Employer Branding

A strong employer brand is crucial to recruiting and retaining the most sought-after employees. It’s more than a logo or colors. Your brand is the cumulative result of all interactions people have with and about your school. Think of it as your organization’s reputation, specifically as an employer.

In today’s competitive job market, your brand matters. Use these resources to define your employee brand to stand out as an employer and ensure each child in Ohio has an excellent educator.

88% of job seekers consider employer brand; a strong employer brand drives a 50% reduction in cost per hire; 86% of candidates look at online ratings to decide where to apply for jobs

Know Your Current Brand

To help define your current employer brand, consider the following questions:

  1. What is your district’s brand? Your employer brand should be vertically aligned with it and have a clear focus on being the employer of choice in your area.

  2. What are you currently doing to bring your employer brand to life? This should include a combination of messaging and channels to activate your story about the employee experience.

  3. What’s your biggest struggle related to your employer brand? This could include negative online reviews or word-of-mouth

  4. Are there current employees that personify your current employer brand? Consider how they bring the brand to life with others in the workplace, and others they interact with outside the workplace.

  5. What role do staff play in defining your current employer brand? If staff do not personify your brand, what impact do they have on colleagues and others they come in contact with who could see them as unofficial representatives of the organization?

  6. How would others describe your school or district’s reputation as an employer? Employee survey or interview data (stay or exit information, for example) can inform what you would describe as your current state reputation. This is driven by trust, and it is developed over time.

“We had never mystery shopped our district. Once we took a look at our Careers page and candidate tracking system, we made multiple changes to make the experience more straightforward and aligned to our employer brand.”
— A district administrator

Define Your Desired Employer Brand

To help define your desired employer brand, use feedback collected from internal and external stakeholders.

Think about these questions:

  • How can you enhance your current employer brand?

  • What are other schools and districts doing, and what can you learn from them?

  • Do you have a specific desired employer brand? What is it?

  • What is keeping you from realizing that desired brand?

  • What’s your biggest struggle in establishing your desired employer brand?

  • What aspects of your employer offering (i.e., rewards, recognition, compensation, or benefits) can be altered to help realize your desired employer brand?

  • Are there current employees who would be willing to serve as ambassadors for your desired employer brand?

  • What role can your social media presence play?

Take a look at these slides about candidate experience to learn about leveraging key communications touchpoints—and make a difference in candidate perception of your brand.

Get Started

Begin to enhance your employer brand based on where you want to be, and close the gap realistically given your current state.

  • A listening tour is one of the best ways to get constructive feedback to understand your current employer brand. You can also use this to inform your efforts to envision your desired employer brand. Typically, this would involve administrators engaging stakeholders to listen directly to concerns, ideas, and feedback.

    Keep in mind your internal and external audience as it may be beneficial to hear from both. Seek out current employees, previous employees, parents, students, community members, school board, etc.

    Ensure a two-way flow of information. Include opportunities for feedback and discussion. Ask and listen.

    • Use surveys. Add questions to existing surveys or use free or low-cost survey tools easily found online.

    • Plan a segment of existing meetings (e.g., PTA, staff, or teacher meetings) to ask a few key questions or bring a group or groups of key stakeholders together to ask questions and listen to answers.

    • Add a comment box, an e-newsletter opt-in or sign up for social media feeds and other announcements to solicit input and let people know you are listening.

    • Look for opportunities to talk to people in formal and informal settings—from PTA meetings to the grocery store.

    • Make the listening tour a constant in your interactions with key stakeholders. Listen to what people are saying and use that feedback to inform your work.

    • Establish an Advisory Team to help implement the vision for your desired employee brand.

      Include administrators, teachers, and support staff—the more diverse, the better!

    • Start a referral program. Encourage staff members to share job openings and with qualified candidates.

    • Provide district/school swag. Items like t-shirts, water bottles, and more can help with brand recognition.

    • Use onboarding and mentoring programs  to reinforce your employee brand.

  • Be Strategic

    Plan your strategy for communicating your employer brand. Take time to think about the following:

    • Audiences: Who are your key audiences for communications and engagement outreach? Why do they matter?

    • Goals: What do you want to achieve with your communications and engagement efforts?

    • Key Messages: What you say and how you say it matters. What are your key messages for each audience?

    • Tactics: What tactics will you use for communication and engagement? How will you execute your tactics? When will you execute them?

    Tell Your Story

    Communicating your employer brand never ends. Use the following examples as channels for reaching new recruits and retaining top talent:

    • Speeches

    • Presentations

    • Community events

    • Videos

    • Letters home

    • Parent conferences

    • Op-eds

    • Blog posts

    • Social media posts

    • FAQs

    • Newsletters

    • E-blasts, email

    • Interviews

    • Board meetings

    • Website

    • PTA meetings

Tips

  • Reinforce your brand with every communication (i.e., standardize PowerPoint presentations and handouts for staff meetings, update email signature to include logo or slogan).

  • Tie communications to an overall theme, like your school motto.

  • Use storytelling! Focus on staff members, how they are helping students, and tell the story from different perspectives, like a student.

  • Highlight what it’s like to work at your school or in your district.

  • Leverage social media.

    • Add photos to get more attention.

    • Like, share, comment, and engage with the community.

    • Provide guidelines to staff.

  • Share media releases along with talking points for news media with staff.