Employer branding, are you doing it right?

A still from our latest Employer Branding campaign for Pierret.

Aaaah, employer branding - has there ever been a buzzword so… buzzy? Everybody’s either doing it, wanting to do it or talking about doing it. And yet, there’s so few companies who are actually doing it right. Which begs me to ask you the question: are you doing it right? Because, truth be told, you could probably use a few pointers to up your employer branding game!

Before we begin, let’s define what employer branding actually is - the term ‘branding’ is in there for a reason. It’s the impression you leave behind with anyone coming into contact with your company, and we all want that impression to be top-tier.

It’s the face your company shows to the outside world as a potential employer. But the scale of its impact is much larger than employment, as your employer brand also reflects on what your customers, partners & your best performing sales manager’s mom thinks of you. It humanizes your brand and increases the authenticity of your communication, which only benefits your product or service in the end.

I believe there’s three important elements to a successful employer brand:

• Authentic: make it feel human, personal and true to your brand and company.
• Original: be perceived as unique, have its own look and feel, stand out and fit your branding. According to a survey by Jobvite, 77% of job seekers said that they skip over jobs with boring descriptions.
• Realistic: your employer brand can be inspiring and aspirational, but not clash with the reality of things. According to a study by Deloitte, only 27% of employees believe that their company's employer branding accurately reflects the reality of working there. Auwtch.

And - no surprises here - video is one of the best ways to show off your employer brand. It helps you to create the right impression during any phase of the employee journey. Those three elements mentioned earlier? Video helps you to effortlessly bring these to life.

On top of that, it creates the opportunity to do so in a visual format that allows you to push forward more information than any other form of media can or ever could. It helps you to create the right impression: one that’s attractive, captivating and qualitative.

It’s a common misconception that employer branding only serves your brand during the job search phase. Alas, that’s not the case! Let us introduce you to the employee journey. Much like the customer journey any decent marketing department has drawn up, you’ll have an overview of the steps a prospect might take during the process.

It’s an important part of your employer branding strategy - as each step is a content creation opportunity. Starting from the candidate trajectory until the employee trajectory, and even after that, there’s multiple touch points on which your employee can be engaged.

We will go over some formats that accommodate this Employee Journey. Most of them will be applicable throughout multiple steps in the employee journey.

Employee Value Proposition

A well thought out employee value proposition (EVP) is essential for a successful employer brand. As an employer, you showcase your added value and what you have to offer your employees. It’s not only about salary or benefits, but also career prospects, the working environment, and - last but definitely not least - the culture and values of your organization. Among millennials and Gen Z’ers, the latter is becoming increasingly important. In other words: you better make sure to dedicate enough resources towards EVP.

In this example from Mollie, you quickly notice people are driven by the impact they have as a person within the company. The fast cut B-roll in the beginning creates an authentic feeling, while the studio setting gives it a uniform on-brand look and feel.

Company Explainer

A company explainer - what’s in a name - explains what your company is all about. Since it’s not directly tied to the Employee Journey, there’s a lot of ways you can fill out this kind of content. It can be a simple explainer, but you can also go for a brand manifesto or even share your bigger vision and mission with the world. Be inspired by these examples!

Tony’s Chocolonely created a true statement video with bold text, beautiful shots and great animation - all perfectly mixed together. It perfectly fits their tone of voice, which is very recognisable. In my humble opinion, this should be an inspiration for any brand.

Bold graphic design and animation is a great way to communicate your values and mission with a bang. So, that’s exactly what we did for CBTW. Take a look for yourself how the unique, on-brand visuals perfectly catch the vibe of the voice-over.

Pre-onboarding

An often overlooked opportunity is pre-onboarding content. What a shame! Great pre-onboarding content generates more loyal employees in the long term and it's a good opportunity to encourage authentic user generated content (UGC).

Why, you might ask? Well, it provides a sense of transparency and investment in the employee's success - even before they start their job. This creates a positive impression of the company and makes the employee feel valued! Next to that, someone's who's excited to start this new job, might be very willing to share something about their first day(s) on social media. If you hand them the right content, chances are they will be even more inclined to do so. Make use of this opportunity!

This example from Tribe showcases that it doesn’t always have to be high-value, perfectly orchestrated video - this budget friendly, DIY video works fine too. Don’t mistake a lower budget for low effort though. Or you might be in for a big disappointment ;)

So yes, employer branding is pretty crucial if you want to attract and retain the best talent on the market and people who want to stick around for a while. It all boils down to managing the three key elements - authenticity, originality and being realistic - and making sure they’re reflected in every piece of content you put out into the world, whether you choose to do so through video or not. By mapping out your brand’s personal Employee Journey, and catering your content to the specific stages your employees go through, your employer branding strategy will prove to be a success!

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