How to Use Your Brand to Attract and Retain Top Talent

The battle for talent is fierce in our current market. Unemployment is at record lows, and companies have to fight tooth and nail to attract and retain great people. One of the best tools you have for effective recruiting is your employer brand. It is crucial for recruiting success that you are able to leverage your brand to attract the best and the brightest.

“Your brand comes through each of your employees. Manage it better and collaborate. LinkedIn allows each employee to brand themselves. Employers should encourage individual branding because your clients buy you because of them. Encourage the company brand to be prioritized with your employees, at the end of the day, LinkedIn is their account and your employees need to want to stay with you – they are getting contacted daily and your brand is attached to them!” says Sharon Tsao, CMO of Contemporary Staffing Solutions.

Why Branding Matters

Employer branding is the perception that people have of working for your company. Amazon’s employer brand is highly competitive and cutthroat. Google’s employer brand is a culture of innovation. Zappos employer brand is a supportive and fun place to work. The way people think about what it would be like to work for you impacts whether they’d even want to apply. It is critical that you project an employer brand that attracts the type of people you truly want to work for your organization.

Know Your Value Proposition

Your value proposition is the keystone of your brand. You must understand the values and benefits you offer your employees that make you stand out as a great place to work. Don’t pick a value proposition haphazardly. To uncover your true value, it pays to survey your happiest employees to see why they have stayed loyal and why they feel so satisfied. If you can identify clear patterns of what you’re doing well, you can uncover your unique value proposition.

Market Your Employer Brand

Just as the company markets its overall brand, you must market your employer brand. Candidates will use social media and internet platforms to get an idea of what it’s like to work for you before they apply. If you aren’t showcasing the fun that your team has, the unique projects they are working on, or promoting your value proposition, you can’t hope to attract top talent.

Provide A Candidate Experience That Reflects Your Brand

You can spend a lot of time marketing your brand on social media, but if a candidate’s experience doesn’t match their perception, they will not be interested in working for you. Furthermore, they will hop online onto sites like Glassdoor and Indeed and tell the world just how poor their experience was.

“Measuring satisfaction should be a priority – net promoters are traditionally 3 to 5 simple questions that allows you to truly know how your employees and clients perceive you. I suggest you drive this as a priority that is actionable and measurable!” says Marybel DiScala, Digital Marketing Leader at Contemporary Staffing Solutions.

The experience a candidate has during hiring gives them a glimpse of what it will be like to work for you. If you say you value your employees, you thrive on open communication and feedback, and you invest in employee development, it sends a candidate the exact opposite message if you don’t respond to them in a timely fashion, if you have to reschedule their interviews at the last minute, or if they don’t actually see employees who look like they enjoy working for you.

If you are looking for new ways to attract the best and the brightest, or if you are looking for HR professionals who know how to leverage branding for recruiting, reach out to the HR recruiting experts at Contemporary Staffing Solutions today.

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Contemporary Staffing connects job seekers to hiring managers nationally in the following professions: Accounting & Finance, Call Center & Office, Human Resources, IT, Salesforce, and Sales & Marketing.