What reputation does your firm have – from an employee’s standpoint? Whether you are looking for high-level CPAs to join your firm or entry-level talent, your branding and reputation play a role in attracting top talent to your firm. When people think about your firm, do they know you are a top-rated employer? If not, it’s time to change that image.
Why Do You Need an Employer Brand?
An employer brand helps to differentiate your business from the competition. In a competitive job market, this becomes a critical tool for attracting the best employees and retaining the ones you already have. To expand your business, you need more than just more clients. You also need more employees that can move into leadership roles and provide a higher level of service than what is expected from firms like your own.
Losing top talent to the competition because of a more positive vibe or a more recognized employer brand image isn’t just problematic. It is costly. To reduce turnover, improving employee satisfaction, and to continue to attract the best eligible applicants, incorporate these tips into your firm to build a sound, effective employer brand.
Define What Your Firm Has to Offer
Why should any applicant looking to establish or grow their career choose your firm to work at and be a part of when there are many others they could choose? Determine what your value position is. This should come from your firm’s:
It’s important to know what type of talent you plan to attract, too. Define what it is that will attract talent to your organization. Do you have an upbeat, positive work environment? Are you incorporating innovative strategies? What client-facing tools do you offer to make employee jobs easier?
Look Beyond the Dollar Sign
It’s true. Paying more money will attract more people to any job post you have. Yet, the best talent in the market is looking for more than just a bigger paycheck. They also need to have access to a company that offers what they need to develop their career and to build the life they desire. Whether you are after Millennial talent or looking beyond them toward Gen Z, it’s essential to know what your next employee is going to need from you to commit to your firm. This may include:
When creating an employer brand, ensure you are focused on the type of talent you need along with the expectations those individuals have. It’s a fine balancing act between upper level management and entry-level employees.
Develop an Employee Marketing Strategy
Much like creating the firm’s digital marketing strategy to bring in clients, you also need to have an employee marketing strategy. Your marketing strategy needs to be modern, ever-changing, and diversified to attract a large group of potential employees. There is a lot that goes into this decision. Consider these components of your marketing strategy:
Develop Career Pages: Your website should have a career page dedicated to those applicants. Most people looking for a job or a career learn as much as they can about the firm before even attempting to dive into an application. An old, outdated website – even the client-facing side – is not attractive to new hires looking for a growing, modern company. Be sure your career page outlines everything you want people to know about your employer brand.
Build Career-Oriented Social Media Pages: Work to recruit through social media. To do this, you need to have some level of social media branding that builds on your employer brand. Social media is an excellent place for promoting current employees. Provide an “employee of the month” on your page. This shows others you value your employees. Go further by ensuring your social media pages have some level of career information. What type of work environment is available? Do people like working for your business? This is the place to showcase this insight.
Work with Recruiting Agencies: Many firms are simply too busy or lack the in-house human resource department to manage the actual hiring and interviewing process. Work with recruiting agencies who can help to further your employer brand. That is, be sure you choose an agency that is respectable and known for working in professional-level fields. You also want to ensure they hold true the same modern, innovative employee strategies.
Your employee marketing strategy should incorporate real-time, authentic information about what it is like to work for your business.
Work to Retain Employees
Another key component of your marketing strategy should focus in-house. Whether your firm has 10 employees or 100, you want to ensure that every one of those people feels as though they are valued members of the business, providing an important service to it. This may mean putting some focus on employee appreciation methods, communicating openly about the company’s successes and failures, and building strong communications channels within the business.
Do not overlook the importance of investing in qualified management, too. Leaders from within are often the best choice. Even if you hire your leadership, they need to commit to the same employer brand that you are working to build. Management and business ownership together should be making core decisions to attract new talent with a solid, concise, and consistent employer brand image.
If your firm is lacking the employer brand you need, it’s time to look for some help. The key here is to ensure that all the marketing you do focuses on what your firm can offer to the would-be applicant with the skills and motivation you need. Employer branding is an ongoing process, but when done well, it can help make your location the place for new talent to go when they want to be a part of a diverse, growing firm.
