How to Hire the Best Talents in Malaysia in 2022 With Awesome Employer Branding

We’ve said this countless times, and many HR managers will certainly agree: a company’s greatest asset is its people. Most of you working in HR probably have recruitment and retention targets in your HR goals for 2022, and it’s extremely important to the success and growth of your business. 

But what does it take to recruit the best people for your company? There are a number of facets you need to consider here, including workplace culture, corporate purpose & values, and even things like Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). But one of the first things you should consider is the impact of employer branding on recruitment.

What is Employer Branding?

Just like branding in general, employer branding is essentially your company’s reputation among employees — both existing and potential candidates. A multitude of elements are factored into the equation, including the values embodied by your company, work culture, and everything else that positions your organisation as a place where people want to work. 

In layman’s terms, your employer brand is simply what employees and jobseekers think of you. The days when desperate employees would simply join work for anyone who’d offer them a paycheck are long gone.

Ultimately, this has a huge impact on the type of candidate — or rather, the quality of candidate that you bring on board the team. Which brings us to… 

How Employer Branding can help to attract the best people

To truly build a solid and attractive employer brand, you need time. Time to position your organisation as a place where potential employees will want to work at — while boosting your chances of retaining your best employees, as well. 

With 95 percent of candidates reportedly prioritising a company’s reputation when looking for their next job, it’s absolutely crucial to implement a couple of key strategies in order to improve your employer brand, including: 

1. Audit your employer brand

The first thing you need to do — much like an HR gap analysis — is to conduct a full audit and review of your employer branding. Go through all outward messaging and communications to stakeholders, including job postings, website career pages, social media, and even internal comms such as performance reviews and onboarding/offboarding materials. 

A good idea is also to reach out to existing (or even past) employees with surveys to get feedback as an employer. Use these questions as a foundation: 

• Would you recommend the company to a friend?
• Why are continuing to work at the company? 
• Why did you leave the company? 
• Is the company a good place to work at? 

When that’s done, you move on to… 

2. Building your Employer Value Proposition (EVP)   

Your Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is basically the core of your employer brand — it should encompass your corporate strategy, vision and goals, branding strategy, and more. In many ways, your company’s EVP is what you can offer to potential employees in exchange for their skills, work, experience, and ultimately, their decision to work with you. 

When building your EVP, adopt an employee-centric approach. This is because the EVP of your organisation will ultimately be a key factor in driving employee recruitment and retention, and even the engagement of existing team members. Consider the following key elements of an EVP: 

• Remuneration ($$$)
• Non-monetary benefits
• Career growth 
• Work culture

Remember to set your goals, define your target employee persona, and track the numbers once you’ve set your EVP. 

You should also remember that… 

3. Employee experience is always crucial

At the end of the day, it’s always important to continuously improve the experience of your existing employees. The benefits of this approach spill over from employee retention to recruitment targets, as the best advertisement for your organisation comes from current and previous employees. 

This is also tied to your EVP, as the employee experience is intrinsically correlated to your organisation’s ability to deliver on its promises. Additionally, a great employee experience will also lend itself to improved employee engagement, performance, and overall better results for both employers and employee. 

Again, we repeat: Your company’s employees are its biggest asset. Take care of them, and the rest will follow.