Employer branding

Minchington (2005) defines your employer brand as “the image of your organization as a ‘great place to work’ in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other key stakeholders).”
Minchington (2005) says, "Employer branding is therefore concerned with the attraction, engagement and retention initiatives targeted at enhancing a company's employer brand."
Strong employer brands have an employee value proposition ("EVPs") which is communicated in company actions and behaviours and evoke both emotive (e.g. I feel good about working here) and rational benefits (this organisation cares about my career development) for current and prospective employees. These EVPs reflect the image the organisations wants to portray to its target audience. A company’s employer brand is reflected in the actions and behaviours of leaders and is affected by company policies, procedures, and practices.
Sullivan (2004) defines employer branding as "a targeted, long-term strategy to manage the awareness and perceptions of employees, potential employees, and related stakeholders with regards to a particular firm." Ambler and Barrow (1996) define employer brand in terms of the benefits it conveys on employees. In other words,the employer brand represents the array of economic, functional and psychological benefits that an employee might receive as a result of joining an organization. Just as product brands convey an image to customers, an employer brand conveys an organizational image to potential and current employees. In that regard, the employer brand presents a "value proposition" about what people might receive as a result of working for a particular employer (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004).
Sartain and Schumann (2006) defined employer brand a: "how a business builds and packages its identity, from its origins and values, what it promises to deliver to emotionally connect employees so that they in turn deliver what a business promises to customers."
Employer branding is predicated on the assumption that human capital brings value to a firm (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004). It is supported by the resource-based view proposed by Barney (1991), that possession of resources that are rare, valuable, non-substitutable and difficult to imitate create competitive advantage for the company. Through the creation of a valuable employer brand, employers might attain competitive advantage.
To build the employer brand, an organization must work from the inside out, with a consistent substance, voice, and authenticity throughout the employment relationship. Sartain and Schumann believe that the employer branding may be the most powerful tool a business can use to emotionally engage employees.
In 2009, Sartain and Schumann expanded their discussion of employer branding to include branding for talent. To brand for talent is to market an organization as a place to work to create demand--as a magnet for talent-- to attract, retain, and engage the right people to do the right work at the right time with the right results. The impact is a company as famous for talent as for its products and services.
There is ample evidence that employer branding and employee engagement, when linked, can have significant efficiency and commercial impact -- Gallup and others provide data on the impact on Earnings Per Share, Total Shareholder Return, employee retention, etc.
According to the Wall Street Journal (March 23, 2009) “Companies have long divided consumers into segments. They should do the same with potential-and current workers.” Ms. Lara Maroko and Dr. Mark D. Uncles recommend that employers use the same tools and techniques employed to market to segments of consumers to reach out to potential and current workers. They argue that it is more profitable to treat certain groups of workers and potential workers differently based on a segmented marketing approach. The academics reference research that suggests that there are five ways to think about consumer differentiation: potential profitability, product feature preferences, reference groups, bargaining power, and choice barriers.
Schumann and Sartain in “Brand for Talent” state that segmentation is at the core of any effective marketing program. The talent brand can move beyond generic messaging to express what will truly make the difference to a worker. For some, the brand may instigate a choice and for others reinforce a choice. But segmentation doesn’t mean creating a separate talent brand for each segment. It simply means adapting the talent brand message for each segment based on insight into audience needs and preferences.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu