An organization is bound to have established more than one goal and a mission statement. Branding moulds all aspects of an organization–such as culture, raison d’etre, values, mission and more–into a cohesive image. A brand image is the simplest definition of an organization which leads to efficient recruitment. For an employer, attracting and retaining talent is a challenge. The below graphic quantifies the reasons employees choose to work for a particular organization.
Why Employer Branding?
Employer branding is defined as “the package of functional, economical, and psychological benefits provided by an employer and identified with the employing organization.” Employer branding is meant to convey the identity of the organization, the working culture, and why it is valid for a potential employee to choose them. Employer branding helps to land the right talent as well as help the existing employees create a deep sense of loyalty with the organization. An organization’s name or logo ultimately have little to do with its brand. A brand is a synopsis of what the organization stands for or represents. If you were to ask a NASA engineer’s child what he/she wants to be when it grows, chances are the child would want to emulate their parent or be an astronaut. The child may not even know what NASA is, but they’ll pick up on the job satisfaction their parent feels if the work is valuable, exciting and important. Promoting these characteristics is a way of projecting an organization’s brand and attracting people who share the same values. Here are some aspects where employer branding might help tackle.
Shortage of Skilled Labor: The competition for skilled labor will remain high in the west and Japan due to aging population. And, emerging economic powers, such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia have also contributed to the incessant demand. In this increasingly competitive global climate, employer branding will help attract the right talent.
Profitable: Through a thorough recruitment process employers can attract and hire ideal candidates, candidates who are passionate and enthusiastic with their roles in the organization. This helps reduce attrition allowing for a lot of savings from investing on befitting talent.
Position of Strength: Being an attractive brand for prospective employees gives the organization the bargaining power, due to the demand to be associated. Branding helps create the factor of desirability among potential recruits.
Return on Investment: When you invest your resources on hiring and managing talent, an efficient application of talent management objectives such as employee engagement and recognition, encouraging innovation and creativity will propel employees to give their best at work constantly.
Loyalty: When an organization completely understand the needs of its employees and builds a platform to address them, the organization earns immense loyalty. Loyalty is one among few factors which motivates employees to perform at the highest level and give their best all the time.
Whether you’re a company of a few people looking to grow, or a large organization ready to expand internationally, establishing an ideal brand representing your qualities, goals, and culture will go a long way to seed your organization in the mind of prospective employees–which leads to efficient recruiting.
What Should Be The Employer Branding Strategy?
For a long time human resources strategies lacked definition and expectation. Such strategies seem like an organization’s mission or vision statement. When it comes to engaging employees, the trend seems to have changed. Below is a snapshot of the evolution of employer branding. This infographic lays emphasis on how an organization perceives its employees and how it strategizes its objectives and focus.
Image Credit: Brett Minchington
Each section EB 1.0, EB 2.0, and EB 3.0, as you read along, broadens the definition of all the aspects mentioned in the far left column on the infographic. Strategies based even loosely on EB 3.0 help organizations build successful employer brands.
By asking the following questions, organizations can define their branding strategies, or align them to suit the needs and wants of their employees.
What is the promise you are offering to employees?
Salary addresses the usual suspects such as skills, experience, and education. What is that you offer in return for your employees’ enthusiasm, passion, energy, and dedication?
What is your brand personality?
Do you offer sought-after qualities like flexibility, creativity and innovation to your employees?
How do you want to treat your employees?
In return for their hard work and passion, employees love to be recognized and valued. How will you recognize and appreciate your employees?
Can You Improve Employer Branding?
Even if you’re Apple or Google, employer branding can always be fine-tuned. Here are some ways to improve the process.
Your Staff Can Do Wonders
Your employees are the people who can best promote your brand, just by sharing their sense of pride in being part of your organization. Employees effectively communicating your brand is a great way to project your image.
A Candidate’s Perspective
During interviews, try to understand why candidates chose to work for their past and present employers. Look for emerging themes, which may help you create a strategy to build your brand and recruit effectively.
Employer Branding Tools
Social media is a simple and effective way to promote your brand and reach your target audience. Analyze your followers and measure how deeply and frequently they engage with your posts. Your talent pool may be hiding in plain sight.
Employer Branding, The Complete Package
All in all, an organization is a product which serves its customers through the best talents and the best technologies available. To attract the best talent, you need to go where you find candidates who possess such demanding skills. If people are spending valuable time to make informed decisions while buying a product as mundane as a mobile phone, we have to consider the lengths they’ll go to in contracting their skills to an organization. Candidates want the best in work environment, growth opportunity, compensation and flexibility.
Besides these, candidates look to associate with organizations which are culturally and socially responsible. All these factors makes an organization a brand. This brand has to be created, nurtured and developed. All these efforts will surely help to lure the best.