Attracting talent over the last two years has been challenging; skills shortages and a hot labour market have meant competition for skilled workers has been at an all-time high.
Despite signs the UK labour market is cooling, an uncertain future means that attracting and retaining a skilled workforce has never been more important and a strong workforce is the key to improving resilience.
When it comes to recruiting to improve resilience, clearly communicating what your organisation can offer employees, besides a salary, will help attract candidates to match your culture.
Understanding your Employer Brand
When recruiting, an attractive salary might seem the obvious place to start to attract talent. Yet, workforce surveys consistently show that meaning is more valuable to employees than money. So, building awareness of your organisational value and culture should be a crucial part of your recruitment strategy. The way to achieve this is through your employer brand.
Your Employer Brand is your opportunity to highlight your unique selling points (USPs). Think about what your organisation hopes to accomplish or what makes your culture exceptional. Rather than focusing just on transactions, focus on interactions.
By identifying and promoting your Employer Brand, you can increase awareness of your corporate culture, working conditions and values. This allows applicants to understand how and where they fit in your company.
Resilience via your Employer Brand
Resilience is the ability of an organisation to adapt to challenging and unpredictable situations. It’s important to understand that Employer Brand can play a crucial role in developing resilience.
Employer Branding allows a company to broadcast the strength of its culture, principles and diversity, in turn increasing its appeal to a deeper talent pool. This is particularly relevant in the context of following EDI principles.
Resilient companies follow EDI principles and recognise the value diverse experience and knowledge brings during challenging times. Whilst an EDI approach can improve diversity during the recruitment process, your Employer Brand is what will attract a diversity of candidates in the first place.
Furthermore, a recent study shows that in addition to improving recruitment efficiency, Employer Branding promotes a positive company culture and crucially helps to keep employees happy.
Employer Brand & Resilient Employment
The return to the workplace offered leaders the chance to rethink their company culture. Whilst the last two years have presented both individuals and organisations with a series of shocks, they have also allowed for a renegotiation of employer/employee relationships.
For many workers now, their job must fit their life purpose and companies have a radical opportunity to support employees in this journey. Supporting employees with this relationship can yield enormous benefits, including increased engagement, improved retention rates and higher productivity.
Building resilience through your workforce is the first step to building organisational resilience and your recruitment strategy plays a fundamental role in this process.
The Key Take Away Points
Recruitment: A strong Employer Brand increases recruitment efficiency and contributes to the bottom line by promoting candidate self-selection and attracting a deep and high-quality pool of candidates.
Retention: Keeping your employees is just as important as attracting them. Organisational ‘brain drain’ during challenging periods could be the difference between surviving and thriving. Employer Brand contributes to a positive working environment which significantly increases organisational performance.
Resilience: Crucially, wellbeing supports productivity by reducing workforce churn, whilst intelligent workforces support better decision-making. Your Employer Brand is the fundamental mechanism for increasing market awareness of your organisation’s cultural and wellbeing benefits.
At Webrecruit, we provide tailored advertising solutions to help get your employer brand out there, so you attract the right candidates every time.
