#5. Branding
How You Present Your Brand to Technologists (Both Employees and Candidates) Will Be Just as Critical as the Benefits You Provide
What You Need to Know
Today, building a funnel of active and passive tech candidates for your organization requires a robust brand; one which is deliberate, data-driven and continually nurtured.
Given the unique challenges organizations face in trying to attract and retain high-demand tech talent, branding is proving to be an increasingly crucial differentiating factor in a technologist’s decision to join your organization (and choose you over competitors). Check out our Guide to Employer Branding for more step-by-step guidance on how to create a culture and brand that resonates with technologists.
Your brand as an employer may be something that rarely hits the agenda during leadership conversations, or it could be something that’s always top-of-mind and frequently discussed. Regardless, it’s a part of how candidates view you and your organization, and it’s more important now than ever.
Focusing on your brand can benefit your hiring strategy in a number of ways, but most importantly, it can help you rise above the competition for tech talent, set yourself up for future tech recruitment success and improve retention of tech talent (an especially high priority in today’s ultra-competitive market).
92% of people would consider changing jobs if offered a role with a company with an excellent corporate reputation.
Tech innovation remains on a trajectory that is unmatched by anything we’ve seen before. From accelerated digitization plans due to lockdowns associated with COVID-19, to integration of artificial intelligence in business operations, to corporations rocketing into space, the demand for tech talent only shows signs of growth. Microsoft also estimates that, by 2025, there will be an estimated 149 million new technology jobs.
Businesses will continue to employ technologists with skills that can keep core functionalities running, but also help them innovate and push the envelope on change. According to a survey of executives conducted by Ernst & Young, nearly two-thirds of global companies planned to increase investments in tech and digital in 2021. Building your brand reputation with technologists now will ensure your company is top of mind when they start looking for their next opportunity — whether it be in 2022 or in the years to come.
These trajectories and a growing interest from employees in entertaining other opportunities make it all the more vital to retain top tech talent as demand continues to increase. Rather than scrambling to compete with offers from other organizations, boost retention by building trust through branding.
Our research has shown that when candidates see a recruiter’s profile on Dice with complete information about the recruiter and/or company, over 90% are more likely to:
- Trust the recruiter
- Want to learn more
- Respond to the recruiter
- Apply for a job
Perhaps the most critical element here is ensuring that your outward brand, how you talk about your organization, culture and values, fit what it’s actually like to work there. Putting time toward enhancing how you appear as an employer is critical, but you will need to put as much or more effort toward making sure your culture lives up to how you’re presenting it to candidates and your existing employees. That can be easier said than done when it comes to brand initiatives, which have the tendency to become siloed within organizations. One way to avoid this is to elevate the conversation by compiling all of the most important use cases for the brand discussion and schedule a kickoff meeting with leaders from each area to talk through each different facet, making the case that it should be looked at as a strategic initiative, including all component parts.
Check out our Guide to Employer Branding for more step-by-step guidance on how to create a culture and brand that resonates with technologists.
Download it now.
