Maggie Wooll, a contributing editor to Better Up, describes employer branding in the same breath as recruitment of the best hires, and she is not alone. The concept is simple: prospective hires are as interested in your reputation as they are in the basic facts you advertise in your Help Wanted advertisement. Whether you attract applicants by word of mouth, by a sign in the window, from a headhunter or by way of an ad on Indeed, each job seeker scrutinizes your reputation as deeply as the salient facts about the job. Just who or what family are they joining?

Researchers document 95% of all applicants consider a company’s reputation as a key factor in accepting a job offer. So what is your brand from an applicant’s point of view? We aren’t talking about whether shoppers prefer your company over the competition, the normal perspective from which we talk about branding. Look at it from a different vantage point: No matter how wonderful your product or concept, folks will avoid your great job offering for an opportunity to work at a place where employees love their jobs. That’s a hiring brand. If you want to hire more help, the best help, that’s the criteria you need to consider.

Of course, we instinctively know that. We emphasize the benefits, which make our job offering look great. But are our words congruent with personal experience? When I worked in surgery, I once looked at the mission statement of a place where I thought I might like to work—and as a result, I filled out an application. It said all the right things when I read their goals and the description of how they operated. Yet when I talked to people who actually worked there (OR nursing is a small community), an entirely different picture emerged. They felt they were left hanging with improper supplies to accomplish their jobs, they felt over worked without appreciation, and on and on. It wasn’t any better than where I was currently employed so I chose to withdraw my application, and ultimately discovered a different career path that proved a much better fit.

So look at the current shortage of labor from this perspective. “In 2018, the US had a turnover of 22%, with 15% making up workers that left the workplace voluntarily. This latter movement cost companies an estimated $618 billion. This is even more important in the wake of the great resignation, which followed the COVID-19 pandemic—a whopping 4.4 million workers in the US quit their jobs.” And might I add, many of them remain creatively unemployed? They may be earning money, but not from you.

There are a lot of reasons to consider this. It cuts down on the cost of recruitment. It helps you attract the best talent. It showcases your company in a favorable light. Perhaps the most important reason is that it lightens your workload. Who does the job no one wants? We all know the answer to that one! You really need to hire more people.

Forbes listed 15 tips on how to counteract the issues caused by The Great Resignation (their words, not mine), and they included:

• Humanize your brand. Make employees feel special.

• Spotlight outstanding employees. Give them kudos in the spotlight.

• Create a supportive environment. Make sure employees know you’ll back them up.

• Focus on employee development. Flexible schedules, help with educational goals.

• Treat employees as your greatest PR asset. Be transparent.

The bottom line is simple: Improve your work pool by improving the way you treat your work pool. We danced around this concept earlier, but let me be very clear: You’ll hire more people when they want to work with you, not for you. That’s your brand.