Gyanendra Kumar Kashyap
‘Times’ have changed; thanks to the demand and supply gap in
terms of talent, organisations are investing millions in branding themselves as
‘employers of choice’…
Branding, as a concept as well as a technique to be on the
top of mind recall, has primarily been associated with consumer products and
services. However, given the dramatic changes in the workforce trends and
immense competition in the labour market, organizations are applying the
principles of branding to human resource management to create an emotional
relationship between an employer and employee.
Employer brand, as it is referred to, is about capturing the
essence of an organization in a way that engages current and prospective
talent. An employer brand conveys the
‘value proposition’ the
totality of the organization’s culture,
systems, attitudes, and employee
relationship along with encouraging people to embrace and share
goals for success, productivity, and
satisfaction both on personal and professional levels. In essence, it is
a differentiator that helps an organization differentiate itself from its peer
by creating its branded factors as its USP (unique selling proposition) for
employee satisfaction and happiness resulting in retention, productivity and
efficiency.
Is employer branding therefore an indispensable strategy or
a mere fad? Literature survey and reports in the media lends a belief that
employer branding offers a fine blend of the science of marketing with the art
of human relations management and is one of the strongest bulwark against the
scourge of unbridled employee attrition.
The Building Blocks
What does it take to build an employer brand – one that is
able to communicate and ingrain in minds of employees the most critical value
proposition that their organization stands for and in effect help increase the
likelihood of employees becoming brand ambassadors and advocates?
Invariably, Employee Value Proposition, EVP, is at the heart
of developing and managing an employer branding. Employer Value Proposition
speaks about the direct and indirect benefits of working with the brand. It
also speaks about the core aspects of the association. EVP is influenced by the
organization's values, culture, leadership, environment, and talent and reward
programs. Once an organization’s EVP is formulated, it is then gradually
integrated with the HR process to ensure delivery of the brand promise and
consistent employee experience.
Like any other consumer brand that expresses inherent
qualities and images, an employer brand too is representative of the corporate
identity to its current and prospective employees, headhunters, and other
stakeholders who get associated with the people side of the corporate. Hence it
becomes all the more important to have a consistency between the internal and
external aspects of employer brand. The internal factors are the culture, HR
practices, and the overall employment experience that a current employee has.
The external factors are what a prospective employee feels about the
organization. Instances of inconsistency between the promises made to the
external world with respect to what is happening internally can create
conflict. The new joinees will expect what was promised through branding and
the current employees on the other hand might feel cheated by the practices
followed. Eventually, inconsistency in ensuring delivery of brand promise will
leave both the current and future employees unhappy.
How can organizations ensure the delivery of brand promise
as well as consistency of employee experience? Articles published in the media
and other survey reports lend a perception that the key lies in communicating a
set of unifying attributes that help employees in identifying with their
employer. Organizations take concerted efforts to engrain them internally as
well as externally. A few organisations have moved a step further; the EVP is
incorporated in the internal and external communication, including the
communication used in the context of lateral hiring and campus hiring. It
enables them to attract the right profile of talent – who will be effective and
highly engaged in their organization.
Organisations also use internal mapping and external brand
image to chart out the important attributes that resonate with majority of
employees to create its value proposition for its employees. There are others for
whom the key constituents of employer brand are its set of core values – which
includes open communication, generosity, and leading by example; and vision of
the organization to build and sustain reputation.
What do you communicate?
There is no doubts on an organization’s employer brand being
a very important mode of communicating to the current and potential employees
the position and value of a firm. The approach as to how an organization wants
to ‘position’ itself is not a ‘one shoe fits all’ strategy. Depending on the
industry, the life-cycle stage and the economic dynamics, the branding strategy
can be different. For example, in the creative industry an employer brand
typically aims to communicate the creative environment in the workplace and a
fun place to work. A technology or a beverage brand has mass marketing
campaigns. The employer brand in the professional services industry, however,
targets professionals and not masses. The messaging in an employer brand in the
professional services industry therefore is aligned to what professionals can
relate to, such as the promise of developing technical expertise and longevity
of careers.
Are you investing enough?
Though, the importance of building an incredible employer
brand is beyond doubt, there is an investment that has to be made into
developing and managing the brand. And thus the primary question: Are you
investing enough?
Who is the ‘employer brand’ manager?
While there is no unanimity or even general consensus as to
who should own the process of creation and execution of an organization’s employer
branding campaign, it is a given fact that building a strong employer brand
cannot be the sole responsibility of Human Resources or the Marketing
department for that matter. As a matter of fact the entire philosophy of
‘employer brand’ has to be co-owned. The initiative must follow the top down
approach, starting from the leadership at the helm and must include Human
Resources, Marketing and Finance. In fact, everyone in the organization should
be encouraged to take up the role of an ambassador of the brand.
How is the campaign propagated?
The success of any brand campaign, however brilliantly
designed, to large extent depends on how well it is propagated, whether or not
it has been able to reach its desired target audience. This becomes all the
more critical when speaking from an organization’s ‘employer brand’
perspective; for the basic aim of the entire philosophy is to attract, retain
and engage current and potential talent. There is no dearth of media vehicles
to propagate its employer brand, however not all serves the purpose. Like a
consumer product brand which has the leeway of resorting to ‘road blocking’;
organizations use a similar concept when they reach out to campuses or job
fairs or job sites – where they can
register their presence in the minds of the required target talent space.
In order to portray their organization as an employer of
choice, organisations cite career website, word-of-mouth and social media as
three top channels that their organizations invest in to promote their employer
brand.
How do you measure effectiveness?
All organizations are different. There is no preset standard
of measurements that suits every organization. But how does an organization
measure the effectiveness of its employer brand campaign? From an organisation’s
perspective it is important to measure the employer branding impact on
individual productivity. For some a measure of a better employer brand would be
the ratio of number of offers given to people to the number of people who
finally joined. Examples of traditional metrics that have been used to measure
ROI on employer branding activities include: cost per hire, engagement levels,
time to fill, retention rates, turnover rates, absenteeism, headcount, time to
productivity, total costs of labor to revenue, candidate satisfaction rates
etc.
Conclusion
An effective employer brand in essence embodies all that the
organization has to offer vis a vis what the employees expect from the
organization. Having an effective
employer brand helps organizations attract, engage and retain talent. Studies
show that having an employer brand significantly impacts savings by enhancing
retention (reducing replacement hire costs) and engagement levels of new hires
and existing employees. In an environment of economic uncertainty coupled with
talent crunch, an effective ‘employer brand’ is perhaps a panacea to ride over
the tide.
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