The employer brand is an essential marketing concept to attract, engage and foster loyalty among talent. And for good reason. Studies conducted into this topic reveal that a well-liked employer brand will attract 50% more qualified candidates (Link Humans study), and that 86% of employees will refuse to work for or remain in a company that has a deplorable reputation (Randstad study).

While the benefits are well-documented, the question of the cost of an employer brand strategy remains to be defined. In concrete terms, how much does an employer brand strategy cost? What falls under the employer brand budget? While it is impossible to give an exact figure, we can make a list of the budget expenditure items before getting started.

The audit, the number one employer brand expenditure item

Any employer branding project begins with a review of the current HR practices and approaches. This audit is used to make an assessment of the areas for improvement and the strengths that add value for employees and candidates. Based on this work, you can identify your EVP (Employee Value Proposition).

In concrete terms, this audit consists of answering the following questions:

• What is your company’s purpose?

• What are your values? Your company culture?

• What are the advantages for employees who work for you in terms of management, working conditions, good practices and remuneration?

• How is your company perceived from the outside?

• What about your candidate experience?

This meticulous work can be carried out in-house or entrusted to an external service provider. By choosing to handle it yourself, you will save money. But beware of hidden costs! The audit takes time, generally several months. A team will need to be in charge of overseeing and conducting the project.

Generally speaking, the head of HR will take the lead. Assisted by managers and the HR team, they will, for example, create surveys and perform internal studies/interviews with employees on employer brand topics: recruitment, onboarding, quality of life at work, management, internal opportunities, working environment. Taking the workload into account, the employer brand strategy will be a major HR project, which may force you to put other, equally important subjects on hold.

Outsourcing to a company specialising in employer branding will be more costly, but it has its advantages. These firms are equipped with the best tools and have structured processes that have proven their worth, allowing them to move forward efficiently. They also provide an objective, fresh and expert view of your HR practices.

(Re)affirming your values and DNA internally is an employer branding budget line that you should not ignore

The employer brand is not limited to the external reputation, it also encompasses the company image with employees. Communicating about your employer brand internally is therefore just as, if not more important, in that the company image is the reflection of what is going on inside the company.

In practice, this work should come after the internal audit, but also on a daily basis.  For example, the “employer brand” seminar can introduce teams to the company identity, its purpose and ambitions and reaffirm its values and company culture. An internal communication campaign with visuals, posters, manifestos and videos will strengthen the employer brand messages with employees. Finally, initiatives such as internal newsletters and HR breakfasts are opportunities to remind about the values, operating methods, progress and commitments of the company.

This work requires communication skills, such as writing and video recording and editing skills that are not within everyone’s grasp, especially in companies that do not have a communications division. If this is your case, remember to include training for employees to your employer brand budget or outsource these tasks. Agencies that specialise in HR marketing also represent a cost, but they already have the skills and hardware you need to hand.

The careers site, an employer branding budget that attracts talent.

Before applying to a job offer, candidates will visit the company’s careers site. Why? To find out more about behind the scenes at the company: the purpose, careers, ambitions, company culture, offices, CSR policy and values through videos, portraits and articles. It is a way to get an idea about what their daily life will look like if they join the company. Furthermore, the existence of a careers site is the number 4 criterion that motivates talent to apply!

So now you understand: the careers site is a pillar of an employer brand strategy that persuades talent to engage (or not!) in the recruitment process. Here once again, building and maintaining a careers site comes at a cost.

If you choose to keep this work in-house, you may need to recruit one or more people who will be entirely dedicated to the employer branding and have skills in content strategy, writing and video editing. It is therefore a regular expense item (salary, employer charges). The other option is to subcontract the creation of employer brand content to an external professional or a marketing/communication agency.

Inbound recruiting, the employer branding expense that boosts your visibility!

49% of companies that implement an inbound recruiting strategy noticed a significant decrease in the talent acquisition time frame (la super agence figures). Similarly, a candidate has more chances of applying after 8 positive forms of exposure to an employer brand. The conclusion? Communicating with an inbound recruiting strategy is a profitable investment!

Inbound recruiting is a technique inspired by inbound marketing. It consists of attracting customers through the production of content and good communication. It aims not only to seek out qualified candidates, but to make them come to you. How? By sharing content on social media like LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube that interests the target candidates. Having an online presence and maintaining your notoriety is therefore key when it comes to reaching as much talent as possible.

And yes, you guessed it, you cannot achieve this goal without marketing strategy, HR communication and community management skills! You can therefore choose to receive guidance from a communications agency that will handle the management of your social media. If your budget is tight, other equally efficient options exist, such as employee advocacy. This method consists of turning your employees into your ambassadors by inviting them to share their everyday professional life on social media: news, success stories, life at the office, challenges…

The employer branding budget line you cannot forget: analysis of your employer brand strategy!

What have your employer branding actions achieved? What is the return on investment in terms of recruitment, engagement and loyalty? In order to adjust your strategy and improve your brand image, it is vital to analyse your actions. In practice, this involves a HR data study (rate of turnover, performance, recruitment time…). Be sure to include this in your budget.

In conclusion, engaging in an employer branding strategy is definitely a profitable investment. But this is no reason to improvise. Take some time to budget for each action so that you can make the best choices in terms of usefulness, effectiveness and cost!