Employer Branding

Employer branding has been very popular concept. Employer branding is not about advertising or marketing. Employer branding is communicating and shaping an organization’s reputation.  

What is employer branding?

A brand symbolizes a few messages. Just like a brand of a product expresses certain qualities, an employer brand represents the corporate identity - to its current employees, prospective employees, stake holders.

Why employer branding?

In an increasingly competitive and dynamic business environment, companies must focus on developing their employer brand. Reasons for developing an employee brand attract and retain talent.

Who is involved in employer branding?

Employer branding strategy is not the sole responsibility of Human resources department. A successful employer branding program is a team approach which starts with the leadership – CEO or Managing Director, executive team and includes all departments – Human Resources, Marketing, Finance.

What consists of employer branding?

Employer branding has external and internal aspects. 

1. Internal aspect of an employer branding is an overall employment experience that a  current employee has and it includes

• Organization’s Vision & Mission
• Organization’s culture i.e., values
• Leadership capability
• Challenges faced by organization
• HR practices – compensation, benefits, welfare schemes, employee engagement activities, employee growth, learning and development, performance management
• Locations
• Employee referral program
• Rewards & Recognition
• Work/life balance
• Corporate social responsibility
• People experience and employee survey results

2. External aspect of an employer branding is what the a prospective employee and the existing clients feels about the organization and it includes

• Market performance
• Market Status in your organization’s specific sectors, products and services
• Work place rankings and awards

How can you make employer branding more effective?

• It should be believable: The objective of building an employment brand is that it must be built “virally” by others. An organization’s culture, leadership capability, work/life balance, HR practices and etc. to be talked by others, internally by employees, externally by clients and prospective employees, in order to be credible and believable. To achieve this, organizations has to tell a compelling story with real examples - success stories and experience of current employees in the organization and also it should include hard and real data.

• Mode of communication and interactive: Employer branding is a long term strategy and is to be communicated
• externally through editorial content in target publications, building a company brochure, write-ups in academic case studies, impressive website, presentations at conferences, career fairs , using the job sites, branding in social and professional networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, posting video clips in YouTube, allowing employees (only selected and trained employees) to interact through webcast, podcast and presentations in conferences.
• Internally through employee referral award programs, town halls, HR connect sessions, induction and at trainings.

Effective employer branding leads to

• Employees being more committed to the organizational goals
• Increased employee retention
• Reduced recruitment costs
• Competitive advantage and improved reputation
• Enhanced talent pipeline

What are the phases in developing employer branding?

Employer branding has four phases

1. Concept/Research Phase: It involves a 360 degree audit of organization in terms of

• To know how the employer brand is perceived by internal audience (employees/stake holders/share holders) and external (clients, customers, applicants or prospective employees)
• To know where the employer brand is positioned in relation to its competitors
• T o understand the organization objectives
• Research or gather information – leadership, organization’s mission, vision and values,  cost per hire, retention rates, success rate referral award programs, diversity, employee satisfaction survey results, work/life balance, feedback from recent recruits, a variety of people sharing their experience, rewards & recognition, performance management, learning & development programs.
• Identifying and training employees, at all levels - executive level, entry, mid and senior level employees, who can represent as Brand Ambassadors.
• Identifying the target groups/audiences, communication channels.
• Allocation of budget for the program.
• Review timelines.

2. Designing Phase: The design phase is the process of formulating your employer brand strategy or employer value proposition. Employee Value Proposition (EVP) as a set of associations and offerings provided by an organization in return for the skills, capabilities and experiences an employee brings to the organization. In simple terms, EVP gives current and prospective employees a reason to work and differentiates it from competitors.

3. Implementing Phase: This is the most important phase of employer branding and involves developing a communication strategy and express the employer value proposition (EVP) to internal and external audiences. Communication must be relevant by using right words and images and choosing right channel for communication. Communication material has to be consistent – should have the same look and feel irrespective of the communication channel.  Channels may include organization website, career job fairs, advertisement in news papers, company brochure, company newsletters, presentations in conferences, video clips, social and professional networking sites – facebook, LinkedIn and etc.

4. Evaluating Phase: The evaluation phase involves measuring the impact of employer brand program and thereby adjusting the program based on the findings. While there are no standards for measuring employer branding as this is a dynamic process. Measuring employer branding can include 

• Enhanced talent pipeline like increased number of applicants 
• Reduced recruitment costs – cost per hire, internal hire ratio, offer-to-acceptance ratio by applicants 
• Obtain feedback from recent hires/recruits 
• Employee Retention rates 
• Employee engagement surveys