Employer branding strategy: finding and inspiring talent

Date

05/03/2024

How well you play depends on the team, tactics and coach. If you want to reach the final, you need a comprehensive strategy and players who work together to achieve this goal. This is just as true for professional athletes as it is for companies. After all, if you want to hold your own in the face of transformation, innovation and a shortage of skilled labour, you need a team that pulls together. This is where employer branding comes into play: with the right strategy, companies can not only attract and retain the best employees, but also improve the working atmosphere and increase productivity.

Employer branding is about much more than a company's reputation: an employer brand influences efficiency, serves as an emotional calling card and is a strategic anchor for the entire company. Especially when skilled labour is in short supply, being known as a good employer is essential for companies. This is because talented employees look for the best companies and pay far less attention to holidays, additional benefits or even salary. Instead, opportunities for professional development, challenging and varied activities, the company's goals and philosophy as well as colleagues are decisive factors in how emotionally attached employees feel to their company. Reinforcing this and skilfully communicating it to the outside world are the tasks of a good employer brand.

What an employer stands for and who it wants to be is set out in an employer brand positioning statement. This sets out all relevant profile topics in an emotional statement that shows both the status quo and the future of the company. It serves as identification for employees and potential employees and is derived from the unique employment proposition and the cultural fit. It sounds complicated, but on closer inspection it is simple.

White and orange bubbles with text on a black background

Infographic: What a good employer
brand can achieve

Unique employment proposition: Why should I work here?

Whether consciously or unconsciously, companies regularly have to make it clear to their employees that their work makes sense. Everyone is at some point in the employee lifecycle, whether they are looking for job offers, during onboarding or as a long-serving employee. If, for example, there is a lack of identification with the corporate culture, promotion opportunities are limited or employees feel that they are giving the company more than they are getting, employees may reach the end of the employee lifecycle: They resign.

The unique employment proposition (UEP) is therefore relevant for retaining skilled workers and experienced employees. What makes this employer unique? What can I only achieve here? Every company is - intentionally or not - an employer brand, and uniqueness is of central importance. The employer brand should relate to the future of the company without contrasting too much with the status quo. The UEP is the basis for a comprehensive communication concept and, together with the corporate culture, is therefore essential for the employer branding strategy.

An informed company as a source of meaning: VRM's special UEP

As an employer branding agency, we developed a campaign for the media company VRM that combines the meaning of work with the corporate culture. In this campaign, the focus was on diversity and the unique characteristics of potential employees. Many companies look for candidates based on traditional values. But this campaign was designed to show that VRM believes that it is the diversity of personalities and characteristics that truly enriches teams and makes them successful. Whether it's the creativity of a daydreamer, the willingness to take risks of an adventurer or the precision of a perfectionist - every characteristic is valued.

An informed society as a source of meaning: In its UEP, the media company VRM combines innovation and the social mission for information.

Cultural Fit: Who are we and what do we stand for?

Values count. Not only on paper, but also in our dealings with each other. Companies should therefore define values and anchor them in their corporate culture. They should specify ethically and morally correct behaviour and state what the company stands for with the help of a mission statement. However, these values must be actively practised by employees in order to create a coherent corporate culture. In turn, employees' perceptions of what the company stands for influence these values. This is why many companies choose colleagues who share their values and fit in well with the corporate culture.

This cultural fit is important because it has a long-term influence on employee loyalty and motivation. As already mentioned, colleagues and the corporate philosophy are more important for emotional identification with the company than, for example, salary, childcare or the fruit basket in the coffee kitchen. This emotional bond also has a direct impact on productivity: productivity is almost 20 per cent higher among employees with a stronger bond than among colleagues with a weaker bond. Profitability is also 21 per cent higher and key customer indicators are 10 per cent higher for employees with a strong bond. Taking the corporate culture seriously, nurturing it and actively seeking employees who fit in with your own culture therefore pays off.

The most important foundations for employer branding communication strategies are derived from the unique employment proposition and cultural fit. An example from our client Louis Opländer demonstrates what this can look like in reality.

Slide Deck | Employer Branding

Employer branding can strengthen employee recruitment, employee loyalty, motivation and corporate culture as well as improve the company's overall image. We have summarised everything important in a short slide deck.

Employer branding campaign in action: the future makers at Louis Opländer

"Always the future for 150 years": this is the motto of Louis Opländer GmbH on the company's anniversary. The plant manufacturer from Dortmund combines technical innovations with clear prospects for the future by using more efficient equipment to reduce emissions in plant construction and thus ensure greater sustainability even in large industrial companies.

In order to stand out in terms of job offers and vacancies and to attract qualified talent and trainees despite the shortage of skilled labour, RYZE Digital has revised its employer brand and developed a unique employer proposition and a corresponding strategy. A particular focus was placed on recruiting young talent, which resulted in a career portal for trainees, students and young professionals with a unique design.

Among other things, the campaign was implemented digitally with target group-specific hyperlocal messages for employer branding on social media. In addition, analogue media were used to reach young people and young adults, for example flyers for job fairs and T-shirts for branding. Several videos giving an insight into the day-to-day work of the trainees and a dedicated landing page providing comprehensive information about jobs at Louis Opländer completed the campaign.

Laptop and iPhones on a purple background

The employer brand and the unique employer proposition derived from it
serve as a strategic bracket for communication along the HR marketing activities.

The new brand core "#Future Makers" of the employer branding strategy serves as a guideline for a young, activating design and visual language. Colour accents are set and the messages convey to employees what Louis Opländer stands for as a company. By focussing on future leaders, the employer also becomes a source of meaning.

The example of Louis Opländer clearly shows how much a modern employer brand can support the search for young talent. A meaningful job in a company that is open to new ideas was placed at the centre to show young people that they can develop their potential there and really make a difference with their work.

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