Oct 18, 2024
In today’s competitive job market, attracting and keeping top talent requires more than just offering a competitive salary.
Employer branding is a powerful tool in recruitment and can significantly enhance a company’s ability to attract, engage, and retain the best talent.
In this article, we will demystify what employer branding means and provide you with simple and effective tips to improve your branding, so you have a top-tier talent funnel available to you – regardless of market conditions. Additionally, we will highlight examples of companies local to Ottawa that are shining examples of outstanding employer brands, offering you practical insights from businesses in your community.
Understanding Employer Branding
Employer branding is the process of promoting a company as the employer of choice to a desired target group, one which a company needs and wants to attract, recruit, and retain.
As competition for professionals with in-demand skills remains high, effective employer branding is critical. While most managers (64% according to Robert Half Canada survey 2023) say it takes longer to hire now than it did a year ago, they risk losing skilled people to competitors if they don’t speed the process up.
A strong employer brand has been proven to not only help attract top talent, but also boosts internal employee engagement and retention, reduces hiring costs, and appeals to new demographics of workers.
Top tips to build a strong employer brand:
- Define Your Employer Value Proposition (EVP): Who are you? What do you stand for?
- Foster a Positive Company Culture and Leverage Employee Advocacy: Happy people want to share their experiences!
- Optimize Your Online Presence: Think beyond job boards! Remember that your ideal candidate could be anywhere.
- Offer Competitive Benefits and Perks: According to a report from global recruiting agency, Randstad, a competitive salary-and-benefits package is a top factor for 71% of Canadians, followed closely by work-life balance. So, if you offer top-tier benefits and work life balance, don’t be afraid to brag about it!
- Be Agile: Track success and do not be afraid to try new strategies!
How do you know your strategy is working?
You should be tracking the following metrics:
- Time-to-Fill: This is the average time to fill an open position, from job posting to offer acceptance.
- Cost-Per-Hire: Your cost-per-hire metric is the total costs associated with filling open positions divided by the number of hires in each period.
- Offer Acceptance Rate: Usually reported as a percentage, this is the number of accepted jobs offered divided by the total number of offers.
- New-Hire Turnover Rate: This measures how long, on average, new hires stay with your company.
- Quality-of-Hire and Time to Productivity: Using performance data, quality-of-hire reflects the value new employees bring to your organization. Similar to quality-of-hire, time to productivity measures a new hire’s effectiveness. Both metrics should be based on a new hire’s performance and job expectations as well as how long it takes a new hire to become fully self-sufficient at their new job.
- Candidate Net Promoter Score (NPS): This metric measures how candidates perceive your recruiting process. For lower scores, evaluate the provided explanations to pinpoint weak points in your process.
- Employee Referral Rate: Employee referrals help reduce traditional recruiting costs, like advertising and other job posting fees. Referrals can also be a shortcut to finding top talent.
- Time-to-Hire: While time-to-hire may seem like the time-to-fill metric, there is a critical difference. The formula for time-to-hire is the number of days from when a candidate applies to when they accept an offer. This metric better shows performance when things are under your team’s control, as outside factors can distort time-to-fill numbers.
Looking for inspiration? Check out these top Ottawa employers with impressive brand reputations:
- Ross Video’s website has a well-defined EVP and stellar employee reviews highlighted.
- Kinaxis has unique employee recognition programs worth exploring.
- Shopify is excellent at offering benefits that align with their EVP.
- Hydro Ottawa highlights their sustainable mission and emphases work-life balance in their benefits offerings to find like-minded employees.
- CHEO Hospital is incredibly effective in placing emphasis on inclusivity and diversity.
Final Thoughts
In a competitive job market, a strong employer brand can be a game-changer in attracting and keeping top talent. By defining your EVP, fostering a positive culture, using employee advocacy, honing your online presence, offering competitive benefits, engaging with candidates, and continuously working to improve, you are sure to consistently and continuously attract top-tier talent, regardless of the job market conditions.
Looking for help with your employer branding? Our talent team can help.
Our Talent Program is designed to support local tech firms to attract and retain top tech talent across many sectors. By working with us, you’ll get access to top talent attraction services, employer branding, and access to a rich database of global tech talent free of cost. Contact our talent team today
