Talent is in high demand across industries in Asia – and candidates want to align themselves with brands that resonate with and excite them.

Improving your employer branding is a powerful way to attract the right talent, and over the last decade, businesses have begun to recognise this, prompting them to invest heavily in this area. Companies that do it well are seeing its impact on their broader business goals.

But what is employer branding? At its core, it’s about building relationships and positioning a company as an employer of choice. Today, the ubiquitous use of social media means brands can and should use their digital platforms to engage with talent and grow their business.

However, this isn’t simply about being present on digital platforms – organisations must engage with audiences by sharing their culture and broader vision of where the company wants to go.

Define your culture clearly

Does your organisation have a flat structure? Do you offer inclusive leave policies? Are you on a sustainability mission? Do you support flexi-working? Before you embark on an employer branding strategy, it is important to define your internal culture. Once you’ve done this, you can adapt management styles and retrain managers to match your corporate culture, as well as further align all other HR policies with your new-found culture guidelines.

Understand the needs of the talent you want to attract 

Delve deep into the demographics of your business and understand where the gaps are – across functions and roles. What type of talent do you need and with what skills? If you are able to hire these people, how is the business likely to grow?

Today’s workforce is cross-generational and consists of Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z and they all have very different requirements when searching for a job. Some value salary and compensation above everything else, while others look for growth opportunities and work-life balance. To stay on top of jobseekers’ needs, companies must create a talent framework that identifies people’s behaviours and motivations and then develop an employer branding strategy to demonstrate how they can meet these employee needs. 

Digitise the employee experience

Before kick-starting any employer branding plan, it is important to digitise the overall employee experience. This includes creating a digital environment that leads to more collaboration in the workforce. This means organisations must adopt digital tools throughout the employee journey from recruitment to onboarding and career progression. 

“Effective employer branding has shifted to become more interactive and personalized based on the target audience and outcome,” said Aya Tanimizu, Head of Brand and Marketing Management, RGF International Recruitment. “When focusing on internal branding, it is vital to have a clear understanding of profile of the audience: tech-savvy Gen X and Millennial employees look out for flexibility and faster growth opportunities in the workplace, so top-down and one-way approaches toward employee engagement will not be effective. Instead, businesses should offer more creative ways for employees to share their thoughts, which will in turn increase engagement from all employees. 

Develop a content marketing plan

In a digital era where candidates want to access information quickly, it’s important to have a robust content marketing strategy to communicate your employer brand. Talk to your management teams and employees and share regular and relevant content to strengthen your employer brand and improve the hiring success. We know that candidates appreciate fresh insights and information, but don’t sell or overshare. By creating interesting and thought-provoking content, you will gain the trust of jobseekers and position your business as a great place to work at. 

“In order to effectively capitalize on the digital trend, employers have to have a clear understanding of their top management and also the younger generation and come up with the right messaging and EVP to attract them,” said Tanimizu. “Being able to proactively come up with new digital and innovative solutions will also be an added advantage.” 

Promote, promote, promote!

Creating content is only half the job done. Put your marketing hat on and use the right platforms to share the content with your audience where they already are. For example, organisations can use LinkedIn to share company related news and thought leadership while Facebook and Instagram are effective for more casual updates. 

Beyond this, it’s important to empower your current employees to create and share content, too. In fact, content shared by employees can reach a much wider audience and often is more engaged with as it holds an additional level of credibility. Your employees are an extension of your brand and are your most trusted advocates – so harness them! 

We live in a rapidly changing digital age, so it’s important to constantly monitor and evolve your employer brand to effectively attract and retain the best talent.

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