Elevate Your Employer Brand: 7 Strategies to Attract Top Talent

Leaders in the dynamic semiconductor industry understand the impact that recruiting the best talent plays on their company’s success. However, in a quickly evolving technology landscape and with changing perspectives about what’s exciting, attracting the best talent, especially those who are not seeking new opportunities, has become increasingly challenging

Over 35 years of collaboration with hiring managers and talent leaders from leading semiconductor companies and cutting-edge startups, we’ve gained valuable insights on creating an employer brand that truly connects with the talent you seek to attract.

Here are seven strategies with practical applications to help reshape how you present your organization, so you can make your brand a magnet for exceptional talent.

1. Develop your Unique EVP (Employee Value Proposition)

Create a clear statement about what distinguishes your company and the impact individuals can make (and will have made on them) if they join. You can highlight points like engineering challenges that foster collaboration and personal growth, and developing technology that is going to transform how your customers deploy innovative AI services to the world. Once your EVP is created, you can leverage it in every aspect of your employment branding, and it can be brought to life by your Leadership, Marketing and HR teams as well as individual team members.

“Engineers like solving difficult problems, and we have some nice ways of solving those problems while working alongside smart people. So we offer a virtuous cycle of learning and doing”

-Arun Iyengar, former CEO and Advisor to Untether AI

2. Employee Advocacy

We live in a highly social world, and engineers love sharing their experiences of working on projects or representing the company at events. You can empower your employees to be your greatest brand ambassadors by giving them approval to share (non-confidential) insights about their work. This can be stories they tell through social accounts such as LinkedIn, personal blogs like Substack, or even online communities like Reddit. This requires trust but goes a long way in terms of showcasing your company’s innovative work and culture through the authentic perspectives of your people.

3. Communicate Your Culture

Consistent communication about your company’s culture is pivotal, starting from the top down. Leaders who engage with their teams transparently and on a personal level can nurture the trust sought by today’s talent. This can be achieved by sharing stories through internal channels like newsletters, Wikis, or videos. Moreover, informal team conversations between managers and individual contributors and ‘town hall’ meetings are invaluable opportunities. The key is to highlight how leadership values shape the workplace. When employees relay this message to external contacts, it resonates strongly with potential candidates.

“The number one recommendation I have for anyone who wants to be a leader, whether they want to be a technical leader or just a person of influence is to be aware of the impact they have on people.”

– Ty Garibay, President at Condor Computing Corporation

4. Showcase Your Culture

Offer potential candidates an immersive experience into your company’s culture. Host informal meetups or networking events at your campus, creating an open space for interaction between candidates, engineers, and executives. These events provide a firsthand experience of your environment and through engaging conversations and interactions, candidates gain insights into the company’s values, and daily dynamics, allowing them to gauge the workplace atmosphere and determine the cultural fit.

5. Amplify Authenticity

Don’t sugarcoat everything! Avoid painting an overly perfect picture of your company because building trust with potential candidates requires honesty about both the challenges and successes. Ensure your company’s branding aligns with the realities of working in the semiconductor industry, particularly if you’re a startup. This can be done effectively through creative job advertisements, in conversations held at university and industry job fairs and expos, and certainly during interviews with candidates.

“Most startups exist because they want to change the world but as it turns out, changing the world takes patience. There’s a whole litany of tasks that need to be done before you can say, ‘We’re ready.’”

– Shrijeet Mukerjee, Chief Development Officer at Enfabrica

6. Encourage Engagement

Recruitment shouldn’t halt once new members join your team. Foster a culture where hiring managers and Talent Acquisition leaders actively involve your team in suggesting potential candidates they’ve previously worked with. For instance, hosting one-on-one or team-based brainstorming sessions where team members can openly suggest professionals they admire, or have a successful history with. This ongoing involvement of employees in the recruitment process not only enriches the talent pipeline but also strengthens internal relationships, leading to sustained growth and synergy within the company.

“Take the time to sit down with your engineers and ask them, ‘Who did you work with that you would love to work with again, and feel like would make an impact here?’”

– Justin Hopper, Head of Talent Acquisition, Condor Computing

7. Pair with the Right Partner

As crucial as it is to align your internal and external talent marketing with your company’s vision, it’s equally important to ensure your talent acquisition partners are aligned with that vision. Investing time to align leadership and partners ensures everyone involved in the hiring process will authentically represent the company to potential hires. Partners need to be able to effectively articulate the company’s mission to candidates while screening for technical capabilities as well as fit with the company culture, which involves getting an understanding about their attitudes, interests, and mindset.

“I need to talk to the [candidate] to sense their personality and attitude. Technical competency is important, but personality and attitude trumps that.”

-Raymond Chik, co-founder and Advisor to Untether AI

The Next Step: Elevating Your Talent Attraction

Are you ready to leverage your brand’s mission and refine your message to attract exceptional talent? Take the next step in your journey by implementing the strategies above.

If you still find it challenging, reach out to our team for a personalized consultation where you can discover how our experience in employer branding can become part of a holistic talent acquisition approach.

Let’s partner to craft an employer brand that draws the best minds in the semiconductor industry to your company!

-SBT