Winning Over the Candidate
Building Your Employer Brand Starts Here. Brand building today goes far beyond influencing potential customers. If you want to attract and retain top talent, you need to make a strong impression on candidates — and stand out from other companies competing for the same people.
In her interview with IHK Magazin, Manuela Sanmiguel, Managing Director at SANMIGUEL, shares practical strategies for building an authentic employer brand. Here’s a quick summary of the key takeaways:
What Is Employer Branding?
Employer branding means building an attractive employer brand. It helps businesses stand out from competitors and find the right talent faster. At the same time, strong employer branding helps you retain your existing employees by reinforcing what makes your company a great place to work.
How Do You Get Started?
01 Define Your Employer Brand Values
“The first step is to identify your core brand values,” explains Manuela Sanmiguel. What sets your company apart? What makes you different from other employers? What do you truly stand for? The answers to these questions form the foundation for all future actions — and guide every step in building your employer brand.
02 Know Your Audience and Define the Right Messages
Beyond understanding your own company, you also need to know your target talent. What matters to the skilled professionals you want to attract? What are their values, expectations, and motivations? This process helps you define the themes and messages you should communicate. But be careful don’t present or promise anything you can’t actually deliver, authenticity is key.
03 Define the Right Communication Channels
The next step is to identify the right channels to reach your ideal candidates.
Your career website is your most important employer branding platform. It should showcase your identity as an employer, highlight your benefits and career opportunities,enable online applications, and introduce your hiring contacts. “It’s smart to create dedicated subpages for different target groups — for example, for graduates, apprentices, experienced professionals, or specialized roles,” recommends Manuela Sanmiguel.
Social media helps you increase your visibility among your target audience and spread employer branding campaigns. The classic platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube work well together to build your brand presence. As covered in our article on digital employer branding, you can also leverage TikTok to expand on the image you’ve built on Instagram. On every channel, one rule applies: Authenticity is key.
Review Platforms: What Others Say Matters. Future employees will check platforms like Kununu or Glassdoor to see if you live up to your promises. “The best employer branding happens when current or former employees leave positive — or at least not negative — reviews,” says Manuela Sanmiguel. That’s why it’s essential to foster a respectful, human approach — not just internally, but also in how you communicate with candidates. This includes giving timely, personal feedback on both applications and rejections.
04 Continuous Improvement
The success of employer branding depends on how well all activities work together as one cohesive system. But it’s also important to remember: employer branding is never “done”. It’s a continuous process. “It’s not enough to build a career website once and then sit back,” says Manuela Sanmiguel. You need to regularly review and refine your messaging and activities, adapting them to both internal changes and market developments.
The Checkliste
Easier said than done. That’s why we’ve put together a practical checklist — a set of essential steps that we believe every successful employer brand should include:
Identity
Clearly define what your company stands for as an employer.
Insights
Get to know both your current and future employees — for real.
Internal Perspective
Conduct regular employee surveys and conversations to gain valuable insights into how your team truly sees your company.
External Perspective
Analyze your competitive landscape to understand where you stand in the market.
Transparency
Show the real work environment as it is and communicate your company’s vision and mission clearly and boldly. Important: Only present what you can actually deliver on.
Information
Provide clear job descriptions and explain the application process.
Include details on sustainability, social responsibility, or work-life balance to give candidates a fuller picture of the job and company culture.
Interactivity
Make applying as easy as possible. Offer online application tools, videos, or self-assessments. Show the real people behind the process — include photos, phone numbers, and chat options for direct contact with your team.
Social Media
Be present on the platforms where your target audience — both candidates and current employees — actually spend their time.
Conclusion
Successful employer branding is the key to attracting and retaining top talent long term. Authenticity, clear communication, and reaching the right people on the right channels make all the difference. Because today, companies need to apply to candidates — and they better do it with a real, authentic company culture that’s lived, not just claimed. Employer branding isn’t a one-time project — it’s a sustainable, long-term strategy.
