Employer branding – the latest buzzword to describe perceptions of an organisation as an employer – is being heralded in areas of the press as the answer to attracting and retaining the right talent in an increasingly competitive environment.
What is an employer brand?
Employer branding is not a logo, letterhead or a clever advertisement, but rather the communication of an organisation’s personality and unwritten promises about its culture to potential hires. This guide focuses on the top ten things employers need to consider.
1 Career prospects and planning attract
It’s true to say that employers which have strong brand awareness rely on it heavily to attract the right staff – half the employers surveyed for our Accounting & Finance workplace study in 2007 told us that their brand was a key factor when recruiting staff, placing it alongside career progression as the two main attributes to promote to potential recruits. Clearly, brand reputation works harder for major employers and is reflected in the fact that less high profile employers may find the recruitment process more difficult.
There is however a disparity between this and what employees tell us. As might be expected, career progression is a key attribute, closely followed by salary. Yet jobseekers rate culture and location more highly than pure brand reputation when considering an employer.
Some employers are taking heed. We’re seeing organisations securethe best talent by offering a clearly defined career plan, which maps out expectations of the individual and what can be expected from the organisation throughout their career.
2 Tailor your proposition to your audiences
demographics, cultural differences or technical skills the message is clear – know your audiences, understand what makes them tick and tailor your offering and message. All successful businesses are adapting their employer brand to their various target audiences, taking into account differing values, ambitions, needs in addition to geographic and cultural backgrounds. What makes an older worker tick compared to a Generation Y employee or someone from a different cultural background will vary hugely.
Some great examples of this include Tesco who take the time to understand their audiences and tailor their recruitment messages, language and media appropriately. Competitor Asda have a value proposition focused on the over 50s. Citygroup, GE and HSBC, all of whom are active in China, tailor their propositions to reflect a culture where talent is at a premium and motivators are education, career development and learning.
With Generation Y accounting for a growing proportion of the UK’s workforce, it is a key demographic to get right. Demanding more flexibility and better rewards for less hours, this group is harder to manage and will readily switch jobs – particularly if their needs are not met. Lose this group and you could lose a huge number of your workforce.
3 Align your employer and customer brands
Both your employer brand and your external customer brand strategies need to be aligned in order to reflect the brand effectively and consistently, and ensure you are attracting the right people. The bigger the organisation the more people will have already formed an opinion of it. So it’s essential that the two are in alignment and are not working against each other. When the two strategies are aligned, both current and prospective employees will receive the complementary messages, ensuring these become synonymous with your organisation. If your employer brand emphasises and cements the values communicated through your external brand, then when a prospective employee approaches your organisation, it will ensure they are being given the same consistent message.
4 Each impression counts
While a jobseeker’s first impression of your organisation will determine their immediate interest in you, this judgement will keep changing. Each brush with your brand influences a person’s perception of you. So the process of building a favourable employer brand actually begins far earlier than the recruitment process itself. Review every encounter an individual might have with your brand – from seeing your billboard as a consumer, or calling your helpline as a customer, to receiving interview feedback as a jobseeker. Where is your brand falling down before, during and after the application process? Work with your recruitment partner, HR and marketing functions to help create the right experience at every encounter.
5 Your recruitment process needs to reflect your brand
Every step of the recruitment process will shape the impression a potential employee has of your organisation and influence them to accept or reject a job offer (or even apply). So it’s important that you’re happy that the recruitment experience correctly reflects your brand and in turn attracts and engages the right people.
Just some of the things you’ll want to consider are: where and how you advertise a role; how easy is it for people to apply; when and how you respond to applications; the number of interview steps; where, who and how your interviews are conducted; your rejection and offer process and finally how you stay in contact with the new recruit until the day they start to secure their interest.
6 Employees breathe and act as ambassadors
Make sure that your people support your brand. They should be your strongest brand advocates. They must live and breathe the brand, understand what the brand stands for and what you are trying to achieve. Include everyone, from sales and marketing through to PR and HR when developing your propositions.
Ensure it’s fully communicated, understood and embedded internally before taking your brand to market. Focus as much of your efforts on internal buy-in as you would on your external marketing: there is no point spending millions on marketing campaigns for a potential customer or employee to then interact with an existing employee who doesn’t visually or verbally represent the brand. It’s inconsistent, will cause internal and external disconnect and any chance of sale and ultimately loyalty are lost.