Employer Branding: Your guiding light in stormy conditions

The sub prime collapse that is affecting global economies is rewriting the rules by which organisations recruit, retain and retrench their workforces. The scale of recent company collapses and widespread retrenchments has not been witnessed since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The confident high employment figures that we enjoyed up until the latter part of 2008 have been comprehensively shattered by market pessimism, profit slumps, investor panic and employers forced to batten down the hatches until the financial storm subsides. Reports from Australia are suggesting that employer confidence is at an all time low. Many organisations hit hard by the economic crisis now realise more than ever before that people are critical to their success and their ability to survive severe market trauma.



For many, a strong employer brand is their lifejacket keeping them afloat in a sea of red ink. It represents a valuable asset holding together the fabric of their business, underpinned by loyal and committed employees who firmly believe in the organisation, its values, the way it respects its employees and its confidence in riding out the storm. They believe in its ability to learn from the experience and leverage this for future success.

So what happens to employees and employers in these tough times?

Employees
> For those organisations who need to retrench a small number of their employees, the least useful workers are the first to be shown the door
> Where the organisation is experiencing considerable stress, even the good employees are being shown the door, which is of significant interest to recruiters
> Employees that have watched their company’s share price plummet and the retrenchment process spring into action will become wary of their present and future employers
> Employees who are concerned about their job security are keeping their heads down and getting on with their work, possibly becoming even more productive
> Employees who normally keep their eye out for new opportunities in the job market will be less inclined to do so until the market recovers
> Word of mouth is very powerful – disenchanted employees, particularly any who feel they have been unfairly selected for retrenchment, can cause significant harm to an employer’s reputation
> Emotional brand attributes will mean more to job candidates now than functional ones – a salary advantage is less important than respect and understanding from a stable organisation with a strong vision
> Recruitment agencies will be receptive to positive word of mouth from ex-employees and job candidates who have recently experienced an organisation that is doing the right thing by its employees

Employers
> HR directors’ focus has switched from recruitment to retention as employees begin to question management’s ability to secure a confident future
> Uncertainty has led to increases in outplacements where companies lack the confidence to commit to permanent staff until a stable market returns
> If your company is one of the few that is still actively hiring, it doesn’t take much intelligence to deduce that many of the recently retrenched employees in the job market are probably the least employable
> Many employers will also recognise that some excellent people, particularly those in financial services, have been released into the market as a result of severe purges and this is the time to attract them when they are eager to be re-employed and have few if any offers
> Companies that are in financial distress will be desperate to hold on to their best people, who may fear that their job security is threatened and be tempted to jump ship
> The more intelligent and aware companies will believe that this is a huge opportunity to now strengthen their employer brand and communicate it effectively to make up for lost time and get one step ahead of competitors when the markets start to recover later in the year
> HR managers will field many more sales calls from recruitment agencies

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