During all of these facets of the end-to-end recruiting process, your employer brand is a major factor that is actively present — and influences a variety of decisions made by prospective hires you speak with.

Of course, building your employer brand isn’t something one person does. Rather, it’s a legit team effort by all hiring stakeholders and organizational leaders at your small business, with one main goal:

• Steadily improve your reputation as an employer so you can better attract and retain top talent.

In short, a good employer branding strategy has many moving parts — and requires all of the aforementioned hiring team members and executives at your org to manage your employer brand over time.

8 ways to boost your employer brand strategy

Continue reading our blog post to discover how you can collectively strengthen your employer brand strategy — and position your SMB as an ideal company to work for among active job seekers today.

1) Redesign (or refresh) your brand website

When we did a complete web redesign last year, we also updated our company profile and jobs pages. We made sure to include photos of individuals and teams and to celebrate their achievements.

• We also shared our company values and expectations.

This helped to reveal us as a strong, open, and friendly team. Since making these developments, I often hear from candidates about how our company looks like such a great place to work and how approachable everyone appears.

Those we’ve hired have turned out to be incredible team players.

Jarir Mallah, Human Resources Manager, Ling App

2) Implement a fair-chance hiring approach

By reducing the barriers for the nearly one in three Americans that hold criminal records, we’ve opened ourselves up to attract high-quality candidates while simultaneously evening the playing field for great talent that face a load of traditional roadblocks, misperceptions, and biases.

• In turn, we’ve improved our employer branding and let our values shine above all else, which has attracted even more great candidates our way. 

Some of our top team performers have been fair chance hires. It’s a beautiful process to watch play out. It also gives us even more reason to keep our value-driven products moving forward.

Denise Hemke, Chief Product Officer, Checkr

3) Ensure execs provide visible leadership

Improving our employer brand has significantly aided us in attracting better candidates. Through concentrated efforts, we always communicate our company’s values, culture, and opportunities.

• This, in turn, creates a positive perception among job seekers.

One impactful strategy we implemented? Making me, the CEO, the face of our brand. This decision added a personal touch and authenticity to our employer brand. Ultimately, it worked to our advantage, as candidates appreciate seeing a visible, accessible leader who embodies the org’s vision.

My active involvement in promoting the brand boosted our credibility. Just as critical, it also instilled trust in potential candidates. This approach allowed us to connect on a deeper level and show our commitment to transparency, leadership, and a supportive work environment.

Harry Morton, Founder, Lower Street

4) Boost your employer value proposition (EVP)

When we invest in building a strong and positive employer brand, we create a compelling image of our company as an employer of choice. This attracts top talent who are not only highly skilled but also align with our company values and culture.

A strong employer brand helps us stand out from competitors and differentiate ourselves in the talent market. It establishes credibility and trust, making candidates more likely to consider us as their preferred employer.

• If we showcase our unique company culture, employee benefits, and growth opportunities, we create a strong appeal that resonates with top-tier candidates.

As word spreads about our positive work environment and employee experiences, it creates a virtuous cycle, with more high-quality job leads seeking out our org as their desired workplace.

Luciano Colos, Founder and CEO, PitchGrade

5) Showcase your company’s core values

Overseeing our digital marketing agency, I’ve experienced first-hand the transformative power of bolstering our employer brand. We recently embarked on an initiative to enhance our company’s image.

• During this process, we infused our core values into every facet of our online presence. This helped us show off our commitment to innovation, teamwork, and work-life balance. The results were stellar.

The quality of candidates applying for roles saw a big uptick. Intriguingly, many said they heard about our vibrant culture through word-of-mouth. A testament to the magnetic effect of our employer branding.

Their expertise and motivation were superior, breathing fresh life into our projects. This experience attests to the crucial role a strong employer brand plays not just in attracting not just candidates, but the right ones.

Joe Troyer, CEO and Growth Advisor, Digital Triggers

6) Highlight your culture and employees

Improving our employer brand has been instrumental in attracting better candidates for our org. By enhancing our reputation and image as an employer of choice, we have positioned ourselves as a desirable destination for top talent.

A strong employer brand communicates our company culture, values, and employee experiences, giving candidates a compelling reason to choose us over our competitors.

• It has allowed us to showcase our unique employee value proposition, highlighting the benefits and opportunities we offer. 

As a result, we have seen an increase in the quality and quantity of applications from highly skilled and motivated individuals who are aligned with our org’s goals and values.

Vikas Kaushik, CEO, TechAhead

7) Boost social visibility

In sales, the metric that most businesses want to improve is their conversion rate. The same could be said of how improving our employer brand helped us close deals with the candidates we targeted.

Although everyone wants to have a positive employer image, it means little if it does not convert to candidates accepting offers.

• Therefore, we worked diligently on increasing our visibility on social media channels, incorporated our current team members into our outreach strategies, focused on building social proof, and highlighted our opportunities for professional growth.

By improving our employer brand, we were able to move beyond pitching the attributes of our business and get talented candidates to commit.

Derek Flanzraich, Founder and CEO, Ness

8) Lean into employee advocacy

Our org has been using employee advocacy to enhance our employer brand and attract better candidates, and this has yielded positive results.

• We recognized long ago employees are the finest brand ambassadors and have never stopped encouraging them to share their positive experiences on social media to help our employer’s brand since then. 

LinkedIn posts about positive work experiences, seamless guidance from workplace leaders on career growth, a flexible schedule, and an ingenious corporate social responsibility (CSR) plan from our dedicated employees have truly helped us reap the benefits of employee advocacy.

In turn, we’ve overcome the barrier of tedious job search by candidates and attracting them to apply.

Marc Hardgrove, CEO, TheHOTH

Learn how you can elevate your small business’s employer brand strategy with our purpose-built ATS for SMBs.

According to Employ data, two-thirds of candidates are looking for new opportunities on employer career sites directly. This is higher than the number of active job seekers looking at job boards (55%), social media (55%), or job advertisements (43%).

• Candidates use your career site to gauge how well they would fit in at your company. Everything from the job descriptions to your application process provides them with intel on your business and what it’s like to work there.

With candidate expectations still high in a tight labor market, where job openings outnumber unemployed workers around 1.7 to 1, ensuring you provide job seekers a stellar experience on your career site is critical.

Does your career site inspire job seekers to take the leap and apply? Here are six tips to inspire continuous candidate engagement on your career site and more effectively convert candidates into applicants.

Career site tip #1: Put your best foot forward

In today’s job market, attracting top talent requires more than just listing job responsibilities and qualifications for roles. Job seekers are highly selective, and in order to make an impression, you need to establish a genuine connection. The best way to begin is by showcasing your company’s values and unique organizational culture on your career site.

Use authentic, high-quality images and videos that reflect your company’s employer brand and culture, including actual employees at work or having fun outside of work.

In other words? Avoid using stock photos, and instead, craft copy that represents your brand to create a comprehensive and engaging representation of your company.

 Career site tip #2: Remove the hurdles

In order to attract candidates, it’s important to provide an easy and streamlined application process without any obstacles. A streamlined process should remove hurdles like:

• Making users create a login or join the talent network
• Requiring excessive clicks to find job postings
• Making it difficult to find or use job filters
• Duplicating resume entry after uploading a resume

Additionally, mandatory logins and repetitive forms can discourage applicants from completing the process. With 67% of applicants applying for jobs on their mobile devices, according to the 2022 Recruitment Marketing Benchmark Report from Appcast, providing an easy-to-use mobile site is also essential for a seamless application experience.

Career site tip #3: Streamline your design

Career site experiences should reflect consumer-grade websites, providing visual, compelling ways to quickly convey information. Simplify your content by eliminating unnecessary text and use category icons for corporate locations, departments, or benefit perks, wherever applicable. This allows for faster information delivery and is especially advantageous for mobile displays.

Career site tip #4: Simplify the process

Attracting top talent to your organization is a priority, but you want to ensure the process of learning about job opportunities is hassle-free. Keep search filters simple and minimal, prioritizing the candidate’s perspective and providing the necessary information quickly.

When you make it easy to find what they need, candidates will appreciate the respect shown for their time, leading to a higher likelihood of them to engage further with your content.

By demonstrating your team’s organization and efficiency, you can make a great first impression on potential candidates, and keep converting them along the talent journey.

Career site tip #5: Invite candidates in

When it comes to showcasing your company’s employer brand and culture to potential candidates, sometimes the most effective approach is through immersive experiences.

Consider incorporating a “Meet the Teams” feature on your website or an attention-grabbing video that provides job seekers with an inside look at the experiences of your inspiring employees.

These tools offer ideal opportunities for highlighting your company’s values and culture, allowing candidates to understand firsthand what it would be like to work for your organization.

Career site tip #6: Share the details

While it’s important to prioritize and prominently display your high-priority career page information, it’s also crucial to keep potential candidates interested with compelling content. Share information that they would find valuable, such as employee testimonials or global benefits that set your organization apart.

Make the content easily accessible with just a few simple clicks. With engaging and digestible content, you can keep candidates interested and showcase your company’s unique offerings.

Learn how your SMB talent team can better attract top talent with our powerful yet easy-to-use ATS. Book a one-on-one demo with a JazzHR rep today to see how our recruiting software can enhance your hiring.

Public forums such as Glassdoor, Indeed, and the like allow current and former employees as well as previously engaged talent your interviewed to post about their experience with your organization.

Some comments may signal you have a strong employer brand. (For instance, when past employees rave about your corporate culture or work-life balance.) Other feedback, though, may suggest you have work to do to improve your employer branding and better attract and retain top talent.

It’s the latter responses, in particular, your CEO and CHRO can use to revisit your employer value proposition (EVP) and develop a new employer branding strategy that helps you better position your business as one your entire workforce enjoys — and potential job candidates would enjoy too.

What is an employer brand? (And what does “good” employer branding look like for companies today?)

An employer brand refers to the way orgs of all kinds differentiate themselves from competitors in the market for candidates and employees.

• What is your company’s reputation among your workers?
• How is your business perceived as a place to work?
• Do all of your employees feel cared for and heard?
•  Would they recommend you to their friends?

These are all important questions that contribute to your employer brand.

Per LinkedIn research, more than three-quarters of people seeking jobs look into the company’s employer brand before applying. This means that most of the candidates you interact with will already have an image of your company, especially those job seekers who have options when it comes to seeking new roles.

They’re also likely to leave a review after interviewing or interacting with your company during the hiring process. How does your online presence impact business? Well, there are three specific ways:

1) It impacts the quality and quantity of applicants

Positive reviews will draw applicants to your business, simplifying your hiring efforts and helping to attract top talent and build a more robust talent pool. Negative reviews will do the opposite: drive away candidates who are seeking better job opportunities and work environments.

2) It influences customer perception

Prospective customers are also looking at your online presence to assess company values. So while a positive online brand will encourage customer loyalty, negative reviews will likely disrupt their trust in your company.

3) It affects current and future employee satisfaction

Even if a current employee has a mostly positive outlook on their experience, those negative reviews or discussions about them in the workplace can be detrimental to productivity, focus, and retention.

Negative impressions of how you hire job seekers (i.e., a poorly structured TA process) can lower work performance by up to 30%. So, the quicker any issues tied to your SMB’s recruiting and hiring approach are addressed and remedied, the better it is for your employer brand perception.

Building an employer brand to boost your employee retention rate

A well-developed employer brand makes current employees proud of their positions and the company they work for. And it makes them more likely to refer others in their network towards open positions in your company. But, did you know that your employer brand can also support your bottom line?

It’s simple:

• Devoting resources to your brand and its maintenance (i.e., actively managing your employer brand and taking proactive measures to improve it, like addressing negative posts tied to your business on social media or career communities) can reduce costs elsewhere.

Companies that have stellar employer brand images don’t have to spend as much on recruiting costs because they don’t have to recruit as hard. When your employees love their job, they’re telling people about it. Or, at the very least, not running your good name down in an after-work rant.

This also means employee retention is likely improve, since your strongest employees are more likely to stay for the long run. Current employees act as ambassadors if they’re proud of where they work.

Understanding your employer brand’s role in talent attraction

In terms of attracting net-new talent, too many recruiters and employers treat the hiring process as a one-way street, requiring prompt answers and updates from candidates without offering the same thing in return.

Solutions like candidate texting and automated intelligent messaging make providing candidates with real-time, helpful feedback easier.

• Communicating hiring process steps to job seekers and relaying when their application has been received and reviewed leaves fewer unanswered questions and room for competition to sneak in. (In other words? This facet of your employer brand greatly affects candidate experience and conversion.)

Hand-in-hand with keeping candidates in the loop amid the recruiting process, a key part of your employer branding strategy is simply letting candidates know what to expect if they are hired. Offer them a clear and detailed glimpse of their new role’s duties and your company’s approach to work.

Nearly 90% of job seekers said they believe that good company culture and work environment is essential to business success. Demonstrate what makes your SMB stand out in this regard.

Action items to improve your employer brand strategy (and converting more qualified candidates)

You now know the importance of prioritizing ongoing enhancements to your employer brand.

Whether you’ve already allocated plenty of time and resources to boosting your EVP or need to start your employer branding strategy from scratch, there are a few key tasks you should tackle in the weeks and months ahead to start making headway in how your company is perceived publicly:

• Ensure your job descriptions and postings clearly explain both the open roles in question (desired impact, daily responsibilities, preferred experience) and your company’s mission, culture, and efforts around improving DEI and employees’ mental well-being.
• Assess each step and stage of your standard SMB recruiting process to ensure every hiring team member understands their distinct role in your TA efforts and knows how to conduct structured interviews that lead to stellar recruitment experiences for candidates.
• Ensure your have a powerful yet easy-to-use applicant tracking system in place that helps automate many key recruiting tasks (e.g., approval workflows, nurture campaigns, candidate feedback notifications) and eliminates a lot of manual TA labor.

Tackle these initial action items first, and you’ll be on your way to getting more active job seekers and passive prospects in your talent pool and engaging these individuals for open roles company-wide.

Find out how you can better source, nurture, and convert high-quality candidates with JazzHR’s leading applicant tracking system for small businesses like yours. Book your one-on-one demo today.

• What are the top recruiting methods to attract Gen Z employees?

To help you best succeed in recruiting younger talent on the market, we asked several experienced hiring managers and recruiters for their top talent acquisition tips and tricks. Here’s the advice and insights from these TA pros and people managers.

Implement a referral strategy

A strategy that works well for this generation is getting our current and former employees to refer qualified people to us. We give a bonus to an employee who refers to someone we hire. That encourages our people, and even past employees, to keep referring.

Gen Z employees trust referrals to lead to good jobs more than any other type of recruitment and we know that when someone refers them they are likely already a good candidate. It’s a win for everyone.

Baruch Labunski, CEO, Rank Secure

Offer educational alternatives

Gen Z is extremely motivated to continue their education, but they are also concerned with mounting debts, which is a good reason why you should offer education alternatives to attract them.

Over the past five years, the cost of education has soared with some Gen Z talent in nearly six figures of debt by the time they enter the workforce. The idea of adding to that can inhibit their desire to choose a position if more education is required. 

Offering alternative programs for them to gain skills and creating pathways to help subsidize further education by paying for learning programs, such as boot camps or online courses, can be a great incentive for them to seriously consider your business.

In creating educational alternatives, you can remove some of the trepidation Gen Z candidates may have about applying for a position that requires additional training, while also demonstrating your commitment to something they value.

Matt Miller, Founder & CEO, Embroker

Shorten your application forms

Around 60% of Gen Z candidates think the application process should be under 15 minutes, and we’d have to agree with them.

Our hiring portal applicants take around 10 minutes to fill out forms and upload essential documents, giving us just enough data to filter quality candidates. After the first application is submitted, we send viable candidates the next step in the application process to complete.

By keeping the forms broken into shorter, more palatable chunks, we don’t lose candidates discouraged by a never-ending application, and we don’t waste their valuable time filling out a long form if they don’t fit our essential criteria.

John Li, Co-Founder & CTO, Fig Loans

Connect with college campuses

One of our best recruiting strategies for Gen Z employees has been reaching out to college campuses.

Many college campuses have career centers that are always looking for partners to collaborate with. They can assist with setting up internships and slotting your company in at their annual job fair. Maintaining a good relationship with colleges is crucial to finding Gen Z employees because they are largely considered the most educated generation.

Phillip Akhzar, CEO, Arka

Know younger workers’ motivation

Before understanding how to hire Gen Z, you must understand who they are. They are the latest generation to enter the labor market — people born between 1997 and 2010. This generation is ‘fluent’ in technology as a relevant characteristic to employers.

Defining the organization’s values is crucial among the many possible ways to attract and retain Gen Z talents. These new workers care about your company’s social and environmental impact and want you to care, too.

In addition, Generation Z fears being stuck in a job that doesn’t feel rewarding. Lastly, they are interested in environments where the organizational culture reflects their personal values, so it is essential to focus on understanding their motivations and how they can shape your company whether to hire and retain Gen Zs.

Ricardo von Groll, Manager, Talentify

Be highly collaborative from the outset

In a departure from traditional recruitment, we are highly collaborative in the employee recruiting process, something Gen Z job seekers value. From the very beginning of our relationships with prospective employees, we engage in “co-recruiting,” where both the job candidate and our company equally share needs, expectations, and goals.

This is not the traditional process, where the employer dictates to the recruit what they should expect from the experience. Even after recruitment and onboarding, we are building a healthy, collaborative culture with an employee-first mindset. This is something job-seekers from all generations can appreciate.

Lindsay Hischebett, Head of People & Partners, Flaus

Relay your stance on social issues

We clearly state our stand on social and political issues that are important to Gen Zers on our website and in our job postings. Gen Zers are very socially conscious and they want to work for companies that share their values.

Posting and clearly stating our policies on things like equal pay, diversity, and inclusion helps people know who we are and also helps us attract the best Gen Z talent out there. They know that they’ll be working for a company that cares about more than just making money — we care about making a difference.

Linda Shaffer, Chief People Operations Officer, Checkr

Create trust and offer hybrid work

Gen Z talent is a key component to scale, but recruiting them requires a totally new mentality. Companies that rely on micromanagement, bossware, or 100% onsite work are going to struggle. My agency attracts Gen Z talent with a hybrid work policy. Employees are in office at least 2-3 days a week, but we all work from home when we want to.

Additionally, we have flexible PTO. But two weeks is the minimum we require employees to take, not an upper limit. If you want to recruit Gen Z, hire well, give trust freely, and give them the flexibility to have a healthy, happy lifestyle outside of work, too.

Ryan Draving, Head of Strategy, Muhlenhaupt + Company

Offer mental health benefits

Gen Z is the most depressed, stressed, and lonely generation of all, per the American Psychological Association. They look to employers to help them feel more stable and connected to things that can improve their mental health.

Employers should prioritize not just health benefits, but “Mental Health” benefits. Examples include meditation apps, screenless lunches, in-office nature (think plants and waterfalls), and therapy.

A little bit of mental health focus can go a long way in standing out to Gen Z.

Pranam Lipinski, Co-founder, Work With Gen Z

Prioritize work-life balance

In this day and age, work-life balance is at the top of almost any candidate’s wish-list when searching for a new role. Thankfully, hybrid and remote work has become an industry standard for most positions.

Now, this “new normal” has undoubtedly improved the work-life balance of countless companies, but nevertheless, many are still struggling to attract Gen Z talent and aren’t sure why.

Make sure to differentiate yourselves on the open market and truly show that work-life balance is a top priority. Assuming that you have already transitioned to a hybrid or remote environment, the next steps would be implementing a few of these suggestions: Unlimited PTO, Unlimited Maternity (both parents), Summer Fridays (let out early so that your employees can spend time with family/friends).

Overall, Gen Z talent will continue to prioritize work-life balance and will gravitate to employers who share that same notion.

Jesse Tuggle, Director, Technical Recruiting, Beneficial Talent Source

Embrace a “safe-to-say” culture

As the father of two Gen Z’s and niche recruiter of Veterans, Grads, and Pros for Cities, Utilities, and Infrastructure orgs since 2002, creating a team culture of belonging with “Safe-to-Say” tips the scales in the War for Talent.

Every city, utility, university, hospital, and employer today is revisiting its approach to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI), exploring how to be more Vigilant, Agile, and Resilient (VAR).

Leaders who focus on building a Safe-to-Say culture will win creating a sense of belonging that becomes a competitive advantage in recruiting, employee experience, and user experience. Meeting and embracing all employees where they are encouraged to bring their full selves to work.

“Safe-to-Say” cultures are the antidote to red flags and empower employees to focus on effectiveness, efficiency, profitability, and continuous learning for themselves, peers, teams, and the organization as a whole.

Matt Sadinsky, Founder & Executive Consultant,  PReP Intl (Prequalified Ready Employees for Power Intl)

Offer L&D and growth opportunities

After surveying 1,500 culturally diverse members of Gen Z throughout the U.S., I discovered that opportunities for growth and personal development were very important to this emerging generation within the workforce.

Therefore, recruiting methods that I use in my business to attract members of Gen Z are opportunities for growth and personal development programs that will enhance their future career aspirations.

Joshua Fredenburg, President, Circle of Change Leadership Experience

Adopt a flexible recruitment process

When recruiting the Gen Z workforce, it is more important now than ever to capitalize on opportunities to disrupt traditional recruiting and retention methods.

Gen Z is the most technically efficient workforce to date. So, encourage hiring managers to focus on their ability to be productive without being micromanaged. This leaves a lot of room for Gen Z to be ambitious.

Highlighting an organization’s ability to be competitive in salary offerings, provide career progression information, tuition reimbursement programs, and professional education and leadership training is essential in gaining Gen Z attention and early engagement in the recruitment process.

More importantly, having skilled recruiters that can create individualized experiences based on recognizing each candidate’s needs will help ensure their orgs avoid falling into any “one-size-fits-all” traps.

Jennifer Johnson, Senior Technical Recruiter, Korn Ferry

Amplify your Gen Z recruiting methods (and recruitment strategy at large) with a leading ATS that was purposely built for SMBs like yours. Schedule your JazzHR demo with our team today.

As defined by Entrepreneur, a mission statement is “a sentence describing a company’s function, markets and competitive advantages; a short written statement of your business goals and philosophies.”

This is all well and good for the bottom line. But, human resources professionals can take this concept a step further to fuel their HR strategy.

We’re exploring how to craft a strong HR-specific mission statement, one that’s rooted in organizational values but tailored to the department-specific goals and activities of human resources.

Defining your HR mission statement

Your HR mission statement shouldn’t just be a carbon-copy of your company’s overarching mission.

Why not? Your team takes on a variety of duties that probably aren’t reflected in the company’s mission statement, such as recruiting, onboarding, compliance and benefits. But, you shouldn’t merely explain what you do. Address the why and how, too. A strong HR mission statement encapsulates:

• Your company values
• Your workplace culture
• Your employer value proposition (EVP)
• How HR supports business goals
• How success will be measured

If you’re not sure how these pieces fit together, work with leadership to understand your company’s culture, values and vision as they relate to your department.

Examples of strong HR mission statements

A sample HR mission statement from Business Management Daily shows how HR activities relate to the bottom line:

• “HR’s responsibility is to ensure that our human resources are more talented and motivated than those of our competitors. HR’s performance will, therefore, be measured by comparing the company’s sales, profits and productivity with those of our top two competitors.”

The above directly connects HR with overarching business goals and provides concrete guidance on measuring success.

The HR mission of one app development company notes that the department believes they have a responsibility to create opportunities for candidates from every community and background to build a career in tech.

This is a perfect example of how to include company values in an HR mission. It’s clear that this organization’s recruiters are dedicated to searching far and wide to find the perfect fit. The language also suggests that this team is unlikely to quickly rule out promising candidates based on certain experiential factors.

Creating your HR mission statement

A good mission statement will strike the right balance between satisfying the needs of your employees and your organization as a whole. When creating an HR-specific mission statement, remember these best practices:

• Work with top executives in understanding and articulating the company’s mission.
• Weave your culture, beliefs, contribution to business goals, success metrics and EVP into a concise HR mission statement that’s easily digestible.
• Use it as a roadmap for strategy, hiring decisions and other HR activities.

It’s not easy to develop and deploy a powerful HR mission statement if you’re bogged down by manual processes and paperwork. With automation tools at your disposal, you can win back time to focus on the bigger picture.

That’s because it’s no longer just about meeting quotas and adhering to compliance, as Forbes contributor Susan Galer of SAP Global Communications reported.

• Today, it’s about representation, respect and recognition.

Workplace diversity means equality for all, not just in salaries and promotions. Consider also that employees want to feel seen and heard through company culture. Across all industries, there are a few companies truly emulating what it means to embrace and celebrate diversity in the workplace.

Consider the following companies leading the way.

EY

Last year, professional services firm EY earned the No. 1 spot on the 2017 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list, ranking among the top 10 for the past eight years. The company outperforms for women in leadership roles:

• Females comprise senior-level positions at a rate of 11.1% more than the other top 50 companies and 44.7% more than the S&P 500. All in all, EY has proven successful in promoting females into management positions.

Among its most notable achievements is the company’s culture of embracing difficult conversations, DiversityInc explained. EY is known for supporting discussions on race and even political marches and protests taking place across the country.

What’s more, it became the first company in its industry to make the parental leave policy equal for both men and women. All parents are now eligible for up to four months of paid leave. This includes not just birth, but adoption and foster care as well.

Johnson & Johnson

In 2016, Business Insider ranked Johnson & Johnson as the No. 1 most inclusive and diverse U.S. organization. First establishing a program that ensured diversity among suppliers in 1998, the company has consistently surpassed its targets.

The organization earned a 79.75% D&I index, the Diversity and Inclusion index produced by Reuters.

On the company website, its promise to all employees is clear: “Inclusion at Johnson & Johnson is about creating a deep sense of belonging. It’s about a culture where you are valued, your ideas are heard and you advance this culture for everyone.”

The company has launched J&J Diversity University to provide the tools employees need to promote differences and the collaboration of various voices. Johnson & Johnson has received recognition from its efforts from DiversityInc, Latina Style Magazine, Working Mother and the National Association for Female Executives.

Clorox

Ranked among the top three “Best Places for Women & Diverse Managers to Work” by Diversity MBA, the Clorox Company has excelled at celebrating differences.

Through the creation of Employee Resource Groups, known as ERGs, that collaborate on the business side of things, the company developed its first-ever LGBT-targeted product. The development of the Burt’s Bees Rainbow Pride lip balm packs occurred in large part thanks to the Pride ERG.

The Asian and Latino ERGs helped push for the acquisition of brands Soy Vay and Nueva Cocina. Ultimately, this helped reach a wider and more diverse population.

Hyatt Hotels

According to Fortune, this hotel group was ranked the second best U.S. workplace for diversity. The numbers match the feelings of respect and positivity that lead to the inclusion felt by employees.

Data revealed that minorities make up 65% of the general workforce and 10% of executive positions. Additionally, women comprise more than half of all employment positions and 24% of leadership roles.

The common thread among each of these companies is their transparency and true commitment to further their diversity efforts. Consider what advances you can make in your own org to bring about change.