring process.
Start with the listing
As mentioned, your salary consideration should start when you create the posting for the open position. Whether you’re replacing someone or creating a new role, do some research on salary ranges in the field and similar positions. You can get a lot of useful information on sites like Glassdoor and LinkedIn, helping to ensure that your range is competitive and will attract top candidates.
Establish a top-end figure
It’s also important to establish a number that represents the very highest you can go for a new hire. Most candidates will negotiate the initial offer, so creating a top-end figure helps to ensure you’re not going over your labor budget in the process.
Be open to discussion
If you’re unwilling to negotiate on salary, a potential hire may walk away as this can signify a lack of flexibility. Candidates may also perceive this action as a knock on what they would bring to the role, such as specific abilities or experience. Be open to discuss the salary and consider what else you can offer if the pay scale is rigid.
Understand where the candidate is coming from
When you’re considering a new job, is salary important to you? The answer is likely yes. So, you can understand where someone else is coming from when wanting to know what to expect in terms of pay.
Try to put yourself in your candidate’s shoes when discussing compensation. This individual is considering a significant change to their situation by taking on a new role and all that comes with such a shift. They also need to support themselves and any dependents they have, so salary is certainly a top consideration when deciding whether to make a professional change.
FAQ about Salary and Hiring
Explore some of the most commonly asked questions from employers around salary details in the hiring process.
Should you include a salary range in your job listings?
Yes, it’s generally recommended to include at least a range in your job listings. New legislation in various cities and states will also require the inclusion of salary data in postings. It’s worthwhile to get in the habit of including it when filling positions, even if your city or state doesn’t require it at this time.
What should you do if a candidate wants to negotiate salary?
When a candidate comes in ready to negotiate salary, the best thing you can do is be prepared. Arm yourself with information and data so you can back up the offered range. It’s also important to be open to discussion. If an applicant has unique skills or extensive experience that will be particularly useful in the role, they likely deserve to sit at the higher end of the range rather than the entry point.
What should you do if you can’t go higher on salary?
Budgets are essential to a successful business. Going way over your established labor budget to secure a top candidate probably doesn’t make sense, especially if you run a smaller company. But you do have options!
Consider other benefits you could offer. For example, you could offer additional paid time off or a more flexible work schedule as a way to sweeten the deal. Other considerations include waiving or shortening the standard waiting period for health benefits, increasing a retirement contribution match, or providing upgraded equipment for personal use.
By taking a careful yet transparent approach to compensation, you can improve your hiring process while attracting more candidates to apply for your open roles.
In this six-part series, we’ll explore some of the talent acquisition trends to expect in 2023. A shifting job market has changed the way people think about their careers and progression opportunities, putting more power in the hands of the employer. As you explore these trends, consider how you can adjust your company’s recruiting and hiring practices to adapt.
Part One: More Internal Movement
The job market has shifted dramatically recently, going from “hot, hot, hot” to “somewhat uncertain.” As a result, many workers are looking at different forms of career growth. Instead of seeking work with another company, many employees are moving upward internally. By ditching the corporate ladder and seeking to climb the company lattice instead, talented professionals have succeeded in achieving their career goals while maintaining a sense of stability.
Invest in Workforce Planning
What does this mean for you? Your hiring practices might need to shift, along with your internal training opportunities. Instead of hiring from outside, consider which current employees might be a good fit for an open position. Workforce planning needs to become part of your strategy, which involves identifying and addressing employment gaps. If growth is part of your business strategy, workforce planning is a critical step in that goal.
Offer Training Opportunities
A company can also make a big difference in the lives of its workers by investing in talent development. Developing the skills and abilities of every member of your workforce is a must, and it requires careful planning for proper execution. Provide regular training and options to gain certifications in relevant topics. Ensure that your internal staff members have the chance to re-skill or upskill and use their new or improved skills to seek internal advancement.
Nurture Top Employees
Of course, nurturing your workforce is an essential aspect of building and maintaining a strong company culture. But you can keep a short list of promising employees, offering tailored career development opportunities and customized career paths based on their skills and expertise. Investing in your employees is a win-win: Your workforce is happier and more engaged while your talent acquisition efforts improve. It’s also easier to fill skill gaps and open positions when hiring stalls out or you struggle to find an external candidate who checks all the boxes.
Internal movement is sticking around for the foreseeable future, so it’s worthwhile to consider how your company can promote and support its current employees.
Next up, we’ll cover the expansion of contract work as another 2023 hiring trend.
COVID I-9 Compliance Flexibility Extended to July 31, 2023
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) extended the verification flexibility related to Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, due to continued precautions related to COVID-19. This temporary rule was set to expire October 31, 2022.
The temporary rule was first announced in March 2020 and has been extended several times since then as the pandemic has continued to impact workplaces. The temporary rule affects employees hired on or after April 1, 2021 who work exclusively in a remote setting due to COVID-19 related precautions. In such cases, the employer is temporarily exempt from I-9 physical inspection rules until the employee undertakes non-remote employment on a regular, consistent, or predictable basis, or the extension of the flexibilities related to such requirements is terminated, whichever is earlier. (ICE)
Which I-9 form should I use right now?
Until further notice, employers should keep using the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, though it was originally due to expire October 31, 2022. DHS will publish a Federal Register notice when the new version of the Form I-9 becomes available.
How can I verify employment eligibility remotely?
Remote verification options include: video link (Zoom, Teams), FaceTime, fax or email.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, USCIS has allowed employers to remotely review — by Zoom, video chat, FaceTime, fax, or other electronic means — the identity and work-authorization documents that are necessary for workers’ Forms I-9, during the hiring and re-verification process. Fisher Phillips
Can I do I-9 verification through ApplicantStack?
Yes! ApplicantStack integrates with Verified First, a full-service background check provider. Verified First provides all background check services including I-9 verification through Tracker-I-9.
Every U.S. employer must properly complete a Form I-9 for each new hire working in the United States prior to finalizing the onboarding process. This form is an important part of adding a new employee to your team, and it isn’t always straightforward. Simple inconsistencies or even neglecting to enter “N/A” where required can have big consequences. Paperwork or technical violations can potentially cost your business anywhere between $234 to $2,332 per employee. Verified First
Employers Must Document Their Onboarding Process
Employers who take advantage of the remote verification rule must provide documentation of their onboarding process and remote work policy. If you haven’t created a formal onboarding process, learn how here: The Onboarding Process – Steps and Checklist. The onboarding process should also be included in the employee handbook. For a complete guide to creating and updating your employee handbook (including a template with a sample remote work policy) see How to Write and Update Your Employee Handbook + Template.
