What is employer branding and do you have a recruitment strategy?
Every company faces its own unique challenges in finding or retaining the individuals to build their business.
Uncovering specialist talent, appealing to a niche audience, reaching beyond borders, or reacting quickly to demand are just some of the ongoing issues that companies face. To meet this challenge employer branding has grown out of its infancy to become true strategic force for firms who recognise that people are their best asset in business.
What is an employer brand?
Employer branding first came to the fore in the nineties as the demand for talent in the service sectors exploded. However, what was once looked upon as an administrative task has now become a sophisticated business practice shared by human resources, marketing and CEO’s looking to succeed in the battle for talent.
Part one of our employer branding report we presented why businesses need to rethink their approach to their brand as a means of attracting the best talent. Social, economic and new business models are forcing companies to become increasingly sophisticated in the way they recruit. Equally, nurturing a talent pool that you can take your pick from is a benefit to any ambitious business. In part two, we put forward a variety of points to help you strengthen your employer brand. No two companies are the same, some may need to fine-tune their process, or some may need a complete rethink. These points serve as food for thought no matter how advanced your approach is.
Building a foundation of substance
Recruitment is often a recurring task within the organisation, this might explain why some companies become complacent and stick to their old ways. They tend to focus on finding people to meet the technical requirements of a position, or put forward an amicable benefits package without thinking ‘why would someone want to work for us?’ As the saying goes if you always do what you’ve done before, you always get what you’ve got.
Traditionally employer branding in its basic form, has been handled by the human resources team. But this departmental thinking limits the potential of what your employer brand can be. Naturally HR has a central responsibility and expertise to recruit the best talent they can find. But the Marketing team have the communication skills to bring the brand alive and connect with the right people. Whilst management in their capacity as figureheads of the company can speak with authority about the culture and ambitions of the business. Strong employer brands share the challenge of recruitment, bringing the best of everybody’s skills to maximise the outcome of a company-wide challenge.
Define your purpose
People have an inherent need to belong to something they believe in. A company that taps into its collective sense of purpose will light a beacon for like-minded people to follow. However more often than not companies often drift along without really questioning why does it exist beyond the function of making money. They fail to ask how they create value, and therefore fail to spark motivation in an increasing number of idealistic people who seek more than just a job.
Defining the Purpose of a brand not only helps companies engage its customer’s, but it creates focus within the company and resonates with potential recruits. Companies with a clear sense of purpose stand out, they’re more authentic, they connect with people in a more compelling way, they create their own destiny and attract similar people who share their vision. By demonstrating a sense of purpose in your brand, you will naturally become a stronger employer brand.
Mission have helped several companies uncover their purpose. Operating outside our client’s environment we are well positioned to look objectively and identify what they are too close to see. Working with key people from within the organisation, we run a process to help businesses confront misconceptions that may be holding them back and ultimately define the essence of what makes them special. This materialises onto a complete Brand Platform, a model that covers Purpose, Vision, Values and synchronises with your business ambitions.
Employer value proposition
Some clients go one step further and compliment their Brand Platform with an Employer Value Proposition (EVP) This is a statement that describes the combination of benefits that the company aims to provide to all employees.
L'Oréal defines their Employer Value as:
A thrilling experience
Inspiring company
A school of excellence
A simple statement (the simpler the better), but one that has helped L'Oréal become recognised as one of the best companies to work for in France. It’s a kind of company-wide ‘people deal’, that shows its commitment to those who want to invest in themselves and the business. It also helps the brand to connect to talent that might otherwise ignore them.
Internal external alignment
The continuing influence of social media has forced many companies to step into the light. Its open nature means that any opinion about a brand is one click away, and can spread exponentially. Better to embrace this phenomenon than leave it to chance.
This principle can have a big impact on recruitment, where any negative behaviour or bad employment practices quickly surface. Managing this situation, should be less like damage control and more like an opportunity to convey the company’s true character. This again becomes a challenge suited to marketing and communication. Their unique skillsets allow them to articulate what the brand stands for from within. Advising colleagues on how their day to day interactions impact on public perception, and guiding them towards a way of communicating that conveys a more appropriate experience.
Smart companies go one step further, they understand that hiring and training good people comes at a cost, so retaining staff is essential. They put great effort into career development, training and deepening relations to ensure that the people are ambassadors for the brand and the employer brand reflects the people. This ‘inside out’ thinking helps to build an employer brand that is authentic and rings true wherever people meet the it.
Making your employer brand come to life
Beyond job descriptions and benefits many companies fail to attract the right people because they are too familiar with themselves. The repetition of turning up for work every day numbs the senses, so that you don’t see yourself as anything special and you underestimate how the outside world sees you. Consequently, the outside world fails to see you amongst your ambitious competitors.
Strong Employer Brands paint a vivid picture of their world and what success looks like within it. They continuously create content that is in-keeping with their purpose, but also shows their more informal side. This helps to make the company stand out, target candidates more accurately and provides reassurance to would-be colleagues that you speak the same language. The following points provide examples of how other companies are bringing their employer brand to life.
E-recruitment programme
With more than 90% of people using a social media to research potential employers, businesses can no longer be passive about their presence in these channels. Although many make the mistake of throwing themselves out there without investigating the nuances of the various platforms and whether your target audiences are even using them.
Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter remain the go-to networks, but for hiring tech’ based positions for instance, Github would prove more successful. Whilst older candidates are active with Linkedin, younger audiences respond to the faster feed from Twitter. It pays to investigate the subtleties between platforms to choose the best one for you.
Bigger companies who post job openings regularly can maintain a dynamic social media presence, but SME’s often make the mistake of letting their platforms go dormant until the next round of hiring, therefore undoing all the work that went into building a presence. Social Media has made recruitment a 24/7 activity where using an employer brand mind-set will help you create a stream of conversation, that builds a positive picture of your business. At which point, you can take advantage of all the practical benefits of recruiting through social media such as faster hiring times, smoother flow of information and a deeper reach into the talent pool.
Considered content
Even more emphasis is now placed on the content you publish. Social media’s reach demands a far keener ‘editorial’ approach, where you must consider what each post says about your business. At the same time If your content is ‘all business’ it will also say something about the serious nature of your company. Whilst all professionals take their work seriously, most of them like to have fun and want to work within a culture that values informality beyond casual Friday. A flow of friendly dialogue, images of your working environment, social events, or fun videos will help to portray a more rounded impression of your brand.
Share content
Don’t be afraid to use content from external sources as a means of elaborating on the kind of business you are. Many companies supplement their content with links from complimentary sources such as news, blogs and articles from industry publications. This will help to avoid looking self-centred, whilst demonstrating your engagement in the industry and give a deeper impression of the kind of business you are.
Use your network
Everybody in your company has friends in a similar company who are probably part of their social media network. Invite them to share your content within their peer groups, this will have an exponential effect and get the word out that your hiring to a much richer pool of potential targets. Senior executives can seem to distance themselves from this activity, but they have just as much to gain from casting the net wide to attract the best people. It also shows they are connected to the culture the preside over.
Mission client, EVRY, became one of the first Nordic companies to implement Facebook at Work as a means to communicate amongst its 10,000 staff. It provides a way for staff to share and network amongst themselves and their peers providing a much more interactive platform than email. The singular platform facilitates opinion, dialogue and developments that flow through the company culture no matter how far apart they are.
Pace yourself
Throwing content out across the web in a hope you’ll catch the right person’s attention is usually counterproductive. Better to create a content calendar to schedule what messages you’ll post, who is the target audience and where will it appear. This will help you stay organised, and give you an overview of the recruitment drive. More importantly it will build a profile of your business and its attitude to employees, layer upon layer with each well timed post. Smart candidates don’t just jump at the fist job they see, they observe from afar, building a picture of the kind of business you are to determine if there’s a good match.
Career pages
Strong employer brands know the value of illustrating the style of business they are through their websites. Any intelligent candidate will visit the company website and subsequent careers pages, this is an ideal space to demonstrate your best self. A good careers page should convey:
Give a sense of working life, type of people, environment, etc.
Give a sense of working life, type of people, environment, etc.
Cover your businesses involvement in social and corporate responsibility
Elaborate on career paths for key roles within the organisation
Describe general rewards and benefits
Provide job descriptions of the latest opportunities
Provide tips on how to apply
Provide links to any social feeds about recruitment activities
Like many professional services firms, Deloitte have an excellent approach to the careers section of their site. Read more here .
Testimonials
The most authentic ambassadors for your business are your staff, they’ve passed the entry test and are hopefully thriving within your culture. Using them to give their testimonials illustrates the kind of people you value, the assignments they are working on and their career trajectory. By sharing their observations of working life to the outside world, you present a genuine viewpoint, proving that it’s possible to get that dream job at your firm.
A great way to do this is video interviews, they don’t have to be big productions or overly long, but they give a taste of what you are looking for. Remember to cover positions at all levels within the business from graduates to senior positions, even the most seasoned professionals need reassurances that they will make a good fit. Present the video on a dedicated careers section of your website and you will build a solid feel for what life is like behind the doors of your company.
Slaughter and May are a top British law firm who have used testimonials to get their pick of the best. You can check out there approach to testimonials. Read more here .
Award schemes
In acknowledgment of the demand for talent and the desire for people to commit themselves to good companies a number of awards and accreditation schemes have established themselves. The Times and Fortune magazine maintain a league of the top 100 employers. Whilst Investors in People is an employer accreditation scheme that evaluates businesses for best practices in employment across 75 countries. It helps companies to see where they stand at an international level, highlighting strengths and areas to improve. The Investors in People marque is what the Michelin star is to restaurants, it serves as a visible way to prove that outside experts recognise your performance and qualities, providing strong reassurance to any candidates scoping you out. Read more here .
Corporate social responsibility
Most people know that compliance with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy is more than introducing a waste paper recycling scheme in the copy room. The media regularly surfaces issues that impact on all of us, from honouring customer relations, protecting the environment to community support and caring for employees. Businesses that neglect these issues are quickly branded as unethical through social media, and have a hard time shaking negative opinions. Therefore, it makes sense to demonstrate a strong attitude to CSR, positioning yourself to become an employer of choice.
Self-development
Talented people become that way because they are serious about their chosen field and apply themselves continuously, which is probably why you hired them in the first place. But their own personal drive will only get them so far. Good employers invest in their people through additional training, new opportunities to grow and new experience to learn from.
Candidates looking from the outside will want to know how far they can go with your business, so it makes sense to communicate what success looks like in your company through acknowledging individual and team wins, awards and new appointment stories. Providing valuable self-development will retain good people and attract new ones saving time and money in the long-term.
The interview experience
I’ve been responsible for hiring people for over twenty years, and I never take a single interview for granted. Interviewing is a great opportunity to provide a true employer brand experience. Everything from the invite to the greeting at the door, to the room and especially the interviewer is a chance to immerse the candidate in your brand. Their antennae’s will be acutely sensitive to the whole encounter, reading every nuance to establish if you are the one who can help them build their future. Being late, unprepared or indifferent could let vital talent slip through your fingers. From time to time I still meet people who thank me for our interview even though they didn’t get the job. That goodwill is invaluable, as I never know when I might need them.
Brand book
Once you’ve found the perfect person for the position it’s important to introduce them to your world. Some company’s idea of induction is a company tour, whilst new recruits scratch down notes in a hurry – probably not the best way to kick-off a relationship. The first weeks are crucial to getting off to a flying start and cementing the expectations for both parties. A brand book is often a useful tool to help new employees absorb and learn about the company, its values and how best to perform in the interest of the business. IBM’s Making the World Work Better captures the history, missteps and triumphs of 100 years. It illustrates how they have adapted to the challenges of the last century by being guided by their corporate character. You can see here .
Interior
Environment can be a strong way to communicate the style of your business, and have a positive impact on productivity. The cubicle mentality to productivity is a thing of the past, open and varied working landscapes are proving far more conducive to individual and team work. Dedicated areas to focus, meet and relax are seen as a way to accommodate for the way we work in a technology enhanced, cross discipline workforce that is no longer nine to five.
The style of interior should emerge from the style of business you are. Two of Misison’s clients had two very different approaches; law firm Schjødt introduced a modern day gentleman’s club in their central office to create a more intimate area to discuss their client’s issues. Whilst Eika, created a more natural space conducive to their dedication to working closely with local customers.
Events
Corporate meetings, social events or thought leadership seminars are all opportunities to share knowledge and inspiration, but also to connect with employees, interact and gauge the pulse of the business. Strong Employer Brand’s use these moments however temporary to author the experience through content, choice of venue, presentation and even choice of entertainment. Question - If you had the choice, which singer or band would you hire to play at your event? Strong employer brands would instinctively know who would enhance their brand.
Celebrate internal mobility
All too often companies become too familiar with themselves and become complacent. They fail to acknowledge individual achievement seeing it as ‘that’s what they’re paid to do’. I recently was invited to attend a client’s executive management meeting with around 100 or so managers from across Scandinavia. During the meeting the CEO gave beautiful certificates of achievement as an acknowledgment of exemplary service. The reaction of the recipients was clearly one of surprise and appreciation, but the goodwill rippled around the room giving a sense of unity and pride. Never underestimate the power of public recognition to assure colleagues that they are fulfilling your expectation of success. It motivates employees and therefore fuels the employer brand.
Measurement
To quote LinkedIn: "You can't manage what you can't measure." LinkedIn is stronger than most when it comes to evaluating the strength of your employer brand and recruitment opportunities. Their "Talent Brand Index" measures how many people know about you as an employer and how many potential candidates are interested in your company. It gives you a benchmark that allows you to compare your brand with that of your competitors. Of course, no research will be able to measure the exact strength of your employer brand, but this is a useful tool to assess how well known you actually are.
All businesses have their own challenges to deal with when it comes to finding or keeping the right people to build the business. Finding employees with specialist knowledge, reaching out to a niche audience, operating outside the country's borders and reacting quickly to changes are just some of the many tasks that companies constantly have to solve. In working with these challenges, employer branding has developed from its infancy to become a real strategic advantage for companies that realize that people are the company's most valuable asset.
