Brand (AI)d: 3 Ways AI Can Support Employer Branding Strategies

Last Updated: December 16, 2021

How candidates and employees perceive the employer brand permeates every interaction they have with the organization. Are employers leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) in the best way possible to drive their brands forward? Here are three key ways that AI can support employer branding initiatives.

While organizations battle it out for the employee experience war, let’s take a step back. Think of the beginning – before employee experience. In the beginning, there was (and still is) the brand.

Whether an individual chooses to take the first step into an organization’s recruitment process depends on how they perceive the employer brand. This perception is sculpted in further detail once they are part of the process and even more so when they join the organization – it is dynamic and changes with every interaction, every initiative. With technology becoming an integral part of every communication between the individual and the organization, of every aspect of work and of the workplace, it also plays a crucial part in building and promoting the employer brand.

Roopesh Nair, President, and CEO at Symphony TalentOpens a new window  is of the opinion that “a common challenge in employer branding engagement is activating a personal context, articulating EVP [employee value proposition] attributes that matter most to specific talent and communicating a brand story in the most relevant way to a given interaction.”

Learn More: How to Build Your Employer BrandOpens a new window

3 Ways AI can Support and Promote the Employer Brand

AI is proving to be a viable, flexible, and dynamic tool to help organizations tell their brand story cohesively. Here’s how AI can enable the implementation of branding strategies and initiatives across three stages of the employee experience:

1. Reaching out to the right talent with AI

“AI can synthesize the combined actions and behaviors of a jobseeker to yield a better understanding of their intent: discovery (low intent), actively searching (medium) or applying (high). Through this knowledge, we’re able to match jobseekers with relevant and prioritized employer branding content which maximizes outcomes for both jobseekers and employers,” says Chris Cho, Chief Product Officer at Monster.comOpens a new window .

With the right conversational recruitment chatbotsOpens a new window in place, organizations can create a stronger employer brand. Candidates expect to have intelligent conversations with a recruiting point of contact who can clarify doubts and provide relevant information. Employers who fail to provide that experience have already fallen behind in the race to acquire the best talent.

The initial processes of sourcing and screening tell an employee a lot about the organization. The point is not to have AI in place that tricks candidates into thinking that they are being catered to by a human recruiter. Rather, the point is to use AI solutions that make it easier for the organization and the right talent to connect, communicate and collaborate.

Learn More: Building a Strong Employer Brand with TechnologyOpens a new window

2. Rethinking employee engagement

Nair makes a keen observation in pointing out that “AI not only fuels personalization but also enables this consistency at scale, freeing up teams to focus on building relationships – the most critical part of brand activation.”

With AI, organizations now have access to deep insights to analyze and predict trends and thus better align the work-worker-workplace puzzle. The perceived employer brand and employee engagement levels are intrinsically connected. The employer brand is not merely what the organization states it is and what it aims to be. Instead, the brand is defined by how the organization functions every day.

AI enables teams and individuals to communicate, collaborate and cooperate better through real-time, digital tools and that transcend the challenges of distance, time zones, and diversity. This enhances the work experience in general and enables the organization to uphold the brand promise to its employees.

With AI, machine learning (ML), and deep data, organizations can engage employees with their brands more consistently. The AI that a company employs becomes part of everyday work and consequently a part of the brand. As a result, AI-powered employee engagementOpens a new window becomes more than a few disjointed initiatives strung together and evolves into a culture of engagement.

3. Retaining the AI way

Whether it is about making appraisals more ethical, feedback and communication more fulfilling, or rewards and recognition more relevant, AI can enable these processes while upholding the brand. This is possible through collaborative and conversational AI that can deploy strategic initiatives proactively and predictively.

Retaining the right talent is a lot more difficult now that it was even half a decade back. In a world where loyalty works on a subscription model and can be withdrawn as quickly as it can be gained, employees need to subscribe to an AI-enabled, technology-backed workplace. It is especially difficult to retain employees not only because of our ever-shortening attention span but because there are always so many other options available to easily switch to. Choosing the right AI solutions is an important step for employers in building a brand that employees can relate to, find it easy to work with, and want to stick with.

Building a brand that is agile and ready to transform also provides the employees with assurance that they are with an organization that can not only keep pace with the changing times but also lead change. That encourages within each employee a sense of pride in the work that they do and the bigger picture that they are a part of.

Learn more: How Artificial Intelligence is Humanizing HROpens a new window

Story-selling vs. Storytelling with AI

Getting the brand story straight is the key to attracting the right talent, keeping them on board, and helping them grow along with the organization. The difference between storytelling and story-selling – while both involve the essential acceptance of a shared reality to live and drive – is probably that when you have a real brand story to tell, you do not need to sell it.

With AI, employer branding strategies can become more than plans, policies, and promotion – they can be the pillars on which the identity of the organization rests. With AI becoming more easily available and applicable, it makes logical sense to integrate it into the branding of the organization. After all, we live in times where AI and their human counterparts can both be employed to work towards shared goals. Branded storytelling is just that – getting people and technology to collaborate, to further the cause of the brand, and to strive ahead together. 

How are you planning to use AI for employer branding in 2019? Tell us all about it on FacebookOpens a new window LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We’re always listening.

Prarthana Ghosh
Prarthana Ghosh

Copy Editor, Spiceworks

Prarthana is Copy Editor for Spiceworks. She has created in-depth content assets around strategic themes that matter the most to the world of work, technology and leadership today from digital transformation to the role of AI. This involves researching and developing globally relatable long-form content like eBooks, Buyer Guides, White Papers, and Survey Reports - all rooted in subject matter knowledge and passion for the subjects. Prarthana also loves traveling, reading, baking, and trying weird food from around the world. You can reach out to her at prarthana.ghosh@swzd.com.
Take me to Community
Do you still have questions? Head over to the Spiceworks Community to find answers.