Employer Branding: How Some Employers Do It Right & Others Do It Wrong - Glassdoor for Employers

Employer Branding: How Some Employers Do It Right & Others Do It Wrong

An employer brand may be defined as the reputation your company has accrued with current, past and future employees based on specific, proactive actions they've taken.  

An employer brand is how you market your company to job seekers. It's how you present yourself-and how you respond to those who leave reviews about you.

As well, your brand may be shaped by inaction or being unaware of behaviors impacting what employees think about you.

The value of having a strong and positive employer brand is that you improve the odds of attracting not only right-fit talent, but also that your employees will align their messaging with yours, pulling your brand message forward.

Conversely, a negative employer brand has the potential to repel good talent, narrowing your pipeline and ultimately, diminishing your competitiveness within the marketplace. 

RELATED: What is Employer Branding?

Doing It Right: Verizon

For such a large, global brand, Verizon also magnifies their local and personalized presence, with finesse. For example, you can visit them on virtually any social channel, and it appears everyone is being engaged, from their chief-executive leadership to their more hands-on operators. 

EVP and Group CEO, Tami Ewin is one of the leaders at the helm ensuring this steady employer branding ship. She regularly posts to promote individuals and groups of Verizon team members engaged in both customer-focused and community-centered initiatives. She traverses various social media streams, weaving in both her professional and personal voice. 

In addition to congratulating team members for outstanding contributions and results, Erwin also showcases diverse, current-event content that aligns with the powerful Verizon brand and mission. Moreover, Erwin's knack for integrating her own narrative into published articles, further tailors her executive brand while injecting the same personal touch into the overall Verizon brand. 

RELATED: How Employer Branding Can Solve Your Recruiting Challenges

On Glassdoor, Verizon's Brand Perpetuates  

This includes a branded company page that not only boasts more than 20,000 reviews and 206 photos, but also includes a robust Overview and active Company Updates section sharing stories of specific employees and how Verizon benefits have enhanced their lives.

Deepening Verizon's employer brand is a fully fleshed out Why Work for Us section that includes robust detail on five subsections focused on 1) Your Career 2) Our People 3) Campus 4) Veterans and 5) Benefits. This tailored overview helps distinguish Verizon's employer brand from other companies who, for example, may not take such an interest in Veterans. Verizon's motto is: "We don't just thank service members. We hire them."

A featured photo denotes an employee sitting atop a skyscraper apparently working on his latest project. This powerful image is complemented by an energizing description of the Verizon mission to "connect millions of people, companies and communities with our powerful technology every day … using our award-winning network to make breakthroughs … " 

Moreover, they feature a current employee's review, with the subject line, "Cool, calm and fun," as an invigorating lead-in to the thousands of other reviews.

RELATED: Glassdoor Employer Center Guide

Doing It Wrong

It is easy to identify employer branding gone wrong. For example, those companies marginally represented or totally absent from any of the major social networking sites are not doing it well. It is not enough today to rely solely on your company website. In fact, that is not where many job seeking candidates go first - or even at all - to do their company research.

Even small or mid-sized companies are expected to show up and engage on social media in today's digitally connected world, and your "Connect with" buttons should lead employees and future employees to a cohesively branded network of content and images. 

Glassdoor makes it easy for employers to dip their toes into the water of employer branding by offering a free profile.

This easy-to-access opportunity enables real-time marketing of your company's value spurring your blank-slate blah to an engagingly branded profile. There are prompts to list your company website, location, industry and logo, as well as your CEO's name. 

The complimentary profile also offers an About Your Company section where you can discuss your why and what to job seekers, along with your mission statement, key benefits, perks and more. Free status updates and a place to showcase targeted and illustrative photos that demonstrate your company's culture, also are available here.

Additionally, if someone interacts with your company on any of the sites on which you post your profile, a timely response is expected.

For smaller companies, where continual interaction may be more onerous, consider including messaging on your profile that indicates your typical response time; e.g., two, four, 24 hours (or, whatever amount of time makes sense).

Managing expectations and consistency is crucial to an effective social networking presence and thus, a more polished employer brand.

 RELATED: The Benefits of Responding to Reviews

Poor Employer Branding Tactics

This occurs when position descriptions, company mission statements and other marketing content on your company website and social networking profiles are incongruent to the reality once employees come aboard. 

The negative message quickly gets out. Searing opinions appear as reviews on Glassdoor and other social networking sites. They also are discussed during behind-closed-door conversations that disgruntled employees have with their friends.

Moreover, not responding to negative reviews on Glassdoor will diminish your employer brand, over time. Even if the review was unsubstantiated, showing you care enough about your employees to respond to specific criticism of your brand may help to turn lemons into lemonade. This may include specific actions your leadership has taken to resolve the situation or concern, going forward.

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How to Respond to Reviews