HR’s Priorities For the Successful Employer Branding

By Selin Yetimoglu

From my point of view as an employee and also an HR employee, I am responsible for the happiness of employees and bringing the best talents to the company for business efficiency. Theferore, today’s HR trends indicate to focus on employer branding which includes this responsibility, in my opinion, so my priority is to create attractive employer branding. Being an attractive employer provides a company or organization more bargaining power, as employees will want to work for them more than anyone else, even those that have rare or most in demand skills—irrespective of salary levels.

One of the statistics I found very interesting is that 69% of American people would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed. People want to have a sense of pride in their work and the companies they work for.

Another research found that a strong employer brand is twice as powerful a motivator for candidates to apply to a business than a positive overall company brand. This study indicates that there is a clear case for inward investment into the employer branding initiatives in addition to the company branding initiative.

What they also found was that employer brand was particularly important for attracting more junior employees (staff and managers, not Directors) and candidates from younger demographics (under 40) and those from outside the US. So, clearly if attracting talent from these areas is important to our business, then we have a much stronger case for investment in employer branding as you are likely to generate a bigger ROI.

To create an attractive employer brand, HR has to follow these steps:

1. Research: to understand where an employer is positioned in the employment market and to determine the appropriate action plan is fundamental.

2. Employer Value Proposition (EVP): the company or organisation needs a unique employer offer.

3. Communication strategy: the development of a communication strategy is always based on research findings and a well-defined EVP.

4. Communication Solutions: the aim at this step is to express the employer value proposition (EVP) by using the right words and images, so it becomes consistent with the corporate identity and branding efforts.

5. Action: implementing all the steps and monitoring closely what works and needs to be adjusted along the way is the final stage. It is of great importance at this point that the organisation sets targets on what they want to achieve with the planned activities in a clear and measurable way.

As a result, to focus on employer brand process is going to bring more passionate experienced employees inside and create a perception of “great place to work” for the possible candidates outside, in the long term.

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