Building Employer Brands Through the Interview Experience

–By Lalitha Varshini

Building Employer Brands: In today’s competitive job market, employer branding has emerged as an important tool to attract and retain top talent. Companies today invest heavily in social media campaigns, polished websites, and employee testimonials, but there remains an untapped and underutilized aspect of branding that leaves a lasting impression on candidates — how the interview experience shapes employer branding. This “interview experience” goes beyond scheduling and questions; it reflects how professionally and thoughtfully the process is conducted.

Having an interview expert involved not only ensures consistency and fairness, but also reinforces the company’s commitment to quality and respect — making candidates more likely to view the brand positively, regardless of the outcome.

Interview is no longer just a talent evaluation tool; it’s a brand’s first impression in the minds of the candidates who sit for it. A well-structured, respectful, and engaging interview process can make candidates ambassadors of the employer brand, even if they don’t make it. On the flip side, a poor interview experience can damage the company’s reputation in ways that no amount of marketing could possibly make up for.

Employer branding refers to a company’s reputation as an employer and its value proposition to employees, as opposed to its more general corporate brand reputation. It’s what candidates think it’s like to work for your company, even before they actually begin working.
According to MRI Network, 69% of candidates would reject a job offer from a company with a bad employer brand, even if they were unemployed. This is exactly why it becomes important to try and build an optimistic employer brand through the interview process.

• Employer Brand

But how does a good employer brand help?

• Attracts high-quality candidates: When a company has a good employer brand, people with higher experience and better qualifications tend to apply for vacancies.
• Increases offer acceptance rates: Candidates tend to opt for the companies that have a better employer brand or those that created a better impression during the interview.
• Reduces time and cost per hire: Building a good employer brand benefits the company, as now they don’t necessarily have to spend a lot on their marketing efforts.
• Improves employee engagement and retention: If the employees are hired in a company with a good employer brand, then they subconsciously tend to feel more satisfied with their job and don’t leave too soon.

Employer Brand Statistics

According to LinkedIn, 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job. And Glassdoor research shows that organisations with strong employer brands see 50% more qualified applicants and spend 50% less per hire. This makes it critical to align every touchpoint of the candidate journey with the values the company claims to represent.

A good interview experience helps a lot in building a company’s image throughout the job market, as it shows that the company:

• Values people’s time and effort.
• Is organized and transparent.
• Respects diverse perspectives.
• Offers meaningful growth opportunities.
• Encourages two-way conversations, not just assessments.

In this way, even if the candidates do not make it through the interview process, they still leave with a positive impression. This contributes to the company’s external reputation and builds trust in the brand. Now, let’s look at a few key elements that shape an impactful interview process:

Related: Understanding Multi-Stage Interviews: A Simple Guide to Interview Rounds

PRE-INTERVIEW COMMUNICATION

Right from when a candidate applies for a vacancy, the way their application is received and the way they feel impact their impression a lot. So it becomes crucial for the interview experts to create a very warm pre-interview experience. Clarity, professionalism, effective communication, and warmth matter a lot to the candidates. This starts from sending prompt acknowledgement emails, providing clear expectations for the next steps and showing enthusiasm about meeting them. This humanises the brand.

SCHEDULING AND TIMELINESS

Scheduling interviews may seem like a logistical task, but it’s also an opportunity to show respect for the candidate’s time. The interview experts may go a few miles extra to make the candidates feel like they matter. This may be by offering flexible time slots or being punctual during interviews. This is because delays without communication reflect poorly on the organizational culture.

THE INTERVIEW FORMAT AND FLOW

A well-designed interview process is not only a test of the candidate’s skills but also a showcase of the company’s approach to collaboration, communication, and culture. Interview experts can achieve this by opting for structured interviews to reduce bias or by maintaining a balance between the technical and behavioral questions asked. Another important point is letting the candidates ask questions or queries, too. Sometimes letting the candidates know who will be interviewing them will help to ease the stress because transparency builds trust.

INTERVIEWER BEHAVIOUR

Interviewers are ambassadors of the employer brand. Their attitude, tone, and engagement level leave a lasting impression on the candidates’ minds. Hence, interview experts should greet candidates warmly, show genuine interest in their background, and avoid distractions such as mobile phones. Maintaining an inclusive and non-judgmental communication is also very important.

Related: 10 Reasons why you need Interview as a Service

CANDIDATE FEEDBACK

Candidates appreciate knowing how they performed. While communicating whether they are selected or not is given, it’s also very important to let them know about the other aspects of their performance. To them, such feedbacks play a major role in understanding their strengths and weaknesses for future interviews. It should be ensured that they are thanked for their efforts. Even rejection emails can be written with kindness. A respectful rejection leaves the door open for future applications.

While we saw how a company can create a positive impression in the job market, there are a few red flags too, that a company may refrain from doing. These include:-

• Ghosting the candidates after the interview
• Long delays without updates
• Underprepared interview experts who may not be aware of the candidates’ resumes
• Aggressive questioning during the interviews
• Lack of feedback after several rounds

Related: Meeting the Impossible: Smart Strategies to Hit Aggressive Hiring Targets

Even today, a lot of big companies in the world are building employer brands through their interview experience. Let’s now understand a few of them:-
Google, led by People Ops head Laszlo Bock, shifted away from unstructured brainteasers after research showed first impressions were unreliable. Instead, they now use standardized, rubric-based interviews, which research confirms increase predictive validity and reduce bias.

Google Can Predict Whether You’ll Get Hired After 4 Interviews. Here’s How

A recent report showed Salesforce, along with companies like Alphabet and HP, consistently outperform peers in stock returns and revenue because of strong employee sentiment and employer branding.

Strong employer brands see higher stock returns

In conclusion, employer brand isn’t built in a day; it’s built in moments. The interview is one of the most crucial of these moments. It’s a two-way street where candidates evaluate the company as much as the companies evaluate them. A respectful, engaging, and transparent process led by an interview expert can be the strongest brand statement that can be made.