The World According to Cachia

Last week I was facilitating a lesson on Recruitment and Selection processes, and the topic of Employer Branding came up… I asked what I thought was a fairly obvious question “who can describe what Employer Branding is”? and to my surprise, not one of the students had heard of it, let alone could describe it! That has made me wonder if this form of advertising is still current.

Employer branding is the process of promoting your organisation to a select group [of candidates], which the employer wishes to recruit and retain. Some organisations adopt this strategy as it is considered particularly important for Companies in highly competitive labour markets and/or perceive themselves as having a bad image.

Therefore Employer branding [basically means];

-          the coordination & standardising of all recruitment information to portray the organisation in a particular way;

-          It makes the organisation stand apart from other Company’s,

-          It reinforces its reputation as a desirable employer;

The Employer Branding statement should be approximately 1 paragraph in length and contain information such as:-

-          Specifics of the Industry/Sector,

-          Size of Organisation (turnover, staffing, locations),

-          Products,

-          Unique Initiatives or Programs of the Organisation (i.e. associations, sponsorships),

-          Attractive characteristics of the role

I was reading an article recently that states 87% of organisations believe in employer branding strategies, yet only 17% of them actually have developed and implemented such strategies, despite there being suggestions that Companies WILL increase their investment in Employer branding [strategies].

With the availability of social media that allows more creative ways to advertise the Company, the above statistics perhaps don’t instil too much confidence that organisations understand or know how to use Employer branding statements.

For mine, the ‘job ad’ is much more than just a notice pinned to the ‘positions vacant’ board. It should be seen as an opportunity to advertise the role (of course) and therefore a method of identifying ‘suitable’ applicants. But more so, it is a great opportunity to promote the organisation for all its benefits (I see this as HR’s foray into Marketing).

Effective employer branding can reinforce the organisation’s ability to attract and retain top talent. Attracting the right people helps build an better workforce/team environment; a better workforce leads to a better culture; a better culture leads to increased productivity; better productivity leads to better profits and increased [company] reputations; etc..

It is important to note that the employer brand should not be confined to the job ad, suffice to say, it is the whole organisation and its people that effectively ‘OWN’ the brand, and that means that your employees will have no hesitation in advocating the positives of the Company when outside of work, and as we all know, satisfied employees can be your best ambassadors!

Whether your organisation is a ‘household’ name, and/or a division of… or if yours is an SME that perhaps isn’t easily recognisable, an employer branding strategy should not just be seen as an effective way of advertising a vacancy; but also a great way of promoting the business and thus attracting stronger candidates.