Employer branding in Poland

Build the image of a desirable employer in Poland! What is employer branding? Employer branding is a long-term process of building how a company is perceived in the eyes of not only key candidates for employees, business partners, shareholders, but also customers. It is also the internal activities supporting and activating current employees, the aim of which is to keep the best specialists inside the company, increase their work efficiency and accelerate the development of the whole enterprise. Our experts will help you create a successful employer branding strategy on the Polish market.

Key benefits of employer branding in Poland

It has been said for many years that the Polish market is an employee market. Employer branding in Poland today is not just an add-on, but a necessity if we want to build solid company foundations based on the work of the best experts on the market. But why is employer branding important?

The main benefits of implementing employer branding activities with our help include:

better matching of candidates to a company’s working environment,
greater involvement of employees in a company’s development,
more spontaneous recruitment and easier attraction of the right people,
lower recruitment costs,
higher employee satisfaction and loyalty to the company,

What to look for when planning an employer branding strategy in Poland?

How to improve employer branding in Poland? As an owner or representative of a company hiring from Poland, you should not underestimate the trends on the Polish employee market. The Polish labour market is experiencing an incredible resurgence (the biggest in the EU) and it is now employers who have to fight for valuable employees, not the other way around. The most important elements that Polish employers focus on in their employer branding strategy include, in turn, offering candidates opportunities for development at work (broadening professional and other competences, interesting projects and decision-making freedom), taking care of employees’ mental health, flexible working (free choice of working hours, possibility of remote or hybrid working) and education (e.g. subsidised training, studies or language courses).

It is also worth paying attention to the working environment and the atmosphere in the company – as it is a bad atmosphere at work or difficulties in getting along with the superior or the team that are the main reasons why most people in the Polish market resign from their jobs. Slightly less important are the diversity of the working environment and team integration (although the young generation of Polish employees pays much more attention to these aspects than their parents or grandparents did a dozen years ago).

Polish employer branding to 50- and 60-year-olds

What should not be forgotten when planning employer branding in Poland is precisely the generational diversity. Both the way you communicate, your EVP (Employer Value Proposition) and the tools you choose must be tailored to your main target group. Today’s 50- and 60-year-olds in Poland are primarily looking for a sense of stability and security at work. These people are loyal employees, which means they will stay with your company for a long time, but at the same time – it will be hard for you to “take them away” from your competitors. This generation is not as entrepreneurial as the younger one, but they are trustworthy, although they themselves remain distrustful.

Polish employer branding to 30- and 40-year-olds

On the other hand, 40- and 30-year-olds from Poland (i.e. the most numerous group of employees) tend to be well-educated people for whom work is an important part of life and in which they seek development. On the other hand, they value work-life balance and when their employer does not give them enough freedom, they have no problem leaving their jobs. They change jobs much more often than the older generation and are able to work hard to get a promotion or a raise.

Employer branding to the youngest Poles

The youngest generation on the Polish labour market (people before the age of 25) are usually just starting their careers. Climbing the career ladder or the corporate rat race are not attractive to them (unlike the older generations). Instead, they rely on relationships, and look to work as a way to make money rather than to grow. They also pay attention to the overall image of the employer (corporate social responsibility and its communication should therefore play the first fiddle in your employer branding strategy if you want to reach the youngest generations on the Polish labour market).

More and more companies are entering the Polish market and employing specialists from Poland. Before starting to recruit, competitive, market and target group research is now a necessity.

External employer branding in Poland

According to the latest research on employer branding in Poland, the number of companies that declare involvement in employer branding is constantly growing and amounts to around 25%. The basis of the external employer branding strategy today are online activities, including:

Social media – the opportunity to get to know the brand more closely at the outset brings the candidate closer to the company. For large brands, we often create separate profiles that focus solely on the implementation of the employer branding strategy in Poland.
Website positioning (SEO) – a well positioned website gives us full control over what potential employees see when they type the company name into a search engine.
Appropriate communication via the company’s website – especially important here is the “career” tab, which should include current vacancies with detailed descriptions, as well as recruitment forms (including one offering the possibility of spontaneous recruitment, even if the company is not currently looking for employees for a particular position or department).

Professional job advertisements – it is not only about their aesthetic appearance or creative presentation of the offer to make it stand out from the competition, but also about including priority elements in the advertisement (e.g. precise description of the scope of tasks in a given position, expectations from the candidate, remuneration or description of what the next recruitment stages look like).
Content on websites collecting opinions about companies and employers in Poland.
Use of paid advertising (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Ads).

There are also offline activities, such as participation in trade fairs and industry conferences, or meetings with ambassadors at universities.

Contact us for more information!

Internal employer branding in Poland

Polish companies are allocating larger and larger budgets to detailed quantitative (questionnaires about working conditions, employee motivation) and qualitative (what employees value most in the company and what they would like to change) research. Many companies also invest in internal and external communication audits conducted by external agencies dealing with Polish employer branding.

The most popular internal employer branding tools in internal employer branding in Poland include:

Onboarding – a well-planned process of introducing a new employee to the company is the element that will determine how quickly he/she becomes independent and understands the work and procedures of the company. It not only saves time (for them and their assigned mentor), but also increases their level of commitment to their responsibilities.
Talent management – identifying the unique talents and aptitudes of each employee is the responsibility of every manager or business owner. Talent management increases employee job satisfaction and improves the functioning of the entire company.
Development programmes and employee training – research shows that Poles expect their employer to support them in their development. Therefore, budgets allocated for employee training or course subsidies are a lure that makes them more loyal to the company.

Employee bonuses – motivational programmes popular on the Polish labour market include various types of performance bonuses, internal competitions and special programmes such as employee of the month. Also worth noting is the employee referral system, i.e. rewarding employees who have attracted others to the company.
Team building trips and events – building relationships among employees strengthens motivation at work and improves the atmosphere in the company. Poles pay a lot of attention to this.

Take care of Polish employer branding under the guidance of professionals!

As a Polish employer branding agency, we will help your company build a positive image as the employer – and not only in the eyes of your current employees. We specialise in designing and implementing long-term internal and external employer branding strategies (image and recruitment) tailored to your budget and objectives. We do this through:

An example of employer branding in Poland – the Altimetrik brand

Looking for examples of employer branding in Poland? See how we helped the Altimetrik brand to effectively find new talent from Poland! Altimetrik is a US-based global IT company that supports digital businesses. It currently employs more than 4,000 experienced employees from around the world. When it entered the Polish market in 2021, establishing its headquarters in Wroclaw, Poland, it was looking for ways to enhance its reputation as an employer brand in Eastern Europe and attract IT-related talent from the region. The task was not easy – as a Polish employer branding agency, we had to build from scratch the image of a brand still quite unknown on the Polish market.

The challenge was all the more difficult as, when planning employer branding activities in Poland, we had to take into account Altimetrik’s global brand strategy. In order to do this, we developed a long-term action plan that covered several zones: media relations, contact with Polish influencers, social media (online activities) and the organisation of events and support for initiatives relevant to the brand (offline activities). Four months of intensive activities and implementation of the Polish employer branding strategy were enough for us to generate more than 100 publications in the Polish media (trade and non-trade). In social media, we relied on LinkedIn, which was the best tool for online communication with this segment of the Polish audience, reaching over 1,000 fans. A podcast interviewing a brand representative was mentioned by more than 1,200 IT experts.