5 Reasons why you should care about your Employer Brand in NI

Written by Noel Clerkin, Co-Founder at Wiser Working.

All organisations have an employer brand, whether they have consciously crafted one or not.

The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) defines an employer brand as: “the way, in which organisations differentiate themselves in the labour market, enabling them to recruit, retain and engage the right people.

"A strong employer brand helps businesses compete for the best talent and establish credibility. It should connect with an organisation’s values and must run consistently through its approach to people management.”

Why should you care about this?

1. The best candidates are selective and carefully research their options. According to a 2019 Randstad survey, 85% of candidates in the UK will check their future employers’ reputation online. Websites like Glassdoor are increasingly being used to benchmark reputations – and reviews can make or break them. If you want to hire good people, you need to assume that they will do their homework.
   
   
2. Local industries are fishing in a limited talent pool – you need to stand out. Northern Irish organisations are suffering from skills shortages and can struggle to retain good local talent. If you truly want to stand out to the best candidates, you need to be better than your competition when it comes to promoting your employer brand.
   
   
3. Having a poor reputation as an employer can be costly. A poor or underwhelming employer brand can cost, both in terms of time and money. One US study (2016) by Harvard Business Review showed that those organisations with poor employer brands will spend the equivalent £4,500 extra to convince a candidate to come on board. They are also more likely to have higher staff turnover and need to recruit more frequently. It is easy to see how this can start to get expensive.
   
   
4. When you have a strong employer brand, you will hire more quickly. A strong, well-defined employer brand will make your organisation a magnet for talent. This means you will fill vacancies more quickly. An extreme example of this is Google. Its impressive employer brand means it receives 3 million applications for 7,000 vacancies annually, meaning that it is more difficult to get hired by Google than it is to get into Harvard!

5. Improving your employer brand is good for your current employees. Working on your employer brand will also mean improving your Employee Value Proposition (EVP). This includes salaries and perks but also encompasses intangible aspects such as job security, wellbeing, career progression and the prevailing company culture. By paying more attention to these aspects, you will improve the engagement and productivity of your current employees. They in turn will become advocates for the organisation making it easier to attract new talent.  

Find out more about how you/your company can develop your employer brand at the ConnectHR event on the 17th October 2019.

• LinkedIn's Mark Stewart to address ConnectHR event in Belfast this month
• Belfast's newest HR event now open for bookings
• ConnectHR: The Power of Employer Branding

Wiser Working is an NI-based people development consultancy. The company supports leaders who are keen to develop positive workplace cultures.