Create an Effective Employment Brand

The importance of an effective employment brand cannot be underestimated. It helps attract, motivate and retain the lifeblood of a company – its employees. In a highly competitive recruitment market where standout talent is increasingly rare, it makes sense for a company to invest in a strong employment brand to get the best results from their recruitment efforts.

Although the concept of employment branding has been around for decades, many organisations have yet to realise the importance of having a strong employment brand. This can be a costly mistake, especially with the continuing strong demand for talent across many industries and professions.

The importance of employment branding stems as much from the continuing shortage of talent as it does from the realisation that value is created not so much by organisations themselves, but by the talented people within them. When it comes to recruiting, every organisation has the same goal – to hire the best talent available. To retain your top talent and attract others just like them, you must figure out exactly what your company stands for and what makes it an attractive employment proposition. You must then convince them why they should work there and not somewhere else.

This is where employment branding comes in.

The pending retirement of many baby-boomers, the shrinking pool of skilled workers aged 35 to 44 and an increased emphasis on knowledge workers, are forcing companies to the front line for new talent and are driving up the need for employment branding programmes. Companies that are not prepared to confront these challenges and fail to understand the need for increased investment in talent attraction and management will almost certainly see their business performance progressively suffer.

What is an Employment Brand?
The employment brand provides an expression of the attributes that characterise the employee experience. In essence it provides a window into what it is like to work both in and for an organisation.

Employment brands are increasingly recognised as the most important factor by which top talent select an employer. A strong employment brand can attract even the most passive prospects to an organisation and predispose them to consider employment opportunities, even when they wouldn’t consider openings anywhere else.

The ultimate goal is to build a strong employment brand that will succeed in attracting and retaining key talent. However, in order to be successful, companies need to realise employment branding is a process, not a project, and that only an ongoing commitment to it will deliver results.

The Benefits of a strong Employment Brand
An effective employment brand should urge people to find out more about the organisation. It must encourage them to visit your website, to ask others about the organisation and to apply for your job.

Employment branding isn’t just about getting more people to apply for your job vacancy – it is about attracting those who are aligned with your company and believe in it – its vision, values, commitment to its employees and customers and more, to ensure employees are a ‘good fit’ with your organisation.

An employment brand aims to attract and nurture employees who will ultimately delight the customer by living the brand and exuding commitment and confidence.

An employment brand should convey the image of the ‘ideal job at their dream company’

Besides appealing to external job candidates, a strong employment brand builds and reinforces the public’s image of the organisation’s vision, culture, work practices, management style and growth opportunities. It should build the perception that people are motivated, proud and happy to work there and are willing to ‘go the extra mile’ for the company.

Start internally
Any disconnect between what the employment brand claims and what it actually is can backfire on the company, resulting in an employment brand that is quickly labelled as ‘all front and no substance’ that will not stand up to the scrutiny of talented individuals. It will lead to disengagement and turnover of employees who feel the company hasn’t kept its employment promise.

Actions speak louder than words.

A strong employer brand can drive the right applicants to your company, and keep them there, as long as you ‘live your brand from the inside out’. In other words, you must make good on the promise that was made at the point of engagement.

Start your employment branding efforts by first looking internally and engaging in dialogue with present employees. By collecting and analysing employment experience information from employees, companies are able to identify employment attributes that are legitimate and resonate powerfully with existing employees. Employment branding messages are then crafted that are aligned with the mission, vision, values and culture of the organisation.

Employer Value Proposition (EVP)
An EVP comprises everything employees experience while being a part of an organisation. If your EVP inspires a positive experience there is a good chance your employees will choose to remain with your organisation rather than being lured away by competitors. It encourages your people to embrace shared goals – success, productivity, and satisfaction – on personal and professional levels.

As all employees are different, the task for the employer value proposition is to appeal to as many employee segments as possible, specifically to those candidates who will be a good fit with your organisation.

You need a unique employer value proposition to underpin your employment brand. Once organisations have a strong grasp of employment attributes that are realistic and achievable, they can begin to align them with the messages senior management wants to convey, as well as those the target audience wants to hear.

Communications plan
Once organisations have agreed on compelling employment messages, the next step is to select the appropriate communication channels for their target groups. An ideal approach is to use a variety of channels. The most popular communication channels include print advertisements, career expos, radio commercials, on-campus presentations and the company website. The key is to find the channel that resonates most with your target audience.

Evaluate your efforts
As organisations roll out their employment brand initiatives, careful thought should be given to how success will be evaluated and what metrics will be captured to measure success ie

> whether the number of job applicants has increased
> whether applicants are of higher quality than before the branding initiative
> the length of time it takes to fill key positions pre- and post-branding.

Organisations should also consider evaluating the ‘candidate experience’, as this can have an impact on a company’s brand. Conduct surveys of new employees who have applied through various recruitment channels and evaluate what their experiences have been. Did they have to speak with a dozen people to get to the right person? Was their interviewer well-prepared? How were they treated? Did anyone ever get back to them regarding the hiring decision?

Those candidates who have had a bad experience with a company will undoubtedly tell other people, thus undermining the company’s credibility. Remember, it is not just what you say about your employment brand – it is also about what others say about it.

Organisations must also remember to track internal metrics. This is because a strong employment brand also influences employee engagement and retention. If an organisation is ‘living’ the employment brand, employee turnover should reduce, as the organisation is delivering on the promise made to recent hires and present employees.

A long-term solution
The importance of employment branding cannot be overstated. In order to stand apart from every other career destination available to talented individuals, organisations need to understand, invest in and live by their employment brand. It is one of the few long-term solutions to the talent crunch.

The simple fact is that recruiters cannot achieve the best results if their client has not invested in building a strong employment brand, particularly if the company’s website and literature are poorly presented and not attuned to the needs of job seekers.

Whereas most employment strategies are short term and ‘reactive’ to job openings, building an employment brand is a longer-term solution designed to differentiate your offer and stimulate a steady flow in the talent pipeline


Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia and joint founder of BrandSynergy in Singpore.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au
www.brandsynergy.com.sg

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