What is Employer Branding? - Glassdoor for Employers UK

Employer Branding Guide

What is employer branding?

Employer Branding is Good for Business

Quality candidates are always hungry for information. In a tight labor market, providing that information on Glassdoor allows you to set your company apart from the competition by showcasing your values, company culture, perks and benefits. 

The fact that 8 in 10 (76%) of Glassdoor users agree their perception of a company improves after seeing an employer respond to a review1 is telling. Whether or not that review is critical – maybe even more so if it is negative – job seekers want to know how a company responds to adversity because it reveals the true character or your company culture. How a company handles obstacles and stumbling blocks will define their reputation for future employees. And being silent doesn’t mean you’re not in the conversation – it just means you’re not leading it. Employer Branding is how you lead that conversation, which fosters a positive company culture and drives a winning recruiting strategy now and long into the future. 

Job Seekers Value Transparency

In today’s labor market, a positive, well-defined employer brand is important for attracting and retaining top talent. According to Glassdoor research, 74% of active job seekers are likely to apply to a job if the employer actively manages its employer brand.2 And in a less-than-booming economy or times of uncertainty, it matters every bit as much – if not more. Only Glassdoor helps employers make a positive, memorable impression so they can attract, hire and retain talent now and in the future.

If the concept of employer branding is new to your company, getting started building and refining yours is probably easier than you think. The basic ingredients of your employer brand are already in place; it’s just a matter of shaping them into a holistic message.

Frequently Asked Questions

Employer Branding

We're here to help you learn more about employer branding.

What is Employer Branding?

Employer Branding is the discipline of defining, developing and managing a company’s reputation as an employer. Employer branding is a concept that originated in the mid-1990s when employers began applying well-developed product branding principles to the employee experience for the purpose of growing more competitive in their ability to recruit top talent.

Learn more about how Glassdoor can help you manage your employer brand here.

What is the difference between Employer Brand and Corporate Brand?

While your audience for your consumer brand is people who buy your product, your employer brand audience is comprised of your employees (both current and potential). A much broader range of people will likely work at your company than those who buy your product. In fact, they may not be part of the target audience for your company’s product at all. Not everyone who works for a children’s brand has children; not everyone who works for a medical device company uses that medical device. 

Learn more in Glassdoor’s blog, How your Employer Brand Differs From Your Consumer Brand.

What Constitutes an Employer Brand?

Your business probably already has a well-developed corporate brand to promote its products and services to customers. It needs an equally well-developed employer brand to promote itself to current and future employees.

Culture

A company’s culture –  the glue that binds the organisation – includes its values, vision, mission statement, working language, systems, beliefs and habits. The pattern of collective behaviours and assumptions that are taught to new hires as a way of perceiving, thinking and feeling about the company is also part of the culture. Company culture affects the way that people and groups interact with one another, with clients, and with stakeholders.

Employee opinions

Employees’ opinions about your company reach far beyond its doors, especially when they share their views and work photos on public forums such as Glassdoor, Facebook and Twitter. Your employees’ opinions matter because they can help you attract the candidates you’re trying to reach and also make improvements inside your organisation. 

Candidate opinions

First impressions are everything. In fact, your employer brand starts taking shape during an initial job interview. If a candidate’s experience is negative, or if your onboarding process has holes in it, then your reputation can suffer. If your human resources team comes across as disorganised, arrogant or unresponsive, interviewees will form negative impressions of your company. They may share those negative opinions, which may discourage other candidates from wanting to work for you.

Corporate brand

A company’s employer brand aligns directly with its corporate strategy. Consumers want to know that they’re buying goods and services from companies that treat their employees well. Recently, several companies have hurt their reputations by not paying their employees fair wages or by denying them health care coverage.

Employer Branding Examples on Glassdoor

1. Randstad’s Employer  Brand

To Randstad, it was clear that Glassdoor could play a valuable role in their talent acquisition strategy, so they invested in an enhanced profile, populating it with relevant content that reflected Randstad’s brand. Sure enough, Randstad found that more individuals started to follow and view their jobs on Glassdoor, as well as read reviews. They also found that candidates started to mention their Glassdoor profile during their interviews, which led them to ask more informed and niche questions. Glassdoor gave Randstad the opportunity to manage the expectations of prospective employees, and this is key to any employer brand and retention strategy. 

2. ClearScore’s Employer Brand

ClearScore’s strong Employer Brand on Glassdoor provided the hard data behind their subjective questions like “How well are we perceived by jobseekers?”, something any rapidly-scaling company would need to know. Having reviewed their sourcing data during an 18-month time period, ClearScore saw that applicants who apply through Glassdoor (i.e. click on a job vacancy directly from their Glassdoor page rather than going from there to our website) are 20% more likely to receive a job offer than applicants who apply through other free job boards.

3. Unilever’s Employer Brand

With 6,600 employee reviews posted and no less than 10 regional profiles published in English, Dutch, French, and German, Unilever made sure to develop its  employer brand. Glassdoor became a valuable asset to the development of Unilever’s employer brand through 3 capabilities. First, it presented a way for employees to be more engaged with the company, offering their experiences and feedback as a means of supporting development. Second, the depth of insight was unrivalled across Unilever’s 10 profiles, with Glassdoor’s enabled segmentation of data for each region. Third, Glassdoor presented the opportunity to talk to a key demographic, Millennials. Learn more about how Unilever developed their employer brand on Glassdoor!

What are the Benefits of an Employer Brand for Your Company?

An authentic, well-defined employer brand is essential to recruiting and retaining quality talent in today’s market. Why? Because employer branding attracts well-informed candidates who are more likely to be motivated to perform, produce and stay.

A strong employer brand differentiates you from the competition. Defining your employer brand gives you a chance to define what makes your company special compared with others that job seekers may be considering.

When your employer brand is strong, it also improves employee retention and boosts recruiting efforts. An important part of building your employer brand is listening to your employees and responding to their concerns. Treat your employees well, and they’re likely to stick around and help you attract other “A” players.

When candidates view jobs alongside branded content that helps them qualify themselves, your company reaps the benefits of higher quality applicants and lower recruiting costs. The better your brand identifies your company as a place where people want to work, the less you spend to recruit new employees. 

Your employer brand also impacts whether potential investors, as well as customers, want to invest with you and do business with you. While a positive employer brand will attract investors and customers, a negative employer brand could cost your investments and sales.

What are tips for a Solid Employer Branding Strategy?

  1. Post an up-to-date company logo: Your company’s most recent logo version should be prominently featured to lend an air of authenticity and ensure visitors know they’ve come to the right place.
  2. Personalise your employer profile to the audience: Employer branding isn’t one size fits all – and that’s why Glassdoor allows you to create a personalised view of your profile for up to four different audiences based on their occupation, such as engineering or sales.
  3. Display OpenCompany status: Quickly and easily show potential job candidates that you stand for transparency by completing Glassdoor’s OpenCompany program and adding the badge to your profile.
  4. Update your profile often: You will get candidates excited to work for your company by sharing the latest on company milestones, product releases, community service and more.
  5. Share your employer value proposition: Glassdoor gives you a platform to tell potential job candidates why your company is a great place to work.
  6. Track (and respond to) reviews: Glassdoor alerts you when reviews have posted and give you the opportunity to respond. Plus, you can feature positive reviews on your profile so they are the first ones job seekers see when researching your company.

Creating a positive employer brand has no downside. A well-thought-out employer brand attracts top talent, creates a sense of pride among existing employees, and enhances your company’s image in the community. But remember that employer branding isn’t a “set it and forget it” process. Never stop monitoring your reputation and working to improve your employer brand. That way, your company message will continue to resonate with your target talent – and you’ll be in a position to hire the people who will innovate and take your organisation to new levels of success.

Learn the 10 tips for Creating an Employer Brand From Scratch  .

Attracting the right talent is our business.

We’re in this together

Citations

1.Source: Glassdoor U.K. Site Survey, December 2019
2.Glassdoor.com U.S. Site Survey, Feb-Apr 2021
3.Source: Glassdoor U.K. Site Survey, December 2019 - (63%) of Glassdoor users read at least 5 reviews before forming an opinion of a company.

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