According to iHire‘s 2019 Employer Branding Pulse Survey, 39.1 per cent of US companies do not have an employer branding strategy. Further, 20.1 per cent of respondents were “unsure” of their branding efforts – signalling a market need for guidance on building, promoting, and maintaining a positive employer brand.
Although just 40.7 per cent of organisations surveyed had a branding strategy, that group understood the value of a strong employer brand: 51.7 per cent said employer branding is critical to recruiting top talent, 30.1 per cent said it’s critical to retaining top talent, 51.2 per cent said it supports their broader marketing efforts, and 41.2 per cent said it builds credibility and trust with internal and external stakeholders. Further, companies with a branding strategy are relying on a mix of channels to communicate their identity, with social media, company homepages, external job postings, company career pages, and marketing collateral emerging as the top five most popular channels.
“An extremely competitive job market requires employers to make extra efforts to stand out from the competition if they want to recruit and retain top talent,” said Steve Flook, president and CEO, iHire. “That’s why employer brand – the perception of an organisation held by current and potential employees – has become so important.”
Survey responses from those without a strategy or unsure of their initiatives confirmed that the concept of employer branding remains somewhat ambiguous to a number of hiring professionals. When asked why they hadn’t created an employer branding strategy, 39.8 per cent of respondents said they didn’t know enough about employer branding in general, 24 per cent said they had never heard of employer branding, and 28 per cent said they are too small of a company. Other popular answers included a lack of budget, infrequent hiring, and a shortage of staff and/or resources.
“Every company has an employer brand, whether they’ve intentionally created it or not,” Flook continued. “However, building and promoting that brand is not contingent on size, budget, resources, or hiring needs. We hope our research and advice will help employers enhance their branding efforts to attract qualified candidates, establish trust with job applicants, and boost their overall reputation.”
A total of 688 US employers responded to iHire’s survey in June 2019. Surveys were sent to its database of members and non-members across 56 industries.
For more insights from iHire’s 2019 Employer Branding Pulse Survey, download the free eBook, “Employer Branding Demystified.”
