Employer Branding in 2021

About the Author

Jordan Betteridge

Founder - Random

While I may be young, my breadth of experience spans multiple industries, providing me with a diverse and rich perspective. At the heart of my approach is education – I believe in empowering my clients with knowledge, rather than keeping it under lock and key.


My commitment to transparency ensures clients have full access to every facet of our partnership. I invest time in truly understanding businesses and their teams because I recognize the power of EVP (Employee Value Proposition) in driving both customer acquisition and retention.


At my core, I believe that a company's culture is the glue that holds everything together and dictates the quality of work produced.


With me, it's about the value of time, ensuring every moment is impactful, rather than watching the clock. My ethos is about fostering genuine relationships and delivering exceptional value, not just billing hours.

Employer Branding in 2021  “why you need to build it from the inside out”



If you are a growing start-up or established SME and you have been recruiting for new talent this year, you will have noticed there is a noticeable drop in applications for job ads and a definite sense of competition for great talent. The candidates have the power in today’s recruitment market and the smart businesses are accepting this and adapting. 


As employers it’s imperative we understand what our ideal talent is looking for in a workplace. Just as much as we work to be first choice for our clients and retain their business, businesses need to put an equal amount of effort into retention and attraction strategies for talent. As let’s be real, without great people you won’t have much of a business. 


First let’s explore what’s happening in the recruitment market, with knowledge comes power. The below are a few of the major contributing factors to what recruitment companies are somewhat aggressively nicknaming the “war on talent”.

International borders are shut. This is something we are all aware of, but few business owners are doing the math and taking stock of the impact of zero international talent available in Australia. This is impacting the middle management hires the most, with fierce competition for those golden middle managers. It really boils down to supply and demand. There literally isn’t enough Australian talent available and the shortage is driving the competition, plain and simple

Businesses are clinging to 3-year-old salary banding  Industry average salaries didn’t see a major increase from 2017-2019 and candidates weren’t able to negotiate more than a 5k-10k increase on an offer at most during this period, even accepting lower salaries for a better role and opportunity. Fast forward to 2021 and the talent shortage has driven average salaries up to roughly 20% increase on a base package. This adjustment, to be fair, was overdue for inflation purposes but has been significantly fast-tracked due to the talent shortage, with top talent negotiating an average of 20k - 30k pay increases on offers for new roles in specialist disciplines.

Millennials and Gen Z have the power  Anyone under 35 falls into this category. Those interns who got you coffee, have now become talented middle management and they hold all the cards. These next-gen leaders have a different way of researching roles and different priorities when selecting their next career move. The sooner your business can understand these generations motivators and authentically communicate with them, the more likely you are to attract the top talent your business needs to continue growing.

Taking into consideration the above three factors, we may not be able to open the international borders, but we can adjust our hiring approach to adapt to today’s talent market and remain competitive.  - Jordan Betteridge, Founder - Random Group


Enter, Employer Branding:


The purpose of an Employer Branding strategy is to authentically communicate the benefits of working at your company. Ultimately attracting talent who align to your company values, giving you a competitive edge in the recruitment market of today.


Before we get into the Employer Branding strategy fundamentals, let’s go back to our Millennials and Gen Z, of whom we are trying to hire. 


It’s important to recognise, this target market has access to your company like generations before didn’t. Glassdoor, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram all allow prospective talent a real time view into your company’s employees, office, culture, retention, growth plans and clients. This is all before they have even gone for their first interview.


It is imperative that you are aware of how your company presents online and the digital foot print it has left. This should cover everything from the careers page of your website to any reviews on Glassdoor. Once you know what’s out there and how it is being received you can work to build a strategy that aligns with your company values and communicates the benefits of joining your business.


If you don’t know where to start, put yourself in the candidates’ shoes. Google your business and go on the journey that a prospective candidate would while researching your company. 


Employee attraction can be achieved through communicating the relevant benefits of working at your company through online content. Establishing what the benefits are is the first step, these can also be considered your talent USP’s. Your unique benefits should align with your company values and should be carefully considered and authentically rolled out internally then communicated externally. A couple of ideas include: 


  • Flexible working (post lock down)
  • Mental health programs 
  • Fitness and health programs 
  • Individual coaching and educational programs 
  • Individual Bonus schemes 
  • Childcare packages and assistance 
  • Travel and re-location options (for global or multi office companies)


These are just a few of the types of initiatives that are attracting talent to businesses. Incentives like Friday drinks, conference trips, team building days and 4pm Friday finishes are no longer considered progressive or motivating for today’s talent. 


Once you have established your company wide employee incentive programs and are actively rolling them out successfully, then you can communicate these incentives through targeted content. This can be done via PR, digital, social, case-studies and video testimonials. All content should be in your company tone of voice and consistent with your company values and culture. If it’s not authentic the market won’t buy into it. The trick here is consistency and authenticity. 


If in doubt about what the best initiatives are for your business or best ways to communicate your company culture, ask your existing employees. Empower your people to contribute to building and strengthening your culture and build it from within, as these will be the people you are asking to spread the word.


Build out a 3–6-month content focused strategy and ensure that you’re pushing the information out across all platforms that prospective employees would visit, company socials, website, industry publications. 


The idea is creating an environment that people want to come and stay and a company culture that people are proud to belong to. As happy people mean happy clients which means a successful business. 


For more information on how to build your Employer Branding strategy from the inside out, talk to Random Group. 

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