New Employer Branding: What Companies Need to Get Right Now
The pandemic reshaped employer branding. Learn which employer messages talent expects today and how to update your job postings and career page to match.
Die Coronakrise hat die Prioritäten von Jobsuchenden grundlegend verändert. Betriebliches Gesundheitsmanagement, zeitliche Flexibilität, Jobsicherheit und Diversität sind für Talente heute deutlich wichtiger als vor der Pandemie. Wer im Recruiting noch mit den Botschaften von vor zwei Jahren arbeitet, erreicht Kandidat*innen nicht mehr. Stellenanzeigen und Karriereseiten brauchen ein inhaltliches Update.
New Employer Branding: What the Pandemic Changed
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Breadcrumb: mana HR → HR Knowledge → Blog → New Employer Branding
Contents
- The skills shortage is back
- Why employer branding has changed
- More flexibility, please!
- A secure salary, a secure job
- Why diversity and equality now carry more weight
- Conclusion: In employer branding, the right words aren't enough
- Frequently asked questions
TL;DR
Since the pandemic, job seekers expect employer branding to lead with strong workplace health and safety, flexible hours, a secure salary, and visible diversity and equality, while the classic pre-pandemic messages in job postings and on career pages barely land anymore. The lever is updated content, not more reach.
Author: Dominik Becker · Published: December 8, 2021
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During the pandemic it went quiet. Now it is back and stronger than ever: the skills shortage. You know that all too well? Because you are one of the HR professionals scrambling for talent right now? Then one thing matters more than anything: do not just dig out the job postings you wrote before the pandemic and run them on job boards and your career page. That will get you nowhere. Talent now looks at completely different factors than it did just a few months ago. Here is what has changed in employer branding.
The skills shortage is back
The war for talent did not creep back quietly. It came back with a bang. According to the latest figures from the current KfW-ifo skills barometer, skilled workers are as scarce as they have been in 30 years. Take a look at the curve below. It shows quite clearly how sharply the skills shortage has intensified since the pandemic. Striking, isn't it?
Maybe you had not seen this trend in hard numbers before. As a recruiter, though, you have almost certainly felt it for a while. After all, you have been running one job posting and social media campaign after another for weeks, and yet nothing is landing in your application inbox. Maybe you have already given up and told yourself: "That's just how it is. The market is empty, there is nothing more to be done."
Why employer branding has changed
That is true. The market really is empty. But there is always something you can do. Be honest: did you come up with fresh wording and fresh content for your current recruiting campaign? Or did you fall back on whatever was still sitting in your recruiting drawer from before the pandemic?
If it is the latter, that is probably why your recruiting is barely getting off the ground right now. The employer branding messages that may have sparked enthusiasm a year or two ago simply do not interest applicants anymore. That is the finding of a recent study by the job board Monster. According to it, since the pandemic job seekers respond to completely different employer messages than they did before.
How much weight, for example, does workplace health management get in your current job postings? It is mentioned, but only as one of many buzzwords in an endless bullet list? Not good. Because anyone starting a new job today asks: "Am I safe with this employer? What are they doing to keep me from getting infected?" So it is really important that in your recruiting you talk in real detail about the hygiene and safety measures in place at work.
More flexibility, please!
That is far from the only thing that has changed. Candidates now also place much greater value on flexible working hours. They want to work when the ideas are flowing, not when the time clock says so. Many employees worked that way at the height of the pandemic, and they came to genuinely appreciate the model.
That makes it even harder to sell talent on squeezing their days back into rigid working hours. You think that makes no sense either? At your company it does not actually matter when, where, or how long your people work, as long as the results are there? Those are already good conditions for winning talent over. So why not put that in your job postings?
A secure salary, a secure job
Another factor talent values more since the pandemic: solid financial security. Many employees were confronted quite abruptly with things like reduced hours or job cuts right after the outbreak. Either at their own company or among family and friends. For many, that triggered real fears about the future. 46 percent of employees suffered from anxiety and/or depression.
So job seekers now pay all the more attention to stable employment. The following factors matter to them most:
- Fair salaries
- Transparent communication with managers and within teams
- Long-term career prospects with an employer
What does your company offer of all that? At the risk of repeating ourselves: explain it to talent in your job postings!
Why diversity and equality now carry more weight
Last but not least: diversity and equality have moved much further into job seekers' focus too. 45 percent of candidates want to learn more in recruiting about a company's efforts on diversity. That may be connected to the fact that many women lost ground at work during the height of the pandemic.
Those with younger children or family members to care for often had to scale back professionally. During phases of homeschooling and closed daycare centers, many women had to either quit their jobs entirely or cut back their hours, because there was no way to balance family and work. That made female applicants in particular far more aware of the issue of equality.
Here, many employers clearly still have plenty of catching up to do. Your company works completely differently and offers things like programs to support women, childcare options, or dedicated part-time career models? Then that absolutely belongs in your job postings, and ideally on your career page too.
Conclusion: In employer branding, the right words aren't enough
Our take: the pandemic threw the world into quite some disorder. In many areas it has led to priorities being reset, including by candidates. Many people read job postings and career pages completely differently today than they did just a few months ago.
Good workplace health management, job stability, and a secure income were nowhere near as important to many people before the pandemic as they are now. Equality, too, now carries far more weight than it did before the crisis. If you take these shifts into account and reflect them in your recruiting, you will noticeably improve your chances of more hits in your hiring.
Oh, one more thing. Since you are reworking your job postings and recruiting campaigns anyway, here is a small tip on the side: say goodbye to endless bullet lists and walls of text. Add short, engaging copy and pair it with photos from your company and infographics. The odd video would be nice too. Everything instantly feels more alive, more colorful, and closer to real life. Before long, things will be running smoothly at your application inbox again. And in a few weeks you will surely be asking yourself: "Skills shortage, what was that again?"