Katie Williams from Glassdoor gave a webinar on employer branding. She discussed defining employer brands as an organization's reputation among job candidates. Strong employer brands attract more and higher quality candidates, increase retention and productivity. Candidates rely heavily on company reviews when researching employers. Williams outlined steps companies can take to improve their Glassdoor profile, such as adding their logo, company details, benefits, and actively responding to reviews. An enhanced Glassdoor profile can increase traffic to a company's careers site and save on hiring costs.
Hi and thank you for joining our webinar today – “The Business Case for Employer Branding”
A few webinar tips – you will be muted throughout the session so make sure to ask questions in the questions pane and Alicia will be happy to answer them at the end of the session. If we don’t get to your question on today’s webinar, we will follow up with you after the webinar.
And now I’d like to introduce our speaker for today’s webinar. Alicia Garibaldi is a Senior Content Marketing Manager at Glassdoor and the author of Employer Branding for Dummies, Glassdoor Special Edition.
Now I’d like to hand it over to Alicia to get started. Alicia?
Thanks Katie!
An employer brand is an organization’s reputation as an employer. The term was first used in the early 90s and has since widely become adopted by the global recruitment and talent management communities. Chances are if you aren’t investing in your brand, you’re falling behind the competition.
And employer branding is not just for big brands! For smaller companies without a recognized brand, you need to focus on your reputation even more.
The good news is that 89% of job seekers say they find the employer perspective important when researching jobs and companies, according to a new survey out from Glassdoor today. The bad news is that your careers site likely doesn’t have all the information they need. So the bottom line is that job seekers want to hear from hiring managers and recruiters, but they want to gain useful information that will help them determine if your company is the right fit.
**For Share of Market – this means is your brand attracting more top talent than the competition/
The first thing a candidate does before applying to a position is research what a company is like to work for. People trust friends and family the most when it comes to determining if you should take a job at a specific company. Most trusted resource for learning about companies: family and friends (52 percent), followed by feedback and reviews from other people who work at the company (14 percent). Least trusted resources for learning about companies: a company’s own website (5 percent), and a company recruiter (2 percent). (Harris Interactive, Jan 2012, survey commissioned by Glassdoor)
Employers who invest in their brand see a significant increase in applicant quality and retention. According to a 2014 CEB report, employers that invested in employer branding reported a 54% increase in the quality of the candidate pool.
Without an Employer Brand, no one will know who you are or where to find your open jobs. How can you measure? If your company page views on Glassdoor are below 500 per month, the time is now to start building brand awareness.
I always tell employers the best place to start is by analyzing traffic to all your social sites to see where candidates are coming to research you – including your very own career page. A few questions to consider when evaluating traffic across various brand channels are:
How many users are viewing job postings on their mobile phones?
How many find your career page in a relevant keyword search on Google?
Which pages are they visiting most frequently and how long are they staying?
This will help you decide where to invest your dollars when it comes to where you put your message and understanding where your candidates are going today to research you.
If you don’t manage your reputation, someone else will write the story for you.
How can you measure?
If your rating is below the 3.4 average on Glassdoor, the time is now to start managing your reputation.
And, if your ratings are 3.4 or above, be sure to highlight your company attributes to potential candidates.
Remember: Branding is not a set it and forget it strategy. Even if you have a great rating today, you need to constantly be on top of it to ensure you are reaching the talent that you want to be, and also keeping top talent engaged and productive.
I was on a webinar recently, and the next generation of talent – Gen Z – is more interested in comp than career growth. With how expensive it is getting to live in key areas, you’ll need to make sure you market those attribute to attract the next wave of talent.
Now I wanted to break this down by vertical because some of you may be above or below the 3.4 average, and you need to consider your industry. It’s not a HUGE variance, but I wanted to give you some benchmarks and this also means look at the competition and compare yourself to others within your space.
In accounting/legal, the average rating is a 3.6 whereas in aerospace and healthcare the average is a 3.1.
Biotech, insurance, manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, and transportation averages are around a 3.2.
Arts, entertainment, recreation, information technology and education are around 3.5.
All the other 25 sectors listed though are majority hovering around a 3.3 – 3.4
To measure and track how your employer brand is resonating with job seekers and how you compare with competitors over time, it’s essential to establish benchmarks.
Another free tool to help you filter through reviews on Glassdoor is to enter in job titles and filter by location. If you are a big company, this tool comes in really handy. You can easily see ratings trends per office and by department.
For example, if we recently made changes to our account management team, I’d want to filter by whose business outlook is getting better versus whose is getting worse to see if my plan is working. Or if my big objective in 2015 is to increase referrals, filter by who isn’t recommending your company to others and see why.
A great metric to look at is to see which employees would recommend your company to others. With a Free Employer Account you can actually filter for free by employees who have a business outlook that’s getting better versus one that is getting worse. This allows you to gain a real time pulse of what’s going on within your own organization.
You’ll see these products are in beta, so take advantage of these monitoring tools while you can. They may not always be available for free.
Job applicants have access to more information about potential employers than ever before. Candidates can now weigh their options, comparing benefits and salary, and decide which opportunity and employer are right for them. It’s as much about the candidate interviewing you nowadays as you are them.
69% would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed! 84% would consider leaving their current jobs if offered another role with a company that had an excellent corporate reputation. And most in $75-100K salary range would only require a 1-10% salary increase to consider such a move (Allegis Group Services Study, Aug 2012: 1,010 US workers)
*Source: Allegis Group Services Study, August 2012 (1,010 US Workers)
Another tool I’d like to point out is that you can also filter on Glassdoor under the Interview tab in the Employer Center by Declined offers. This can really help gain insight into why positions might be declined and why.
The 3 Most Influential Employment Brand Messages – by CEB
Our quantitative analysis of 110+ organizations and nearly 5,000 labor market participants finds that consultative employment brand messages—ones that challenge applicants’ thinking and allow them to make better career decisions—are more influential than ones that are merely authentic, raising your applicant quality by almost 20%.
Source: Glassdoor Site Survey, October 2013
Glassdoor customers see three times the candidate traffic as compared with other job sites and in some cases, the traffic is higher than an employer’s own career page! If you aren’t actively responding to reviews and sharing your company’s message, chances are your candidates will not be informed and able to make a balanced decision to apply to your company.
Responding to reviews and getting reviews where you don’t have coverage on Glassdoor is part of your Free Employer Account. I also want to point out that in a recent survey that we did on Glassdoor that 69% of candidates perception improves when they see an employer respond to reviews. It’s your chance to put your message out there and show a candidate what you stand for as a company.
Source: Glassdoor Site Survey, October 2013
We asked job seekers in a recent survey to indicate the top five most important pieces of information they want to hear from employers. Three in four (76%) said they want details on what makes the company an attractive place to work, 70% said they want details on compensation, 62% said they want details on benefits packages, 60% want to hear the company’s mission, vision and values, and 55% said they want basic company information (i.e. number of employees, revenue, office locations and competitors.)
Also, competitors are able to advertise their jobs and initiatives on your page. This is the most important reason why it’s invaluable to claim your presence, so you don’t lose out to the competition.
Source: Glassdoor site survey oct. 2014
Smart organizations are joining the conversation to influence candidates. In today’s recruiting landscape, company information is out there whether you want it to be or not. If you aren’t actively managing your brand and reputation, someone else will write the story for you!
Ok, now is the time to go pull up your career site and your Glassdoor profile as well. View them side by side. How do they compare? Notice Glassdoor has all the information on your company job seekers indicated they want and more? Job seekers can see direct from you, the employer, a ‘Why Work for Us’ section, read up on which benefits you offer and get key company information. Plus they can see company reviews, salary reports and benefits reviews direct from employees.
Tip: Make it easier to give job seekers what they need by including a link to your Glassdoor profile direct from your careers site.
*Source: Glassdoor Survey, Oct. 2014
When updating your brand, think about the information a candidate is looking for when they decide whether or not to come and work with you. They first and foremost want to know what makes you attractive, comp and benefits packages, the company’s mission vision and values, and also how large you are and where you are located. Remember to be transparent because it only sets up everyone for success down the road.
Source: Glassdoor Internal, 2013
Box for instance, competes with companies like Google and Microsoft for talent with brand exposure among Millennials being a primary objective and increasing traffic from this audience against the competition. Before utilizing Glassdoor analytics, Box had minimal tracking abilities and no insight into competitors and nothing to compare themselves to. Working with Glassdoor, Box improved its company profile and launched marketing campaigns targeting candidates between 18 and 34. Within 30 days, traffic on Box’s Glassdoor profile increased from 30K to 81K unique visitors – 84% of which were Millennials. Seeing which candidates are coming to your page versus the demographics of candidates going to your competitor pages can help you refine your recruitment strategy to reach your target audience.
Source: Glassdoor Internal, 2013
Today’s candidates use Glassdoor every step of the journey to educate themselves about companies. For example, a candidate receives an email about a job opportunity. They immediately search “working at company” or “salary at company”. Glassdoor comes up first in their search results. They can easily prepare for an interview, and compare benefits and salary after an offer is made.
Once hired, they can leave a review on Glassdoor to help the company with its recruiting efforts.
Sources:
*Bersin by Deloitte, November, 2011
**Employer Branding Global Trends Study Report, May 2014
Sources:
*Bersin by Deloitte, November, 2011
**Employer Branding Global Trends Study Report, May 2014
Sources:
*Bersin by Deloitte, November, 2011
**Employer Branding Global Trends Study Report, May 2014
And just to wrap things up, the best way to get started is to sign up for a Glassdoor Free Employer Account. We will be sending you a link as soon as this session concludes so make sure you take the action item of signing up as soon as possible!
With a free employer account, you will receive regular emails with updates about how your profile is performing on Glassdoor and any new reviews or salary reports your company receives. Use these emails as a reminder to check in on your profile and provide any new updates. Updates can be as simple as a new office photo from a recent company event or can be a response to a new company review.
Free Employer Account:
Homepage highlights – profile visits, ratings, links to eBooks and webinars
Status to becoming an OpenCompany
Edit basic info, photos & awards, & benefits
Basic Insight Reports: pageviews, candidate demographics, & top clicked job titles, companies and locations
Filter through review and interview data