You should definitely be familiar with these employer branding strategies

In order to find the best talent in a competitive environment, the demands on employers have risen sharply in recent years. From employee benefits and meaningful social media presences to targeted events and advertising campaigns, a lot of creativity is required from companies. Our guest author Marcus Merheim therefore explains everything you need to know about employer branding strategies and shows you helpful tools for working on your employer brand. Suitable best practices are also presented and categorized.

What is employer branding?

Employer branding encompasses all measures that serve to position a company as an employer and create a positive employer brand with high appeal. The aim of employer branding measures is to attract employees and (even stronger) long-term loyalty to the company. Employer branding and the associated promise determine which employer people choose over other employers for their dream job. Just as product marketing helps decide which product we choose when we reach for the supermarket shelf, employer branding fulfills exactly the same function when choosing an employer.

The design of an authentic, positive and, above all, trustworthy employer brand therefore also determines which company wins the competition for the best talent, which is becoming increasingly intense. Employer branding always pursues long-term goals and is part of a company's strategic orientation. And so employer branding only works with long-term goals.

The very different target groups that companies need to attract and recruit pose a particular challenge. From pupils and students to career starters, experienced professionals and CEOs, all of these target groups not only have different needs, but also use fundamentally different approaches when searching for employers.

Due to the complexity and the desire to pursue employer branding with a long-term perspective, a carefully considered employer branding strategy is required. In addition to the corporate strategy, this is also derived from the development of the employer brand core. The term employer value proposition, or EVP for short, can also be found here. This describes the core of the value proposition as an employer.

In order to develop targeted measures from the employer branding strategy, companies should be able to answer the following questions for themselves:

• What makes us special as an employer? What makes us special?
• How do we differ from other employers?
• What benefits can we offer our employees?
• Who exactly are our target groups? What needs do we have to meet? And where will the journey take us in one, three or even five years?
• What appeals to our target groups? Images, videos, longer content articles or snack content?
• What interests or hobbies do our target groups have?
• Where do we reach these target groups? LinkedIn and XING or rather Instagram and TikTok?
• Do we address our target groups on a first-name or first-name basis?
• What values do we want to convey as a company?
• What is our current status with regard to our employer brand and what do we want to achieve with our employer branding measures?
• What budget is available to us?

This list alone gives an impression of the many questions that companies face. However, the good news is that these questions can be answered in a structured and, above all, manageable way. It is important to follow a clear process.

In addition to the employer branding strategy, every company should also have a targeted recruiting strategy. At OMR Reviews, we show you how you can find the right applicants with a recruiting strategy. The employer brand is a promise to all employees - whether future or current. And as is the case with promises: if it is broken, the relationship of trust between employer and employee can be permanently damaged.

Such a breach can lead to dissatisfaction, frustration and disloyalty. And dissatisfied employees tend to be more inclined to look for a new employer. And the loss of staff poses a real threat to the company's success, especially in times of increasing shortages of specialists and workers.

What does employer branding involve?

The number of possible employer branding measures is large. In principle, it includes everything that makes the company appear attractive to employees and clearly highlights its advantages and special features compared to other employers.

This process begins with the initial contact between talent and employer (e.g. via a job advertisement) and does not necessarily end when an employee leaves the company. Between these two extreme points of contact are a whole series of employer branding measures, which can look different depending on the company, but can roughly include the following topics:

• Candidate journey / application process: the candidate journey from initial contact to signing the contract. In order to ensure that the candidate journey is as smooth as possible and not to lose track of the application process, companies rely on applicant management software.
• Candidate experience: The experiences and impressions that candidates have on their journey. This goes hand in hand with the employee experience, which tends to refer to the entire duration of the employment relationship.
• Onboarding: The process from the beginning of the employment relationship.
• Retention / employee satisfaction: Everything that happens during the employment relationship and (hopefully) leads to long-term retention and low turnover rates thanks to employee satisfaction.
• Offboarding: Professional behavior of the employer in the phase after termination and, in the best case, beyond, in order to win over former employees both as active positive ambassadors (keyword word of mouth) and as employees for a possible comeback.

As a rule, tasks such as personnel administration, recruiting and payroll accounting are handled by the HR department, which is set up according to the size of the company. In smaller companies, it is even advisable for certain tasks to be carried out by the marketing department. And with all employer branding measures, it is immensely important for the company to effectively monitor success using appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs). This is the only way for employers to verify whether their measures are successful or whether readjustment may be necessary. You can find out which recruiting KPIs may be relevant for you here.

What is the difference between internal and external employer branding?

Sustainable employer branding is made up of two parts that influence each other and overlap in practice. Internal employer branding focuses on the existing workforce. It ensures happy and satisfied employees who feel a long-term sense of belonging to the company. The resulting employee satisfaction also has an indirect impact on external employer branding. Because people usually trust other people, satisfied employees are always valuable ambassadors for the employer brand. They tell family and friends when they are happy with their job. This word of mouth spreads and increases the likelihood that other people will also start looking at a new employer.

External employer branding, on the other hand, focuses on people who have heard little or nothing about a potentially suitable employer - in other words, the talented people who are at stake in the war for talent. External employer branding ensures that these people become aware of the employer and provides them with all the important information about the corporate culture and employer brand essence. It is their task to convince potential future employees of the promise of the employer brand so that they will ultimately actually apply.

What employer branding strategies are there?

Both internal and external strategies can also be divided into online and offline employer branding measures.

Internal employer branding strategies include, for example

• Working atmosphere
• Accessibility
• Benefits for employees (pension scheme, healthcare, offers for families from daycare to nursing care, company car or job ticket)
• Diversity management
• Flat hierarchies
• Flexible working arrangements in terms of location and time / work-life balance
• Intranet solutions with all information for employees, possibly self-service
• Employee recruitment program
• Employee magazine
• Modern, ergonomic workstations & wellbeing concepts
• Retreat options
• Remuneration
• (Virtual) rooms and groups for non-work-related exchanges between employees
• Further training opportunities
• Further training opportunities & career prospects

The following measures have proven to be effective for external employer branding:

• Employer rating portals
• Content marketing via (corporate) blog and social media
• Image and information brochures in print and PDF format
• Image ads and image videos
• Information events in schools and universities
• Job fairs, events, open days
• Career website, according to the latest technical standards
• Employees as ambassadors / testimonials
• newsletters
• Social media (Instagram, Facebook, XING, LinkedIn ...)
• Job advertisements
• TV, radio or cinema advertising
• YouTube or virtual reality campaigns

Some of the strategies mentioned can be used for both internal and external employer branding measures. In principle, there are no limits to creativity, neither for internal nor external strategies. Experience has shown that being bold, going your own and above all new ways and knowing your own recruiting target groups lead to the best ideas.

Which tools support employer branding strategies?

The complexity of employer branding has increased enormously over the last ten years. It is slowly becoming a mammoth task to reconcile all target groups, from Baby Boomers to Gen Y and Gen Z through to Generation Alpha. Just looking at the change in digital user behavior with regard to the apps used gives an idea of how much dynamism there is in the current communication channels.

The following illustration from App Annie, a leading provider of data and analyses relating to mobile communications, apps and app stores, is emblematic of the challenges that companies face in the area of social media:

Source: App Annie 2021

The constantly changing trends in social media marketing make it difficult to always choose the right advertising channel for the various target groups. Not to mention the constant changes and developments within the respective platforms. While the figure only focuses on the downloads of the respective apps, it says nothing about how long users spend within the app. In terms of usage time, for example, Facebook was replaced by YouTube in 2018, which has been in first place ever since.

The figure also shows that there are countless tools in various categories in the HR software sector. There is no general answer to the question of which tools are suitable for employer branding measures. The strategies should always be as individual as the recruiting target groups of each company. The employer branding strategy - and therefore ultimately the target groups to be targeted - decide which measures are really the right ones. This determines whether Facebook and Instagram are more suitable than TikTok or Snapchat. And the answer to the question of whether XING is better suited as a business platform than LinkedIn ultimately also depends on strategic questions with regard to the target group required.

In most cases, the motto "trial and error makes perfect" applies. Although it may be time-consuming to use several platforms for similar target groups, it can be very worthwhile in terms of employer branding. In some cases, produced content can also be used on two or three platforms. It therefore makes sense to plan such synergy effects before production.

To ensure that employer branding strategies are effective not only in terms of their mechanics, but also in terms of their orchestration, a communication concept and a detailed editorial plan are highly recommended. Although this can also be created using Excel, there are fortunately a whole range of tools that are easier to use. Especially for editorial plans that are used in teams, it is worth taking a look at the Kanban tool Trello. And depending on your objectives and budget, the editorial calendar from Asana or social media suites such as Hootsuite or Falcon.io come into question.

But even the best editorial plan is useless if basics such as the careers page are not attractively designed. Here too, there are software providers that make life easier. When setting up your own careers page, tools such as Personio or HeavenHR can be helpful. A good overview of software & tools in general can also be found here at OMR Reviews!

Examples of employer branding strategies

There have been numerous great employer branding campaigns in recent years. It would go beyond the scope of this article to mention all of them, which have not only won prizes but are at least worthy of awards. However, we don't want to withhold a few particularly successful employer branding strategies from you.

Bundeswehr: Employer branding with YouTube

We'll start with the Bundeswehr's YouTube channel. In addition to the Bundeswehr's successful employer magazine, the YouTube channel is a prime example of successful employer branding. Since 2016, the Bundeswehr has published a large number of employer branding videos that follow the troops up close. Well-made and, above all, very authentic videos for various interested target groups. The focus is on recruits.

Below are a few ways to access the various seasons of the countless, professionally produced episodes:

• The recruits
• The recruits
• Deployment in Mali
• The jumpers

Telekom: Employer branding with cinema advertising and TikTok

The employer branding campaign "Telekom Jobwelten" 2011 was simply stunning in the movies. But despite its age, the campaign has lost none of its charm on YouTube. So much emotion in 1:29 minutes still makes you want to apply immediately. You simply have to see it.

Deutsche Telekom's TikTok channel is similarly emotional and at least as diverse. Among others, employees, interns and dual students report on their day-to-day work at Deutsche Telekom. There are also tips on how to optimize your CV, how to apply to Deutsche Telekom or how the application process works. In between, there are always advertisements for tariffs or Deutsche Telekom's fiber optic expansion. Sometimes they simply celebrate the one-year anniversary of TikTok. The videos are short and entertaining and are likely to hit the desired target groups pretty accurately. Deutsche Telekom is also an absolute best practice case with this employer branding strategy: https://www.tiktok.com/@deutschetelekom.