Five rea­sons why Employer Brand­ing is indis­pens­able in business

01Jul12

E3 Agency Truly Deeply recently spent a few days in Belgium with fellow E3 agency member BBC on a deep dive into the essential elements of employer branding. David Ansett, Chief Cre­ator of Brands at Truly Deeply, wrote up a great blog summarizing the key elements of what makes employer branding essential for the coming decades. We’ve included an excerpt below. For more, visit the Truly Deeply website.

“As mar­kets in every cor­ner of the world become more com­pet­i­tive, per­haps the last gen­uine oppor­tu­nity for busi­nesses to dif­fer­en­ti­ate is through attract­ing and retain­ing the very best tal­ent. With this in mind the role of HR or Employer Brand­ing is with­out doubt more crit­i­cal to organ­i­sa­tions than ever before — busi­nesses who have devel­oped a strate­gic approach to attract­ing tal­ent hold a dis­tinct advan­tage over their com­peti­tors.” – David Ansett, Chief Cre­ator of Brands at Truly Deeply.

Truly Deeply and BBC spent several days on a Deep Dive into Employer Branding strategy.

Five rea­sons why Employer Brand­ing is indis­pens­able in Business

1. War for tal­ent con­tin­ues
As the war for tal­ent con­tin­ues in times of eco­nomic dif­fi­culty, attract­ing and retain­ing the right peo­ple becomes even harder and even more essen­tial. Good employ­ees are key to your busi­ness’ growth; and it’s not just about find­ing the right tal­ent in terms of skills and edu­ca­tion. Find­ing peo­ple that match your com­pany DNA, your cul­ture, goals, ambi­tion and val­ues is vital for retain­ment as well. This DNA lies at the heart of your employer brand.

2. Not every com­pany is Apple or Red­bull
Ama­zon, Apple, Red­bull, Google — who would not want to work for them? But only rarely is a company’s brand strong enough to make peo­ple start their careers there because of its famous prod­uct or ser­vice. Most com­pa­nies need a care­fully and truth­fully crafted employer brand to attract, recruit and retain the right peo­ple. That is why an employer brand needs its very own approach and has its very own dynamics.

03. Retain­ing good employ­ees is essen­tial
The only way to recruit and retain the right peo­ple is by align­ing your exter­nal and inter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tion efforts. A suc­cess­ful employer brand is truth­ful: it real­is­ti­cally con­veys the way employ­ers and can­di­dates expe­ri­ence the com­pany, but does so in a cre­ative way that speaks to the imag­i­na­tion. It’s all about mak­ing the right promises — and then keep­ing them. That is why employer brand­ing helps align­ing man­age­ment, mar­ket­ing, HR and business.

4. Tal­ent ‘shops’ for employ­ers
As more employ­ers fish in the same tal­ent pond, tal­ent itself looks around before decid­ing where to work, more than ever. It Googles com­pa­nies, asks friends for opin­ions and expe­ri­ences with employ­ers, peo­ple share work­ing expe­ri­ences eas­ily — offline and online. This means you have to be ‘found’ as an employer with your side of the story: employer brand­ing ensures your employer value propo­si­tion (EVP) is authen­ti­cally and evenly com­mu­ni­cated and found across all chan­nels.

5. It makes recruit­ment more effi­cient
As can­di­dates become increas­ingly aware of who you are as an employer, recruit­ment becomes more effi­cient and cost-effective in time. You’ll ben­e­fit from a larger can­di­date pool, employ­ees are more likely to become ambas­sadors which causes employee engage­ment and refer­rals to increase. It will take less time and effort to hire the right can­di­dates and you’ll spend less time deal­ing with non-matching profiles.

Filed under: B2B, Branding, Employer Branding   |  34 Comments