Three companies that have nailed employer branding

Employer branding is vital for companies to attract and retain the best talent. Promoting your company’s brand, values and culture is essential to make your company stand out from the crowd when it comes to recruitment.

Employer branding is just one part of something we call People Marketing at Sage People – applying traditional consumer marketing techniques to your workforce, to ensure you not only attract, but retain, the best.

People Marketing is also just as important for your existing workforce; reinforcing why your company is a great place to work and showing them how much they are valued will ensure their heads won’t be turned by your competitors.

Here are three companies that we think have nailed employer branding and People Marketing – and why.

1. Zappos

Zappos is a great example of how to use social media successfully to bolster employer branding. The company’s Instagram page, InsideZappos, reveals what it’s really like to work at the online retailer, with staff posting pictures and videos daily showing it as a fun, quirky and playful company to work for.

Recent pictures have highlighted activities from outdoor spin classes, donut eating competitions and birthday cakes, to truth or dare games in training sessions, and staff playing a piano at work.

A strong theme of ‘giving back’ is also evident from employees posting about various community projects such as a Karma Adventure involving the Salvation Army, and staff helping out at a local food bank

With comments from its 2,600 followers saying things like ‘One day I hope I get to work at this amazing company’ and ‘I want to work there so bad’, clearly Zappos has nailed how its seen externally.

But it’s not just Zappos’ social media presence which demonstrates why they’ve nailed People Marketing. The company puts a lot of thought into how they attract the best once candidates are in for interviews.

Zappos has two sets of interviews: the skills interview and the culture interview, and candidates must pass both. The culture interview is based on Zappos’ 10 Core Values. If an applicant doesn’t pass it, they don’t move forward in the process, regardless of how good a technical fit they may be. Creating an interview process that reviews more than just technical skills allows companies and candidates to develop a better understanding of each other’s values.

Everyone that’s hired at Zappos also goes through the same four-week training program, part of which is taking calls from customers. At the end of that first week of training, they’re offered $3,000 if they decide the job isn’t for them. Very few take it.

2. Salesforce

LinkedIn is a great platform for boosting your employer brand and Salesforce uses it to its full potential. With over 830,000 followers on LinkedIn, Salesforce uses the networking site as its own careers hub, posting current job vacancies along with insights into its employees from where they work, to their seniority level, education and skills.

Under a section called ‘Life’, the tech company also highlights its culture and values, from meaningful work, to having good people and its unparalleled rewards. It also includes employee testimonials and has a chart depicting the social causes that employees are involved in.

Salesforce is also another strong example of leveraging the power of Instagram. Using the hashtag ‘dreamjob’, Salesforce uses Instagram to show off the exciting lives of its employees both inside and outside of work. It then cleverly links job seekers directly to the company’s careers page, where the #dreamjob theme continues, making it easier for prospective employees to jump straight from Instagram to applying for a job.

Again, the company also practices what it preaches on its external social media channels. The company is vocal about the fact that they center their company around the Hawaiian concept of Ohana, which means family. This is reflected from the events which the company runs – where family members are invited – to their progressive flexible working policies which are designed so that employees don’t have to ‘decide’ between a career or family.

3. Veterans United

Employees using the hashtag ‘VUrocks’ on Twitter caught our eye from this home loans company. Veterans United is clearly doing something right to have so many of its staff constantly tweeting about what a great place it is to work and sharing photos from their working day.

Looking at the company’s careers page it’s clear that many people love working at the organisation, with employee testimonials about what a great ‘family’ VU is to work.

Another savvy part of the careers section for job seekers is a ‘Put your strengths to work’ section that lists lots of different traits and responsibilities such as ‘detail driven’ or ‘results oriented’; when you click on a trait it reveals the type of role you’d be suited for within the company and tells you more about the role and department.

The company values and culture are strongly highlighted throughout the careers section and the whole page feels like a real celebration of its people.

As these three examples show, a key focus for successful employer branding involves engaging with your people and enrolling them to be the ambassadors of your company. If you can encourage them to share their experiences through social media then you’ll really bolster your employer brand. And allowing your staff to tell their stories in their own words is also important and will make your employer branding more authentic.

Finally, it’s no coincidence that all the examples we’ve mentioned are experiencing huge growth. They know that if they deliver great workforce experiences for their people, then they’ll get the best from them.

Now, what’s stopping you from boosting your employer branding?