Employer Branding: Does your branding strategy need a Rebrand, Refresh, or Tweak?

Do you feel like your current employer branding strategy is no longer attracting suitable candidates? Or perhaps, you find your competitor’s branding to be more consequential and more engaging with the same target audiences as yours? Then, you may need to consider evaluating your employer brand strategy.

Branding has always been fluid. The strategy we implemented last year may not be relevant to our target audiences anymore. That happens because people’s interests, demands, and needs constantly change.

Read more about Employer Branding here.

Since each company is unique and is on a different stage of talent communication, there are some scenarios in which you can choose to apply to your current employer brand. In this article, Kalibrr summarized what The David Group had provided regarding employer branding scenarios; Rebrand, Refresh, or Tweak.

#1 Scenario: Rebrand.

The first scenario is to do a complete overhaul of your current employer brand. This intense, dramatic scenario requires you to deeply examine your existing employer brand’s elements, such as promises, attributes, and EVP. Sometimes, rebranding mandates you to rework your planning and execute a business-wide employer communication strategy. If you are still unsure that your company needs to rebrand, check whether your company is experiencing one of these situations: poor recruitment and retention performance; misalignment between your corporate and employer brand; undergoing internal cultural transition.

The root cause of those situations lies mainly in the disconnect between your employer promises and your employees’ day-to-day reality. Thus, it urges you to update all creative, visual, and messaging materials that you put on your recruitment advertising.

#2 Scenario: Refresh.

The David Group calls this a “LITE” version of rebranding (scenario #1). It requires an examination of your latest employer brand to some extent, but not as comprehensive. The companies that undergo an employer brand refresh realize that some proof-based errors in their recruitment process need immediate correction.

For instance, you find out that your company’s key message no longer speaks to your target job seekers. Then, as you deep dive into relevant recruitment insights to uncover the core issue, you learn that a high short-term turnover of new hires occurs. The next step is to look back and recheck your branding elements during job posting and onboarding. Lastly, you refresh all the branding elements to best reflect your company’s messaging.

#3 Scenario: Tweak.

The third scenario is the easiest as you would not need to work as hard to do this. All you need is to improve and enhance your employer brand by making fine, subtle adjustments to the elements. In this case, there might not be any ‘problems’ in your recruitment process and strategy, unless you make a deliberate observation to point out the error, as The David Group suggested to rely on your ‘gut-feeling.’

For example, the tweak scenario applies when you receive feedback that says your job descriptions are not explicit enough and rather ‘inappropriate’, or you feel like your new training initiatives lack engagement.

But rest assured, that only a few companies usually need a full-blown rebrand. Usually, they start from a small tweak and then scale up to a more comprehensive rebranding to achieve their recruitment goals.

While some of the efforts can make a huge success, there are also times when your plan won’t go as you wish. If you are already considering these scenarios, it is best to note these tips which are:

1. Understanding what your target candidates want and align them with your overall corporate brand.
2. Initiating changes based on reality. Don’t be too heroic!
3. Taking your time to think through your employer branding strategy. In other words, don’t rush!

The most important thing to note is to continuously monitor, evaluate, and improve your employer brand to match the always changing recruitment landscape so that your company would attract the best and most suitable candidates there are in the pool.

Re-evaluating an existing employer brand strategy is a lot of work and might be overwhelming. The alternative is to count on a trusted end-to-end recruitment company to help you create and implement the best strategies and initiatives for your employer brand. Click on the banner below to know more.

The article refers to The David Group and Built In.

Kalibrr is a recruitment technology company that aims to transform how candidates find jobs and how companies hire talent. Placing the candidate experience at the center of everything it does, we continue to attract the best talent from all over, with more than 5.5 million professionals and counting. Kalibrr ultimately connects these talents to companies in search of their next generation of leaders.

The only end-to-end recruitment solutions provider in Southeast Asia, Kalibrr is headquartered in Makati, Philippines, with offices in San Francisco, California, and Jakarta, Indonesia. Established in 2012, it has served over 18,000 clients and is backed by some of the world’s most powerful start-up incubators and venture capitalists. These include Y Combinator, Omidyar Network, Patamar Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and Kickstart Ventures.For more business and recruiter advice, follow Kalibrr on Facebook and LinkedIn