EMPLOYER BRANDING:
CAPTURING THE SPIRIT OF AN ORGANIZATION
Employer brand is about capturing the spirit of an organization in a way that
engages talent across its worklife cycle (be it 36 months or 36 years) within the
organization. It articulates an organization’s ‘value proposition’—the entirety
of its ethos, processes, values and employee relationships, providing a new
focal point for the organization.
In the war for talent the rules of the game are changing completely. A timid
approach to talent acquisition no longer is sufficient. Companies are vigorous
in their talent search and EMPLOYER BRANDING IS NOW THE TOOL. At the
heart of the Employer Branding philosophy is the strategy of applying the same
marketing and branding practices to your recruitment and retention practices as
you do your consumer-targeted marketing and branding efforts. Simply put, how
you communicate your company's brand is just as important as what you say. Like
customers who will leave when a promise is unfulfilled, your workforce will
also leave if you fail to live up to your Employer Brand
promise.
Strong support of your brand promise will make believers out of your
staff associates and build a sense of loyalty and well-being in them. This
support is exhibited through the EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE - an environment that's
a community of common interests, where communication and feedback are encouraged,
creativity is rewarded and mentoring a way of life.
Once you've established your Brand and the programs and methods to maintain it,
you'll be on the path to becoming an EMPLOYER-OF-CHOICE. So every CEO should
call his HR chief and ask “…Is our organization doing the right things to
become an employer of choice?
PRE-REQUISITES
FOR SUCCESSFUL EMPLOYER BRANDING
1. CORE BRAND DEFINITION –
it starts with a clear statement of the brand essence for a company which
reflects the corporate vision and values. It pays to have conversations
about your employer brand with the CEO and senior managers in the early stages
of developing your strategy. Engaging with these key stakeholders is very
important in achieving employer branding objectives and could be conducted
using a roundtable forum on employer branding.
Areas for discussion could include:
1. How will a stronger employer brand
support our business strategy — M&A’s, growth,
consolidation?
2. What kind of culture do we have? How
consistent is it across geographical and divisional
boundaries?
3. What behaviors are felt to be most
characteristic of the organization? What are the moments of truth when your
organization is at its best (and worse?)
4. What is the most useful way of segmenting
the employee population in terms of their cultural characteristics and
distinctive needs?
5. How consistent are the messages we are
communicating internally and externally about our organization as a place to
work? How do we inform our
vendors?
6. What are the most effective channels of
employee communication, both top-down and bottom-up?
7. Which positions are most critical to our
success and what are we currently doing/need to do to attract, engage, and
retain them?
2 IDENTIFY YOUR TRUE CORPORATE CHARACTER.
Creating an Employer Brand requires rigorously examining all facets of the work
experience your organization delivers and making sure you create an experience
that leads to an employer of choice reputation. To address all the various
facets and factors that impact your employer brand, you need to involve people
who represent these varied perspectives At the same time, a careful evaluation
of what matters most to employees, their perception of what the core brand
stands for, the values associated with it, and their expectations will help
create an employer brand description that is relevant and
inspirational.
3. DETERMINE HOW
EMPLOYER BRANDING IS VIEWED INSIDE YOUR COMPANY
You should define what employer branding means to your company.Your employer brand is
“the image of your organization as a ‘great place to work’ in the mind of
current employees and key stakeholders in the external market(active and passive candidates,
clients, customers, and other key stakeholders).” Employer branding is
therefore concerned with the attraction, engagement, and retention initiatives targeted at
enhancing your company’s employer brand.
If you take too
narrow a focus on employer branding, it is likely to end up as a departmental
project that’s not aligned with the overall business strategy. For example, if
you believe employer branding is only about recruitment, it is likely your
organization will have already closed up shop on employer branding as a result
of the economic downturn while competitors who understand the concept are
continuing to invest resources as part of a long-term employer branding
strategy to attract and retain talent.
4. ALIGNMENT WITH STRATEGIC INTENT
Loyalty based relationships formed with employees should be shaped to deliver
on brand promises that are consistent with overall corporate goals, and are
uniform across all departments and subsidiaries. This may involve the following
points
*Exploring the critical employer brand ‘touch-points’ and ‘moments of
truth’
*Identifying the appropriate ‘brand of leadership’
*Putting the employer brand into the context of the HR strategic plan
*Identifying key stakeholders and audiences
*Determining your key performance indicators
*Developing a one, three and five year brand plan
*Winning approval and active commitment
5. BECOME AN EXPERT ON YOUR TARGET MARKET
Most successful brands are built upon an intimate knowledge of their customers.
The stronger the brand, the more the brand manager understands the hearts and
minds of their ideal customer. Identify the target market (the type of
candidate you are trying to attract) for your branding efforts. Develop a
target profile for them (who they are; where to find them; what they read;
events they go to; etc.).
This means understanding what:
*today’s
employees want
*the
most talented employees want
* employees in your particular industry want
*employees from the demographics you hire want
*employees from the various fields and job positions you hire want
Knowing what
employees value most highly not only allows you to build an employer brand that
is relevant and compelling, it also provides a framework for ongoing monitoring
of whether you are delivering the kind of work experience you think you are.
6. SENIOR MANAGEMENT INVOLVEMENT
Employer Branding simply won’t work without the genuine, visible support of the
CEO. Calculate the potential ROI for branding and sell the idea to
management.
They should "live the brand" as well, and become credible role models
for the same values. Have the CEO or human resource vice president write
articles about the organization's people-management practices and give talks at
chamber of commerce/industry association meetings. Be sure they include great
people practices in their materials. Work with the CEO's office to get top
executives to mention your organization's great people practices both in their
internal and external communications.
7. EMBEDDING THE EMPLOYER BRAND IN PROCESS AND PRACTICE
A detailed employer branding blueprint for new HR and communications
initiatives, including recruitment and retention programs, should specify
responsibilities and accountabilities of all staff members senior or
frontline to make employer branding a live 365day affair
year-on-year
With best compliments
Dr Wilfred
Monteiro
www.synergymanager.net
