Be Strategic with your Employer Brand

Employer branding equals emotional connection between employees and the organization they work for. Emotion is often left out of the business strategy, but in fact, there is a direct link between how connected employees feel to the organization and their level of engagement. 

The talent market is fast evolving and never has current and future talent been more important to business success. Today we see organizations talking about having a “top talent” focus. We also see the evolution of new titles like the “Chief Talent Officer”. It is clear that attracting and retaining the right talent is becoming a key organizational capability.  We are moving away fast from a short term recruitment focus to a long term employer branding focus.

 Companies that take a long term approach to developing their employer brands in a direction that is aligned with long term business needs will gain a competitive advantage.

Here are a few steps they are taking to get it done: 
 
1. Understand the business needs
Without fully understanding the long term business needs, employer branding activities may be misdirected. It is about understanding the type of competences the organization needs to deliver on the business plan.

2. Understand your target audience
Based on the business needs and the critical competences, this step is all about defining the weight between current and future talent, i.e. how many resources should we spend on attracting new talent versus retaining and developing current talent; and about defining the main and secondary external target groups that we need to reach. After defining the main and secondary external and internal target groups, we need to fully understand them. Based on research, one should understand what is attractive to them and where we can find these target groups. We should also know their current perception of our organization as an employer and which stage of the decision process they are in. The deeper the understanding, the more effective the communication will be.

3. Optimize the Employer Value Proposition
An Employer Value Proposition should be the foundation for all external and internal communication with talent. Optimizing it means we ensure it includes attributes and communication themes that are attractive, true internally, credible, sustainable and which allow for differentiation in the long term.

4. Define organizational metrics and set objectives
We now know what is important to our business and we have understood the target groups. It is time to find ways to measure our impact and to set objectives. By selecting the right KPIs that measure, for example, our attractiveness and brand association, we can set annual goals which, when met, mean that we are moving our brand in a direction that is fully aligned with our business needs.

5.. Define an optimal communication mix
Through our research we know which stage of the decision process our target groups are in and we should therefore be able to define if our main focus should be on driving awareness, consideration or desire. This fundamental knowledge will allow us to optimize our selection of communication channels and will lead to the best possible ROI.

6. Create annual plan
We now have many of the components in place to create our annual employer branding plan. By including the business needs, the target group’s definition and insights, the communication mix, the objectives, the main strategies and the metrics, the plan becomes very solid. To this we should only add the activities plan, i.e. which activities we do when.

7. Develop communication ideas
Based on the selected communication channels, we now need to develop communication ideas that will create the greatest possible impact on the target groups as well as set us apart from the competition. These communication ideas and concepts should of course be tested with the target groups before being executed.

8. Execute and follow-up
With the plan and communication ideas in place it is now time to execute and continuously follow up. Using the right metrics and by regularly updating them against the objectives, one will be able to correct and optimize when needed, and ultimately to deliver on the company’s business needs.