Your Employer Branding Agency. Ruess Group

The first step is the self-discovery process that every company has to undergo: What makes me special as an employer? What do I stand for? What is the purpose of my work and what do I want to stand for in the future? What is my long-term vision? What makes me unique and what distinguishes me from others? Why is employment with me more desirable than with the competition?

What about my existing employees? How do I ensure that they stay with the company? That they also recommend my company to potential new employees. After all, the best recruiters for new employees are existing satisfied ones.

But where do I find these new employees? On what channels and how do I reach them? What is the competition doing? How do I distinguish myself from them? Where am I attractive? How can I become even better? These are all important questions and they’re not easy to answer. This is where experienced employer branding agencies come in.

Once the company’s value propositions have been developed in the first step – ideally with an employer branding agency at your side to ensure an independent view from the outside – the second step is to define how they are communicated to the target group.

To do this, it is important to determine where there are various contact points for communication: On which social media channels, online media, career pages, blogs, newsletters, events or career fairs. In short, extensive media knowledge is needed here. Another reason to use an experienced employer branding agency.

The corporate brand is set, the communication channels are determined – now is the time to create the campaign. With a targeted strategy, a clear concept, predefined KPIs and a clear editorial plan that ensures that contact with potential applicants is ongoing.

To achieve this, the editorial plan has to include the content that will be published, when and where. What the content will look like: Which stories, visuals, text elements, films, clips. Moving images are playing an increasingly important role here as well. Especially in social media. More about that later.

Don’t forget face-to-face communication. At trade fairs or events. Also: your own employees, who are the best company ambassadors. This is very important, because the positive impressions made during the application process have to be confirmed in the company’s day-to-day work. Otherwise, even the best campaign won’t work.

Good employer branding agencies know this and are aware of the trigger points of a successful campaign: an open corporate culture, transparent communication, responsibility for your own area, training and development opportunities, flexible home office arrangements, team events, office yoga, free food and beverages.

The key to the success of an established employer brand lies in the right choice and mix of individual marketing channels. There is a lot to consider here and requires an experienced employer branding agency with a lot of media expertise – in the selection and in the actual placement and use.

But that’s not enough: Since events and classic PR are also needed in addition to the channels, the employer branding agency has to be broadly positioned. Ideally in the form of an international full-service agency. Because the sought-after skilled workers are not only sought nationally, but increasingly also abroad.

Before selecting the most suitable marketing channels for the company, it is important to research where the target group is located. There are complicated and pragmatic ways to do this. The quickest and simplest is to take a quick look at user statistics of the individual platforms – and the situation becomes much clearer.

Internally, the company’s value proposition is first integrated into HR business processes and recruiting. In the roll-out phase throughout the company, the focus is first and foremost on the managers, then on the HR department and finally on the rest of the workforce.

In the external implementation, the main focus is on the creative concept. Here, the current measures have to be compared with the employer brand for the last time and the planning with deadlines and budgets need to be finalised. This is where it becomes clear whether the employer branding agency is on the right track.

The social media platform with the most users may not necessarily be the right site. This is why it is essential to research in advance where potential candidates tend to hang out. Younger ones on TikTok, older, more mature and established ones more on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Only if you know your target group can you provide them with targeted content and campaigns. In this respect, in-depth research is indispensable. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be rocket science. It often helps to interview existing employees and let them inspire you.

This will provide valuable clues as to, for example, what social issues the potential employees are interested in: Whether a healthy work culture is more important to them than leisure activities? Or vice versa? It can be demanding, but it’s necessary. Because it’s the only way to get to the right content.

Community management and interaction with followers are essential: How do they react to the posts? Do they have doubts, suggestions or questions? The company’s responses to the comments are also very important. Especially if they are negative.

The best people to judge whether the employer brand is on the mark are the company’s own employees. And this calls for an ongoing dialogue. Of course, on an equal footing and without any pressure to perform or be judged. This is the only way they can become brand ambassadors for the company.

Standard recruiting strategies usually achieve an unsatisfactory level of attention. Therefore, you should always ask yourself how you can attract even more interest from the right candidates. Those who do things differently from the competition will be more successful.

A creative campaign is never a substitute for a lack of corporate culture. That everything works well in real life is paramount. Because on career websites like Indeed, employees can report on “real life” at work. And if it doesn’t match the campaign, it will all have been in vain.

Stock options, parental leave, free food or beverages – these benefits build loyalty to the company among both old and new employees. It’s important that these benefits stand out from the competition and that they give employees the feeling that the company is actively investing in their lives and their future.

Potential candidates don’t expect stock photos, but real insights into the company. This applies to every single post in social media, as well as to the career website. Moments from everyday working life that are attractive for the applicants and with which they can identify are important.