Cannabis is one of the most exciting sectors of business across the United States, with new states legalizing sales in either medical or recreational ways every year. With the professional scale of cannabis increasing around the country, how can cannabis companies ensure that they are a choice for top-tier talent looking into the industry from the outside? Many may not even fully understand the promise of the strengths of their transferable skill sets? We’re going to quickly dive into the importance of cannabis employer branding, and why you should care about the approach your business takes moving forward. But first, what is employer branding?
Amplifying cannabis brands to job seekers boosts reputation, motivates the workforce, and elevates brand exposure. It helps attract top talent, create a culture of innovation, and leads to increased productivity. It also increases visibility of products and services, resulting in higher sales and consumer loyalty.
Employer branding has everything to do with how your company is received by the public as well as how it’s received internally by those that work within your organization.
1
Enhance your reputation – motivate your workforce and elevate your consumer-facing brand
In an industry where movers and shakers act fast, your reputation as an employer serves you in a multitude of ways. Pair that with a “job seeker’s market” and an emerging industry that has a multitude of fresh talent peering in and you end up at the center of a race for top-tier talent. Employer branding in cannabis can be a large contributing factor when a job seeker weighs their options of who they’d like to be employed by when navigating their career path. Top talent tends to gravitate towards companies known for having great employer branding which can help reduce the overall cost of recruiting, allowing you to screen excited talent seekers who already love your company!
2
Attract top talent – build for scale, longevity, and lasting employee relationships
Employees look for much more than a great base pay – in today’s market, serious compensation packages need to be put together to attract top talent. But what if your brand spoke for itself and became of such a size that it alone was able to pull top talent from competitors, other industries, and even within your own organization?
3
Increase productivity – employees who love what they do tend to work more effectively
We’ve all heard the saying “do something that you love, and you’ll never spend a day of your life working” — and why should cannabis be any different? Strong employer branding carries throughout the company, enabling employees to perform at a higher capacity ultimately leading to an increase in employee retention.
4
Improve staff retention – eliminate the need for backfilling positions
According to SHRM, 60% of frontline/hourly workers quit their jobs within the first 2 months and cannabis is no different. Not only is consumer retention becoming increasingly difficult, but with stats like the above, it’s becoming more clear that only the top cannabis companies with high levels of staff retention are going to be crowned “king and queen” in the coming years.
As you read this if you find you know the struggle to continuously back-fill positions based on churn rates, we’d urge you to look at your employer branding to optimize for gaps. Not only does staff churn cause for more time to be spent in filling the opening, it’s also far more expensive than if you were able to improve attrition by even 10%.
5
Delight consumers – increase average ticket size and lifetime value
A direct correlation can be made between how delighted consumers are shopping with your brand (especially in retail) and the average ticket size which then can be looked at from an LTV perspective. It’s no surprise that happy customers spend more and return more frequently than customers who churn almost immediately. Consumer retention and staff retention go hand-in-hand creating a flywheel satisfaction internally and externally for the business.
“…knowing that your company is still in their corner and wants to see them succeed is everything.”
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