Richard Mosley, executive VP of employer brand strategy at TMP Worldwide and a leading pioneer of ‘employer branding’ discusses why the nuances of the subject have changed ever since the term was coined
Viren Naidu
Since the inception of ‘employer branding’, how has the phenomenon evolved?
It has evolved significantly since it first emerged as a recognisable term in the early 1990s. For many years, it was largely restricted to recruitment advertising. To me, it meant the opportunity and adventure of bringing marketing and HR closer together through the newly emerging discipline of employer brand management. Over time, this consistent management of the company’s employer brand image has extended well beyond paid advertising to a much wider range of communication content. It now includes the way organisations present themselves on their career sites and social pages, at career fairs and campus visits. Developing a strong employer brand may require compelling communication, but it ultimately depends on the quality of the employment experience. This means that leading companies pay as much attention to ensuring their people management practices align with their employer brand proposition as their recruitment marketing. In summary, employer branding has evolved from a communication focused discipline into a more holistic management tool for developing a consistent, positive and distinctive employment experience. In many respects, companies pay too little regard to the longer term attention required to building a strong employer brand image. Most leading companies need to recognise that building a strong employer brand is not just a question of feeling good about your external reputation; it is a vital investment in long-term business performance too.
How can companies develop THEIr employer brands throughout the employee lifecycle?
Companies should draw on the discipline applied to customer experience management where every ‘touch-point’ with the brand is designed and delivered to ensure a consistently positive and distinctive brand experience. This same thinking can be applied to the employee lifecycle. If you want to engage your employees in the same way you engage your customers, you need to configure your people management processes and practices to ensure they reinforce your employer brand promises. But the quickest way to destroy your employer brand is to overpromise and under-deliver. Given the ease with which employees can share your inside story, finding the gap between your promises and the real experience are seldom more than a click or two away.
Can employer branding activities be monitored? How can companies understand what their actual employer brand is?
There are many ways you can monitor the effectiveness of your external recruitment marketing through tracking the volume and quality of applications your activities have generated. You can monitor the effectiveness of your candidate and on-boarding activities by conducting applicant and new joiner surveys. You can also measure the consistency with which you are delivering your desired employer brand experience by incorporating questions relating to each of your ‘promises’ in employee surveys. The answer to these questions determines what your ‘actual’ employer brand is, because your ‘actual’ brand is defined by how people experience it. The degree to which your employer brand reputation reflects your ‘actual’ brand will depend on the quality and impact of your external communication, and increasingly, the degree to which your employees share positive views of your company through social media.
Since the inception of ‘employer branding’, how has the phenomenon evolved?
It has evolved significantly since it first emerged as a recognisable term in the early 1990s. For many years, it was largely restricted to recruitment advertising. To me, it meant the opportunity and adventure of bringing marketing and HR closer together through the newly emerging discipline of employer brand management. Over time, this consistent management of the company’s employer brand image has extended well beyond paid advertising to a much wider range of communication content. It now includes the way organisations present themselves on their career sites and social pages, at career fairs and campus visits. Developing a strong employer brand may require compelling communication, but it ultimately depends on the quality of the employment experience. This means that leading companies pay as much attention to ensuring their people management practices align with their employer brand proposition as their recruitment marketing. In summary, employer branding has evolved from a communication focused discipline into a more holistic management tool for developing a consistent, positive and distinctive employment experience. In many respects, companies pay too little regard to the longer term attention required to building a strong employer brand image. Most leading companies need to recognise that building a strong employer brand is not just a question of feeling good about your external reputation; it is a vital investment in long-term business performance too.
How can companies develop THEIr employer brands throughout the employee lifecycle?
Companies should draw on the discipline applied to customer experience management where every ‘touch-point’ with the brand is designed and delivered to ensure a consistently positive and distinctive brand experience. This same thinking can be applied to the employee lifecycle. If you want to engage your employees in the same way you engage your customers, you need to configure your people management processes and practices to ensure they reinforce your employer brand promises. But the quickest way to destroy your employer brand is to overpromise and under-deliver. Given the ease with which employees can share your inside story, finding the gap between your promises and the real experience are seldom more than a click or two away.
Can employer branding activities be monitored? How can companies understand what their actual employer brand is?
There are many ways you can monitor the effectiveness of your external recruitment marketing through tracking the volume and quality of applications your activities have generated. You can monitor the effectiveness of your candidate and on-boarding activities by conducting applicant and new joiner surveys. You can also measure the consistency with which you are delivering your desired employer brand experience by incorporating questions relating to each of your ‘promises’ in employee surveys. The answer to these questions determines what your ‘actual’ employer brand is, because your ‘actual’ brand is defined by how people experience it. The degree to which your employer brand reputation reflects your ‘actual’ brand will depend on the quality and impact of your external communication, and increasingly, the degree to which your employees share positive views of your company through social media.
Source:http://www.timesascent.com/hr-zone/Employer-branding-revamped/152734
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