Elevate your employer branding to attract the best techies

Do you position yourself as a desirable place to work? If you don't take any steps to do this, or are a hidden gem of a company, you should take steps to build your employer brand.

You should position your company to attract the people you want to come and work for you. It is what makes you stand out and makes you different as an employer. The most successful examples of employer branding create alignment between the company’s values and their desired candidates’ values.

Why does it matter?

Employer branding matters because skilled candidates take notice of it:

• 75% of candidates will take time to research an employer’s reputation before they apply
• 92% of people would consider switching jobs if they were offered a role with an employer with an excellent reputation On the other hand, successful businesses recognise the value of employer branding:
• 72% of worldwide recruitment leaders believe that employer branding makes a significant difference to hiring
• Companies with powerful employment branding see 50% more qualified candidates, making hires up to twice as quickly Employer branding is essential if you are trying to hire the best people in today’s market. Let’s look at why? Employer branding helps you attract candidates

When you invest time and resources into building your employer brand, you are more likely to attract people who want to work at your organisation. This is because you make it clearer to people what it is like to work at your company, whether they are looking for a job or not.

You sow a seed in people’s minds that yours is an excellent company to work for, where they treat staff well and with respect, where good work is valued. This means when you have vacancies available, you won’t just attract people actively looking for jobs, you will attract passive candidates who specifically want to work for you. These passive candidates are more likely to be the cream of the industry.

Plus, as we saw in the previous section, most people check out an employer’s reputation before applying. So, if you don’t have any employer branding, you won’t get as many applications, and the ones you do get will be from people who aren’t fussy. Do you really want that type of person in your organisation?

Employer branding saves you money

Employer branding provides a significant return on investment. What you spend, you get back in savings, and more besides.

Employer branding lowers your cost per hire figure. When you provide an excellent environment for your staff, you turn your team members into ambassadors for your employer brand. They tell people about how great it is to work for your company. When there are vacancies available, they refer their friends. Recruiting through referrals is much cheaper than sourcing candidates through advertising.

It can also give you the ability to hire talented developers faster. When a job becomes available, you have a larger talent pool to choose from, including passive candidates. You won’t have to wait weeks for the right person to appear, through advertising or recruitment companies. You can hire quickly and get on with growing. Finally, today’s workforce place things like flexible working, progression and company values higher on their priority list than salary. If you can provide these things, it means you may not have to pay over the odds for talented developers. Your employer branding can reduce your payroll budget. It also affects your existing employees!

When you create a productive, happy working environment for your staff, they are less likely to look around for other opportunities. This reduces staff churn, meaning you don’t have to dip into the job market quite as often.

You also get to have a loyal, committed workforce, which leads to a better performing company. Ideas to build your branding If you want to boost your employer branding to reap the rewards, here are some ideas:

• Create the ideal working environment for your staff – talk to your team to see how you could improve their working lives. Then, act on what they tell you. If that means implementing flexible working schemes, refurbishing your office or anything else, it’s worth considering. Turn them into the ambassadors for your employer brand that you need.
• Once you’ve got a happy, productive workforce, shout about it! Create a section on your company website around what it’s like to work there. Get your employees to write blogs or make videos that show off how great it is to be on your team.
• When you hire, make sure you think about diversity, whether that’s in race, gender, background or anything else. When evaluating whether your company is an excellent place to work, talented people want to see people who look and sound like they do. You can try so many different ideas when raising your employer brand, but most of the answers will lie with your staff. Make sure you use this valuable resource. Find out more from Haystack

Let Haystack help you build your employer brand. Haystack lets you show potential hires the things they really want to know about your company – tech stack, engineering practices, culture, perks and more. Our AI-powered matching algorithm links you to the right people, where you can chat and converse further. Haystack offers businesses a proactive solution that:

• Expands talent reach
• Builds future talent pools
• Saves time and resources Haystack offers an affordable, proactive, long-term solution – something that external recruitment agencies can’t provide right now. The companies we work with get exposure that expands their reach and brings a talent pool of engaged techies.

To find out more, get in touch today.