A Handy Guide to Employer Branding for Call Centers

Research* shows that 75% of job seekers consider employer branding before applying for a role. In call centers, an industry notorious for high turnover, employer branding is also a critical strategy for retention.

But how does employer branding actually work? And how can you strengthen employer branding in your call center? 

In this article, we’ll look at actionable strategies to build a team of loyal, motivated call center professionals. We’ll also explore some real-life examples of great employer branding. 

Key takeaways:

• Employer branding is a continuous process that involves keeping up with the needs and values of your workforce. 
  
• You can boost employee engagement and retention by tracking employee performance.
  
• CloudTalk strengthens your employee brand by improving both the candidate and employee experience.

What Is Employer Branding?

Employer branding means managing your company’s reputation as an employer. This lets you better attract, engage, and retain top talent. It involves showcasing your company’s values, culture, and mission to set it apart as a great place to work. Think of it as your company’s identity from an employee’s perspective. This includes how current and potential employees perceive you.

Employer branding is about telling an authentic story about how it really feels to be a part of your company. This should come across in everything from your recruitment and onboarding processes to your career development initiatives. 

You should view employer branding as an ongoing process that needs to adapt to your workforce and job market’s changing needs and values.

Why Is Employer Branding Important for Call Centers?

Call centers often face challenges in attracting and retaining skilled professionals. This is largely because of the perception the work can be repetitive and stressful. In fact, over 60% of call center leaders are facing staff shortages, mostly due to the industry’s bad reputation. 

Employer branding provides a solution to this. It’s a way for call centers to attract staff by rebranding themselves as interesting, enjoyable places to work. 

With the right employer branding strategies and tools, you can help staff feel aligned with your company mission. This has a direct impact on engagement, retention, and customer experience. 

For example, CloudTalk lets you measurably improve agent performance to elevate your standards and keep your team motivated. Learn more about how CloudTalk makes performance tracking more fair. 

5 Actions You Can Take To Strengthen Your Employer Branding

Ready to start building your employer brand? Here are some key steps to follow.

1. Invest in Your Employees

A strong employer brand starts with a genuinely strong work culture. This, of course, requires fair compensation and great benefits. However, you should also consider these initiatives to boost employee wellbeing and engagement: 

• Learning and development. Offer clear learning pathways that highlight potential promotions and the steps needed to achieve them.
  
• Work-life balance. Allow employees to choose their shifts when possible, ensure call volumes and targets are realistic, and encourage regular wellness breaks.
  
• Rewards. Celebrate achievements with meaningful rewards. These could be bonuses or perks based on key metrics, for example.

2. Clearly Define Your Employer Value Proposition (EVP)

Crafting a strong EVP helps put your employer branding strategy into action. This should clearly state what you offer employees in return for their work beyond a simple salary and benefits package.

A well-crafted EVP should answer questions like: ‘What makes your call center different from others?’ And ‘Why would I want to work for you?’.

It needs to showcase your unique selling points. For example, career development opportunities, work-life balance, or a greater sense of purpose. Highlight factors like pathways for internal promotion, robust training programs, and success stories of existing employees.

It’s important to ensure your EVP is projected across all communication channels. Communicating these strengths effectively will attract candidates who are aligned with your goals and motivated to grow with the company.

3.  Level Up Your Careers Page 

Your careers page is the home of your employer brand. This means it should embody your EVP and be filled with authentic messaging about what working with you is really like.

As you’ll see in the below section from CloudTalk’s careers page, it’s good practice to be direct and show candidates exactly what you could offer them.

Showcase your culture by showing how your values look in practice. Then try to include employee testimonials to build trust with potential candidates. It’s also a great idea to share success narratives to get people excited about your mission. 

4. Prioritize the Recruitment, Hiring, and Onboarding Experience 

Candidates’ first interactions with your company set the tone for how they perceive your workplace. To create a good impression, streamline the recruitment process by keeping communication clear, transparent, and timely. 

Advanced calling software like CloudTalk is key because it can help you create a great experience for every candidate. For example, easy Call Notes allow you to follow up with candidates efficiently and ensure you remember important details. 

After talent acquisition, ensure your onboarding and training make new hires feel welcomed, supported, and engaged with your employer brand. Empower your agents to feel part of the company mission by emphasizing how important good service is and recognizing them for early successes. 

5.  Boost Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy is where your current employees talk about how great it is to work at your company on social media and in person. It’s the key to building an employer brand people trust. 

How do you make people want to talk about your company? 

You make them feel heard, supported, and informed… And you make work more fun! Here are some tips and tools to encourage employee advocacy: 
Automate repetitive tasksto free up your team.

CloudTalk comes with a range of features that allow your agents to focus on valuable work. Workflow Automation, for example, handles routine tasks like follow-ups, ticket creation, and call transcriptions.

• Create a positive performance-oriented culture. Use CloudTalk’s call center Analytics to set realistic goals and offer fair, targeted feedback. 
• Build a sense of community. Bring life to the work environment with games and challenges. This can prevent burnout while creating shareable content employees can easily post on social media. 

3 Real-Life Examples of Great Employer Branding

Check out these examples of employer branding in action for inspiration:

1. Zappos

In 2023, leading call center Zappos announced they would stop posting job ads. Instead, they’d focus on strategic talent acquisition and their strong employer brand pipeline.

Zappos achieved this impressive level of employer branding through a focus on fun offices, employee empowerment, and excellence in customer service. They proudly share that their agents never work from scripts. 

Instead, they’re given autonomy to resolve customer issues creatively. This fosters a sense of ownership and engagement, resulting in a call center where people genuinely enjoy their work. 

They focus on cultural fit during the recruitment process to achieve this. They also proudly advertise selling points like a comprehensive personal development program and a fun, inclusive work environment to attract candidates. 

2. HubSpot

HubSpot has crafted its employer brand based on flexibility, transparency, and personal development. 

Their “@Workplace Commitment” program lets people choose their own working model, offering staff the ability to shape their work-life balance. This kind of initiative is the perfect recruiting strategy for potential hires and outwardly shows that the company values staff wellbeing.

In addition to flexible working, HubSpot is transparent about its stance on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) issues, with a publicly shared ‘Culture Code‘. This comprehensive document clearly outlines the values of HubSpot and the expectations it sets for its people. 

HubSpot also highlights internal mobility and continuous learning in its recruitment materials, showcasing growth frameworks for potential hires.

3. Salesforce

Salesforce’s clever employer branding is built around what it calls its ‘Ohana’ culture. This is a community-focused approach that aims to treat employees like family, focusing on their well-being and support instead of only their performance.

As part of this family-centered approach, they offer a dedicated employee development platform called ‘Trailhead’. This allows motivated employees to develop their skills and build towards career advancement.

Where Salesforce also shines is in its approach to DEI. The company has been a strong advocate for pay equity and diversity for many years and publicly tackles issues like the gender pay gap and creating an inclusive work culture.

It’s easy to see how Salesforce’s genuine commitment to corporate responsibility resonates deeply with the talent pool. They’re frequently high on the list for candidates seeking meaningful work and bright future prospects.

Cementing Your Employer Brand With an Advanced Calling Tool

Call centers deserve more than their bad reputation of high employee turnover or stressful work environments.

With a strong employer brand, you can support your team and show prospective candidates what your workplace is really about. 

Remember: Employer branding is a holistic strategy focused on implementing tools to support employees at every stage. For example, creating a seamless recruitment, hiring, and onboarding process with tools that enhance employee engagement and communication. 

With CloudTalk’s advanced calling software, it’s easy to track employee engagement and performance. Plus, you can reduce your employees’ workload with automation, and provide fair performance analysis you can use to keep your team aligned with the company mission.

Sources

*Gitnux, 2024