Do you know how your company is viewed by others – the public, key shareholders and your employees?

Knowing how you are viewed is to understand your employer brand around issues such as conduct in the market to the treatment of employees and the overall general perception.

In this buoyant market where talent is fiercely competed for, it is now more than ever essential for business leaders to address their employer brand and here are five reasons why?

ENGAGED EMPLOYEES
Financial service firms with a strong employer brand have more engaged employees. The key is to build a high performing team with an even higher level of motivation driven by their pride to be working for a company with a strong employer image. Instantly one thinks of the US tech companies and the loyalty and engagement they can derive from their superb positioning of their brand in the market. Financial services firms need to follow suit. Having enthusiastic and engaged employees is an important factor in driving growth of the business – ways to achieve this are, to be proactive in your forward planning career paths for employees and to create a strong organisational culture with its own identity.

STRONG SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
Having a strong online presence shows that your company places value on remaining up to date and improving itself and should result in the company positioning itself to attract the right talent. Whether it is the company website, LinkedIn or Instagram, jobseekers and the wider public will be observing the company’s online presence placing emphasis and exploring their values and culture which is high on the agenda of today’s job seeker. Furthermore, giving platforms such as LinkedIn more focus through content and engagement should drive more job applications as it creates a direct and intimate relationship with the candidate.

RECOGNITION
Having a strong employer brand allows your company to be recognised and increases your brand awareness. Every company should try to be the first company potential employees will think of. If a company is not popular among the top talents and the community, negative word-of-mouth will spread, and that will affect the company. Therefore, financial services firms should always try to be a striking employer that can provide a sense of belonging to its employees, this can be driven by HR technology that gives 100% personal feedback to employees.

IMPROVED RECRUITMENT CYCLE
If a company pays attention to the previous points then they can expect to realise a more improved recruitment cycle as a result of internal and external pull factors driving top talent through the application process and giving HR a better chance of looking internally for longer term employees.

FINANCIAL STABILITY
Lastly having a good employer brand will ensure your company’s financial stability as well. Studies have shown that financial services companies that invest in employer branding could experience revenue growth as much as 3.5% and a 2.5% profit margin increase.

For further advice on what you could be doing to retain your best talent and to attract the best in the financial services market, please connect with us at connect@coopman.ie.