Why Employment Branding is Important to Talent Management

Employment branding is a key ingredient to talent acquisition in today’s world.

Your brand embodies your organization’s personality. It makes you the authority or leading solution to a problem. Effective branding will make top talent want to be part of that solution. This week we begin a four-part series focusing on employment branding. We will make a case for a compelling employer brand, how to create one, and finally how to effectively share your branding message.

These days, talent acquisition is looking more and more like marketing.

• To gain a competitive advantage, organizations need to adopt a long-term employment branding focus.
• According to a 2014 Employer Branding Survey, 9 out of 10 small companies feel that branding works.
• Unfortunately, employer branding is largely misunderstood. It is not advertising, marketing or public relations. What is it?

One of the best definitions of employer branding comes from Wikipedia. “Employer brand denotes an organization’s reputation as an employer.”

• Essentially, the employer brand is the company’s lifestyle.
• This lifestyle is the foundation for advertising, marketing, public relations and talent management.

Why should a company worry about employment branding?

• Organizations with a successful employment branding strategy understand that customers are potential employees.
• The decision to apply to a specific company can be based upon how that company’s brand performs.
• According to a survey by Reputations Corporation, 80 percent of employees will accept less pay to work with a company with an excellent reputation.
• Organizations with successful employment brands also understand that their team members are brand ambassadors.
• Their employees embody the brand through exceptional customer service.
• If that company fails to share how the employee makes an impact on the brand, the employment brand as a whole will fail.

Branding does not need to be expensive.

The brand is not a quick fix to talent acquisition, but rather a long-term investment in talent management.

The same employer brand survey referenced earlier shows that 45% of small companies spent $5000 or less, while large companies spent between $120,000 and $250,000.

Many organizations roll this project into a larger marketing campaign.

Creating or refreshing an employment brand can be done without busting the budget.

Essentially, the employer brand and company reputation go hand-in-hand.