What is employee branding and how to build it?

Employee branding is a relatively new term that focuses on how current or potential employees perceive the company. The idea is to have employees that are on board with the brand values and continue further to express the messages of the values and vision of the organization to other employees and stakeholders. Employee branding is a perfect way to attract candidates and prospects choosing jobs from a few companies. Also, organizations which implement employee branding have their employees perform as brand ambassadors. Employee loyalty is higher, they contribute to brand reputation management, helping the company attract new talent. Employee branding is useful to develop for a few reasons. It increases the online visibility of the brand due to the employee’s online presence as brand ambassadors, improves employee productivity and engagement making their working environment better and giving space for career advancement and personal growth.

There is a term employer branding which is similar to employee branding, however, they do differ. Let’s look at the main differences so you do not mix them up in the future. Employer branding is driven by the human resources team and executive employees who are in charge of the company’s vision. It focuses on the work culture, benefits in the company as well as career advancement opportunities while employee branding focuses on the communication and connection that employees have with the company and what it does. It is important to work on employer branding because it also influences how well employee branding will do.

Building employee branding takes time and creating the strategy requires effort and refinement. One of the most important things to start off is for the company to have a mission statement with the vision and goals and to live them out every single day. The values have to be taught and promoted so employees believe in them and truly want to raise awareness of the brand.
In addition, it is crucial to understand the employee and candidate experience because employees should be able to share everything they feel about the company. That is why it would be useful to organize activities inside the company that can improve employee satisfaction, get people excited about the brand and increase retention.
Thirdly, communication is an integral part of any company and there should be a clear strategy for informing employees and sharing with them company updates as well as values and mission. This is done by creating an employee communication strategy by the executives and using technology that helps communicate out all the information successfully.
For the employees to become successful brand ambassadors, the company could use brand training. Workshops would teach employees how to communicate about the brand and also improve in their careers. This would make the organization closer and develop the necessary connection between employees and the company brand.
Creating an amazing employee brand happens only when the company listens to the feedback from employees. They can tell the most about what is good or bad in the company, how they perceive the brand and experience work. All of this can be answered by creating surveys for employees and a comfortable working environment where people can openly share their opinion.

Last but not least, social media is a powerful tool that further extends the reach of employee branding. It is beneficial to encourage employees to share about their work experience on social media because it may make them feel more motivated and excited as well as inspire others. It also works perfectly for the company itself. Employee posts may motivate other people to apply for the company as well as increase marketing and sales because people want to work in companies that care about them and where they feel happy. Social media is still growing so using every chance to leverage it will bring more success to the company and its employees.