Axial is on a mission to connect every private company with the capital necessary to grow, finance, or sell their business. In order to add owners, advisors and financiers to the Axial Network, the company is focused on building a large sales team in its NYC office.

To do this, the team quickly understood the importance of employer branding in a competitive talent ecosystem like New York. Alex Steinberg, a recruiter at Axial, says that employer branding helps attract the right talent as well as maintain a positive work environment that retains top performers.

Axial’s successful employer branding is a result of five key components that all organizations should implement as part of a strategy to recruit and hire A-players.

5 Best Practices of Employer Branding:

1. Define your culture:

A recent employee survey asked Axialites “What do we do well here?” 90% of the responses mentioned the positive culture and the people that they hire.

From the very beginning, Axial has defined its culture through its five key values: commitment, communication, accountability, impact & members first. They have also found that a common trait in its best employees is a desire to be healthy and physically active, so the company provides outings to exercise classes, a quarterly bootcamp, and a massive gym discount.

Establishing this commonality upfront allows the Talent team to identify traits in candidates that will ensure they are a good fit, as well as build out a culture that supports employees’ interests.

2. Showcase it:

To spread awareness about Axial’s company culture, they’ve created an Axialites Tumblr Blog,which Alex says is a great place for candidates to get a sense of the people and work environment.

The Tumblr page is a cornerstone of the company’s employer branding. It includes pictures, posts, and videos of employees interacting, leadership giving talks to the whole company, and “spotlights” of individual Axialites.

3. Provide a great candidate experience:

Axial believes in transparency, both internally and externally, so candidates always know where they stand. The company’s interview process moves quickly, but if a candidate gets stuck in the process, they inform the candidate why.

Axial also provides candidates with an interview prep sheet that highlights the company’s core values; candidates then have a chance to think about them before coming in.

Finally, executives at Axial value the candidate experience as much as the Talent team. Even at nearly 100 employees, Peter Lehrman, the CEO of Axial, is committed to interviewing any promising candidate before the company extends an offer.

4. Get involved in the community:

The Axial team hosts events and Meetups as part of its employer branding strategy. The company’s head of sales will discuss building teams or host a panel with other sales leaders. This helps with awareness and generates high-quality referrals.

Even if Axial isn’t actively hiring for a position, Alex points out that they are always seeking to develop their brand and meet great candidates.

5. Facilitate referrals:

Because the company has such a positive culture, Axial employees want to preserve it. Therefore, the whole company is very invested in the referral program. 29% of employees are referrals. Alex and her team make sure to recognize employees who have submitted referrals by presenting them with a vintage Axial t-shirt at a company Town Hall.

Axial was featured in “6 Companies with Great Employer Brands,” see more below and get inspired: