Employer branding is a recruiting tactic that boasts impressive benefits. For starters, organizations with a strong employer reputation see their cost-per-hire decrease by 43 percent compared to their competitors, according to LinkedIn.
Organizations that utilize employer branding are able to reshape their narrative to let potential applicants know what it’s really like to work there. Creating an employer branding strategy that reflects what early-career candidates want from an employer can have a huge impact on your business. Let’s start with two traits top talent looks for: self-development and career mobility.
Growth is so important for an employee’s career. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” That’s why it’s critical for your organization to provide continued learning and development programs for your staff.
Companies want their staff to be able to reskill—96 percent of all managers believe reskilling is important for all workers. For Millennials and Gen Z, it’s a necessary part of their career trajectories: According to CNBC, 30 percent of them believe it’s their responsibility to reskill as technological advances change the way people work. Both organizations and employees are the beneficiaries of continued learning, since workers who ensure their skills stay relevant are 3x more likely to be high performers, per Gartner’s Global Labor Market Survey.
Since both businesses and employees benefit from learning and reskilling programs, it’s a slam dunk to both have and promote them. In fact, according to Gartner, 17 percent of Millennials and 23 percent of Gen Z cite them as a top reason to join an organization. That’s why creating content that highlights these sorts of programs can have a quantifiable impact on your early-career recruitment.
Pro-tip: Make sure you not only use language that engages this demographic, but also highlight what makes your reskilling courses stand out from the competition. Interview current employees who have graduated from these sorts of programs and let them tell their stories in their own words. Include pictures and maybe even short video clips that provide further insights into them. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even create an Instagram Story spotlighting both the technical parts of the programs and the real people who have benefited from participating in them.
If you clearly and proficiently communicate that message, you’ll be able to measure the impact as your qualified candidate pool increases.
When it comes to work, Millennials and Gen Z are more inclined to take a step sideways—through lateral mobility—to move two steps forward in their career.
The Deloitte 2019 Human Capital Trends report argues that talent mobility has never been more paramount to your organization’s success: “At leading organizations, mobility should be perceived as a natural, normal progression instead of as a major change in one’s career.”
This is becoming the new reality. While 76 percent of organizations believe talent mobility is important, only 40 percent feel ready or very ready, per the Deloitte report. With a very tight labor market—the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 3.5 percent unemployment rate in September—demonstrating that your organization provides opportunities for lateral movement can help you attract and hire top early-career talent before your competitors do.
Just look at Northern Trust, for example. They do more than simply allow their talent to change teams, departments, and business units—they encourage it!
Northern Trust partnered with WayUp to spotlight their commitment to career development and internal mobility in a branded content campaign published across the WayUp platform and on social media. In an interview with the WayUp team, Hannah, the Scrum Master on Northern Trust’s Block Chain Project, explained, “It’s not always about climbing upward. It’s about finding a role where you can develop professionally and diversify your career path.” Hannah was one of three employees featured in the series, which empowered employees to share their experiences in their own words—and in their authentic voices.
These are just a few examples of how your business can show its commitment to internal mobility and career development. The main takeaway? If you double down on employer branding and create content that provides an authentic look into how your organization promotes and cultivates its workforce, you’ll see interest and engagement spike among top early-career candidates.
