Why is Employer Branding in recruitment so essential?

ItMatch is first and foremost a recruitment agency and employment is our specialty. Nevertheless, Employer Branding is especially close to our hearts. How do we combine these two areas, why is EB essential to successfully closing positions these days, and how much can your company gain? You will find all this information below.

The thin line between Employer Branding and marketing

In some sense, Employer Branding is similar to marketing. Actually, in both fields it is about creating a specific effect through persuasive communication through specific channels. Note that EB activities are aimed at "selling" a job offer to the best candidates in the market. To achieve that, we look for the elements of the advertisement and the features of the open position that can attract the best possible professionals.

Employer Branding also takes from branding - when building a company's image in the eyes of candidates, we use the organization's brand and reputation. For example, our client CAE boasts a reputation in the aviation sector and a stable market position, while Zilch bases its message on modernity and rapid growth. In EB, everything matters - a logo that reflects the company's soul, organizational culture, position in the industry, and even the color scheme of the office. We also take advantage of the client's established norms, such as the opportunity to work remotely, part-time employment, an indefinite employment contract from the initial day of cooperation and high training budgets.

How does EB affect IT recruitment?

Employer Branding is apparent in a variety of branches - in banking, insurance, the fashion industry and also in IT. Its importance is not always the same, as it depends on the specifics of the sector. In the case of technology, we have to deal with high employee turnover, high demand for qualified specialists and their high expectations, not necessarily salary. For this reason, the IT industry depends on Employer Branding and investment in these activities usually brings excellent results.

EB is especially important when a company is focusing on hiring post-millenials (i.e. representatives of Generation Z). According to statistics, more and more people are using social media to find jobs and trying to figure out as much as possible about the company they are applying to. Besides the obvious tools such as Linkedin, NoFluffJobs and Glassdoor, candidates like to use Facebook groups, Instagram or even TikTok. It very often turns out that a significant part of the feedback comes from people who participated in the recruitment, but were not hired by the company. For this reason, from the very first contact with a candidate, we should be concerned about a culture of feedback and build a good reputation for the company.

It is worth noting that up to 83% of candidates in the IT industry prefer to earn a little less, but work in a more reputable and developmental place. This is confirmed by another study, which found as many as 2.5 times more applications for offers from companies with strong reputation. The reason is actually quite simple - the vast majority of technology professionals still have many years of their careers ahead of them, and experience gained at an industry leader is very valuable on every resume. That's why it's worth investing in maintaining a good atmosphere in the office, benefits and effectively communicating company values.

EB activities in the hands of an IT recruitment agency

If your company decides to hire an IT recruitment agency, it is a wise decision to cooperate in the field of Employer Branding as well. In practice, it brings only benefits - your organization will find more matched and more qualified employees, improve its image among people involved in the recruitment process and the chances of closing all positions will increase significantly. What's more, well-run EB allows you to reach a wider range of candidates, giving you a larger pool of professionals to choose from, even in the future.

Employer Branding in recruitment can take many forms - it ranges from promoting the client's company on a daily basis in direct messages to candidates, participating in the creation of content for social media and representing the client at industry events. In the case of itMatch, recruiters publish posts on our profiles and advise clients on the development of their fanpages.

What should you expect from a good recruitment agency?

When engaging in assistance with EB, recruiters should:

• Gather and then analyze data on the client's current image and the opinions of recruited people about the client, and compare it with data on the competitors;
• Actively cooperate with both the internal EB department and Hiring Managers;
• Participate in conferences and events related to the IT industry;
• Ensure the quality of advertisements and pay attention to the exposure of the client's strengths;
• Maintain a high level of candidate experience, for example, through the use of good recruiting practices, providing feedback and adequate preparation for client-side interviews;
• Assist and advise on content creation for social media purposes.

What results can you expect if you outsource EB to your recruitment agency?

Among other things, our clients gain:

• Access to up-to-date information on the opinions of recruited applicants;
• Increased brand awareness among their candidates;
• Suggestions for possible enhancements to help improve the effectiveness of both EB and recruitment processes;
• Higher chances for effective closing of recruitment;
• Lower costs of the overall recruitment process by speeding it up and increasing the pool of candidates we screen;
• More qualified and better-matched employees.

Summary

When creating this article, we spent a long time thinking about what information to include. Employer Branding in recruitment is an issue we could discuss for hours! We hope we've at least given you some insight into the topic and reduced your doubts about whether it pays to partner with an IT recruitment agency.

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