Topics: Marketing, branding, employer, recruiting, HR.
Reading time: 5 minutes.
While marketing mainly focuses on short-term goals and tactics designed to influence behavior at a particular moment, branding goes a step further. It focuses on the long-term vision and identity, which are based on values and beliefs.
Marketing provides us with answers to the "how" - how we can convince a specific target group of our products or services and how we can reach them. Branding, on the other hand, deals with the "why" - why we do what we do, why our brand exists, and why our target audience should choose us.
Branding aims to build loyalty and trust by telling a unique and authentic story. It's about creating an emotional connection by conveying values and beliefs that make up one's being. Because in the end, branding is about who you are, not just what you do.
Rather than aiming for quantity, external employer branding targets the direct approach to the most professionally and personally suitable applicants. It improves the quality and precision of applications, minimizes the risk of mis-hires, and thereby reduces overall recruitment effort. This increases the chance of being able to focus only on applicants who are the best fit for the position to be filled and who are more likely to stay in the company in the long term. The result is a stronger workforce and higher employee satisfaction. The following article presents how this can be achieved.
Touch Points with Your Own Employer Brand
During the recruitment phase, the "touch point" to the employer brand is often the company website, which is oriented towards service marketing. While most authorities, as well as companies with more than 50 employees, predominantly have their own career website where they publish job advertisements and present themselves as an attractive employer, only a minority of smaller companies use this strong brand instrument. Of these, only a portion decides to position themselves centrally outside of their own bubble, where their target group is located. There are good reasons to broaden one's stance. Given the reach of the industry, one of the most common "touch points" is the centrally placed employer page or a job advertisement on a large job platform with employer pages.
Since March 2023, companies have been able to centrally position themselves on Lawjobs.ch, as demonstrated by Weblaw AG. As an additional recruitment tool, your own employer brand can permanently reach over 85,000 active job seekers per month on the largest legal job platform in Switzerland, Lawjobs Employer Pages.
Other "touch points" include employer videos that can also be integrated, social media activities, media work through specialist articles, university marketing, employee recommendations, career events, rating portals, and not least the personal job interview. For the sake of completeness, internal employer branding during the entry phase and employee retention phase should also be mentioned.
It should be realized that the experience of the employer brand also takes place when it is not actively implemented. Companies therefore influence the knowledge about and the attitude towards their employer brand at all times. Be aware of the "touch points" with your employer brand and their significance and influence on perception. Ultimately, you have to decide for your company how you weigh the individual points. In order to be able to make this decision, you should first identify the specific contact points, then evaluate them according to their importance, and finally evaluate their effectiveness. This requires targeted planning, control, coordination, and monitoring of employer branding. Because employer branding is understood as a holistic and strategic approach to positioning oneself as an attractive and authentic employer internally and externally. This makes it an important recruitment tool to secure future viability and assert oneself in the fiercely competitive labor market.
Employer Positioning
What makes a company particularly attractive as an employer? Employer branding begins to address this question beyond the issue of salary. The goal is to shape and define the image of the company as an employer, to provide an answer to this question. The employer brand should convey a positive and broad picture that stands out from other competitors and includes a strong promise as an employer. To achieve this goal, the company must first take a clear position and become aware of its own identity. This process can take weeks or months and should be considered a standalone project. There are various branding agencies that can specifically assist you with this question, and for lone fighters, there is no shortage of literature on this topic that can assist you. Whichever path you choose, the goal remains the same: you should comprehensively define the desired target image for the company and successfully communicate the employer brand. So, the process for employer branding begins with careful employer positioning.
The following factors are not exhaustive and can serve as a guide:
Factor Differentiation
It should be known to everyone that companies need to differentiate themselves in the War for Talents in order to stand out from the competition and strengthen their position. Only in this way can they sustainably establish themselves as an attractive employer in the consciousness of potential and existing employees. It is important that the communicated company-specific values are credible and implementable. They must be perceptible, tangible, and authentic in order to fulfill the brand promise.
Factor Emotions
Charging a brand emotionally does not mean displaying emotions in communication, but rather evoking certain feelings in the counterpart. This also applies to the choice of employer, which is influenced not only by rational factors such as salary but also by emotional factors. A strong emotional connection between potential and existing employees and the employer brand leads to brand loyalty, loyalty, and increased corporate identification. People who identify with the brand take responsibility and work more productively and efficiently, leading to higher quality work results.
Factor Orientation
In the 2023 job market, potential employees are exposed to a veritable data tsunami. The amount of information pouring in can be overwhelming. This is where employer branding comes into play, providing this group of people with valuable guidance. By conveying the company's core messages, employer branding significantly simplifies the decision-making process. By comparing the employer brand with their own values, it can be determined whether personality and qualifications match the company's values and goals.
Factor Employee Acquisition
A successful employer brand also helps to retain existing employees in the long term. Because employer branding not only strengthens the company's position externally, but is also implemented and communicated internally. When messages are congruent inside and outside, it leads to brand-oriented behavior by employees.
Factor Corporate Culture
Employer branding is an important part of corporate management and significantly contributes to shaping the corporate culture. Clear communication of company values, norms, and attitudes promotes a common understanding among potential and existing employees. This creates a corporate culture that shapes coexistence and cooperation within the company and also has a positive effect externally. A strong corporate culture can help ensure that these people bind to the company in the long term. In addition, it can avoid conflicts and create a positive working atmosphere.
Factor Corporate Brand
If a company succeeds in building a strong employer brand that evokes emotions, is credible and unique, and stands out from the competition, this also has positive effects on the corporate brand and the company's image among all stakeholders. Strong employer branding can help strengthen the trust of customers and cooperation partners and position the company as innovative, future-oriented, and attractive. This can also have a long-term impact on corporate success.
Factor Reach
To achieve the desired effect of employer branding, it is essential that the employer brand is perceived by potential employees. Whether with or without its own career website, it makes sense to opt for at least one central job platform like Lawjobs.ch as an (additional) "branding satellite". Due to the equal opportunities on the Internet with the big players, a centrally placed employer brand, regardless of company size, never needs to hide, #TheChancesAreEqual.
We are happy to support you holistically and develop your employer brand on Lawjobs.ch together with you. An interdisciplinary team from the areas of Software & Front-End Development, Marketing, and Legal/HR industry experts is at your disposal. If you have questions on this topic or are interested in a central employer page on Lawjobs.ch, we look forward to your contact to be able to advise you.