Employer Branding International, has released their 2014 Global trends report, looking at how companies around the world view employer branding initiatives. We thought we would share a few of the report highlights.
Branding is not a single-department initiative.
Employer branding is moving out from the HR-only umbrella at a slow but steady rate. Teams are made up of marketing, communications and HR, working together. These multi-disciplinary teams managing employer branding initiatives are on the rise around the world.
Branding is a social thing.
The top two channels for communicating the employer brand were Social Media and the Careers Website. This helps drive home the importance of developing a social media strategy and integrating your employer branding into that strategy. It’s time to look at your website from your candidates’ perspective.
Budget is the main challenge.
In the 2014 survey, the top challenge many organizations face in building their strategy is budget. There are many low cost initiatives companies can start with, but a successful branding initiative needs buy in at the top. The general lack of awareness can contribute to an unwillingness to invest. A real opportunity exists for leaders to become better informed on the increased costs of not having a strategy – like increased turnover, higher time to hire or lower quality of hire, or a disengaged workforce.
Benefits of Branding Initiatives.
There is no common measurement of success in Employer Branding, which makes sense, since each company is different. Some of the benefits of Employer Branding initiatives commonly noted in this year’s survey included increased employee engagement and ease in attracting candidates, which is associated with lower recruiting costs and higher retention rates.
The impact of Employer Branding is not fully recognized.
The 2014 survey indicates that over 30% of companies are planning on increasing the resources they are directing towards branding initiatives in the next year. The gap is that there is only a slight increase in the number of organizations that reported having a clearly defined brand strategy. The overall number, however, at 17% is still very low. This indicates that there is still a lot of work to be done to help organizations realize the importance of creating an integrated, comprehensive plan and the huge impact this strategy can have on their people, their customers, and their bottom line.