Is your company not a trendy start-up? You don't operate in a sector as attractive as tourism or new technologies? And you're wondering what you can do to attract and retain employees?

Not to worry, we've got just what you need! To give your employer brand a boost and make it more attractive, here are 6 tips and best practices to put in place.

Employer branding: what's it all about?

Before talking about solutions, it's important to understand what employer branding is. Employer brand covers corporate identity, internal image and external reputation. In other words, it is a marketing concept that addresses three issues that organizations face:

• Attractiveness: why would a candidate join your company?

• loyalty: what would make an employee stay with you?

• commitment: why would an employee want to invest in your organization?

A well-appreciated employer brand promotes talent retention and attracts 50% more qualified applications (Link Humans study). And that's just the beginning! Working on and nurturing your employer brand is essential if you want to stand out from the crowd. Let's see how you can do it when you're neither Netflix nor a hot start-up.

1/Adapt management to employees' expectations:

50% of employees questioned in a Gallup survey said they had left their job because of their manager. What could be more normal? Before being human resources and skills, employees are emotional and relational beings. As a result, management has a positive and negative influence on their development, motivation and performance.

Your first task is therefore to listen to your teams' expectations. Specifically, are they satisfied with management? What do they appreciate? What would they like to see evolve? What are their needs? In other words, what does the ideal manager look like?

And there are several ways of engaging in dialogue with employees:

• regular one-to-one interviews

• anonymous surveys and polls

• feedback interviews

• team meetings.

Based on the data collected and your analysis, you can then define the corrective actions required and reinforce the positive management measures. And don't forget that, in the eyes of job applicants, your employees' opinion is the best guarantee of trust when it comes to forming an opinion about your company! By improving your internal image, you also improve your external reputation.

2/Expand hybrid working

With over 60% of employees in favor of hybrid working (JLL barometer on the new preferences of employees in 2022, the solution is obvious: to attract talent whose jobs can be carried out wholly or partly remotely, your work organization needs to alternate between on-site and home-based work.

The reason behind this hype? The desire for a better work/life balance. If you've decided to explore this possibility, there are a number of points to bear in mind before deploying telecommuting:

• the legal framework: how can it be set up properly?

• the organization: according to the 2021 telework barometer, 86% of teleworkers telework 2 days a week. But what about in your organization? The frequency of teleworking needs to be determined in the light of employees' preferences and your company's specific constraints.

• health risks: what are the physical and psychosocial risks?

3/Propose an attractive career management policy

Did you know that 94% of employees would stay longer with their company if it took more account of their skills development (2019 LinkedIn study)?

Coupled with the fact that 74% of them say their employer hasn't offered them any professional development and training programs, the talents couldn't be clearer: they expect their company to help them progress in their careers.

If your policy on skills development and career management is limited to the legal minimum, you know what you have to do: more and better. Particularly with 25-35 year-olds, who are more volatile and eager to learn.

As a solution, why not offer individual coaching sessions to help your employees develop their soft skills and build their career plan? Or create a training program to acquire new technical skills that meet your medium-term needs?

4/Set the scene

Over 80% of candidates are looking for information about the company they are targeting, and 59% of them will consult the career site first. Having a presence online and on social networks is therefore essential.

Talents are looking for as much information as possible: what's the atmosphere like in the company? What are the premises like? Who's the boss? What are the organization's commitments? This information will give you a picture of what's going on behind the scenes at your company. And this is all the more important when your organization is unknown to the public and your sector of activity is not very attractive.

To turn things around, turn to inbound recruiting techniques:

• video presentation of the manager,

• employee profiles,

• taking a stand on social networks,

• sharing your social and environmental commitments

• photos of your latest corporate event

• video discovery of your business.

5/Focus on customer satisfaction to achieve employee satisfaction

When it comes to talent, employee satisfaction mirrors customer satisfaction. In other words, if your customers are unhappy with your product, your service or their collaboration with your team, chances are your employees will be neglected.

If we draw the line and the reality is surely not so black (we hope), it's still always possible to do better! In concrete terms, where can you improve your product, your service and your customer relations?

And if your customer satisfaction is already top-notch, ask yourself how you can attract and retain customers? For example, reinforcing your brand identity with a solid marketing strategy is one avenue to explore. For a dose of inspiration, take a look at the marketing strategy of Dollar Shave Club, a company that sells razors (we guarantee it's worth the detour)!

6/Support the purchasing power of employees

Prices of materials are soaring: energy, food, fuel... With purchasing power dwindling, it goes without saying that your employees and future recruits will appreciate any support initiative on the part of companies.

Pay rises, bonuses, luncheon vouchers, transport costs, gift vouchers... The possibilities are numerous. Identify the ones that will have the greatest impact on employees and candidates alike.

It's up to you!