There is a common misconception about employer branding which is proliferated on the internet. I can’t tell you how many articles or blogs I happen upon which focus solely on the marketing side of employer branding. It might be framed from various points of view, but in the end it comes down to marketing to prospective talent.
Many organizations begin their employer branding journey in order to address recruitment challenges. Talent attraction is a pressing issue for nearly all organizations today; recruitment is understandably a major pain point. Here’s the thing – the employer branding process does not begin and end with talent attraction. That is only one piece of a much larger solution. “Would-be” employer branding projects attempting to produce talent attraction miracles may offer token results, but the conversions achieved will be fleeting.
In order to generate long term impact on recruitment metrics through employer branding, we need to take a big step back to consider the broader people and culture strategy for the organization.
A Holistic Business Strategy
Building a high performing workplace with a distinctive corporate culture demands a comprehensive strategy which aligns with the overall business plan. A holistic approach to employer branding combines critical organizational factors that effectively come together to produce value.
The critical people and culture points impacted through holistic employer branding are important for two critical reasons:
- Great employer brands are rooted in emotion and real life experiences.
- Your people are ultimately the ones telling your employer brand story (not your marketing team!)
Employer branding strategy needs to begin with the foundational work to uncover the emotions and experiences of your employees in order to begin the journey to becoming a world class employer brand. Only then can we begin to discuss how to effectively foster connections with your people in order to grow the business and increase market share.
Clearly articulating your employer brand story does far more than attract talent. When done right, we can harness your employer brand to drive behaviour, improve productivity and effectively reward and recognize employees to achieve long term objectives. Actively developing a shared sense of purpose, nurturing meaningful relationships with employees and strengthening workplace culture are significant components that cannot be set aside if your employer brand journey is to yield results.
Communicating and amplifying your employer brand is a critical step in the process, but don’t trip over the preliminary work. Your employer brand will be richer, more meaningful and produce more value for your organization standalone recruitment initiatives.