APPENDIX D

Employer Branding

Introduction

Employer branding is simply the process of creating an image of being a ‘great place to work’ by organizations in the minds of prospective candidates. It can also be defined as an organization’s reputation as an employer. This concept has originated from marketing side of the business. In fact, product branding (a marketing concept) provided the basis for the development of the employer branding (a HR concept). In employer branding, organization’s capacity (as employer) can be compared to a product, whereas the current and future employees are the purchasers (of the employment). The product brand and employer brand are related and mutually supportive. A strong product brand plays a vital role in the strength of the employer brand. The employer brand in turn adds value to the company and its products, thereby reinforces product brand.¹

The employer brand is the final outcome of all brand-related activities of an organization, whereas the employer branding is the process to reach this outcome. Employer branding normally includes all decisions related to the planning, creation, management, and controlling of employer brands.² Generally, the employer branding looks to create a positive image about the organization among both the present and the future employees and thereby making it an employer of choice. Employer branding was predominantly outward facing and advertising driven. Today, many managers believe that they can solve the problem of talent shortage by strengthening their organizations’ employer brands.

Employer branding plays a pivotal role in helping the organizations focus on their priorities relating to employee recruitment, retention, and commitment. It enables the managers to create a working environment that prospective employees desire to join.³ It also helps organizations to motivate their employees to deliver on the business promises made to the customers. Employer branding enables the organization to achieve higher job acceptance rate when job offers are made to successful candidates. Typically, the employer brand programmes include strategies for attraction, engagement, and retention of best talents to strengthen an organization’s talent base. We shall now discuss a few definitions of the term employer branding.

Definitions of Employer Branding

Systematic projection of an organization as an attractive destination for employment is the essence of many definitions of employer branding. Some of the definitions are discussed as follows:

Need for Employer Branding

By distinguishing itself from the competitors and by promoting strengths and values, an organization can ensure that it becomes an employer of choice. This is what organizations look to achieve through employer branding. Employer branding is the blend of market research, advisory services, communications, and marketing to achieve a desirable brand position in the labour market. Generally, employer branding requires setting of standards and framework for all HR activities of the organization. The presence of such standards for HR activities can enhance the objectivity, efficiency, and quality of the human resource (HR) decisions. The role of employer branding in organizations is discussed as follows:

1. Attracting and retaining good talents: The need to attract and retain top performers always remains vital to business success. A good employer brand built by an organization helps it to recruit superior candidates with ease. It also motivates the employees to stay longer in the organization and thereby achieves better retention rate. It can also considerably shorten the time- to-fill the vacancies. Typically, a healthy retention rate and effective recruitment strategy should enable organizations to accomplish their strategic goals in a timely manner.
2. Improvement in employee productivity and performance: Usually, employees of organizations with strong employer branding have greater sense of pride, trust, and affinity towards their employers.⁸ Consequently, these organizations achieve increased level of employee engagements, greater productivity, positive customer experience, and higher revenues and profit margins, and overall returns on investment.
3. Achieving competitive advantage: Now, many organizations view employer branding as one of the key competitive advantages in business. They attempt to achieve competitive edge through (i) reduced cost per hire, (ii) improved quality of hire, (iii) better employee engagement, and (iv) increased profit per employee.
4. Protection against damage to company reputation: The social media image building is an important part of employer branding. This involves telling about organization not only to prospective candidates and current employees, but also to the wider business community of investors, partners, and customers through social media. This sharing of information enables an organization to protect itself against any possible damage to its reputation through false propaganda.
5. Developing strong organizational culture: Employer branding can bring about organizational success through a well-regarded organizational culture. Employer brand can play a key role in helping organization build and reinforce a culture that supports a competitive advantage.⁹

Sources of Employer Branding

Employer branding can basically be classified into two categories: external branding and internal branding.

The external branding can be built through (i) job sites, (ii) banners (online and street), (iii) road shows, (iv) participation in public events, (v) newspaper advertising, (vi) celebrity endorsements, (vii) e-mails, (viii) tagline and punch line, and (ix) corporate social responsibility.

The internal branding can be built through (i) employee training, (ii) employee participation, (iii) employee satisfaction, (iv) front office appearance, (v) actions based on exit interview, (vi) customer orientation, and (vii) employer–employee communications.

Steps to Building Employer Brand Strategy

The employer brand is typically a long-term strategy of an organization to develop right image by projecting the unique employment experience of its employees. Normally, employer branding process is influenced by the nature of business, the nature of market, target people, organizational structure, and organizational strategy and vision. As seen in Figure D.1, the major steps involved in the development of employer brand are as follows:

1. Establishment of clearly defined goals
2. Ensuring top management support
3. Developing employer brand plan
4. Implementing, measuring, and adjusting brand plans

These are discussed briefly as follows:

1. Establishment of clearly defined goals: The first step in the development of employer brand is the establishment of well-defined goals relating to employer brand. The goals of employer brand normally differ depending upon the stage of the organizational life cycle. The brand goal may relate to improving brand awareness, improving retention rate, or undertaking big recruitment drive.
   

   Figure D.1
   Steps to building Employer Brand Strategy

   The employer brand goals may relate to the whole employer brand programme or a specific employer brand project (such as employee referral programme). While deciding the employer brand goals, it is important to identify and understand the strength of organization’s present employer brand, the branding strategies of other organizations, target market (or candidate) for brand strategies, talent needs of the organization, and talent availability in the labour market. While deciding the brand goals, organization should be sure about what it wants to offer to the employees. This is generally decided by the employer value proposition (EVP).

   An EVP is the unique set of benefits offered to an employee for making use of their skills, capabilities, and experience. EVP may be defined as the unique and differentiating promise a business makes to its employees and potential candidates.¹⁰ Organizations need EVP to strongly influence the employer brand. To be effective, the EVP needs to be attractive, competitive, true, credible, distinct, and sustainable. Usually, an EVP is shaped by employee feedback, recruitment strategy, nature of reward and benefits, and company brand. After EVP is defined, organization should find creative and relevant ways to communicate it to the targeted people.

2. Ensuring top management support or buy-in: Top management’s commitment and patronage to employer branding initiative is an important prerequisite for its successful launch. Brand initiatives should also have support of every level of management from top to bottom. A perfect coordination among the departments involved in branding initiatives such as HR department, marketing department, and communication division should be ensured. In all likelihood, the branding strategy of an organization will fail if the managers and the employees do not agree to it. All the departments involved in brand creation should own the employer brand strategy.
3. Developing employer brand plan: At this stage, employer brand plan is developed based on what the organizations want to convey to its present and prospective employers. Through employer branding, an organization may wish to tell the potential candidates about management practices, leadership styles, employee job experience, career growth prospects, learning prospects, and product quality. Generally, organizational culture, engagement factors (key talent drivers), stakeholders’ perceptions, leadership vision, employment experience, and management practices collectively influence the employer brand plans.
4. Implementing, measuring, and adjusting brand plans: At this stage, the employer brand plan is implemented. After the plan is implemented, it becomes essential to measure its efficiency constantly. This can be done by gathering feedback through exit interviews, employee surveys, focus groups, etc. The purpose of this exercise is to know how the users of employer brand (such as prospective and present employees) view it. These feedbacks can be used for improving the effectiveness of employer brand plans in future.

In several large organizations, employer branding has proved to be an effective tool to deal with the serious HR problems of high employee attrition, high absenteeism, and low productivity. This clearly indicates the growing relevance of employer branding as an important HR technique.

Notes

1. L. van der Sluis, Sylvia Geertruida Maria Bunt-Kokhuis, (Uitgeverij Van Gorcum, 2009), p. 58.
2. Lena Christiaans, International Employer Brand Management: A Multilevel Analysis and Segmentation of Students’ Preferences, (Deutschland:Springer Gabler, 2013), p. 11.
3. Libby Sartain and Mark Schumann, Brand from the Inside, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006).
4. CIPD. (2006). Chartered Institute of Professional Development. (online) Available on: http://www.cipd.co.uk.
5. Helen Rosethorn, The Employer Brand: Keeping Faith with the Deal, (Surrey, UK: Gower Publishing Limited, 2009), pp. 20–21.
6. Arend Grünewälder, Employer Branding: Marketing the Company as an Attractive Employer Seminar Paper, (Germany: GRIN verlag, 2007), p. 4.
7. Simon Barrow, Richard Mosley, The Employer Brand: Bringing the Best of Brand Management to People at Work, (UK: John Wiley & sons Ltd 2005).
8. Arend Grünewälder, Employer Branding: Marketing the Company as an Attractive Employer Seminar Paper, (Germany: GRIN verlag, 2007), p. 4.
9. Steve W. J. Kozlowski, The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Psychology, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 1: p. 214.
10. Helen Rosethorn, The Employer Brand: Keeping Faith with the Deal, (Surrey, UK: Gower Publishing Limited, 2009), p. 20.