How a strong employer brand can help you win talent

Possession might be nine-tenths of the law, but reputation and perception are ten-tenths of talent acquisition's success rate. It's too easy to research companies these days, and if what job seekers find is suspect, well, they simply won't apply. To successfully recruit and retain talent, your business needs a strong employer brand. Let's talk about how you can build one.

What is an employer brand?

"A strong employer brand [must] reflect your company’s values, culture, and mission."¹

Perception and the reputation of your business; that's your employer brand¹. It's both an internal and external expression of how you operate, and is mostly determined by how you treat others (read: your team and customers). It's heavily influenced by culture, benefits and whether you have business evangelists who help promote who you are.

If your employer brand is positive, it can make a large difference in hiring.

Why is an employer brand important?

"A strong employer brand attracts and retains top-quality talent while fostering loyalty and engagement among existing employees."¹

Hiring and retention

When your existing team members are presented with other opportunities, your employer brand will make them think twice about leaving. If they're happy, they feel respected, they are paid what they're worth and they like the work they do, losing isn't as frequent.

Conversely, outside talent that you want to hire is looking for metrics around tenure, ratings on sites like Glassdoor and Indeed, is searching through subReddits about your company's policies and is reading about what you offer on your website. If your story (aka: employer brand) is compelling, they will click apply.

Overall engagement

"Employee engagement is the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in both their work and workplace. Highly engaged teams outperform the rest in business outcomes critical to the success of your organization."⁶

Gallup's indicators of employee engagement⁶ include all of the following:

1. Knowing What's Expected
2. Materials and Equipment
3. Doing What You Do Best*
4. Receiving Recognition*
5. Someone Caring at Work*
6. Someone Encouraging Development*
7. Opinions Counting at Work*
8. Mission/Purpose*
9. Commitment to Quality Work*
10. Best Friend at Work
11. Talking About Progress*
12. Learning and Growing*

While our assessment isn't scientific, we believe you'll agree that the ones we've marked with asterisks all relate directly to a positive employer brand. Nine out of 12 engagement indicators are a strong argument for maintaining a top employer brand.

How can a strong employer improve recruitment?

Even if you're a company that's just starting out, you can be attractive to candidates if they believe in your values, culture and mission align with their career goals.

People want to feel like they're part of something valuable, important or bigger than themselves. They will be more inclined to choose an employer that offers them one or all of those things.

To make an impact, your employer brand should be highly visible and talked about.

How to build a solid employer brand

Start internally

Determine your EVP

Decide what your employee value proposition (EVP) is. An EVP is a promise of commitment from employer to team member.² The more you consistently uphold your promise, the better impressions employees will have of you.

Get a baseline

Conducting internal surveys is a great way to learn how your team currently thinks about you. Once you get the surveys back, take whatever feedback you receive and use it to make the workplace better, therefore improving happiness, retention and the potential for your team members to refer new talent.

Let your team tell your story

The cheerleaders on your team who are not recruiters are going to make the best case for why others should join. By allowing your team members to be brand ambassadors, you'll light up a wider network.

You can have them talk about their experience in the form of videos, take down and share their testimonials or even pair them with potential hires to answer questions. Better yet, let them know that you are okay with them speaking about the company widely, because they may just do that naturally!

Project externally

Survey externally

Surveys aren't just internal talent tools. Run external surveys to get an idea of how your brand is perceived. You can ask previous employees, current and previous clients and even people who may have heard of your company, but haven't engaged. This will provide a well-rounded assessment of areas you can improve in, and in contrast, talk about more widely.

Get social

As with anything else you're promoting, you should be shouting your employer brand selling points on social media. Don't make it salesy. Instead, make it feel as real as possible. The hiring increase will happen easily if you do that.

Be real

As we talked about with social media, being real is powerful. On social media and elsewhere (your website, etc.), be sure to use real pictures of people on your team to help job seekers see their future with you.

Don't hide benefits and other valuable details

"The cost of health insurance in 2026 has risen significantly for many Americans, whether they have coverage through their employers, Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans, Medicare, or Medicaid."⁷

Medical insurance and other benefit costs keep climbing. If you have a top-tier package, that is something to tell everyone about without using vague phrasing like "competitive." We recommend putting as much detail as possible on your website and on social media, plus talking candidly about them during interviews.

Telling a genuine story is the heart of your employer brand. Let the best of you show, and talent will respond. Would you like to partner with a business with a stellar employer brand? How about Beacon Hill?

Sources and inspiration

1. Yale University Office of Career Strategy: Employer Branding
2. 13 Great Employer Branding Examples To Inspire You in 2026
3. CIPD: Employer brand
4. What is Employer Branding? Strategies and Best Practices
5. 3 Creative Ways to Tell Your Employer Brand Story
6. Indicators: Employee Engagement
7. The Downstream Effects of Rising Health Insurance Costs

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