Is Your Company's Employer Brand And Culture Aligned With Your People Strategy?
We believe this is a crucial part in nailing your recruitment strategy, and one that is sometimes overlooked. Before attracting the right candidates, you need to define who you are as an employer and what makes your company a great place to work. That's where your employer brand and company culture come into play.
These aren't just buzzwords. They should be used to form the foundation of your people and recruitment strategies. If you're not clearly communicating who you are, what you stand for, and what it's like to work with you, the right candidates may never apply, or worse still, you may attract candidates that are the wrong fit. Not having your company culture in plain sight could cost you time and money!
What Is an Employer Brand?
Your employer brand is the perception people have about working for your company, internally and externally. It's shaped by everything from your values and leadership style to how you treat employees and how you present yourself in job adverts.
Strong employer brands:
• Attract “best fit” candidates
• Improve employee retention
• Reduce time-to-hire and cost-per-hire
It's not something you manufacture; it's something you uncover and communicate authentically. It has to be authentic, or you will make matters even worse by portraying something people expect but do not experience. If you feel there are negative cultural elements you uncover by looking at this exercise, then put things in place to change them. You then have a win-win by doing this, you plug potential existing problems and make your company more desirable. This will aid with existing employee staff retention and make you more attractive to work for.
Why Culture Matters in Recruitment
Culture is what it feels like to work at your company, the values you uphold, the way your teams interact, and the unwritten rules of behaviour that shape daily life. It plays a huge role in whether a new hire will thrive or clash.
Hiring someone who doesn't align with your company culture can lead to poor engagement, lower productivity, and ultimately, higher turnover. That's why cultural fit shouldn't be an afterthought; it should always be central to your hiring process.
Define It Before You Communicate It
Before you promote your culture to candidates, you need to define it internally. Ask yourself and your leadership team:
• What are our core values, and how are they demonstrated day-to-day?
• What kind of people thrive here?
• How do we reward, support, and develop our team?
You might be surprised by how much clarity this brings, and how useful it is when writing job descriptions, adverts, and interview questions. Now, to prove how effective this is, quickly write down a job description, an advert, and a list of interview questions before you start this process. After you have completed an employer brand and culture exercise, write it again, and you may find that they are very different in terms of tone and content. You will now understand how powerful this can be.
Communicating Your Employer Brand in the Hiring Process
Once you've defined your brand and culture, it's time to embed it into your recruitment efforts:
Job Descriptions: Reflect tone, values, and expectations.
Company Website & Careers Page: Showcase your people, benefits, and workplace experience.
Social Media: Share behind-the-scenes content and employee stories.
Interviews: Be transparent about working styles, leadership, and team dynamics.
Authenticity is key and candidates can tell when your messaging is forced and not genuine. When your brand and culture are communicated clearly, candidates are more likely to self-select based on alignment, saving you time and improving candidate quality.
In Summary
Understanding your employer brand and culture isn't just a feel-good exercise; it's a strategic recruitment tool.
By defining and showcasing who you are as a business, you'll not only attract better candidates but also make better hiring decisions. Remember, let all this feedback shape your very important job description, advert, and interview questions. This is time well spent, and it will pay you back.
With all this in mind, we always work with our clients to help them refine and promote their unique employer brand, which allows them to stand out in a competitive talent market. We invest time to work with them on this issue, as we know it pays off. When people understand what you stand for, the right talent is more likely to be employed and retained in a long-term working relationship.
