The tech industry is highly competitive. Strong and innovative employer brands attract the best candidates. Employer branding is an important area that tech companies should address when recruiting. When considering job opportunities, tech professionals desire a holistic view of the company they might work for and value insights into factors that will shape their day-to-day work life and overall career trajectory within the organization.
In this guide, we outline key elements of employer branding in tech recruiting and discuss branding strategies to promote engagement with potential employees.
Build Your Strategy
To create a successful employer brand, explore strategies that appeal to tech professionals. Here are some tips on how you can build an effective employer brand strategy:
Define Your Unique Selling Proposition
The goal of creating a compelling employer brand is to convey your unique selling proposition. You must demonstrate what sets you apart from the competition and why potential employees should choose your company. The culture, mission, values and work environment should be stimulating enough to attract tech candidates. Google has demonstrated this by building its brand around innovation and the company's positive impact on the world. SpaceX has achieved the same with a branding strategy that revolves around an emphasis on making life multi-planetary.
Develop a Clear Vision to Tailor Your Employee Value Proposition
A company that promotes positivity, inclusivity, diversity and autonomy may be attractive to potential employees. An employer branding strategy should focus on creating a positive brand and conveying the employer value proposition to attract high-quality talent. If you develop a positive culture for your company, you can better attract top candidates, improve productivity and reduce employee turnover.
Focus On Your Story
It's important to build an employer branding strategy based on storytelling. Use compelling content to tell your brand's story by highlighting the key elements of employer branding in tech.
Highlight Your Technologies, Projects, and Contributions
Build your story around your achievements. Highlight your technologies, successful projects and contributions. For example, GitHub has always focused on telling the world about its role in creating platforms that facilitate software development collaboration. Tesla emphasizes its advanced technology in developing electric vehicles.
Emphasize Your Commitment to Employee Growth and Development
Spotlight your brand and convey your commitment to employee growth. Talk about career advancement opportunities and skill-building strategies that are in place within your organization. Companies such as Microsoft and Facebook have been very emphatic about their commitment to helping employees grow, learn and experiment using advanced technologies and tools to change the face of the company.
Turn Your Team Into Advocates
The best spokespersons for a company are its current employees. Your team members should experience the values the company claims to have. They should be able to see that their employer believes in inclusivity, transparency and collaboration and is consistently working toward creating a positive company culture. If they experience these values, they'll be your biggest advocates.
Foster a Positive Company Culture
A positive company culture is the strength behind your employer brand. This is especially true for tech professionals who prefer to work for companies that promote autonomy and empowerment and encourage them to share their opinions and make decisions. For example, Atlassian has focused on promoting its unique company culture and highlighting its values of openness, teamwork and empathy. Similarly, Netflix strongly advocates a culture of freedom and responsibility, encouraging employees to take risks.
Showcase Authentic Employee Stories and Testimonials
Your employees are your most influential brand ambassadors. If you offer a safe and satisfying work environment, they'll be willing to share their stories and give authentic and genuine testimonials. Allow them to share their experiences and dedication to ensuring corporate success. Apple is one company that regularly features employee stories on its corporate website. Airbnb also shares employee testimonials, allowing them to demonstrate what it's like working for the company.
Showcase What Makes You Special
Challenges and advanced technologies attract tech professionals. Don't just use words to project an image. Show that what you say is what you mean through legitimate action.
Share Your Tech Stack and Projects
Highlight your unique stack and innovative projects to make your employer brand stand out. Talk about the technologies your teams are involved in. Differentiate yourself from your competitors by demonstrating the cutting-edge tools and frameworks your employees use. An innovative mindset is important when attracting tech professionals and also critical for a tech company's success.
Demonstrate Your Commitment to Technology Excellence
The tech sector is constantly experimenting with advanced technology. To attract the best talent, you must demonstrate your company's dedication to keeping up with the rapid development. Convey your vision and emphasize your commitment to technology excellence.
Engage Where Your Potential Employees Are
Your goal is to attract talented tech professionals. You need to know where to find them, engage with them and get their attention.
Participate in Tech Communities and Social Media Platforms
Develop a strong brand promotion strategy by participating in tech communities and social media platforms. Social media can make or break your first impression. Create engaging content that provides updates about your company and encourages conversation. This content should showcase thought leadership and highlight your company values. Amazon Web Services has been active in the tech community space to establish itself as a leading tech employer. Salesforce shares content on social media platforms and actively engages with tech professionals.
Continuously Monitor and Improve Your Employer Brand
Focus on continuous brand monitoring, as this will help drive improvement. Evaluate employee satisfaction by assessing retention rate, following online reviews and getting employee feedback through surveys. Amazon regularly collects employee and candidate feedback through surveys and focus groups. Cisco assesses the strength of its employer brand through employee satisfaction surveys and external benchmarking.
Invest in Your Employer Brand Today
We can't overstate the benefits of a strong employer brand in attracting tech talent. Skilled professionals in this industry are in high demand. If you want to filter and attract the best talent, you have to create a positive brand identity. Investing in your employer brand today can provide long-term benefits in terms of increased productivity, better employee engagement, greater employee loyalty, and reduced employee turnover.
If you need help developing an effective and successful employer branding strategy, contact Dice for all your hiring and staffing needs. Our experienced staff is here to help identify top talent for your company and save you time, money, and resources by sourcing and screening the best candidates. Contact us for complete employer branding solutions that are designed for your unique needs.
