How to develop the employer brand of an SME?

SMEs have understood the importance of developing their employer brand. They have adopted HR marketing strategies long the preserve of large groups, driven by a tight job market and a new, ultra-connected generation in search of "meaning at work."

But what exactly is an"employer brand"? Why is it important for small and medium-sized companies? How can it be defined and deployed? And what strategy should be used to stand out from the competition of the big brands?

What is an employer brand?

Definition of employer brand

The employer brand is the image that candidates have of a company. The job market is competitive. The notion of employer brand implies the existence of other economic players with whom SMEs must compete for talent acquisition and retention.

Employer branding exists, whether it is chosen or not. It depends on three factors:

1. Management
2. The values
3. HR policy

These three elements are often deeply rooted in the habits of employees. If managers want to change one of them, they must be prepared to manage the change. It is strongly advised to involve employees in the decisions so that they adhere to them.

In an ideal world, they make up the employer promise. This is the set of benefits associated with working for the company. It must be adapted to the targeted candidates.

But in reality, the employer promise is a constant negotiation between the three elements mentioned (management, values, HR policy) and the expectations of employees and candidates.

Let's take the example of a stationery factory that used to outsource the management of its IT assets. When it decides to launch a service of sending postcards directly from the Internet (to adapt to the market), it takes the decision to internalize the IT skills and create a new IT department.

The employer's promise, which was previously effective in recruiting workers and support staff, is proving to be ineffective in attracting developer profiles: no time off, no telecommuting, no meal vouchers, etc.

In order to achieve its project, this company will have to adapt its employer brand.

The employer brand is dynamic

Employer branding is not fixed, it is the result of an HR marketing strategy that meets two imperatives:

1. Candidates' expectations
2. Candidate behaviors

The job market is constantly changing. The vision of work is changing and so are expectations.

In times of severe skill shortages, the balance of power tends to be reversed between employers and candidates.

Some advertisements do not generate any applications. In a market where the number of talents is decreasing, the concentration phenomenon is increasing. Candidates prefer to look for the best offers (salary, benefits, job security, development prospects, work environment, company culture, etc.).

In a context where generations Y and Z are more attentive to values, the search for meaning, and are hyper-connected, SMEs must make significant efforts to remain attractive.

Candidates are no longer looking 15 or 20 years ahead. They change jobs more regularly (every 5 years on average) and the 2020s have seen the explosion of freelancing.

This new trend is a boon for SMEs. They have the ability to offer a more personalized employee experience, unlike large groups where everyone is a number.

But you still have to communicate it. And we will see how later in this article.

Why is employer branding important for an SME?

Retain employees

A strong employer brand creates a sense of belonging that builds loyalty among your employees. It reduces turnover by 28%. In addition, loyal employees are the company's best advocates.

We will see below how to implement an employee advocacy strategy easily and at low cost to attract talent and qualified leads.

The key is to have an employer brand that is perfectly aligned with your corporate culture.

Attracting talent

According to a Deloitte study, only 9% of students want to work in an SME, compared to 59% in a large company.

The employer brand you choose allows you to attract talent. By making the effort to launch an HR project, you are already setting yourself apart.

Reduce recruitment costs

A study by Link Humans reports that a strong employer brand reduces recruitment costs by 43%.

By receiving more unsolicited applications, you save on several levels:

• Advertising costs
• Fees for service providers
• Workload on HR teams

Improve your image

Your employer brand also influences your business brand. You improve spontaneous awareness and it is associated with human values, authenticity, etc.

Strengthen the sense of belonging

When the employer brand is affirmed, it creates a feeling of belonging to the group and of exclusivity. Employees feel privileged and this benefits recruitment:

• Brand Attractiveness
• Co-option

How to create an employer brand for a small business?

Defining your employer brand when you are a small business

To define your employer brand, follow these three steps:

1. Internal Audit
2. Define your personas
3. Create your employer promise

Your internal audit will focus on HR and management practices, HR KPIs, and the employee experience.

You can evaluate your career site, recruitment process, onboarding, internal mobility policy, etc. Complete this step with HR indicators: turnover, absenteeism rate, cost per hire, etc.

A management audit makes it possible to realize realities that we have sometimes chosen not to see. How are your teams organized? Who really holds the power? It is possible that your manager has only a facade authority and that a collaborator with a lot of seniority or expertise is the person to whom everyone turns. How do you handle failure? How do you evaluate performance? What model of success does your company promote? When you're done internally, you should also audit your online reputation. What reviews do you get on the major sites (Google, Glassdoor, etc.). Then, create personas of the candidates you want to attract. These candidate personas dig into the academic, socio-demographic and psychological profile of the talent you are looking for. Don't stop at diplomas:

• His motivations
• His interests
• His career goals
• His professional expectations

Define your employer promise

With all this information, define your employer promise

• Salary and benefits
• Intangible benefits: status, recognition, self-esteem, etc.
• Material benefits: working conditions, interest of the missions, etc.

Formulate your employer promise to make your SME attractive.

Deploying your employer branding strategy

When your employer brand is ready, it's time to deploy it on all accessible media. We'll look at how to use employees as leverage to multiply your organic reach on social networks without blowing your communication budget.

There are 6 tools to deploy your employer brand:

1. Job boards
2. Video platforms
3. The rating sites
4. Your career site
5. Social networks
6. The local economic fabric

Job boards

You use them to publish your job offers, the perfect opportunity to maintain your employer brand.

Most follow a classic pattern:

• The company
• The position and its missions
• The profile we are looking for
• Salary and benefits

Try to be more original to stand out. Use a tone adapted to your positioning, but also to the people you are targeting.

We recommend that you personalize the ad. The presentation of the company must answer the questions that each category of candidate has. A CFO will not expect the same information as a marketing assistant or an administrative assistant.

Be specific in the missions and avoid generalities. If the body of the ad seems too short, put a link to a page that will allow you to add rich content (videos, images, employee testimonials, etc.).

The easiest and cheapest way is to create a page on Notion like Skeelz did.

Take a page from Welcome to the Jungle, for example.

Talent nurturing

Your recruitment funnel allows you to make candidates aware of your employer brand. It takes the logic of the marketing conversion funnel and applies its principles to recruitment.

The talent nurturing stage consists of offering personalized content to certain candidates through a newsletter, a blog, etc.

Video platforms

Before rushing to TikTok, take the time to study the socio-demographic criteria of your targets and the most interesting format for the message you want to convey.

Here are the different platforms that offer you the possibility to publish video content:

• Youtube
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook

The specialized platforms Youtube and TikTok are the ones that will give you the best reach. TikTok has a very high virality factor. While many brands, museums, and companies are on it, there is very limited content to illustrate your employer brand.

Short formats are more difficult to master and we recommend that you take advice before jumping in. The platform is nevertheless the best in terms of organic reach. You can reach hundreds of thousands of people very quickly.

You have to find the right tone, the right format... and the employees who are willing to play the game.

Youtube is close to television and allows you to publish several types of content:

• Job offer
• Behind the scenes of the company
• Training
• Events
• Employee interviews

Video doesn't have much reach on LinkedIn. The social network has launched a new mixed format that will surely be highlighted by the algorithm: carousels. They mix image and video presentation.

The rating sites

Employees are more and more involved in their job search. They consult rating sites before applying: Glassdoor, Choose My Company, Google, etc.

This is why it is crucial that your employer brand is congruent with your corporate culture and why an internal diagnosis must be made before launching your communication campaigns.

A career site

Your career site should reflect your image. This can be an investment if it dates back to the 2000s. Design and UX/UI are evolving rapidly. The reliability of a company is judged by its website. You wouldn't book your vacation on a site that doesn't look up to date. Candidates do the same thing. If you don't have one, use the Notion page idea.

The lever of social networks

Social networks allow you to use the most effective and least expensive lever for your SME: employee advocacy.

Employees and managers can create 4 forms of content and share it on the Internet.

Evergreen content does not get stale. They are intended to address concepts and topics that will not suffer the passage of time. Evergreen blog posts (like this one) deal with timeless themes. They do not refer to dates, events, regulations, the law, or current events in general.

You can share the behind-the-scenes of your company, its culture, through the testimony of employees. This content can be published on your blog, Youtube, as articles on LinkedIn, etc.

Urgent contents are time sensitive, they are the exact opposite of evergreen. They report or react to specific events. These contents are perfect for social networks in the form of posts, tweets, short formats, etc.

The other two formats are those that share a vision or expertise. They are written by top management and employees.

If you want to publish content regularly on social networks, we recommend using LinkedIn. The professional network is suitable for SME communication. It has evolved and we see more and more publications that are not directly related to the professional field.

The written format (a post is about 400 words) is preferred by the algorithm.

You can keep your company page alive, but LinkedIn emphasizes personal profiles. The best strategy is to communicate via the profile of at least one manager and several employees.

This is the Avengers strategy. It consists in creating a snowball effect by accumulating audiences from different accounts rather than focusing on one.

Make sure you optimize your profile and agree on an editorial line. But leave your employees free to write what they want. Their tone should be spontaneous and free. Authenticity is the best weapon to differentiate yourself on the network.

Exist in the local economic fabric

An SME must exist in the local economic fabric if it wants to attract talent. There are several ways to do this:

• Organization of events
• Participation in events (trade show, job fair)
• Sponsorship and patronage

Of the thousands of companies around you, only a few are active. It won't take much effort to quickly stand out.

The CCI are often very open to hosting professional events, so don't hesitate to ask them.

Employer branding is one of the most powerful levers for your SME to attract the best talent. Be an actor of your reputation and make candidates want to come and work for you.