Say, after going through the applications for the job you posted, you notice that you only received a few candidates or applications, and most of them don’t match what you were looking for.
Firstly, this is not an issue only of recruitment; it goes beyond that to the problem of employer branding. Strong employer branding does not lie with how visually appealing your career pages are– it rests on how potential hires, employees, and even customers see your business.
Well, there’s research on this. There is tremendous evidence that is largely unseen, with 86% of young professionals citing employer branding as a crucial journalist issue in their decision to take up a job with an organization. Companies with good brands save half the costs associated with employing new workers.
In this guide, we will discuss employer branding tactics that enhance the visibility of the firm and workforce and safeguard the company’s reputation.
What Is Employer Branding and Why Should You Prioritize It?
Employer branding is how a company is perceived as a place to work. It shapes the reputation among job seekers, employees, and even customers.
Businesses with a strong employer brand find it easier to recruit employees, have higher employee retention rates, and slay the workplace culture dragons.
Why It Matters for Hiring and Retention
- Increases Applicant Quality: Well-developed employer brands tend to attract employees, whether active seekers or passive competitors, which aligns with the organizational goals making recruitment not as difficult.
- Cuts Recruitment Costs: Your company’s reputation means people come looking for jobs, thereby eliminating the costly marketing campaigns needed for hiring. Having a strong employer brand helps in achieving a 50% reduction in cost-per-hire.
- Enhances Employee Engagement: Employees who believe in a company’s values are likely to be more productive. Employees who are more connected to the company’s mission statement are 67% more engaged in the workplace.
- Gives HR a Hiring Edge: Having an established employer brand eases competition for skilled workers and allows quicker hiring periods and higher rates of accepted offers. 89% of HR leaders have noted that employer branding assists in their recruitment efforts.
What Defines a Strong Employer Brand?
A strong employer brand involves the effective combination of a company’s culture, values, and employee experience so that top talent is attracted to the company and employees are retained. Its nurtured over time and built through good communication, storytelling, and employee feedback.
Here are a few objectives that employers may be looking to achieve through a strong brand:
1. Attracting and Retaining Top Talent
Branding the employer along positive dimensions makes the company an employer of choice, which increases the number of applications and decreases turnover.
For example, Netflix is one of the most powerful brands in the world. The company employs a ‘Freedom and Responsibility’ culture that fosters autonomy and high performance, making it a sought-after employer for top-tier professionals.
2. Enhancing Employee Engagement
Employees who resonate with the company’s mission will likely be more productive and engaged. For example, Electronic Arts shares employee testimonials on LinkedIn and YouTube, telling and showing the world what goes on behind the scenes and making employees feel they are part of the family.
3. Reducing Recruitment Costs
With a strong brand, candidates would look for the company instead of the company spending a lot on advertising and recruitment. For instance, Marriott’s “Begin, Belong, Become” EVP builds a strong company culture, helping it attract talent without excessive advertising.
4. Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace
Businesses with active DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies are often able to tap into a wider talent pool. For example, Oatly integrates its quirky and inclusive brand across its career pages, social media, and corporate communications, drawing in a wide range of candidates who share the Oatly brand’s ethos.
6 Strategies to Improve Your Employer Brand
Losing employees is often a signal of a poor employer brand, and analyzing one’s sentiment toward the company is a critical step in seeking alignment. Therefore, strategies like employee feedback coupled with reputation audits can drastically alter perception.
Here are a few strategies to explore:
1. Assess Your Employer Brand Perception
Before improving your employer branding strategy, you must understand how employees and job seekers perceive your company. This requires both qualitative and quantitative analysis. A misaligned employer brand can lead to high attrition and recruitment challenges.
You can craft an actionable employer branding strategy that reflects reality and resonates with employees by identifying gaps- whether in company culture, benefits, or leadership perception. Here’s how you can go about it:
- Employee Feedback & Exit Interviews: Conduct surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews to understand why employees join, stay, or leave.
- Reputation Audits: Analyze employer review sites like Glassdoor and LinkedIn to assess external perception.
- HR Analytics & Sentiment Analysis: Use AI-driven tools to track engagement, turnover patterns, and workplace sentiment. Platforms like Peakon or CultureAmp can quantify brand perception.
2. Strengthen Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP)
Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is the foundation of your employer brand. It answers the key question: Why should someone work at your company instead of elsewhere? A well-crafted EVP aligns with your culture, mission, and employee benefits to create a compelling reason to join and stay.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Audit Your Current EVP: Does it reflect what employees actually experience? Conduct internal surveys to ensure alignment.
- Make It Unique & Specific: A generic EVP (“We care about work-life balance”) isn’t enough. Highlight unique perks like Spotify’s paid global wellness week or Salesforce’s volunteer time-off program.
- Use the Employer Brand Perception Data: Link your EVP to what employees value most, whether it’s career growth, DEI initiatives, or remote work flexibility.
3. Enhance the Candidate Experience
Your hiring process is a direct reflection of your employer brand. Every touchpoint—from the first job ad to the final offer—shapes a candidate’s perception of your company. A poor experience can deter top talent, while a well-structured, engaging process strengthens your reputation.
Especially because, 70% of job seekers share their interview experiences online. This influences your employer’s brand reputation. You can get started by implementing these simple things:
- Streamline Communication: Keep candidates informed at every stage. Use automated email updates, chatbots, or personalized recruiter check-ins to reduce uncertainty.
- Reduce Hiring Delays: Long, drawn-out hiring processes frustrate candidates. Optimize workflows with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) like Greenhouse or Lever to shorten time-to-hire.
- Personalize the Process: Tailor interview questions to the candidate’s background, acknowledge their research, and provide detailed feedback—whether they get the job or not.
4. Leverage Social Media for Employer Branding
Employer branding isn’t just about what you say—it’s about what employees and candidates say about you. Today’s workforce researches companies on social media, making it a critical channel for employer branding initiatives.
A strong digital presence attracts talent organically. The more authentic your presence, the more trust you build.
Here’s how to go about it:
- Optimize Your LinkedIn & Glassdoor Presence: Showcase employee stories, workplace culture, and company achievements. Keep job postings, company updates, and responses to reviews consistent.
- Encourage Employee Advocacy: Employees are your best brand ambassadors. To organically boost reach, provide shareable content, such as behind-the-scenes videos or team highlights.
- Use Engaging Multimedia Content: Short-form videos, Instagram stories, and TikTok clips offer authentic glimpses into company life. Companies like Spotify and HubSpot excel at this strategy.
5. Develop a People-First Company Culture
The foundation of a great employer brand is a culture where employees feel valued. When employees trust leadership, feel heard, and see growth opportunities, they stay and tell others about it.
Companies with strong cultures see 4x higher revenue growth and 30% lower turnover. A people-first approach isn’t just good for employees—it’s a strategic advantage that fuels long-term business success.
You can get started with these simple tips:
- Implement Policy-Driven Changes: Create structured policies that support work-life balance, DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion), and employee well-being. This includes flexible work arrangements, paid mental health days, extended parental leave, and transparent salary frameworks to foster trust and retention.
- Recognize & Reward Employees: Publicly celebrate achievements through company newsletters, shoutouts in meetings, or dedicated recognition programs like Bonusly.
- Invest in Career Growth: Companies like Salesforce and Amazon offer continuous learning programs, mentorships, and career mobility paths to retain top talent.
6. Utilize Technology & HR Analytics
A data-driven employer branding strategy ensures that HR decisions are based on real insights rather than assumptions. With AI-powered HR tools like PeopleStrong, companies can track engagement, sentiment, and hiring trends to refine their employer brand and improve workforce retention.
Here’s how you go about it:
- Gauge the Sentiment Towards your Employer Brand: Use PeopleStrong’s HR analytics suite to understand the internal and external sentiment around the brand. This comprises Glassdoor reviews, employee surveys, turnover trends, and strengths and weaknesses.
- Optimize with AI-Enhanced Recruitment Resources: Automated recruitment tools make hiring faster, easier, and more effective by providing better fits for open positions and customized onboarding. PeopleStrong’s Talent Acquisition can help automate candidate sourcing, resume scanning, interview scheduling, and onboarding processes.
- Employ Predictive Analytics for Retention Strategy: AI technologies flag employees at the risk of leaving as well as the reasons for their departure. PeopleStrong’s analytics for the employee lifecycle can provide early warning signs, such as lack of engagement so that HR can step in with development plans or other essential resources to facilitate retention.
Measuring the Impact of Your Employer Branding Strategy
To determine the impact of an employer branding strategy, metrics that are clear, tangible, and measurable in terms of employee satisfaction and hiring results must be tracked. These indicators help gauge the strength of an employer’s branding strategy or highlight weaknesses that need corrective action.
Here are some examples of employer branding metrics that should be tracked:
| Metric | What It Measures | Why It Matters |
| Employee NPS (eNPS) | Measures how likely employees are to recommend the company as a great place to work. | A high eNPS indicates strong internal employer branding and employee satisfaction. |
| Retention Rate | Percentage of employees who stay with the company over a given period. | A high retention rate signals a strong culture and effective employer brand. |
| Glassdoor & LinkedIn Reviews | Public perception from employees and candidates about workplace experience. | Positive reviews attract top talent and build employer trust. |
| Time-to-Fill | The average time taken to hire for open roles. | A shorter time-to-fill means an attractive employer brand that draws in quality candidates. |
| Offer Acceptance Rate | The percentage of candidates who accept job offers. | A high rate suggests a compelling employer value proposition (EVP). |
| Internal Mobility Rate | The percentage of job openings filled by internal candidates. | A strong internal mobility rate indicates effective career growth opportunities. |
Lastly, Don’t Forget to Reiterate Your Strategies
HR teams must consider branding as an active process that changes with the nature of the workforce or the industry. Feedback mechanisms serve to collect and act upon the input of employees in the form of pulse surveys, exit interviews, or even the sentiment present in social media.
It is essential for a corporation to act upon the needs and demands raised by a candidate or employee for the branding strategy to remain robust, appealing, and competitive.
Future Trends in Employer Branding
In the era of information and digitalization, employment branding is transforming from recruiting advertisement campaigns.
The emerging trends that are changing the face of employer branding include:
- Hyper-Personalized Employee Experiences: Companies are using AI and data analytics to tailor benefits, career development paths, and work experiences based on individual employee preferences and behavior.
- Workplace Transparency as a Competitive Edge: Companies are proactively sharing real-time workforce metrics—such as pay equity, diversity statistics, and leadership accessibility—to build trust and credibility with job seekers.
- Community-Led Employer Branding: Beyond corporate messaging, brands are investing in employee-driven content, such as peer-led job previews, internal ambassador programs, and unfiltered workplace vlogs.
- AI-Powered Sentiment Analysis for Brand Perception: AI tools are being used to analyze social media conversations, employee forums, and review sites to track employer brand sentiment and adapt messaging in real time.
Build a Winning Employer Brand with PeopleStrong
Investing in employer branding isn’t just a recruitment strategy—it’s a business advantage. A strong employer brand lowers hiring costs, improves retention, and enhances workplace culture, making it a critical factor for long-term success.
With PeopleStrong’s HR Tech 4.0 solutions, enterprises can track employer sentiment, optimize hiring processes, and create personalized employee experiences that strengthen their employer brand.
From real-time analytics to engagement-driven HR tools, PeopleStrong helps companies build an authentic, compelling brand that attracts and retains top talent.
Ready to transform your employer branding strategy? Explore PeopleStrong’s HR tech solutions today and take the first step toward building an employer brand that stands out. Connect with us for more info now!
