Building a Strong Employer Brand Through a Targeted Content Strategy

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Abstract: In today's competitive talent landscape, a robust employer brand is essential for attracting and retaining top talent. This article outlines a comprehensive framework for developing an effective employer branding content strategy centered around four key components: research, messaging, channels, and measurement. Research forms the foundation, helping organizations understand their target audience through methods like employee focus groups and competitor benchmarking. Compelling messaging articulates the organization's unique value proposition, incorporating elements such as mission, growth opportunities, and inclusion initiatives. Strategic channel selection ensures content reaches candidates where they naturally engage, while rigorous measurement tracks impact on recruitment outcomes and drives continuous improvement. By implementing this integrated approach, organizations can create authentic, differentiated employer brands that resonate with desired talent pools, ultimately enhancing recruitment effectiveness and employee retention in an increasingly competitive market.

In today's highly competitive talent market, it is crucial for organizations to establish an authentic and compelling employer brand. A strong employer brand builds recognition, delivers quality job seekers, and enhances employee engagement and retention. At the core of any employer brand is a thoughtful content strategy that highlights the organization's unique culture, values, and opportunities.

Today we will outline how organizations can build a better content strategy to strengthen their employer brand through key components of research, messaging, channels, and measurement.

Research: Understanding the Target Audience

Research is key to developing messaging and content that will resonate with target candidates. Before creating any content, organizations must take time to thoroughly understand their target audience. This includes identifying who they are looking to attract, why candidates would want to work for the organization, and what factors are most important to that audience (Ibarra, 2021). Some effective research methods include:

• Conducting focus groups or surveys of current employees to understand how and why they chose to work there (Bernstein, 2018).

• Analyzing job board and social media profiles of existing high performers to understand their demographics, interests, and career motivations (Dudovskiy, 2021).

• Benchmarking competitors' employer brands to identify differentiation opportunities and trends in the industry (van Biljon & Renaud, 2017).

For example, a major technology company conducted in-depth interviews with its top software engineers to learn what originally drew them to the role and keeps them engaged. Key findings included interests in challenging work, opportunities for learning and growth, strong company values, and collaborative culture. This guided focused messaging to candidates with similar backgrounds and career goals.

Messaging: Crafting a Compelling Narrative

Content must clearly and authentically convey why the organization is a desirable place to work through a consistent narrative. This starts with defining the unique value proposition - what makes the employer different or better than others. Some elements to include in the narrative are:

• The organization's mission, vision and values to showcase cultural fit (Sivertzen et al., 2013).

• Opportunities for impactful work, growth and learning to highlight career progression (Cable & Turban, 2001).

• Perks, benefits and flexible policies to enhance work-life integration (Pregnolato et al., 2017).

• Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to attract all talent (Eisenhardt et al., 2020).

• Thought leadership, community involvement and innovation to demonstrate prestige (Sengupta et al., 2015).

For instance, a major airline articulates its mission of connecting people and cultures worldwide. Content focuses on diversity of roles, global mobility programs, and community partnerships to attract like-minded candidates wanting to make a difference through travel. Consistency across all touchpoints reinforces this authentic employer value proposition.

Channels: Reaching Candidates Where They Engage

To maximize exposure, content must be distributed across all relevant channels that target candidates frequent. Common touchpoints include job boards, career sites, social networks, events and employee referrals. Specific strategic channels include:

• LinkedIn - Promote jobs, share thought leadership and showcase culture through updates, videos and recruitment pages (Bersin, 2013).

• Facebook/Instagram - Give a behind-the-scenes look into daily work and company culture through photos and live experiences (Dennison, 2018).

• YouTube - Create branded video content such as executive speeches, project highlights and employee profiles (Shakeri, 2016).

• Career site - Serve as a central hub to learn about openings, culture and careers in an engaging, visually-rich manner (van Biljon & Renaud, 2017).

• Events - Host on-campus presentations, career fairs and networking gatherings to directly connect with candidates (Cable & Yu, 2006).

A global technology company leverages LinkedIn, YouTube and its careers site to profile diverse teams and showcase innovative projects. They supplement with on-campus events, hackathons and virtual information sessions to stay top-of-mind with target programs. Omnichannel exposure reinforces their position as an employer of choice.

Measurement: Tracking Success and Driving Improvement

It is critical to implement metrics that quantify the impact of content efforts on attraction and recruiting outcomes. Leading measures should align to recruitment funnel goals and include (Sengupta et al., 2015):

• Website traffic - Number of overall sessions and most popular pages

• Social engagement - Followers, likes, shares, comments and video views

• Applicant numbers - Volume of applicants from specific channels and locations

• Quality of hires - Diversity, retention and performance of new hires

• Employee sentiment - Referral rates, Glassdoor reviews and internal surveys

For example, a global logistics provider tracks unique website visitors from campus events and social content by school and program. They also measure hiring manager feedback on quality and cultural fit of referred versus external applicants. This helps optimize spending across highest-performing channels. Annual employee surveys assess continued resonance of employer value proposition.

Metrics are only valuable if used to drive continuous enhancement. Leaders stay agile by regularly evaluating measurement insights and competitor benchmarking to refine content, channels and resourcing as needed (van Biljon & Renaud, 2017). No strategy remains perfectly optimized - iteration is key.

Conclusion

Building a strong employer brand through strategic, targeted content takes focus and ongoing refinement. With dedicated research, compelling messaging consistent across touchpoints, and implementation across optimized channels, organizations can attract and engage the talent they need for future growth. Quantifying success through relevant metrics allows course corrections to maximize returns. Employer branding differentiation is crucial in today's competitive landscape - a thoughtful content strategy, combined with living the unique value proposition every day, strengthens any organization's ability to attract and retain the best people.

References

1. Bernstein, E. S. (2018). How to build an employer brand from within. Harvard Business Review, 96(5), 28-29.

2. Bersin, J. (2013). Becoming irresistible: A new model for employee engagement. Deloitte Review, 12, 16-29.

3. Cable, D. M., & Turban, D. B. (2001). Establishing the dimensions, sources and value of job seekers' employer knowledge during recruitment. In Research in personnel and human resources management (pp. 115-163). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

4. Cable, D. M., & Yu, K. Y. (2006). Managing job seekers’ organizational image beliefs: The role of media richness and media credibility. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4), 828–840.

5. Dennison, G. (2018). The rise of social media in employer branding and recruitment. Strategic HR Review, 17(4), 181-187.

6. Dudovskiy, J. (2021). Employer branding research methodology. Research Methodology.

7. Eisenhardt, K., Graebner, M. E., & Sonenshein, S. (2020). Grand challenges and inductive methods: Redrawing the map that bridges the gulf between rigor and relevance. Academy of Management Journal. Advance online publication.

8. Ibarra, H. (2021). How to build your employer brand. Harvard Business Review.

9. Pregnolato, M., Bussin, M. H., & Schlechter, A. F. (2017). Total rewards that retain: A study of demographic preferences. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 15(0), a957.

10. Sengupta, A., Bamel, U., Singh, P., & Bhawsar, P. (2015). Internal employer branding: Exploring the employer brand essence. Vilakshan: The XIMB Journal of Management, 12(2), 89–104.

11. Shakeri, N. (2016). Employer branding using YouTube. Research Journal of Applied Sciences, 11(6), 438-444.

12. Sivertzen, A. M., Nilsen, E. R., & Olafsen, A. H. (2013). Employer branding: Employer attractiveness and the use of social media. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 22(7), 473-483.

13. van Biljon, J., & Renaud, K. (2017). Developing an effective framework for measuring your employer brand. Measuring Business Excellence, 21(1), 1-15.

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Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.

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Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2025). Building a Strong Employer Brand Through a Targeted Content Strategy. Human Capital Leadership Review, 20(2). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.20.2.2