By Kelly Barcelos

Employer branding is becoming more and more important for companies. It is a really effective way to stand out from the competitors and attract the right kind of talent in a talent-rich market, making your hiring strategy effective. In fact, good employer branding can motivate job seekers to act. 

You can use social media for strong employer brand and reach out to a wide net of job seekers. However, avoid making the following mistakes: 

• Trying to Imitate Other Companies 

Every company is unique in its own way and they must highlight that message in their branding. A lot of big companies brand themselves as the best company to work for by highlighting their work culture and offerings. 

However, trying to emulate other companies would be a bad idea. If you market yourself as something you are not, it won’t take too long for the new employees to figure that out. That may cause them to move on to better opportunities. Present exactly what the applicants can expect from working in your company. 

• Not Having a Clear Identity 

One of the biggest employer branding mistakes is trying to attract every job seeker out there. When you tell exactly what every applicant wants to hear rather than telling what you actually need to, you will attract a wide variety of job seekers. And that would be bad because you may attract the wrong candidates too. If you end up hiring one of those candidates, they will either get disengaged at work or leave the company within a few months. 

In order to define an employer brand that is unique to you, consider the factors that make your company different from the rest. Understand what characteristics you want in your employees and market the same to the interested candidates. When you identify yourself better as a company, you will attract the candidates who would be fit for you. 

• Not Connecting to Your Audience 

Your brand message must resonate with the job seekers and meet their needs. If you cannot speak directly to them, they will search for a job in a company that looks and sounds appealing. 

Spend some time to understand your target audience. This will enable you to identify the best ways to communicate with them. Separate yourself from the clutter and create a brand that speaks to them. 

• Getting Lost in the Web

There are many companies looking for the same kind of talent that you intend to hire. This is why you must make sure that your career site is one of the first ones that pop up when candidates apply online.  

Even if your site is not the first option in the search engine, you can implement the best SEO practices to boost online visibility. This way you can make sure that the job seekers discover your career site during their job search. Once they engage with your site, the likeliness of them applying for a job with your company will increase. 

• Not Promoting Recruitment Content

It is important to create great recruiting content. However, investing in just creating content without allocating some budget to promote it would a massive mistake. It is crucial that you put the right distribution strategy in place so that you can reach out to the right candidates. 

Promote the content beyond your career site. You can take help of advanced targeting options that will help your job ad reach out to more people. Collaborate with experienced recruitment partners or put it on popular job sites. 

Unique employer branding in HR will help you reach out to exactly the kind of employees you seek. Investing in creating a solid brand will make your company an inviting and attractive place to work at. This, in turn, will motivate candidates to apply to your company. 

• Making The Application Process Harder

If your application process it is lengthy and difficult, you may not attract the right talent. When you make the applicants clear unnecessary hurdles and make it harder for them to apply, they will move on to something else.

You can use a recruitment software like an applicant tracking system to make the application process simpler. Candidates will be able to apply easily and it will also allow you to contact the qualified candidates with ease. 

• Prioritizing Just the Job

Candidates consider the work culture and environment of the company also when they apply. If you do not highlight these details when you put up the job postings, you are not giving the candidates a clear picture of what you have to offer.

Put up videos and pictures of the workplace and give a glimpse of company culture. This will compel more candidates to apply and work for your company. 

Unique employer branding in HR will help you reach out to exactly the kind of employees you seek. Investing in creating a solid brand will make your company an inviting and attractive place to work at. This, in turn, will motivate candidates to apply to your company

Author Bio: Kelly Barcelos is a progressive digital marketing manager for Jobsoid – Applicant Tracking System. She is responsible for leading the content and social media teams at work. Her expertise and experience in the field of HR enables her to create value-driven content for her readers – both on Jobsoid’s blog and other guest blogs where she publishes content regularly.