Employer Branding – Insight & Knowledge is the Key
Every organisation has an employer brand. The question is, ‘is it the one your organisation wants and does it accurately reflect the reality of working for your organisation?’
To be successful, organisations must aim to build an authentic employer brand where the external and internal brand messages link to the employment experience. Shaping these positive perceptions will take time and will require more work than simply jazzing up recruitment marketing initiatives.
If you have made the decision that your employer brand is a strategic initiative and more than just recruitment advertising and catchy statements on your career website, then we recommend you consider a framework that will strategically build a sustainable employer brand position. A recommended approach includes the following five phases:
- Audit & Analysis – define your organisation’s people strategy and understand current internal and external perceptions of your organisation as an employer.
- EVP Strategy Development – developing your unique EVP statements and employer brand positioning.
- Testing & Validation – testing and validating your proposed employer brand across divisions, regions, countries.
- Alignment & Communication – closing the gaps between strategy and organisational reality and internal then external communication rollout.
- Management & Metrics – set up internal and external metrics to track improvements and alignment with strategy.
The world’s most powerful brands are built on insight and knowledge – and as such, the Audit & Analysis or research and data gathering phase of the process is critical in determining whether your employer brand will be compelling and successful. Understanding the explicit needs and aspirations of your employees is a good starting point, but these need to be interpreted within the current organisational and labour market context.
Why is Audit & Analysis Important?
Many management teams believe they already understand their employees. Some organisations may already conduct employee surveys to measure employee sentiment and the prevailing mood within the organisation. However, a key component of the Audit and Analysis phase is to really understand the unique drivers of engagement and commitment within your organisation, how this compares to the needs and aspirations of your target candidates and how competitive your overall employment value proposition is, relative to that offered by competing organisations.
Without this strategic investigation, you risk developing an employer brand that is not competitive and will not effectively attract and engage the talent you require for successful operation.
Typical Key Findings
The Audit and Analysis findings will generally diagnose gaps between perceived and current ‘reality’ i.e. the gap between what managers and leadership think and actual employee experience. If the aim is to create an ‘authentic’ employer brand then a compelling employment value proposition (EVP) needs to be developed and the gaps closed.
Armed with key internal and external insights, an organisation now has the key information required to develop a unique and competitive EVP that can be owned by the organisation.
Where are your Information Gaps?
Review the following questions to identify your Employer Brand information gaps:
- How will a stronger employer brand support your organisation’s operational strategy?
- How will a stronger employer brand support your organisation’s people strategy?
- What do employees currently regard as particularly characteristic of and distinctive about your organisation?
- Do your people have a strong sense of the organisation’s purpose and values and how much of a gap is there between stated ideology and what people actually experience?
- How highly do your employees rate your work environment and current HR processes i.e. learning and development, quality of management, internal communications, work-life-balance policies etc?
- How would your employees describe the key benefits (functional and emotional) if working with your organisation?
- Why do your employees choose to work for your organisation?
- Are your people policies in line with current / future labour market trends?
- What are the held labour market perceptions of your organisation, as a place to work for?
- What is your current Employment Value Proposition and is this sustainable for the future?
Employer Branding – Defining your EVP : : The Right Group Articles says:
[...] you have completed a thorough Audit and Analysis process as discussed here then you should have an understanding of the [...]
September 24th, 2009 at 10:55 am