Employer Branding Brand seeks employees: winning the race for the right people MetaDesign www.metadesign.com Unit 2601, Zhongyu Plaza A6 Gongti North Road 100027 Beijing +86·10·85 23 57 88 Employer branding means differentiating and positioning a brand successfully on the job market. What can a brand do to attract and keep the best people in the face of tough competition? by Alexander Haldemann, PhD, and Lukas Eiselin, MetaDesign Leibnizstrasse 65 10629 Berlin +49·30·59 00 54·0 Grafenberger Allee 100 40237 Düsseldorf +49·211·69 07 87·0 15, rue du Gothard 1225 Chêne-Bourg + 41·22·304 89 39 615 Battery Street San Francisco, CA 94111 +1·415·627 07 90 Klausstrasse 26 8008 Zurich +41·44·560 34·00 Good employees are becoming a lot harder to find. According to “Swiss Recruiting Trends” (Monster, 2010), companies expect to find the right people for only seven out of every ten positions. Furthermore, only around half of all employees feel a high degree of loyalty to the company they work for – 30 percent fewer than in 2004. Today, one out of every three employees is considering changing companies, according to the “What’s Working” study, published by Mercer in 2011. These developments mean that the balance of power on the job market is shifting: qualified candidates can pick and choose the companies they want to work for. And they choose the companies that best suit their lifestyles and stand out among the competition, according to the “Internal Employer Branding” study, published by Kienbaum in 2009. On the job market, companies are discovering they have to talk about themselves and their brand, and do so in a way that is memorable and that positions them as clearly different from their competitors. On top of all that, companies now compete not only within their business sectors, but also with heavyweights like Google and McKinsey, who hire people from all kinds of different professional backgrounds. Employer branding as a magic weapon Many companies believe that employer branding is what can give them the advantage in the race for the right people. Everybody is talking about it, and expectations are running high. But not many companies are branded effectively as employers; often their look, feel, and message do not differ much from those of their competitors. The result: they do not have a clear profile on the job market or generate the resonance they were hoping for. Often they do not really understand what exactly the presumed “magic weapon” of employer branding is, and what it is not. What phases does a proper employer branding process include? And how important is a strategic approach? What success factors make a real difference? Companies themselves recognize these deficits. So the following theses are intended as a contribution to the current debate. 84 % Employees do not understand their own employer’s brand 75 % Metrics for employer branding are not identified or applied 70 % The network of former employees is not used for employer branding 70 % The employer’s brand is not clearly distinct those of competitors 65 % Companies cannot count on a clear, welldefined employer brand 46 % The companies are not known or perceived as attractive employers Hewitt (2010): “Employer Attractiveness – Employer Branding and Talent Supply 2010” Attracting and fostering loyalty with the right people Alumni Image advertisements Alumni events Job advertisements Alumni registration Graduate events/trade fairs Exit interview Career website Confirmation Brand ambassadors Intent to resign Culture and conduct Identity Recruit Retain Image brochure Application Correspondence Welcome kit 1st meeting Intranet Correspondence Competitions Posters Orientation day Employees Invitation to 1st day 2nd meeting Acceptance Contract negotiations Employer branding sends a consistent message across all touchpoints – inside and outside the company. “Up to 30, sometimes even 40, touchpoints comprise an employer’s brand. They all convey an image of the employer, and determine the extent to which the company is perceived as a strong, consistent brand.” Mareike Ahlers, PhD, Prof. Bruhn & Partner, Zurich Graduates Specialists Interns ... A targeted approach to the ideal candidates When selling liability insurance or a bar of chocolate, quantitative targets are what count. Every customer you win over is equal. But employer branding works differently. It doesn’t try to attract as many candidates as possible; instead, it targets the right ones. For that, a company needs to define its target group and consider: Who are the ideal employees for us? What are their skills and other attributes? What kind of personality fits well into our culture and helps us advance as a company? “Even though we have 28,000 employees and over 150 types of professionals who work for us, we know exactly what qualities the right employee for us has to have.” Stephanie Escher, head of the HR marketing competence center, Swiss Federal Railways For communication, that means: a company aligns its employer brand to the skill set and personality type of an ideal employee, and states clearly who it is looking for and who not. Building on the company brand Successful employer branding is not born in a vacuum. It is based directly on the company’s market position. Employer branding can thus be defined as: The strategic positioning of a company as a unique, attractive place to work in the context of its target group and competitors. In employer branding, the core of this position becomes the leitmotif for all contents across all communication channels. That ensures that the company communicates along the same lines as a brand and as an employer. The target audience therefore does not perceive a discrete employer brand, but rather one integrated profile of a company as an attractive place to work. “There’s no such thing as an employer brand. There’s just a brand. And it is directed towards employees as a target group.” Barbara Becker, head of global HR, Barry Callebaut Employer branding works inside the company A company’s own employees are the first and most important target group in employer branding. They are the ones who live the brand’s values, communicate them to the outside world, and identify themselves more strongly with the company via their loyalty to the brand. Thus employees unconsciously become brand ambassadors – even as alumni. People who have left a company are seen as particularly honest in the statements they make about their former employers. And along with a company’s current employees, its alumni are not only a target group, but also opinion leaders in the eyes of the very people the company considers its ideal candidates. If people have the feeling that they’ve made the right decision in working for a company, then they are part of a strong employer brand. “A company’s current employees are crucial to the credibility of our marketing messages, and their influence is growing all the time thanks to social media.” Mario Watzke, head of HR marketing & employer branding, Roche Sending a consistent message The success of employer branding does not depend on the number of touchpoints between the target audience and the brand. A company needs to select the right mix of the right touchpoints for its target audience, and manage them effectively. An image advertisement for recent college graduates offers different opportunities than an orientation day or an online platform for alumni. But they all have one common goal: to anchor a clear message in the minds of the right people. Drive interaction with the target group When employees talk about a company in the way the company intends, that’s when employer branding can be a success. But one-way communication is limited in its value; a company needs to initiate a dialog with its target group and guide it while keeping it interactive. Web 2.0 and social media are the perfect instruments to achieve that. They are already often used to market products and services, but less often for dialog with the employee target group. Successful employer branding is not a temporary project; it’s an ongoing strategic process that requires smart management and implementation. This is especially important for big companies, as they will need to ensure that the structural and organizational distance between HR and corporate communications does not result in inconsistent communication of the brand. The more clearly a brand communicates, the more attractive it is for current and potential employees – and the closer it gets to its goal of attracting the right people in a tough market. Job advertisements Alumni reunions “In the global ‘war for talent’, social media are the hooks for reeling in the right people. This instrument is used mostly for marketing purposes, and less for employer branding, so that’s an opportunity many companies are still overlooking.” Manuel P. Nappo, head of the social media management department at the HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration, Zurich Interest networks File sharing communities Corporate communities Identity Starter kit Blogs and microblogs Orientation day Intranet Knowledge sharing communities Social communities A company needs to initiate dialog with its target group, make it interactive, and guide it. Sources Monster study (2010): “Swiss Recruiting Trends”, Zurich Mercer study (2011): “What’s Working”, New York Kienbaum benchmark study (2009): “Internal Employer Branding”, Gummersbach Hewitt (2010): “Employer Attractiveness – Talent Supply and Employer Branding”, Munich Image Eight success factors for employer branding Involve key ambassadors People communicate for the employer brand. Both managers and internal and external recruiters must be involved. Have the courage to be different A company must distinguish itself clearly from others if it wants to be seen as a powerful employer. Harmonize with the company brand Employer branding is in line with the company brand. There’s just one brand. From the inside out A company’s employees are its first target group, and its most important ambassadors. Focus on the ideal employee Employer branding has one clear goal: attract the right people, not as many people as possible. Integrated communication Each touchpoint, no matter how small, communicates the brand, and becomes part of its strong, consistent profile. Merge HR and communication It takes one common strategy to lay the right foundation for employer branding. Drive interaction Employer branding is both a motor and a motivator for a company’s employees to live and strengthen its brand.
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