Employer Branding to attract Tech Talent

Employer Branding is defined as how people feel about you as a current or potential employer. Why is this so important in the tech market? Well, according to Tech UK, more than 100,000 extra candidates are needed to join the digital sector each year to keep up with growth.  Without this there will be a cost to the UK economy and individual companies. The attractiveness of contracting also means that skilled candidates often move away from permanent employment and overall there is a skills gap in the market. It is therefore important that candidate attraction is optimised.  

To start your Employer Branding process, you need to define your own EVP (Employer Value Proposition) and understand the talent landscape – this means competitors. Regarding the EVP, this is developing a clear and compelling expression of why your ideal candidates should want to join your company. This should be synergised with your corporate brand to ensure you manage the overall brand reputation.

If the amount of applicants decreases, but the quality of each applicant is getting better, that’s a good indication that you’re doing a great job of employer branding, as it is giving candidates enough information that they can really self-select in or out of your process.

Technojobs define three key stages in the EVP hiring process:  Aspiration; Attraction; Experience

1. Aspiration - Create a brand that candidates want to work for even if they are not job hunting or the right role is not available.  This helps build a talent pool and ensures a higher rate of quality applications in the long term.  Brand exposure and positioning is essential e.g. “We are the world leader in tech consulting” – highlights to consultants that when they are job hunting they will visit your website directly or register their details on your careers site even if a job is not available.

2. Attraction - This is targeting relevant active and passive jobseekers with key employer brand messages and strong calls to action to encourage response.

3. Experience - Managing candidates throughout the application process and identifying skills that may be relevant for other roles within the organisation. 

Perceptions, Aspirations and Brand positioning are difficult to influence through job posting alone.  According to research, only 8% of recruiting budget is spent on employer branding and those that do are three times more likely to make a quality hire.

Here are Technojobs Top Ten Tips to achieve success in Tech employer branding:

1. Content strategy. You align talent acquisition to the true strategic mission and objectives of your company, and you get proactive about it. You start to notice that talent acquisition and employer branding starts getting more of a seat at the table because the business starts to understand. With content, you take this and then you start to build out an editorial personality. Make sure your channel strategy is putting content in the right places.

2. Mobile Strategy – Perhaps shouldn’t need to be mentioned –but make sure a great desktop careers site or content is mobile responsive. No point spending money on awesome online assets which will be viewed negatively via a mobile or tablet device.  That unfortunately is a common own goal.

3. Social Strategy – Potential candidates will search your company on social media so aspirational content will inspire candidates to apply to your company. There are so many opportunities on social media and these now include Facebook Live, Periscope, Twitter Videos, Google Hangouts and much more.

4: Make it visual – Images and Videos. People remember images six times easier than text. So whenever you can, add really great, photos or videos in the blogs that you’re talking about. Visuals are really powerful for helping to elicit that emotional response and to really give people an inside look. Videos are even better and can increase response rate so work with jobsites that can incorporate videos into adverts, content and social.

5. Engage and build excitement. Your talent attraction assets should be something that are helping to elicit an emotional response, both internally with your own employees and externally when candidates learn something new about the company. When you can change perceptions or really engage and pull people’s heart-strings around the mission of your company, this is a win in the short term and long term.  

6. Diversity leads to innovation. Many studies have proven that diversity leads to greater innovation. Therefore, employer branding and attraction should live at channels to reach a more diverse talent pool such as www.womenintech.co.uk . The working environment should provide a platform for diversity to be encouraged.

7. Manage online presence – An essential part of the candidate attraction process is ensuring a positive brand experience when potential employees research you online. You need to track online mentions and manage feedback online. Sometimes you will need to acknowledge negative opinions in the forum and outline the steps you will take to rectify the issue. Truth and authenticity are always the best policy so that the employee experience matches the attraction.

8. Tell your story - Showcase your successes and your company aspirations. Bring these to life through video and content. Use employee case studies. Bring this to life in the interview phase as well.

9: Measure Results. When it comes to employer branding, tracking your engagement rate is really important. A main goal of employer branding is to increase awareness of you as an employer. Total volume of reach is a good measurement. What’s the number of people who have been exposed to your employer brand on a monthly, quarterly, annual basis? Also, quality of applications vs hire. Cost per hire can also be incorporated as this can reduce in the long term by building a talent pool through employer branding. Other metrics may include retention rate of existing staff.  If you are undertaking job advertising or candidate attraction, measurement is essential.

10. Existing Tech staff- Not only do you want to keep their tech skills, existing tech staff are likely to be your biggest brand ambassadors whether that is on your careers site, Linkedin or through networking and social sites. Referral hires are often the best quality hires! Give techies what they want!

Employer branding is a long-term investment. Myopic thinking is a longer-term threat. There is no magic wand. Positioning your brand creates longevity and perceptions that are hard to measure but your audience. Job boards are the best way of giving you volume over time with minimal resource – whilst targeting a relevant audience.

Tech candidates are Kings (or Queens) and you need to sell your company so that you are in a position to accept or reject a candidate......not the other way round.

Technojobs are passionate about Employer Branding to help businesses of all sizes and whatever the budget.  Video, content, social channels and profile pages supplement job listings to help build an appropriate employer profile to a very relevant audience.  Additionally, www.womenintech.co.uk was launched to encourage diversity in the IT sector.

To discuss employer branding in the Tech market further please contact us for further information and tech market insights. Contact [email protected] or call 0203 151 4024.