Your employer brand is essential to attracting the right candidates to your workplace. It’s no secret that today’s workforce is as interested in the culture, mission, and values of the company they work for as they are in how much they get paid or what benefits are offered. Today’s talent will turn down your offer if your company’s culture and values don’t align with their own and may decide you aren’t a fit just by looking at your digital presence. We don’t have to tell you, first impressions matter.
How do you know if your employer brand needs a refresh? We’ve assembled 10 tell-tale signs that candidates are making decisions on.
10 Warning Signs Your Employer Brand isn’t Aligned
- Your social impact is plummeting. I hope you’re tracking your social media analytics because they can provide a wealth of information. If content engagement or “shares,” “likes,” and “follows” are dipping or staying flat or you find yourself reusing the same content over and over again to try and attract talent, you need to elevate your social game. We work with many organizations to develop a custom social media calendar that incorporates fresh, relevant content, often with unique employee photography, targeted specifically to your talent demographic. It needs to speak directly to those elusive profiles you are trying to attract, with the right message, on the right channel. Change things up, add new, fresh stories, and make an effort to connect and engage with your current employees on social media.
- Your employees are leaving damaging reviews online. What are your employees saying about your company? Check reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed to see how things stand. If you’ve had a dip in overall ratings or your score has dropped or remained flat, that is often an indication of a deeper employer brand issue. We help organizations track the strength of their Employer Brand Score on a unique dashboard so you can monitor any changes and address issues early, before they become catastrophic.
- Your career site is dated. Does your career site get the attention it needs? If it’s more than 3 years old or filled with pictures of employees who no longer work there, and doesn’t clearly represent your employee value proposition, it’s outdated and needs a refresh. For example, if one of your key EVP pillars is related to innovation and your website doesn’t work well on mobile, or doesn’t look innovative, that’s a problem.
- Job applications are being abandoned. If you notice a steep drop-off in job applications or high abandonment rates mid-process, you are likely frustrating prospective candidates with a long, confusing or antiquated process and candidates may associate this with what it’s like to work at your organization. This can also be an indicator that they don’t value the opportunity to work with your organization enough to continue or that the language you’ve used was too full of legalese or didn’t connect with the candidate. Whatever the reason, this can be avoided by making the application process as easy and friendly as possible.
- Employees and Managers Don’t Know What the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is. Do existing employees even understand your employer brand and know how to describe it? If not, how can they promote it outside the company? Effective internal communications strategies should integrate your Employee Value Proposition (EVP), so the entire organization can understand, live, and communicate the EVP to potential candidates. Blu Ivy’s Employer Branding Dashboard can be used to track and enhance your EVP.
- High and Early Turnover. If new hires are consistently leaving within their first 6 months, this indicates that your employer brand and how it has been communicated throughout your career site, social media, interviews and onboarding process doesn’t match your actual culture. If this sounds familiar, you’ll need to examine the inconsistencies and we recommend taking another look at your EVP and conduct employer branding research to find out what your actual EVPs are and what strategies you can implement to align the organization with them.
- Rejected Offers. Ideally, most of your employment offers should be accepted. If you are experiencing rejections more than 30% of the time, you need to find out why that is the case. It’s possible that candidates don’t understand the EVP. When that happens, you’ll find yourself battling solely on compensation and benefits because you haven’t emotionally connected with the candidate on the real employee value proposition. Make sure you are aligned on employer brand experience and provide stories to create that emotional connection and desire to work for your company.
- Recent PR Problems. If you have had significant PR issues in the past 12-24 months, there is a strong likelihood that your employer brand reputation and positive perception of the company has declined. If this has happened, it is vital to refresh, relaunch, and get the new story out.
- Your NPS Score is Low. Are your employees willing to refer a friend to work at your company? Just as referrals are the best source for gaining new customers, they are also one of the best sources for gaining new employees. The more employees that believe in your EVP, the more brand ambassadors you naturally build. Ensure you are tracking your NPS score regularly as an employer to help gauge how likely employees are to recommend your business as a place to work and also indicate how satisfied current employees are with the organization. Aim for a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 50% or more.
- You Don’t Stand Out. Just as it’s important to stand out from competitors to attract customers, it’s important to differentiate yourself as an employer too. If your employment brand looks and sounds similar to your competitors, why should a candidate choose you over them? Your interview teams must know what differentiates you from the competition and be able to express that to candidates. If they can’t, you need an employer brand refresh.
Need an Employer Brand Refresh? Contact Blu Ivy
Does your employer brand exhibit any of the warning signs listed above?
If so, Contact Blu Ivy to discuss ways in which we can help you improve and align your employer brand so you can attract and retain top talent!
Call Blu Ivy at 647-308-2352 to get started!