Since it first appeared in the early 1990s, the concept of employer branding has been the domain of the human resources department. Today, best practices in employer branding involves the input of the internal marketing and communication departments as well. These functions can support HR in the complex process of developing an employer brand that can be a competitive advantage in today’s market, where talent and skills are increasingly in demand.
Your employer brand can be defined as the image of your organization as a “great place to work” in the minds of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers, etc.).
Defining, creating and nurturing your employer brand requires communication expertise. We are only just starting to see the impact of the marketing and communication department’s input into the company’s employer brand strategy—and the results are encouraging.
When internal communication, marketing and HR departments fail to collaborate on the firm’s employer brand strategy, the result is often nothing more than a HR project that burns cash and creates employee cynicism.
The major role communication specialists play in the employer branding process can be grouped into four key areas:
- Communicating the Employer Value Propositions (EVPs), following rigorous internal and external research.
- Ensuring the delivery of highly targeted messages about the employment experience to the company’s target audience.
- Tracking, reporting and responding to emerging communication trends in recruitment.
- Optimizing the role of the company’s career web site to attract talent and passive candidates.
1. Communicating the Employer Value Propositions (EVPs) following rigorous internal and external research.
In its simplest form, an EVP is a set of associations and offerings that characterize an employer or position and that differentiate it from its competitors.
The EVP should answer the following questions:
- Why should I join your organization?
- Why should I stay?
- Why should I give my best?
- Why should I recommend your organization as an employer and business?
- Why should I re-join?
In-depth research with employees and the external market (e.g. potential candidates) will provide insight into how the employment experience at your company is perceived. Research also provides the foundation for developing EVPs that are unique, differentiated and most of all, believable. Employer branding is not about spin; it’s about delivering highly targeted messages about the employment experience to the target audience to attract them to the firm or keep them interested for a time when they are actively looking for a new job.
2. Ensuring the delivery of highly targeted messages about the employment experience to the company’s target audience.
To build an employer brand that attracts and retains talent, you must effectively communicate the key benefits of employment to the target audience. Companies can no longer rely on traditional media such as press advertising to recruit talent. Today’s talented employees have access to numerous online and offline communication channels and companies need to ensure the communication of their employment offerings cuts through the clutter of increasingly fragmented media. Here are some examples of channels you can use to communicate about employer brand.
Encouraging authentic internal communication among leaders and staff is critical in creating an open environment that facilitates a culture of openness where ideas and views can be challenged respectfully.
Open communication builds trust among employees. With a foundation of trust, anything is possible.
3. Tracking, reporting and responding to emerging communication trends in recruitment.
The explosion of social networking sites over the past few years provides a wake-up call for recruiters that candidates and employees now have a forum where they can openly express their opinions about their employment experience. Companies such as Ernst & Young realized early on the power of social networking sites in providing an informal medium for talent to connect with the corporate sector. E&Y now have a Facebook fan club of over 15,000 members. A graduate looking at job options will find a wealth of information about the company on their site and they can even post questions about how to join E&Y after graduation.
4. Optimizing the role of the company’s career web site.
Internet technologies have developed rapidly and are helping employers to attract the best minds in the talent marketplace. The use of the Internet for activities central to the employment process has shifted the paradigm of the traditional recruitment process. The recruitment process is now being supported by online RSS feeds, podcasting, blogs, rich media and e-recruitment technology platforms.
An organization’s career web site must be both a communication vehicle and process enabler. The development process should begin with defining the objectives, scope and resources available to build the site. Best practice career sites such as www.pwc.co.uk, www.phillips.com and www.thewarehouse.co.nz rate highly on key attributes such as content, design, functionality and candidate relationship management.
Given the rapid adoption of the employer brand concept, communication professionals worldwide should take the initiative to get involved in the company’s employer brand strategy and offer up their support, insights and resources to the HR department, rather than wait to be approached.
Just because you haven’t been asked doesn’t mean your help is not required!
