Did you know that 3 out of every 4 job seekers research an employer’s brand before even considering applying to a job?
This means that your brand could be the thing that’s drawing in qualified candidates or stopping them before they even start.
And it’s important to focus on strong L&D programming (Learning and Development) too. It continues to impact culture and employer brand, maybe more than you realize.
Below, I’ll cover more about employer branding and the ways L&D programming will help.
What Does Your Employer Brand Say About You?
In the age of social media and personal branding, it’s no surprise that a company’s brand is just as important to an employee as their compensation package and any perks they receive.
How is this brand created? Well, websites such as Glassdoor, Indeed, LinkedIn, and other small growing businesses as well have made it easy for employees to provide feedback on what’s going on behind closed doors to let interested job-seekers know if they should consider throwing their hat into the ring.
Current employees love to share if other people should join their team, or if they should stay away.
An employer’s brand weighs heavily on the minds of future and current employees — they want to know if their values are aligned, what the work culture is like, and especially what growth opportunities are available.
Growth opportunities might be the number one ask of current employees and the top thing that future applicants look for – they want to know that they can develop their career at whichever company they choose.
If you look at lists of highly ranked companies, this is one of the main pieces of feedback: employees feel as though they can grow in those companies, and because their employee development is taken seriously.
This is why a robust L&D program is essential for your employer brand: it lets people know that this is where they can come and cultivate their talent.
The Impact of L&D Programming
If you’re looking to attract top talent, one of the best things you can do is demonstrate that you are invested in your team’s career development.
Strong employees want to know that their work is valued and that they will continue to be rewarded with opportunities to learn.
By satisfying their hunger for growth with development opportunities, mentorship, and coaching, you’ll never have a shortage of people knocking down your door to join your team. Fulfilling those needs becomes a critical part of the company and HR strategy.
A study from Harvard Business Review analyzed the driving forces of retention and engagement. Not surprisingly, growth opportunities and positive work culture were at the top of the list.
Top performers usually leave a company because they don’t see the right opportunities or connect with the company values — leaving your organization vulnerable to additional costs because you now need to find and train their replacement.
Learning and development can impact your operational strategy just as much as sales and marketing.
1. Retention
A recent Linkedin Study assessed how to measure the quality of an employer’s brand. They found that retention, quality of hire, cost of hire, and the number of applicants are all determining factors in how strong a particular brand is.
This makes complete sense: stronger employer brands have higher retention and less time in attracting qualified candidates.
If employees find that their need for growth is not being met, they will move elsewhere for it. Undoubtedly, this attrition leads to additional costs in recruiting time and lost productivity.
2. Saves recruiting costs
From a financial perspective, strong employer brands save companies money on recruiting while increasing profits.
Think about the money you save with better employee retention, less turnover, and having to spend on job boards and recruiting.
If you have a culture of learning, development, transparency, and respect — employees become the best recruiters organically and word gets around about your company.
Negative reputation costs companies at least 10% more per hire. (Harvard Business Review)
3. Increased satisfaction
Recruiting top caliber employees and developing them can increase employee engagement and performance, which translates directly into stronger customer satisfaction and loyalty.
This reciprocal cycle works in an organization’s benefit: employees come and stay for the growth. When employees are not engaged, it becomes infinitely more difficult to present your organization as a top place to work.
Glassdoor ratings show that when an employee leaves their company, they often move onto organizations with higher Glassdoor ratings with a stronger company brand.
4. Future job security
Additionally, the new workforce knows how important skill development is for their future security. They want to develop their skills because they know intimately just how valuable know-how is in an ever-changing world.
2020 has taught us that complacency in our skills is dangerous, equivalent to bankruptcy.
When a company provides education they not only satisfy their employee’s desire to grow but also satisfy their Maslowian need for security. When you satisfy that need, you build unparalleled loyalty.
Why L&D Programming Matters
More than two-thirds of millennials think that it is management’s job to provide them with development opportunities in order to stay at a company.
The retention and development of existing talent feed directly into your employer brand, which then attracts high caliber talent.
Learning and development programs can also improve cross-team collaboration, breaking down siloes, and leading to more efficiency and productivity.
This is also a factor of employer brands and engagement – frustration occurs when employees feel as though they are forced into swimlanes that don’t allow them to expand their horizons.
These programs also help build inclusive teams and leadership, which is a crucial aspect in an employer’s brand.
Employees want to know their companies are focused on providing a fair and equitable team, where they can bring all of their interests and skills to work and know that they will be utilized effectively.
If your company is not prioritizing inclusivity in its L&D programming, this will affect engagement throughout the company and have negative repercussions on how your brand is perceived.
64% of consumers have stopped purchasing a brand after hearing news of that company’s poor employee treatment. (CareerArc)
How To Implement L&D Programming
Now that we’ve seen how learning and development can lead directly to increased performance and engagement, let’s take a look at how you can implement these into your organization:
Support an environment of learning
By cultivating an environment of learning, you help build your employer brand as a place of curiosity and knowledge.
Senior leadership can support and promote this environment by encouraging employees to participate in training and developing programs that tie learning to company goals.
If leadership is not supportive of these initiatives, teams might feel like they need to sacrifice learning opportunities in order to focus on day-to-day work. It’s important that managers emphasize that one is just as important as the other.
Prioritize ongoing development
Ongoing development opportunities help employers stand out as great places to work. Learning is not something to be left to twice a year training opportunities. But by providing a robust schedule of trainings and access to programs, employees can participate whenever it’s best for them.
OverDrive is an example of a company that does this well. They provide employees with a professional development handbook that showcases the various L&D opportunities throughout the company.
It helps employees determine a schedule for their development activities with frequent encouragement and reinforcement from their manager.
Be inclusive in your development planning
Learning initiatives should be open to all employees regardless of title or tenure. Expansive learning and development programs prove that a company takes inclusion seriously by making sure people feel seen and valued.
If you’re in a situation where you’re focusing training efforts on one group while ignoring the rest, you’re setting yourself up for larger performance and engagement problems down the line.
By supporting the development of all of your employees, you take major steps towards employee retention and longevity, helping them grow and contribute throughout the company.
Focus on the human side of development
While companies are welcoming learning technology with open arms, there is a benefit to focusing on human engagement and connection in the development sphere.
Career development is not just a box to be checked at the end of the day — it’s a vital part of the employee experience that has a very real emotional reaction.
Companies that put thought and effort into analyzing and responding to employee needs will see more engagement than those who are simply building out programming for the sake of having a learning and development program.
Employees can be part of the decision making and creation process by giving feedback on what is important to them to feel like they are growing intentionally in their careers.
One company that does a great job of this is The New York Times, which utilizes employee feedback from engagement surveys to inform what future training programs will look like.
The learning and development team then coordinates with department leaders to strategize on how they can provide training that will resonate with their teams.
Final Thoughts
It’s essential that you consider L&D to be an investment in your employer brand, especially if you want employees to advocate for you as a desired workplace.
As the older workforce begins to retire, millennials and Generation Z have become the primary voice of every company, and their opinions hold valuable influence on social media and beyond, where the majority of candidates are looking for jobs these days.
Since employees themselves are the most powerful brand advocates that a company could have, it’s crucial to make sure that they are satisfied with the growth and development opportunities at your company.
If these needs are met, they’re more likely to promote a company to their network as a place where others want to work.
This is one of the most influential tools you have for creating a strong employer brand — potential employees are more inclined to trust current employees’ feedback over how a company brands itself.
Word of mouth, after all, is the best form of advertisement.
By cultivating a strong learning and development program at your company, you’re increasing the likelihood of creating a strong employer brand that your teams are willing to advocate and go above and beyond for.
In an era where branding is (almost) everything, it’s important that you satisfy the need for development while giving your team the opportunity to sing the company’s praises.
