• Business
    • Case Studies
    • Companies
    • Growth
    • Strategy
  • Functional
    • Finance
    • HR
    • Marketing
    • Science & Tech
  • Leadership
    • Be a Leader
    • Books
    • LDR Show
    • Leadership Nuggets
    • Movie Wisdom
    • Soundbytes
    • Women & Leadership
  • Personal
    • Character
    • Values
    • Competence
  • Soundbytes
  • Free E-mag
  • Videos
  • About Us
Leaderonomics.com
Leaderonomics.com
  • Business
    • Case Studies
      Embracing Digital To Power Growth

      Embracing Digital To Power Growth

      Malaysia: Celebrating A Nation's History

      Malaysia: Celebrating A Nation's History

      Lessons from 3M: Why Investing In R&D Is Your Ticket To Success

      Lessons from 3M: Why Investing In R&D Is Your Ticket To Success

      Developing Support Systems For Occupational Stress: A Critical Need

      Developing Support Systems For Occupational Stress: A Critical Need

    • Companies
      Simple Mindset Changes To Evolve As A Leader

      Simple Mindset Changes To Evolve As A Leader

      6 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Be Grateful for in 2019

      6 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Be Grateful for in 2019

      Leading The 200-Year-Old Postal Service In The 21st Century

      Leading The 200-Year-Old Postal Service In The 21st Century

      Changing The Outlook of Learning

      Changing The Outlook of Learning

    • Growth
      Embracing Digital To Power Growth

      Embracing Digital To Power Growth

      Simple Mindset Changes To Evolve As A Leader

      Simple Mindset Changes To Evolve As A Leader

      Leadership Lessons From Madam Secretary

      Leadership Lessons From Madam Secretary

      The New World Of Work Workers & Workplaces

      The New World Of Work Workers & Workplaces

    • Strategy
      Embracing Change

      Embracing Change

      10 Communication Strategies For New Leaders

      10 Communication Strategies For New Leaders

      How To Build Winning Teams

      How To Build Winning Teams

      The 7 Critical Trends That Make Thought Leadership An Imperative For Any Business

      The 7 Critical Trends That Make Thought Leadership An Imperative For Any Business

  • Functional
    • Finance
      Investing, A Rather Boring Thing To Do

      Investing, A Rather Boring Thing To Do

      Financial Literacy: The Essentials Of A Leader

      Financial Literacy: The Essentials Of A Leader

      A Student's Dilemma: ACCA vs An Accounting Degree

      A Student's Dilemma: ACCA vs An Accounting Degree

      Finance A Must On The Path To CEO

      Finance A Must On The Path To CEO

    • HR
      When Should You Speak Up?

      When Should You Speak Up?

      Driving Value With Digital Transformation Initiatives

      Driving Value With Digital Transformation Initiatives

      10 Communication Strategies For New Leaders

      10 Communication Strategies For New Leaders

      Whistleblowing In Organisations

      Whistleblowing In Organisations

    • Marketing
    • Science & Tech
      How The Frog Virtual Learning Education Is Revolutionising Teaching And Learning

      How The Frog Virtual Learning Education Is Revolutionising Teaching And Learning

      The Latest Developments in the ICT Subsector in Malaysia

      The Latest Developments in the ICT Subsector in Malaysia

      Electrical And Electronics On The Next Level

      Electrical And Electronics On The Next Level

      Going Green Does Have Tangible Benefits

      Going Green Does Have Tangible Benefits

  • Leadership
    • Be a Leader
      Defining the Role of Senior Leadership

      Defining the Role of Senior Leadership

      Leadership Lessons from Ludwig van Beethoven

      Leadership Lessons from Ludwig van Beethoven

      Meaningful Communication: The Key To Solving Workplace Problems

      Meaningful Communication: The Key To Solving Workplace Problems

      Lessons From Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

      Lessons From Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

    • Books
      Why You Should Assess A Leader’s Capacity For Critical Thinking And Judgment

      Why You Should Assess A Leader’s Capacity For Critical Thinking And Judgment

      5 Skills You Need To Be A Great CEO

      5 Skills You Need To Be A Great CEO

      Be A Giver And A Taker

      Be A Giver And A Taker

      Are You Afraid Of Being An Original In A World Full Of Conformists?

      Are You Afraid Of Being An Original In A World Full Of Conformists?

    • LDR Show
      "You can be competitive without sacrificing your price", Says Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir

      "You can be competitive without sacrificing your price", Says Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir

      “I didn’t learn anything in the books about leadership or management", Says Tan Sri Azman Hashim

      “I didn’t learn anything in the books about leadership or management", Says Tan Sri Azman Hashim

      Attracting And Retaining Talent: Insights from Kimberlyn Lu

      Attracting And Retaining Talent: Insights from Kimberlyn Lu

      The Necessity of Change: Nuggets of Wisdom from Rejie Samuel

      The Necessity of Change: Nuggets of Wisdom from Rejie Samuel

    • Leadership Nuggets
      Leadership in Four Dimensions: Jonas Prising on Human Resources, Malaysia and Leadership

      Leadership in Four Dimensions: Jonas Prising on Human Resources, Malaysia and Leadership

      "Have Intentionality In Your Daily Life", says Kim Underhill

      "Have Intentionality In Your Daily Life", says Kim Underhill

      "Explorers Are Map Makers", Says Jana Stanfield

      "Explorers Are Map Makers", Says Jana Stanfield

      Leadership Nuggets: Worry Not When We Fail

      Leadership Nuggets: Worry Not When We Fail

    • Movie Wisdom
      Lessons From Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

      Lessons From Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

      Leadership Lessons From Madam Secretary

      Leadership Lessons From Madam Secretary

      Lessons From A 68-Year-Old Classic That Changed The Face Of Visual Storytelling

      Lessons From A 68-Year-Old Classic That Changed The Face Of Visual Storytelling

      Life Lessons From <i>Goodbye Christopher Robin</i>

      Life Lessons From Goodbye Christopher Robin

    • Soundbytes
      Developing A Vision For An Organisation

      Developing A Vision For An Organisation

      How Does Developing Our “Self” Lead To Purpose?

      How Does Developing Our “Self” Lead To Purpose?

      Finishing Our Race Well

      Finishing Our Race Well

      RYG: Leadership Lessons from Joan of Arc

      RYG: Leadership Lessons from Joan of Arc

    • Women & Leadership
      5 Lessons from the Life of Chetna Sinha

      5 Lessons from the Life of Chetna Sinha

      Lessons We Can Learn From Oprah Winfrey

      Lessons We Can Learn From Oprah Winfrey

      RYG: Leadership Lessons from Joan of Arc

      RYG: Leadership Lessons from Joan of Arc

      Leadership Lessons From Joan of Arc

      Leadership Lessons From Joan of Arc

  • Personal
    • Character
      How Hunger For Praise Hinders Success

      How Hunger For Praise Hinders Success

      The Difference Between Gifts And Bribes

      The Difference Between Gifts And Bribes

      Lessons From Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

      Lessons From Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

      Balancing Your Weekdays And Weekends

      Balancing Your Weekdays And Weekends

    • Values
      How Hunger For Praise Hinders Success

      How Hunger For Praise Hinders Success

      Defining the Role of Senior Leadership

      Defining the Role of Senior Leadership

      The Difference Between Gifts And Bribes

      The Difference Between Gifts And Bribes

      Living Out The Leaderonomics Core Values

      Living Out The Leaderonomics Core Values

    • Competence
      Balancing Your Weekdays And Weekends

      Balancing Your Weekdays And Weekends

      The Power of Storytelling in Achieving Authentic Leadership

      The Power of Storytelling in Achieving Authentic Leadership

      How To Create A Sense Of Agency In Your Young Ones

      How To Create A Sense Of Agency In Your Young Ones

      The Shocking Truth About Success

      The Shocking Truth About Success

  • Soundbytes
  • Free E-mag
  • Videos
  • About Us
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Youtube
    • Instagram
Home
Business
Strategy

To Attract The Best, You Have To Be The Best

November 13th, 2015 Business, Strategy

Share this article

Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest
To Attract The Best, You Have To Be The BestBusiness

LDR-PDF-download-110x110

The importance of employer branding

By SANDY CLARKE

In years gone by, graduates have been drilled in the importance of impressing would-be employers, well aware that qualifications just about get their names on interview shortlists.

In graduating with a UK media degree in 2005, 70,000 students joined the hunt in securing their first job, with the onus on each individual to convince employers within a highly competitive industry why they should be chosen.

A ‘new’ brand promise

Nowadays, the tables have turned. According to a guide on employer branding by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), candidates are now in the position of picking and choosing where they want to start their careers as “companies are struggling to attract, recruit, engage and retain talent for their organisations”.

The question has now been flipped on its head. Companies are no longer asking why prospective employees want to work for them; rather, they are now having to provide a list of reasons why they should be the company that’s chosen above all others.

So what is employer branding? The CIPD offers the suggestion that there is no exact definition, but provides the following as a guide for companies to consider when setting out their qualities:

“An employer brand is a set of attributes and qualities – often intangible – that makes an organisation distinctive, promises a particular kind of employment experience, and appeals to those people who will thrive and perform to their best in its culture.”

What makes your company the No. 1 choice for top talent, and what are you doing to keep them happy to stay where they are?

These are important questions for any company to answer – particularly those in developing nations – but the statistics make for interesting reading.

In 2007, Robert Half – a UK HR (human resources) company – found that two-thirds of businesses across the world didn’t have an effective strategy in place to attract and retain high-performing employees.

The firm found that the UK fared better than other countries, with 44% of companies recognising the importance of employer branding – 69% of those with over 200 employees having a formalised branding strategy in place, compared with just 23% of companies with fewer than 50 employees.

According to managing director David Jones: “In today’s marketplace where skilled candidates are such a precious commodity, employers need to look carefully at the image of their organisation and what they would like to represent both internally to existing members of staff and externally to potential new employees.”

Candidates can now afford to be selective in who they choose to work for and can look more closely at an organisations’ culture, company image and values that are aligned with their own before making a decision to join.

With candidates now able to be selective about who they choose to work for, it is now more important than ever to cultivate a well-rounded employer branding strategy to help ensure the image of your company is precisely as you wish it to be and that prospective employees will feel that yours is the company that they should be working for.

It is also worth keeping in mind that, just as with any personal image and reputation, your business branding already exists – people have thoughts on who you are, what you do, and what you stand for. It makes sense to have a plan in place to ensure that what’s out there is positive and robust.

Changing priorities

Last year, the jobs website Glassdoor listed the top 25 companies to work for in the UK, based on employee insight and feedback given over 12 months.

At the top of the list – predictably – was Google, due to its “cool culture” and level of trust afforded to its employees.

As one employee puts it: “I can choose what projects I want to work on, and how I want to solve things. I have the ability to make changes that have a huge impact on my team.”

It has been noted that salary is no longer the driving force behind job satisfaction. There is now much more emphasis on factors such as meaning, value and purpose.

Employees want to feel that their work is making a contribution and making a positive impact on the overall company aims. They want to know that the part they play in helping the company move forward is substantial and valuable.

By placing trust in its employees, Google sends a clear message:

We believe in you and we know that you will do a great job.

Above all else, effective employer branding lets people know they are worth something, and that they are the ones who drive success.

Second on the list is retail giant, John Lewis. One employee in Aberdeen, Scotland, praised the level of pay and described the role as “highly rewarding”. Other workers highlighted the annual bonus scheme and collaborative culture.

Third came Microsoft for its “competitive nature” and flexible working hours, while Accenture ranked fourth on the list, praised for its good salary, network opportunities and great colleagues.

Fifth on the list was Jaguar Land Rover, which, according to employees, is great at spotting potential in people and helping them advance in their career.

It is worth mentioning that, while money is no longer the “be all and end all” of job satisfaction, offering a good salary is something to consider when looking to attract high performers.

Ultimately, financial considerations are going to be an important factor for graduates and career changers when scouting firms. Therefore, it is worthwhile keeping this in mind when formulating an employer branding strategy.

Other factors

Unsurprisingly, in their paper Identifying Determinants of Employer Branding, Bhadra J. H. Arachchige and Alan Robertson found that students wanted to feel appreciated by management, that the environment they worked in was fun, and that they could feel good about what they were doing and who they were working for.

Conversely, factors such as working for a well-known company and the type of service or product offered by a company scored lower in terms of attractiveness – as did working in an “exciting environment”.

In talks I have delivered to students in colleges in Scotland, it appears to me that what young people look for most in a prospective employer is pretty much universal: they want to be valued and appreciated and they want their work to mean something.

Why? Because an employee’s efforts come from within.

If they get the feeling that management values their work, the employees themselves feel valued. Their self-esteem rises and their confidence is boosted.

As a result, they are more likely to feel loyal to those who express appreciation, which increases the chances of them staying put and growing with the company.

One employee, working for the mobile network Three in the UK, hits the nail on the head with regards to how employers should consider treating their staff.

“The management treats you as an equal rather than looking down on you. Lots of fun things happen around the office and at outside events.” Three came seventh in the Glassdoor list of top 25 places to work.

Passion behind the logic

It appears the message is simple; companies who invest in employees will nurture people who will invest back into their respective jobs.

When it’s considered that employees really make a difference to a company’s level of success, it comes as a no-brainer for employers to create a branding that will hook the best talent and keep existing talent from looking elsewhere.

It is imperative that, in an increasingly competitive world, companies look to make themselves as attractive as possible.

The biggest names in business are investing heavily in employer branding, therefore the importance of having a strategy in place can’t be stressed enough. In our lifetimes, on average, we will spend over 70,000 hours at work. (Yes, I winced too.)

Members of Generation-Y, while not averse to being achievement-orientated, are much more open to sacrificing career advancement in order to achieve work-life balance.

In generations past, employment was viewed as being much nobler, and a good secure job was the secret to ensure a long and happy life.

Now, graduates in America won’t think twice about quitting a job they don’t enjoy for the sake of going on a road trip.

Meanwhile, many parents in the UK – having worked very hard for the best part of 30 years – are sending a message to their kids that happiness is much more important than anything else.

As my own mother would often tell me, “You spend a long time in your job – if you find yourself dreading going into the office each morning, that’s a lot of time wasted.”

In the UK, the culture is such that young graduates aren’t afraid to question authority and the way things are done, which is the likely reason behind the fact that companies in the UK lead the way on employer branding.

HR teams realise that, while the balance of power hasn’t completely shifted from employer to employee, there has been a considerable shift nevertheless.

Any company looking to attract and retain the best employees should know that it is in their interests to ensure that the interests of employees are well looked after.

Good employees are hard to come by, to say nothing of the best employees. If you’re the head of a company and have yet to put together an employer branding strategy, now would be a great time to start – particularly if your overall vision includes a desire to stay ahead of the competition.

Employer branding strategies

When asked to describe the process of their branding strategy, King’s College NHS (National Health Service) Trust management said:

“The basic stages of the project were to look at where we currently were, take professional advice upon some possible styles, consider the restraints, accept feedback from a wide range of staff, have management information as a baseline and then, as the brand developed, have a strategy and plan for future development.”

In discussing the employer branding of the British Library, recruitment strategy consultant Anne Spearman was acutely aware of the negative perceptions held by some with regards to seeing the British Library as a viable and exciting employer.

The library is engaged in a long-term strategy to challenge and change those perceptions through “improved understanding, effective marketing and advocacy among existing staff and stakeholders”.

Spearman is clear on the results of implementing an effective branding plan: “The HR team has created a world-class well-being offer that helps to retain staff at all levels and provides a new dimension for advocacy and satisfaction from existing employees.

“Organisation development is increasingly seen as part of the ‘great place to work’ message and all members of staff have wide access to training and development opportunities and personal development planning. These activities reinforce this message in building and maintaining employer reputation.”

Concluding thoughts

If companies wish to attract and retain the best talent, it is clear that robust employer branding must play a central role in the recruitment process and retention strategy.

Making an impression is no longer a one-way street – employers have to look to impress prospective and existing employees just as prospective employees are expected to shine during the job interview.

After all, it’s the quality of employees that drives and determines a company’s level of success, and therefore it pays for a business to show why it is the most attractive option.

In their journal article, Conceptualizing and Researching Employer Branding, Kristin Backhaus and Surinder Tikoo conclude: “Managers can use employer branding as an umbrella under which they can channel different employee recruitment and retention activities into a coordinated human resource strategy.

“Integrating recruitment, staffing, training and development and career management activities under one umbrella will have a substantially different effect than each of the processes would have alone.”

Sandy Clarke is a freelance writer who has a keen interest on leadership, organisational development, and employee engagement. He believes a strong employer brand is not only vital to attracting top talent, but key to retaining valuable employees. You can connect with Sandy on Twitter by following him @RealSClarke. For more Consulting Corner articles, click here. 
Sandy Clarke

Sandy is a freelance writer based in Malaysia, and previously enjoyed 10 years as a journalist and broadcaster in the UK. He has been fortunate to gain valuable insights into what makes us tick, which has deepened his interests in leadership, emotions, mindfulness, and human behaviour.

Share this :

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Tags
  • Branding
  • C-level
  • Consulting Corner
  • Development
  • Environmental Awareness
  • Fresh graduates
  • New entrants
  • PDF
  • Recruitment
  • Sandy Clarke
  • Strategy
Next article 4 Leadership Lessons From The Samurai
Previous article Fear Not, We’ve Got You Covered In DIODE Camps!

Related Posts

Should You Go Formal Or Casual At Work? Personal

Should You Go Formal Or Casual At Work?

Speed Up! Competence

Speed Up!

Recruitment Strategies For Sales Leaders (Part I) Functional

Recruitment Strategies For Sales Leaders (Part I)

How Much Impact Do You Really Have On The World Around You? Community

How Much Impact Do You Really Have On The World Around You?

Raise Your Game: Leadership And Love Leadership

Raise Your Game: Leadership And Love

Empowering The Intergenerational Workforce Business

Empowering The Intergenerational Workforce

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Bahasa Malaysia | English

Pick of The Week

Feb 4th 7:54 PM
Business

When Should You Speak Up?

Jan 31st 9:00 AM
Business

Embracing Digital To Power Growth

Jan 29th 9:00 AM
Functional

Driving Value With Digital Transformation Initiatives

NEW – On The Leaderonomics Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXY0Z5dJVSI
  • Business
  • Functional
  • Leadership
  • Personal
  • Soundbytes
  • Free E-Mag
  • Videos
  • About Us
  • Back to top

About Leaderonomics.com

Leaderonomics.com is a leadership portal owned by Leaderonomics, a social enterprise passionate about transforming nations through leadership development. Leaderonomics.com features leadership insights, trends, CEOs, thought leaders, HR leaders and inspiring real-life stories for your personal and professional development.

Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy      
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this website are those of the writers or the people they quoted and not necessarily those of Leaderonomics.
[Sitemap | RSS]
Copyright © 2010-2019 Leaderonomics Media Sdn Bhd. All rights reserved