Having an employer brand has been a hot topic in 2022 — Especially considering we moved from the Great Resignation into an employee-driven market for job hunting. With the ball in their court, it’s vital to ensure your startup, its culture and your value stand out. Your employer brand goes far beyond your Employee Value Proposition, or EVP (for more on that, read this!) and gets to the nitty-gritty of what top talent wants to see from your startup. There are so many essential things to integrate into your employer brand, but if we had to pick just five, it would be these five qualities:
1. Investing in their future
Nothing says you care about your employees like investing in their future through career development, education, and advancement opportunities. One of the top qualities of a great employer brand is having ample growth opportunities. When it comes to a startup, you’re likely to find employees who are just as passionate about your business as you are, which means they’ll want to see themselves growing, just like your business will. Any time you invest in an employee, you also invest in your long-term growth. Employees want to be a part of it from the ground up and will stick with you if they feel valued and productive. If they didn’t care, they’d just get a job with one of the industry’s bigwigs.
Fun Fact: 87% of millennials place significance on career growth and development opportunities.
What would this look like in a startup? Encourage development opportunities (courses, webinars, conferences etc.) for employees to learn new skills, offer training and exploration days, and take the time to plan a career path from day one. Ask them about their goals for their career and find the roles, educational opportunities, and crash courses to help make those dreams come true.
2. You’re real and relatable
Authenticity is crucial. Even employees at an AI company don’t want a cold and fake employer brand! Being authentic will also help your startup’s brand shine through as you express your core values and beliefs and share your passion with the world. Trust us — when you care about what you’re doing and express that joy, it’s contagious and will help set you apart from other businesses in the market for top talent. Here’s what Baker Brand has to say about it:
“Be passionate about expressing your core beliefs and the foundational attributes that capture the essence of your character and culture. Those elements can genuinely help you stand out in the marketplace and establish a competitive advantage for talent.”
Plus, the closer you get to expressing who you are as a startup, the better you’ll be at hiring people who are the right match for your business. You can’t please everyone, but you’ll please the people who will work hard for your vision. By being authentic, you’ll humanize your brand and become relatable. Do this by authentically sharing your startup’s story: How it came to be, who you are, and why it matters. You can also have your current employees become ambassadors for your startup and let them establish what it’s like to work for you.
For other tips on humanizing your employer brand, check this blog post out (we told you… this is a top quality of an employer brand!).
3. Your reputation precedes you
Make that cliché a good thing! These days, more and more candidates are reading up on whether or not your company has bad reviews. In fact, 79% of employees check out their future employer online before accepting a job offer. What does your reputation say about your business? Make sure you’re managing reviews on sites like Glassdoor and responding appropriately. Let your current employees tell their stories about what it’s like working for you. You can start a referral program to create more success by hiring like-minded people and building a consistent culture. Another way to build a reputation for your startup is by posting things of value consistently on social media. When job seekers come to your company’s social profiles, they’ll want to see what it would be like to work there, so showing candid moments is a huge hit!
4. You’re with the times
Businesses need to stay relevant, and it can take a lot of work and time. However, it also ensures that you constantly meet the demands of the talent pool and know exactly what it takes to find, hire, and retain the top talent of today’s market. Stay up to date with expected wages, perks, benefits, update your website and career page constantly, and ensure you reflect the essential things in the 2022 hiring atmosphere. You should also do an EVP evaluation and pay special attention to the overall employee experience.
You’ll want to answer two questions for potential talent:
Why is your startup relevant?
What’s in it for them?
If you can answer those two questions, you’re well on your way to being competitive in an employee’s market.
5. Clearly stated values and excellent company culture
A great employer brand’s fifth most important quality is having values and culture at the core of your business. Who are you really? What do you stand for? These two things need to be clear and visible for anyone applying. Your values and culture play into every other crucial quality of a great employer brand. They should be visible throughout every aspect of your business. If they are, you will find the people who are the best match for you, saving you the painful process of a mis-hire. Even better — it’s likely that top talent will find you! You can create an About Us page that lists what’s important to your company and why, use social media to put it on display with innovative videos and valuable content, and include employee testimonials about what they like most about working for your company. If you know what is at the very core of your startup and can translate that to the digital and actual world, you’ll be well on your way to building an excellent employer brand.
Do you need help with any of these top five qualities — or anything else involving HR, seeking, hiring, and retaining talent, or discovering what your startup is and values at the core? We are a passionate and dedicated team with a wealth of knowledge and experience at our fingertips to help you out. Let’s get you set with a great employer brand today.
