10 Ways to Improve Your Employer Brand With PR and Content

As a Life Science recruiter or hiring manager, employer branding should be at the forefront of all your recruitment marketing activities. You should be working to establish an employer brand that clearly tells jobseekers:

• Who you are, what you do, and what you stand for
• What types of people would thrive in the working environment you offer
• What it’s like to work for your organisation
• What employees receive when they join you (this is more than the salary and benefits)

As PR is all about effective storytelling, raising brand awareness, and influencing perceptions held about an organisation, having a PR strategy in place is an excellent way of engaging your target audience of jobseekers.

In this article, we outline 10 ways to improve your employer brand using PR and content; from refamiliarizing yourself with the core company values, to tracking the results of your recruitment marketing efforts…

Identify the Stories You Want to Tell, and the People You Want to Attract

Use your organisation’s core values and mission to identify the types of stories you want to tell, and the target audience you’re hoping to engage. Start by looking at what your organisation is already doing to represent these core values/goals and identify areas of improvement.

You could conduct an employee survey to gain insight into what makes your organisation a great place to work beyond the things that are obvious to you, and to further understand what types of people thrive in your working environment. All of this will form the basis of your PR and content marketing strategy.

Do a Digital Audit

Once you’ve identified the stories you want to tell, do a digital audit to gain a full image of what you’re already doing to share your mission and present yourself as an employer of choice. Take note of the social media accounts you have, what content is being shared here and on your website, and look at review sites like Glassdoor to see what employees say about you outside of surveys.

You could even get someone outside of the organisation to research your company and list out the first impressions your existing content creates on people discovering your brand for the first time.

Research Your Competition

Research your biggest competitors and identify:

• What they are/aren’t doing well
• What accounts/publications they use and interact with
• How they’re engaging with their audience
• The key messages they’re sending
• Any areas they aren’t doing well in (for example, do they have an Instagram account that is only updated once per quarter?)

Create a Media List

Make a list of external publications, PR distribution services, and other media outlets who you think are relevant to the stories you want to share. For example, if you want an outlet to share your pharma news, you could submit your press releases to PharmiWeb.com by creating a free contributor account.

Again, do your research to understand what other channels your competitors are using, and don’t fall into the trap of sending every piece of content to every outlet, as this won’t be as effective as following a more targeted strategy.

Get Creative with How and Where You Showcase Your Employer Brand

Detailing your amazing company culture in job adverts and sharing your company highlights with media outlets across the country isn’t going to be enough when it comes to showcasing your employer brand to jobseekers. Use employee testimonials and success stories, take your brand to external exhibitions and careers events, and use your company blog as more than a space to dump all your company news.

If you use a job board to advertise your roles, think about how you can enhance your branding on these spaces too. PharmiWeb’s Employer Branded Careers Hubs are a great way to do this, as they provide you with a dedicated space to showcase everything that makes you an employer of choice.

Use Patient Voices

As a Life Science organisation, your company is likely having a positive impact on patients across the globe. These people are also your brand ambassadors, with their individual stories showcasing the real impact your work is having, and the progress your organisation is making.

Look at Your Social Media Strategy

Your social media channels shouldn’t just be a place for you to share your job adverts. They should be used to showcase everything mentioned above; your company culture, your mission and values, your achievements and milestones, your patient voices, and most importantly, your employees.

Take a look at Barrington James’ LinkedIn feed for some great examples of how to include your employees in your social media strategy to clearly demonstrate company culture.

Pay Attention to Workplace Awards

Workplace awards can be a great way to showcase your values as well as your achievements, and including them on your website and other recruitment marketing materials can add credibility to the claims you make about your organisation.

Organon’s career page is an excellent example of this, as they combine a full list of their awards, a company culture score, a CEO score, and their employee reviews. Before jobseekers have even scrolled down to see the company’s current vacancies, they can already see Organon is a great place to work.

Think Long Term, and be Authentic

Your employer brand isn’t something you can create instantly, but rather something you should be building on over time. Don’t just focus on it when you’re having a recruitment drive, and instead put it at the forefront of all your recruitment marketing activities to allow you to engage both passive and active talent, build authenticity, and strengthen your online presence.

Track Your Results

You need to understand what is and isn’t working for your organisation to identify areas you should invest more/less resources into. Use tracking codes to track where you’re being mentioned, understand where new hires did their research on you, and understand the first impression your company is creating, and how this is changing over time.