By John Viktorin and Lee Downs
If you could work at any organization in the world, who would you join and why?
This is not just a theoretical question but a practical one for HR leaders because your employees and potential employees are thinking this all the time.
When individuals think about the kinds of organizations that have the most to offer them, the ones with the clearest, strongest and most positive employment brands will first come to mind.
So, is your workplace one of these organizations?
The employment brand
An employment brand is a multifaceted and highly visible picture of all of the reasons why your organization is a great place to work and contains a clear employee value proposition that answers the question: “Why work here?” It uses stories, not just facts, to emotionally connect with potential employees and is driven by strong communications both internally and externally.
In short, your employment brand fosters your reputation as an employer of choice.
An employment brand is similar to your organization’s corporate brand, but it’s focused to the employment market. Your employment brand gets you actively thinking about marketing your organizational advantages to current and potential employees.
But your employment brand needs to be real. It can’t be a management-spouted platitude about the organization packaged in the hope that employees and potential employees hear it and believe it. Your employment brand must be reflected in the actions and behaviours of everyone in the entire organization.
Creating an authentic employment brand
Both current and potential employees need to relate to your employment brand at two levels: the tangible benefits and the emotional benefits of working at your organization.
Both groups want the same things: interesting and challenging work, a well-managed organization with a culture and values they believe in, career advancement opportunities and senior managers committed to their success. They also want to be heard and feel they have an impact on important decisions.
Does your current employment brand meet these needs?
Aligning your organizational brands
To illustrate how to align your corporate and employer brands, we’ll use an example from HRPA’s employment brand PD in a Box workshop. A Toronto-based travel adventure company specializing in small-group adventures sources its employees from its client list. By targeting their clients, they created brand ambassadors and have secured the firm’s image in both the consumer and employment marketplace.
You can also think of this overlap as your organization’s total brand experience.
By having a strong connection between your organization’s corporate brand and employment brand, the organization’s brand becomes self-sustaining. Everyone interested in your organization wants to buy from you and work for you.
HR and the employment brand
Although employment branding is a combination of marketing, communications and strategic initiatives, no one understands attraction and retention as well as HR. HR’s leadership can help drive the organization’s employment brand and it’s the organization’s employees that become the most vocal representatives of the employment brand when they feel supported and are engaged.
HR also understands that current talent management challenges—a shrinking workforce, aging boomers, retaining high-performing employees—will continuein the future. A recent HRPA study of corporate thought leaders found that 50 per cent of organizations have significant problems attracting and retaining talent but only 33 per cent are engaged in employment branding.
Leading your employment brand
HRPA’s employment brand PD in a Box workshop walks you through the eight steps to building and managing your organization’s employment brand. You will develop an employee value proposition and build the conduits to communicate and manage your employment brand.
HR needs to take ownership of your organization’s employment brand as its strategic role continues to expand. Thinking about your employment brand today means your organization will be ready for a future where demographic trends make the sourcing and retention of employees increasingly difficult.
Lee Downs and John Viktorin are partners in Amoeba Communications a consulting firm that creates communications that engage people and drive performance. They are the go-to team for leaders seeking high impact, high value solutions in four areas: organizational communications, change management, HR communications and leadership communications. You can reach Lee and John at www.engagecanada.com or by calling 416-535-3350.
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