Why Employer Branding Matters in Healthcare in 2024
In today’s competitive market where organizations are running after top talent, maintaining a reputation as a credible and great employer is an important aspect. A strong employer brand reflects whether top candidates will choose your company or accept a competitor’s offer. According to LinkedIn, 75% of job hunters evaluate an employer’s brand even before proceeding with the application.
Several factors affect employer branding such as job descriptions, interviewing process whether live or a pre-recorded video interview, and more. However, it’s the employee value propositions, that directly draw the attention of top talent. It is a consistent message about the experience of working with your company and showcases the unique benefits you offer.
What’s Employer Branding?
Employees come with their unique set of skills and experience into the work every day. In return, you reward them with salary, bonuses, incentives, benefits, growth, and work-life balance. Simply, you treat them as people and not just employees.
An attractive employer branding statement or employee value proposition is used to communicate these benefits individuals can expect from your organization. It enables potential candidates to check if they align with the company’s values and know if it’s the best place for them. With a powerful employee value proposition, you can define your organization’s essence and stand out from the competition. The best thing is that it enhances a new hire’s commitment by up to 29%.
When you’re creating your EVP, aim at capturing what it feels like to work with your company. In simple words, it’s the foundation of your employer brand, which should define the substance of your company and why it’s different.
Why Employee Value Propositions Matter in Healthcare
As per a recent poll by SmartDreamers, 57% of recruiters think that the most difficult thing for them is to differentiate their company from the competitors. This is where EVP comes into the picture to help you form an identity. Although EVP has a major role in every industry, let’s take a look at why EVPs matter in healthcare:
Talent Attraction
An EVP can be an indispensable employer branding strategy for recruiting for the healthcare industry. It gives candidates information about what to expect when choosing your company and can make all the difference when trying to secure talent. An effective EVP should encompass rewards, benefits, the company’s values and mission, work culture tailored specifically for your organization – making it one of the “go-to companies” within its market and moving closer to becoming the “employer of choice”.
Workable reports that nine out of ten applicants will apply if an employer actively promotes its brand. A solid EVP will give your organization an edge in an increasingly competitive market, by communicating your values and emphasizing strengths. You can better connect to different segments by customizing it based on their specific profiles and attributes that matter most.
Reduced Turnover
Many factors can lead to individuals feeling disengaged with their current job or organization that they work for, including lack of flexibility, compensation, and positive company culture. Employers have many ways they can reduce turnover. Focus on what matters to your employees, and give them a reason to stay.
Gartner research indicates that organizations that successfully work on their EVP can significantly decrease annual employee turnover by 69%. With competition for talent becoming fiercer and retention becoming a serious challenge, organizations must become more strategic when developing their EVP. To reduce turnover, EVP must be integrated into employee processes – communicating what you offer and showing employees how it can benefit them are two effective strategies to do this.
Enhanced Employee Engagement
An Employee Value Proposition that aligns with employees’ values and aspirations can significantly boost employee engagement, leading to better employer branding. An EVP that speaks directly to these desires creates a sense of purpose and dedication among staff. It should provide its employees with attractive benefits and rewards that encourage increased productivity, such as healthcare or work-life balance initiatives – leading to even higher employee engagement levels.
EVP provides employees with clear career advancement opportunities that not only keep them engaged but also retain them. Opening communication channels to foster an atmosphere of appreciation and feedback ensures employees feel appreciated and heard, leading to stronger feelings of engagement among employees.
How to Build an Effective Employer Brand for Your Healthcare Company?
1. Define Key Employee Value Propositions
You can start this by collecting feedback from current employees and surveys to find out needs and preferences related to their work experiences. They may include, career development, work-life balance, access to automation, competitive compensation, recognition and appreciation, and more. Ensure the EVP pillars are matching with your company’s core values and culture. Customizing these pillars to suit the requirements of healthcare professionals you’re willing to attract is a great choice. They must reflect your company’s culture and what you are offering as authenticity drives trust among candidates and employees.
Once you’re done with identifying these attributes, convey them clearly through your job listings, employer branding, and during the hiring process. Keep reviewing and adapting these pillars to remain competitive as you may be required to make some adjustments due to the changing job market.
2. Create an EVP Statement with Precision
Crafting a clear and concise message that addresses the unique value your organization offers is a great way to attract top talent. You must include the core pillars and attributes in your EVP statement to stand out from the rest. Ensure you’re precise with choosing words and not using vague and generic terms. It’s very important to highlight your differentiating attributes so that you can make an impact.
For example, if you’re popular for performing clinical research, mention it more powerfully. The best technique is to avoid using lengthy paragraphs or jargon and simply keep it brief and to the point. One or two sentences would be enough but make sure you get to the heat of what you provide. Writing engaging and inspiring with positive language energizes and motivates the candidates. Instead of saying ‘We provide career advancement,’ you could say ‘We empower our people to develop their healthcare career.’ Once you’ve crafted your EVP statement, you can share it with team members, recruiters, or stakeholders to receive their feedback.
3. Visual and Messaging Materials
Do you know what is employer branding? It’s only about building an image in front of your potential employees to consider your organization as the ‘employer of choice.’ You can do this by making a logo and brand that match who you are. Use pictures and simple words to show how you care for patients or do medical research. Create messages that people find interesting. Make a short and memorable slogan that tells people what you’re all about, and explain what you do in simple terms. Share stories from your employees about how your company helps them. Put it up on your website, social media, job ads, and emails. Make sure it all looks and sounds the same. Ask your employees for ideas and keep everything up-to-date, so people can see what makes your healthcare brand special.
4. Multi-Channel Promotion
A dedicated careers page on your website should provide an in-depth insight into your organization’s EVP, complemented by employee testimonials and benefits. Social media channels, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, serve as effective platforms to share your EVP messaging, and job openings, and reach a broader audience through targeted ads. Email marketing should be harnessed for newsletters and tailored messages, ensuring potential candidates remain engaged.
Online job boards such as Indeed and Glassdoor allow you to post listings, steering candidates towards your careers page. Engaging with healthcare forums and communities online is crucial for reaching a highly targeted audience, and webinars and virtual events can be leveraged to communicate your culture and opportunities. Search engine optimization should be a focus, making your organization more discoverable, while video content, print materials, and industry partnerships can supplement your promotional efforts. Additionally, analytics play a vital role in measuring and refining your multi-channel approach to attract top talent effectively.
5. Analyze the Responses and Feedback
Checking that your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is doing what it should is absolutely important. Here are some things you should keep in mind when reviewing an EVP of your healthcare brand:
1. Evaluate whether or not the applications you are receiving for job vacancies are improving -are more of the appropriate candidates being sent your way?
2. Make sure that the people you are recruiting fit well with your ideal business profile.
3. Assess if social media engagement has increased. Are more people liking, commenting, and sharing your posts?
4. Keep tabs on who’s leaving your company. Are employees leaving, or staying put?
5. Take note if people who weren’t actively job-hunting are suddenly applying more frequently.
At least annually, it’s wise to review your EVP to ensure it still fits with your goals and to uncover ways of improving it further. Focus groups could also be an excellent way to gather employee input on making it more appealing.
Conclusion
The relevance of an appealing employer brand and EVP cannot be underestimated in this competitive market. With it, you can attract, engage, and retain top talent in your organization. It not only communicates your organization’s values, culture, and distinctive benefits but also significantly reduces turnover, fosters employee engagement, and positions your company as an employer of choice in the healthcare industry. Recognizing the value of your healthcare employer brand and EVP is essential for thriving in this dynamic and demanding sector.
