How attractive an employer will you be in 2010?

Whether you are fishing for talent, positioning yourself to engage an elusive individual, or aiming to retain and nurture the best of your catch, employer brand is the bait, which will tempt potential employees and arouse and retain their interest.

Your employer brand represents your position in the market – the perception of your employment experience in the minds of employees and candidates – it communicates the fullness (or lack thereof) of your offer – what makes you unique and compelling as an employer and why.

It is a hugely undervalued business tool with impact far beyond the placing of a few recruitment adverts, with a reach all the way to your organisation’s bottom line. It removes the risks of poorly performing job ads and lofty recruitment campaigns by focussing your messaging and visualisation around the strongest components of your Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

Employer branding is not about visualising the optimum aspired messaging to get candidates to knock on your door. It is a considered end-to-end process that looks within – it delves into the hearts and minds of the people inside your company (and occasionally outside). It identifies the very reality of your employment experience and markets the most positive, compelling or unique aspects of this experience. It also provides the possibility for very real improvements and alignment of the employment experience with the promises made and the aspired value proposition.

Careful consideration of your EVP will tell you where improvements must be made to more fully engage your employees, or be ultra-competitive on attraction. It will highlight where you are not competitive and cannot hope to win the minds of candidates, and where you are leading the field and need to shout louder.

Changing times can be unsettling for employees. They can quickly lose faith in their employer’s strengths and vision for the future – particularly if communications are scarce and fail to resonate with them.

It is only a matter of time before talent and skill shortages re-ignite the ‘war for talent’ and employers’ priorities once again become focussed on attraction and retention in a candidate tight market place. With many skill sets projected to be once again in high-demand the way for employers to combat this is two fold:

1. Assess your EVP - is it competitive, is it still relevant and engaging post-downturn and will it hold onto and motivate your people in recovery times when they expect to see some reward and payback?
2. Develop a standout employer brand to communicate and differentiate the offer.

Sourcing in 2010 is projected to become increasingly competitive and fraught with complications such as:

• Candidate and skill shortages destined to return
• A significant exodus of employees who have been ‘sitting tight’ during the downturn
• Increasingly disengaged employees undermining the leader’s vision, fragmenting company culture and detracting from operational efficiency
• Short tenures - with 70% of employees looking to change jobs within two years (good news for recruitment firms)
• A growing trend towards demands for flexible work practices
• Ageing workforce and problems associated with mixed demographics, desires and perceptions

Australia presently leads the way in employer branding investment, suggesting that many employers are already aware and on board with the advantages to be derived. Candidate perceptions can be influenced with well crafted messages and images. When they find out however that the promises made in the job adverts were merely ‘ink on paper’, all faith in the integrity of the employer disappears and the search for an honest employer with a ‘real’ opportunity begins anew. For those organisations willing to embrace best practice and change - maximising the EVP and employer brand will bring huge rewards well in excess of the dollar investment made.

Having a well-conceived employer brand will enable you to:

• Inspire and engage with your employees – improving morale and increasing retention
• Develop and communicate your Employee Value Proposition
• Cascade the leader’s vision and the organisation’s values
• Increase referrals and ‘word of mouth’ promotion – underpins successful marketing and advertising activity
• Achieve competitive positioning in the minds of target audiences and candidates
• Deliver measurable returns on marketing and sourcing $ invested
• Facilitate planned workforce and organisational development
• Attract and retain ‘right-fit’ talent, improving business efficiency and reducing staff turnover
• Increase referrals and pro-active candidate applications – less reliance on advertising
• Be positioned as a preferred employment destination – employer of choice status
• Communicate more effectively
• Achieve competitive positioning in the minds of candidates
• Fill ‘hard to fit’ positions – attract specific skill-sets
• Align your present employer brand with your aspired one
• Create high visibility campaigns that engage with candidates and employees

Benefits of a highly engaged and retained workforce:

• Better customer engagement and satisfaction
• Improved morale and heightened loyalty – employees ‘living the brand’ and ‘sharing the vision’
• Facilitates growth and promotion from within – investment in personal development and training provides a $ return
• Leader’s vision is understood and embraced
• Advances skills and knowledge transfer – promotes knowledge sharing within the company
• Retains skills, experience and IP
• Collaborative work environment – improved morale, inspiration, passion
• Generates brand ambassadors – encourages positive word of mouth promotion
• Aligned on behaviours and common sense of purpose – unified identity as an employer
• Reduced employee turnover provides significant cost savings
• Improved efficiency and profitability

Now is the time to oil the employer branding wheels and leave your competitors in the slow lane.



Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.
tony@heywood.com.au
www.heywood.com.au