The shift towards remote work is apparent.
In Owl Lab’s State of Remote Work 2021 report, 56% of respondents said they’ll quit their job to look for opportunities with more flexibility.
While 1 in 3 (32%) said, they’d quit their job if they were not able to work remotely moving forward.
Meanwhile, Upwork’s Future Workforce Pulse Report 2021 estimates that by 2025 40.7 million Americans will be working fully remotely – a significant increase of 87% from pre-pandemic levels.
It’s also expected that full-time remote workers will make up at least 27.7% of the workforce compared to 20.4% who will be working on a hybrid work schedule.
It’s clear that businesses and employees are moving towards a remote working environment.
However, since more employees are choosing the option to work remotely, companies now have to pivot their strategy to attract and retain the best employees.
That’s why creating a strong remote employer branding is vital to be ahead of the curve.
This article will teach you what employer branding is, how to implement it, and what benefits it brings to your company.
What is remote employer branding, and why is it important?
As with any type of branding, employer branding is the embodiment of your company’s presentation to the world.
You’re communicating your company’s values, culture, mission, and vision to your current and prospective employees.
This enables you to set the tone and expectations of what it’s like working in your company.
To build effective remote employer branding, you need to develop a good employee value proposition (EVP).
Planning and strategizing your EVPs is crucial in making your company a highly-desirable prospect for highly-skilled candidates, as well as retaining the current talents you have.
A survey by Hired found that US-based IT candidates prefer to work at companies because of these top five reasons:
- Compensation
- Opportunity to learn new skills
- Company culture
- Company leadership
- Challenging technical problems to solve
So, to attract the best talents, your EVP must be developed in such a way that reflects the preferences of the candidate market.
This goes along for all prospective employees in different countries and regions. You must cater to their needs to set yourself apart from your competitors.
Employer branding in remote working
The shift from the traditional in-office working environment to a remote one is huge.
That’s why it’s important to develop your remote employer branding to attract the best possible job seekers, retain your best employees, and enable effective remote onboarding in your company.
Have access to more diverse top talents
By building a strong remote employer brand, you have the opportunity to tap into a more diverse job market.
Promoting a ‘remote-first’ mindset attracts employees from different backgrounds and countries, which opens your doors to both regional and international talents.
For example, job seekers with challenging disabilities, situations, or preferences that couldn’t possibly go to an office before are now available for hire. Talents from an untapped demographic are now employable by accommodating their need for accessibility and flexibility.
Retain your best employees
With the increasing preference for remote and hybrid work schedules, prioritizing a remote working culture enables you to do your best to retain your employees.
And keeping them satisfied is the key to employee retention. As with Ricardo Biason’s research on the Effect of Job Satisfaction on Employee Retention, satisfied employees are more than likely to keep their jobs.
Essentially, employees who gravitate to remote work will be attracted by the EVPs you provide.
Add in a positive work environment, regular virtual team buildings, and strong team culture, and you’ll retain the best employees seeking flexibility in your company.
Enable effective digital onboarding
Implementing the latest technologies and best practices makes it easy for onboarding new employees.
However, you still need to overcome some challenges of remote digital onboarding. The best way to do this is by having a clear vision of how you onboard your employees.
You want a smooth process for your new employees to seamlessly ease them into their new roles.
You can ensure that by fostering a clear avenue of communication between management and the new employee during the onboarding process.
💡 Pro tip
Onboarding new remote employees requires frequent communication and good planning. To make the most out of your remote communication, use a meeting management software that features scheduling, video calls, recordings, and screen sharing.
Ensuring your remote employer branding is successful
Now you know why remote employer branding is important for your business. The real challenge is how can you successfully cultivate it inside your company.
There are three simple aspects you can work on to build better remote employer branding inside your organization.
Make your leadership accessible
Leadership, in the remote workplace, takes on a new meaning.
Managing remote employees is a bit different from managing a team in a traditional working environment.
Assigning tasks, motivating employees, and providing solutions are still important activities for any virtual leader. However, the barrier to personal social interaction might hamper connection with your employees.
Instead of taking on a traditional role, as Andrea Alexander, Aaron De Smet, and Mihir Mysore explain, remote leaders should be more inspirational and should cultivate employer branding in the virtual environment.
But how?
By bridging the gap between remote employees and the company.
Presenting an approachable, inspirational figure breaks fresh ground for communication between employees and leadership.
This makes it easy for employees to ask for advice and feedback or even have a simple conversation with their manager.
This comes a long way for remote working environments.
As long as team leaders find their role in bringing distant employees together, you can quickly cultivate an atmosphere of connection primed for remote work.
Promote company culture in the smallest unit of your organization
Your team culture is your brand, as Tony Hseih puts it.
The principles, motivations, and values behind your company’s activities and processes reflect its culture.
That’s why it’s important to understand your company culture in the smallest unit in your organization.
Start with your remote teams.
Find out what makes them tick. You can ask a few of these questions to get started:
- How do your team leads communicate with their subordinates?
- What types of collaboration are encouraged within your teams?
- How do teammates interact with each other?
- How are ideas received in your teams?
- What values do your teams embody?
- What types of conversations does your team have? (formal or informal)
Once you’ve figured this out, you can strategize on how to implement a better way of doing things.
However, be mindful of making blanket changes as it may negatively affect the chemistry of your team. Instead, focus on one thing at a time.
Maybe you can put a people-first approach to communication where subordinates can feel valued. Make output secondary to the process and improve professional relationships within the team.
The main takeaway from asking these questions is to build a good remote team and develop your culture there. And once you see the positive effects coming to fruition, it’s time to apply them throughout the organization.
Use technology to build better relationships
Fostering remote team communication and collaboration is tricky.
Without face-to-face social interactions, it’s hard to build professional relationships with co-workers.
Add in the fact that remote companies rely on distant communication lines to keep the wheels turning, and it’s not uncommon for companies to turn away from remote work.
Thankfully, there are tools that make team communication and collaboration happen easily. You can use these tools to host engaging and effective meetings, informal sessions, and virtual catchups to build a strong team.
Remote employer branding prepares you for the future
The future is set with more employees looking for opportunities to work remotely.
Catering to your remote workers’ needs through virtual leadership, strong team culture, and top-notch tools will inevitably push your remote employer branding forward and set you apart from the competition.
Start developing your employer branding now and be ahead of the curve.
Karlo del Puerto
Karlo writes for Multiplier Technologies Pte. Ltd., as a Content Marketing Associate by day. He specializes in B2B Content Writing with a load of experience on his shoulders. He is simple with his SEO implementations and wordplay. When he’s not writing, he likes to immerse himself in the complexities of music and the thrill of competitive video games. He’s a homebody most of the time but when the road calls for him, he can be gone at a moment’s notice.