Hear Jason Ferrara explore the various components and areas your business should focus on in order to build an effective employment brand in part two of the Employment Branding Podcast Series.

According to Mark Shevitz, Brand Strategist, Movéo Integrated Branding, working to shape your employment brand is critical to attracting and retaining your ideal employees.

He goes on to give the following reasons for taking an active role in shaping your company’s employment brand:

1. Enhance revenues, profits, and customer satisfaction

Building your employment brand has an impact that reaches far beyond recruitment and retention. Studies have shown correlations between a strong employment brand and: * Increased revenues and profit margins * Higher levels of customer satisfaction * A more consistent customer brand experience These benefits are tied in some way to having the “right fit” employees at your company and having employees who are committed to the success of your business. Developing an effective employment brand has a direct effect on these factors.

2. Stand out from your competition

A strong employment brand positions you as an “employer of choice” by highlighting how you address the needs of prospective hires better than your competition. Time and again, studies show that salary is not the most important factor when people are deciding where to work. Instead, they are looking for which workplace offers the best “value” – the group of benefits that address their specific needs.

Being perceived as having a better employer value is supported by the prospective employee’s educated perception of what you offer. A fully understood and well-articulated employ- ment brand keeps the focus on overall value, not just salary. In the talent acquisition arena, winning margins are often small. The winners are usually those who are perceived by their targets as delivering the best sustained value.

3. Get more out of your HR budgets

A properly developed employment brand will include messaging that convincingly communicates the benefits and value that you offer to prospective hires. Developing your HR and talent acquisition collateral and tactics around your employment brand and its related messages allows you to focus your resources and communicate more effectively. This will aid in getting more out of every HR dollar you spend on recruitment and retention.

A strong employment brand also enhances employee retention, reducing the need to recruit to ill vacated positions and allowing you to stretch your HR budgets further.

4. Deliver on promises made to employees

Your employment brand faces both outward (to prospective hires) and inward (to your current employees). A well-defined employment brand aligns employee and management expectations so that promises made during the hiring process are delivered. This continuity is critical to retaining your employees and fostering a more productive work environment. Dis- connects between expectations set before accepting a job and the actual employment experience can have a significant effect on employee morale and retention rates.

5. Help your employees “live the brand”

Good employment brands complement, le- verage and are aligned with the power of their companies’ corporate brands. In many ways, your employment brand is the employee manifestation of your company brand. It helps set expectations for how employees should represent your company and how customers should be treated. A strong employment brand helps employees commit to your business and its mission by clearly laying out the value they receive from their place of work.