The Importance of Building an Employer Brand that Candidates Will Love

The goal of this newsletter is to help you build, lead and manage better teams - and this week we at Focus have been discussing the importance of branding that attracts top talent.

When I was first hiring for a start-up, one of the things I noticed was that candidates were drawn to certain perks. We were looking for hungry, entry-level graduates (not necessarily experienced) and soon realised how much they valued things like gym membership, free coffee, ping-pong tables - that kind of thing.

We were very careful to explain during interviews that although these things are cool and bring the team together, they weren’t our culture. For us, culture was about moving the needle - making things happen.

These days, candidates are cottoning on to the fact that proper culture matters. Pizza Fridays are no longer a sufficient pull for talented employees (though I’m sure they help!). Increasingly our recruitment team are seeing candidates ask more meaningful questions about businesses. Do they have a reputation for doing good work (for example, for clients)? Do they respect their employees? What are their values?

It’s important to remember when you hire that a candidate is assessing you just as much as you are assessing them. They are figuring out if this is somewhere they want to spend a third of their waking hours every week - so its your job to showcase why your company is a great place to be.

Over the next three weeks, we’re going to be sharing some of the most important things you can do to improve your employer branding and attract top talent. For now, we’ll leave you with the facts - that 84% of job seekers say the reputation of a company as an employer is important; and 86% of U.S. women and 67% of U.S. men wouldn’t join a company with a bad reputation.

So if you’re looking to get the best talent, remember - Pizza Fridays no longer makes the cut. What are you dong to measure & improve your reputation? I’m looking forward to exploring how employer branding can help you.

If you’ve got any thoughts, feel free to reply to this email. We’d love to use your insight in a future newsletter.

We’ll see you next week!

Sammy @ Focus