What does your employment brand say about your organisation?

Is your organisation a great place to work? A place that people know by name and want to work at? In this week’s blog we want to talk about the importance of employment and employer branding.

A significant facet for any organisation is its image, its reputation! An employment brand communicates a company’s culture, values and beliefs. It defines what makes your company unique and what it stands for. Companies that come to mind with strong brand associations with candidates include, McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it”, IHG’s “great hotels people love” or Apple’s “think different”.

Employer brands communicate to potential employees what it is like to work for your organisation and why long-term employees are retained (Gallup). In a nutshell it’s what convinces someone to work for your organisation over another.

Given today’s competitive business environment where skill and talent shortage require new staffing strategies, organisations need to develop a distinctive brand (SHRM, 2008). Employment Branding applies the same branding principles of attracting and retaining customers to attracting and retaining top employees. Uncovering the strengths, weaknesses and hidden elements of your organization’s culture helps you better assess current candidates and create unique messaging to attract and retain talent (Kenexa, 2012). How people feel about their employer brand is increasingly critical to business success or failure.

 

The benefits of having a strong employment brand:

• Improves candidate quality

Top talent have the privilege of choosing their next workplace, and employment branding can be that extra factor which will make them choose your company. By clearly stating who you are as an organisation and what you offer, you’ll help them to understand what it’s like to work for your organization. The stronger the brand, the more successful you will be about attracting the people that are the best fit for your company. This means you’ll spend more of your recruiting time with the right people because you’ve already screened out the ones who aren’t an organisational fit early in the recruiting process.

• Boosts Employee Engagement and Retention

Infusing your employment brand internally can help employees discover other positive aspects of your organisation’s culture and learn about interesting initiatives within the organisation that they may not have known otherwise. This transparency boosts employee engagement, leading to higher productivity levels and increased retention rates. Furthermore, a strong employment brand can lead to an influx of candidates through employee referrals.

• Reduced Time-to-fill and Cost-per-hire

  Employment branding efforts contribute to a developed pipeline of candidates and aproactive recruitment model. With high-quality, engaged candidates at the ready, time-to-fill is significantly reduced. Without the need for additional resources due to a shorter recruitment timeline, there is the benefit of a lower cost-per-hire.

According to Business Line (2014) whether you’ve defined it or not, you already have an employer brand. The challenge for managers and organisations today is whether they’re clear about what they want people to associate with the organisation. What do you think your employment brand says about your organisation? Are you aware of it?