Employer branding: build from within

Millennial workers are reshaping the job market

Recent stats [1] show some interesting data that says most job seekers will research a company’s reputation before applying for a job opening and that they would consider changing jobs if offered a role with a company with an excellent corporate reputation. Stats also show that a strong employer brand can reduce turnover by 28%, cost per hire by 50% and receive 50% more qualified applicants. It reduces time to hire and increases by three times the likelihood of making a quality hire. These seem like some pretty strong arguments to support any companies’ investment in employer branding. What does that really mean?

Employer brand can be described as the “employer’s reputation as a place to work and their employee value proposition.” [2] Every company has a set of conditions to present people applying for a job, including specific things like the salary and working hours. But it must also include the intangible aspects that ultimately are what make every workday bearable (or not!) and future professional perspectives exciting (or not!).

That being said, let’s consider that the bulk of the working force today are the Millennials. And who are these people? They were born between 1981 and 1996 and are now between 25 to 40 years old. They’ve endured some of the most challenging times during late 20th-century and first decades of the 21st-century. From a global financial meltdown to successive economic crises, a pandemic and dramatically concerning climate changes, this is a resilient generation with tough skin and clear vision. When compared to the previous generation, the Baby Boomers, Millennials are more educated, more inclusive, more flexible and more prone to change whenever their basic satisfaction conditions are not met.

If a company wants to attract fresh talent from the Millennial people pool, there is one fundamental aspect which is regarded by these job seekers nowadays – authenticity. Authenticity has become a buzz word in the branding world, but what does it exactly mean in this context? Authenticity here is not a personality trait like being bold or dynamic. An employer brand feels authentic when it practices what it preaches. Being rooted in a clear organizational purpose and set of values and proving it daily with a coherent structure and specific actions, will attract job prospects who not only share those fundamental beliefs but who also see it happening transparently. In fact, transparency walks hand in hand with authenticity. Without the first, the second cannot be.

Inauthentic employers failing to deliver promises on the workplace are not only a disappointment to their workers, but they also grow a reputation that puts them at a disadvantage in the race to fill vacancies. Inauthenticity may be the fuel to a destructive chain of events: it increases the risk of high employee attrition which in turn damages coworker morale, disrupting customer relationships, and inhibiting the companies’ ability to attract new talent.

An employer branding strategy is not built nor widely spread overnight. It thrives upon a consistent brand identity that matches an authentic corporate behaviour and HR policies. Strong company culture is at the basis of a captivating employer reputation which must be communicated through creative and engaging content. Its audience is not only job prospects but also its working force. The best analysis insights an organisation can have are born within itself, coming from its workers. Being humble enough to listen to their assessment and acting on the inconsistencies is a sure way to develop brand advocacy. Tracking weaknesses and optimising them is key to a more committed, focused and happy staff.

Therefore any business must consider the needs and wants of Millennials when designing the communication strategy of their company culture. The need to engage with this generation is of increasing importance for all employers if the organisation wants to stand out in a candidate-driven market. According to Gallup research about job preferences, attitudes and goals [3], Millennials can be defined as people who don’t just work for a paycheque, they’re really looking for a purpose in what they do, a way of life and a way of contributing to the development of the world. In that sense, brands that assume they responsibility towards social and environmental issues will attract the purpose-driven millennial workers wishing to significantly impact the world.

In terms of sociability, a collaborative environment will be much more attractive than a competitive one as this may have an indirect positive impact in the work-life balance – flexibility means autonomy and freedom. Millennials are not pursuing job satisfaction per se, they are pursuing development, and that’s why they rather look for mentors when applying for jobs, instead of bosses. People from whom they can learn in a positive environment that fosters healthy relationships by engaging in stimulating conversations, opinions exchange and a general sense of respect for all individuals.

When a brand can implement these somehow abstract goals into significant working conditions, they will have the upper-hand in the recruitment battle. Employers that respect their workers and provide them with what they need to be successful in both their professional and personal lives will end up with happy, more productive employees and an employer branding that displays a desirable place for the majority of job seekers.

Being transparent also means that the brand must be willing to assess the gap between what it thinks about itself and what workers feel and experience in reality. This exercise may mean interviewing both new hires as well as old employees and quitters. Externally, brands should engage in social listening and pay close attention to online reviews that employees have written about the company, outlining the positive and negative claims about the employees’ experience, assess feedbacks and understand what employees think could be key to better promote the company culture externally.

In fact, when talking about employer branding, the best referral to a company is when workers act as ambassadors of their employee value proposition. To achieve it, a brand must design a well-structured HR policy and consistently help workers to achieve individual goals in a positive and encouraging environment. It will remind them why they joined, strengthen their commitment to stay, and prompt them to refer others to the company. The best way to turn employees into advocates is to follow through on promises made.

A projected horizon of self-development, continuous learning and career progress instils a sense of purpose and room to grow. Besides tangible aspects like wage and benefits, the aspirational elements in any employer branding strategy are the collection of forward-looking goals which the brand wishes to achieve counting on the engagement of new prospect employees.

One of the reasons why employer branding should not be HR business only is because it cannot be disconnected from the corporate brand and the core drivers of the company. Both hard and soft skills as well as personal motivations are fundamental aspects that should framework the desired worker profile. Only then should the company outline the communication contents, tone and channels to efficiently reach and attract the right talents, measuring the effectiveness of the strategy and adjusting when needed.

Strengthening the chances of attracting the right hires may start with an honest evaluation of the existing reputation. When a brand nurtures the company culture, it should shine through its way of being and it should be perceived in communication. If not, then maybe the brand must work to refine the message and create appropriate content to reach the desired prospect profile. Displaying the employer value proposition means demonstrating what the brand can give job candidates that no-one else can. Ultimately building a brand advocacy movement within the company ranks means committing to listening to the working staff to continually smooth rough edges.

The foundation stone of any employer branding is an authentic identity, and there are different tools to use when strategising it. One of them is promoting important company values using storytelling techniques. People will easily relate to a brand they can wrap their minds around, explore its features and discover its life. Establishing an empathetic relationship with the prospects requires the use of different media to make sure it goes beyond standard presentation and addresses common core values. For instance, giving people a behind-the-scenes peek showing off what it’s like to work for the brand with video or giving an employee control over the brand’s social media accounts for a day, with plenty of video and photo content of the experiences around the office. These contents are even more effective if displayed on the right channels, so choose wisely.

Prospect employees and potencial customers: who is who?

We can easily understand the similarities between committing to the employer brand and the consumer brand proposals as they both require that the brand keeps its promises. An authentic brand will see its employer brand strategy and its consumer brand strategy feed each other because a strong employer brand creates happier workers who are more likely to go that extra mile for the customers while, at the same time, today’s socially-conscious clients are more likely to buy from companies who put their workers’ wellbeing as a top priority.

So we can say that branding is no longer a strategy reserved entirely for attracting customers and building loyalty. Today’s information technologies have become sources of instant reviews about the way that brands interact and engage with their employees and job prospects are much more interested in applying to companies who have positive online reputations. To the companies, on the other hand, investing in a clear employer branding could mean less money spent on recruiting new staff. Whatever companies do to define and shape the tactics to tackle an employer brand strategy, it will always require them to first figure out who they truly are as a brand in order to emanate a transparent employer value proposition and consistently commit to it over time.