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EMPLOYER BRANDING

Five building blocks to attract select and retain young talent through the recruitment strategy

Marijke Jansen 1 & Han van der Pool

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1 INTRODUCTION

The market for talent is competitive and will be even more competitive in the face of aging work-

forces, emerging markets, lower unemployment rates and an increasing demand for more skills,

knowledge, experience and education. McKinsey Quarterly already stated the problem in 1998.

“Companies are about to be engaged in a war for talent that will remain a defining characteristic of

their competitive landscape for decades to come. Yet most are ill prepared and even the best are

vulnerable” 3.

As a consequence of this ´war for talent´, a lot of companies are fishing in the same pond looking for

qualified professionals and starters. There is an ever growing importance for companies to become

attractive as an employer. How can they become a ´employer of choice´ for demanding talent at

today´s labour market? In other words, how can they make sure that talent people chooses to work for

their company and that they choose to stay, even when they are approached by others companies.

One of the best weapons in a competitive labor market is a strong employer brand that attracts and

retains key talent. The labour market is much more fluid today, with more and better information

available to employees than ever before. Companies brand themselves as employers through the value

proposition of their employment offer. Much like the branding of regular products a job offer must

meet employee preferences, be differentiated from competing offers and having a strong reputation or

brand. Companies need employer branding and strategies to differentiate themselves.

Employer branding as a concept to attract, select and retain young talent can only work if the

recruitment strategy has been adapted accordingly. It is the umbrella for all steps in the recruitment

process, which we divide into five building blocks: employer branding, Employee Value Proposition

(EVP), attraction strategy, selection methodology and early career monitoring. The ´right´people will,

most of the times, not simple come to an employer. Therefore proper recruitment is key to support

effective employer branding strategies.

Consequently, recruitment, development and engagement of junior talent is critical to building a bench

of high quality talented employees capable of executing a company´s strategy, and thus being prepared

1 Marijke Jansen has worked a.o. as internationaal HR manager at Heineken and is specialised in talent

management and employer branding.

2 Han van der Pool is MD Manager at TNT. He has actively been involved in the attraction and selection of high

potentials for international companies. a.o. Royal Ahold and Heineken.

3 The war for talent (1998) the McKinsey Quarterly, Issue 3

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for the ´war for talent´. In this chapter we limit ourselves to discussing the challenges for international

companies to attract, select and retain young talent. We define young talent as recent university

graduates and young professionals with an academic background and maximum 8 years of working

experience. According to Universum Communication4 this will be the labour market´s most wanted

work force for the next years.

In the next paragraphs we indentify the difficulties in finding talent. Further more we would like to

explore why a successful branding concept is integrated; lived and breathed in all five building blocks

of a recruitment programme.

2 TALENT-PIPELINE

All over the world countries are facing a shortage of talented employees in all sorts of sectors and

disciplines that might have its impact on economic growth. Examples vary from finding professional

nurses in the UK to finding dedicated call centre staff in New Zealand5 and everything in between. We

have identified five factors explaining the fast growing difficulties in filling the “talent- pipeline”.

I. Demographic developments. The shortage of well qualified employees due to retirement of the

so called “baby boomers” will have a negative effect on economic growth. The demographic

decline of the population in West European countries and beyond will create a “talent war”

between companies.

II. Educational mismatch. There is a mismatch between the educational level of graduates leaving

higher education and the current business needs. This will have effect on the availability of

talented people in the job market. Furthermore, the availability of talented “beta”- educated

graduates has been declining in the last decade, while at the same time, business is in great

need of these talents.

III. Economic growth. Economic growth is another important factor. The economy is doing well

in most of the Western countries. Some industries are already signaling overheating effects in

their economy and are not able to fulfill their vacancies.

IV. Shortage of foreign talent. Finding high-potential talent in so called developing countries is

not a solution anymore. Countries like India or China are experiencing a shortage of their own

talent and are consequently securing them for their own economic growth.

V. Emergence of the generation Y. A new generation of talented employees is emerging. This

generation is born in the eighties of last century. They are the first generation raised in a

“connected” environment with mobile phones, computers and internet. Freedom, enjoyment

and work life balance are essential to their career-plans. They seek an employer with an

interesting product-line, a nice set of employee benefits as well as an employer with a good

reputation. Having said this, it is much more difficult to attract, recruit and retain generationY

in the current situation.

4 Universum Communication is an international research and management consulting firm from Sweden.

5 Turnover and retention in a tight labour market: reflecting on New Zealand Research by Erling Rasmussen and

Vivienne Hunt

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3 EMPLOYER BRANDING

The meaning of the word ´brand´ can best be `a product or service produced by a company under a

specific name´. A brand has a strong psychological element and contributes to the “character building”

of an organisation. It is important to make realistic promises to the customer of the product or service

to overcome doubts which might be in place in the minds of the customer.

Employer branding is a concept borrowed from the business side of the enterprise. Product branding

exists for decades and is designed to develop a lasting image in the minds of the consumer so that they

start to automatically associate quality with any product or service offered by the owner of the brand.

An employer brand does the same in that it creates an image that makes (potential) employees want to

work for the company because it is a well-managed firm, where workers are continually learning and

growing. Once the image is set, it generally results in a steady flow of applicants.

Companies manage two interrelated brands, a product or service brand in the product market and an

employer brand in the labour market. The product and employer brands are related and mutually

supportive. A strong product or service brand can play an important role in the strength of the

employer brand. The employer brand, in return, is instrumental in attracting and retaining employees

who can add value to the company and its products, thus reinforcing the product or service brand.

There is a long-term impact if a company is perceived for being a well-managed firm and a great place

to work. Conversely, a weak employer brand can decrease the effects of even the best recruitment and

retention strategies. Effective employer branding pays off when organizations gradually find it easier

and less expensive to recruit and retain top talent, while their competitors must look harder and pay

more to get good people.

Most companies, which have an employer branding strategy have the intention to increase:

knowledge about the company as employer;

preference for the company as employer (become an employer of choice);

the intention to apply with the company.

Accordingly, employer branding is the process of placing an image of being a "great place to work" in

the minds of the targeted candidate pool. It tells the story of who you are as an employer, what you

have to offer and how it is delivered. Developing an image as an employer is part of employer

branding. Turning that image into a working relationship between an organization and its potential

recruit is a process, which needs an integrated approach.

4 AN INTEGRATED APPROACH

Employer branding is a critical factor in effective recruitment. An integrated approach for the

attraction, selection and retention of talent is necessary to create a great recruitment programme and

therefore organisation development is needed next to brand development. To develop employer

branding as a useful organizing framework for strategic human resource management, the company

should structure its HR organisation around the brand and align corporate and employer brand

communications. A branding concept should be directly derived from the company strategy and

business goals. The branding concept gains added value if it takes into consideration HR strategy,

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goals and requirements as well as an understanding of the labour market and relevant target groups. A

brand should be implemented together with other relevant HR building blocks to become a successful

concept.

Furthermore, employer branding uses the tools of marketing research, PR, and advertising to change

the image applicants have of "what it is like to work at the firm." And if talent does not consider

loyalty as the most important aspect of the employer/employee relationship anymore6, attracting and

retaining talent relies much more on being able to fulfill a certain promise. And that promise varies

from organization to organization, depending on its culture, mission and ability to achieve its goals.

Having said that, successful employer branding is not built only on the aspirations of a company, but

also on its ability to deliver on the promise.

It takes some time to develop a presence in the labour market. It takes engagement from the top of the

organisation to sponsor the employer brand, the employer brand will either not match the company´s

strategy or the brand will not sufficiently get off the ground. Engaging senior management in the

employer branding process is therefore important and it is not just the domain of the HR department.

Ideally HR should work closely with the marketing and communications department to ensure that

there is consistency in the development and communication of the employer brand internally as well

as externally7.

Employer branding is about consistency throughout all the company´s communications. It's about how

the company looks for recruits, how internal communication operates, how the reward package or the

career development programme is defined. But it is also about the company's advertising, the office

environment, physical presence at recruitment fairs and how the company treats people when they

have to let them go8.

6 Business Week, Winning the Talent Wars, February 2007

7 Brett Minchington, managing director of Collective Learning Australia, quoted by Craig Donaldson in his

article ´senior engagement key to employer branding´ published in Human Resources, Australia´s leading

information resource on HR issues.

8 Andrew Marritt, from Andrew´s strategic resourcing blog

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Company strategy and business goals

Define workforce strategy, goals and requirements

Develop understanding of the labour market and the target group(s)

to attract and to retain to achieve these goals

Alignment with marketing and communication

Figure1. Five building blocks of a recruitment programme

In the above mentioned recruitment model the five building blocks are connected and integrated in a

logical order.

4.1 EMPLOYER BRAND

The brand explains the key elements which makes a company attractive, unique and distinctive from

competition. To create a powerful and distinctive brand, the mission, values and spirit of the

organisation should be captured. E.g. if the values are respect and quality, then these values should be

experienced in every step of the recruitment and talent development process.

A strong employer brand is based on:

I. the brand values of the relevant product of the company;

II. analysis about what it is that makes the company unique from competition in the labour

market;

III. information about the needs and requirements of potential employees.

Early Career

Monitoring

What is done to

check if the

promise has been

delivered

Selection

Methodology

What methods

are used to select

top graduates?

Attraction

Strategy

What techniques

and channels are

used to scout,

attract and pre

select top talent

Employee Value

Proposition

What is the

employment

offer to potential

recruits

Employer Brand

What are the key

elements that

makes the

company

attractive

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Not just a job, it is a way of life! In this example you see how Accenture explains what it is like to

work for them.

It is our opinion that employer branding is a tool to attract, select and retain the "right fit". However,

top talent doesn't necessarily mean "right fit". Product branding doesn't start with the product, it starts

with the consumer. The company must therefore research who it´s target market is and identify the

needs and requirements of it´s target group, as an employer brand is the sum of what ´consumers´

(potential recruits, staff and ex-staff) think about the company as a place to work. Only then a

compelling employment offer can be developed that connects the company with the "best fit" talent.

We have used dialogue sessions as a methodology to research and analyze the market and target

group.

Dialogue sessions

Dialogue sessions are interactive sessions, during which leading edge young people and managers

work together and openly discuss the current employer image, the desired image and how this image

can be strengthened with a recruitment and selection approach while also exploring for new solutions.

Participants get the chance to enrich concepts by building on each others ideas: ideas are exchanged or

tested and brand concepts further developed.

To stimulate the creative thinking process, materials like moodboards (see frame), photo´s and other

stimulus materials are used during the sessions. The selection of the dialogue participants is critical to

generate the correct atmosphere and output. This selection of leading edge young people with a

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diverse background and education can be done through (international) job fairs, student platforms and

recruitment and selection agencies. The group should consist of maximum 10 participants.

To realize a workable result it is important to prepare the session properly and to structure it to come

from more generic insights to concrete company sprecific solutions. The concepts must be:

relevant for the company

differentiating from competition

appealing to a young and more senior target group.

The organisation of a dialogue session is complex, but worth the effort. A company is provided with

tremendous first-line insight and added value by really connecting with young and more senior talent,

learning what their perspective is and leveraging their creativity.

Example

Moodboard dialogue sessions to design an optimal recruitment strategy for an international fast

moving consumer goods company.

Participants position their favourite company they would like to work for, in a matrix which consists

of 4 axes: enjoyment / achievement – for me / not for me9. Depending on answers, additional

employers and the position of the own company can be explored and placed in the matrix.

The advantage of this technique is that relevant insight is provided in the motives of talented young

people as well as the relative position of the own company versus competition. From own experience

we can share that extensive dialogues with young talents from Western and Eastern European

countries have resulted in consistent conclusions with other survey data about generation Y:

9 Source censydium model (http://www.censydiam.com).

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Internet plays an essential role in the selection of a future employer.

The corporate image is of great importance.

The first job has to be a great reference on their resume.

Working in an international context with foreign colleagues is favoured.

The organizational climate needs to be dynamic and demanding.

The future employer needs to have opportunities for personal development through career

planning, training and development offerings. The existence of a Corporate University is

perceived as a great benefit.

4.2 EVP

At the heart of a strong employer brand is a compelling employment offer or employee value

proposition (EVP). Beyond the opportunity to work for a company with a leading product or company

brand, these offers describe levels of compensation and benefits, work environment, work–life

balance, company culture and so on. Over time, the ability of a firm to deliver on its offers to its

employees will form the foundation of its employer brand image, just as a firm’s ability to deliver on

its product offering contributes to the reputation of its brand.

The employer brand must communicate a unique value proposition about the company´s employment

experience that is relevant, positive and consistently leveraged. For some companies the employer

brand is the same as their product or service brand. However for companies where the perception of

the company as employer is different to their brand(s), this will not be the case. Certain fast moving

consumer goods (FMCG) companies, where branding is done for their products and not for the

company as employer10

.

For most firms there is one employer brand with different employee value propositions. The

proposition can be tailor-made for various groups of (potential) employees. There is one brand, but it

means different things to different stakeholders, because they value different things in life. For

example, senior managers have different expectations from an employer than the new generation

starters. Ideally the EVP will engage the right fit talented people. The company´s employer brand is

established within but extends externally, and should have a common image for both current and

potential employees, Therefore the proposition is built internally as well as externally to avoid

differences in the employer brand image.

10 HR, recruitment, staffing & employment articles, trends and soundbites from Andrew Marritt, July 2006

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T-mobile´s EVP claims: “At T-Mobile, we don’t just deliver the best wireless service. We create the

best careers in the business. Our jobs come fully loaded with opportunities to make a difference. We

are confident, daring and talented. We work hard, have fun and enjoy the spotlight that comes with

success. We’d love to count on you to join our team and set a new standard of service for our

customers. Do that and you can count on us to deliver a career experience like no other.”

We advise you to take a few moments to look at some career websites. It is interesting to see how

some companies promote themselves and some don´t. In this respect, would you feel T-mobile´s

EVP is distinctive and attractive?

4.3 ATTRACTION STRATEGY

An essential step in developing an understanding of the target market is segmenting employees into

defined groups based on a variety, and potentially unlimited number, of segmentation criteria. Ideally,

the labor market should be segmented into target groups that correspond to the needs and objectives of

the company. This process can take place in both internal and external labour markets where certain

employee groups can be targeted for attraction (e.g. programmers or experienced financial analysts)

and retention (e.g. software engineers or female managers). Segmentation can also take place on hard-

to-observe traits in the workforce, such as behavioral characteristics or employee values (this

information might be most readily available from current employees).

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After segmentation the question is how to get the target group interested in the company. The most

successful attraction strategies emphasize features that are both relevant to this target audience and

differentiated from those of competitors. Attraction gives the employer brand a ´face´. High key are, of

course, corporate websites which should be the example of what the employer brand looks like and

“which should have a positive image with clear statements regarding mission, vision, company goals

and corporate values”11

.

There are many channels in the labour market to market the company as an employer. Some examples:

Channel marketing: connect to fraternities or international student associations like AISEC /

Integrand and participate in some of their events.

Above The Line (ATL) communications12

: use career websites, develop a standard personnel

advertising format, develop print and/or RTV campaign.

Below The Line (BTL) communications13

: develop brochures, gadgets, standard briefing with

company key messages etc.

Sponsorships: participate in congresses, organise student events, awards for thesis etc.

Promotions: organise face-to-face moments with potential recruits at job/career fairs, in-house

days etc.

Attraction products: a yearly rumour-around-the-brand activity creates awareness and builds brand

equity14

. .

11 Sylvia van de Bunt Maandblad voor Accountancy en Bedrijfseconomie, Volume 77, no. 3, maart 2003, pp.

122-129

12 Above The Line (ATL) is an advertising technique using mass media to promote brands. Definition from

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

13 Below The Line (BTL) is an advertising technique. It uses less conventional methods than the usual specific

channels of advertising to promote products, services, etc. than Above the line (ATL) strategies. Definition from

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

14 Brand equity is the value built-up in a brand. It is measured based on how much a customer is aware of the

brand. It can be positive or negative. Positive brand equity is created by effective promotion and consistently

meeting or exceeding customer thoughts. Negative brand equity is usually the result of bad management.

Definition from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Example 24 hours of TNT

After an exhaustive selection procedure, 24 talented students are invited for this adventure.

“The 24 hours of TNT” Is an exclusive event arranged for 24 selected top students to get to know the

most efficient and effective Post & Express company of the world.

In 24 hours they see all kinds of aspects of the company. The students take a close look behind the

scenes of the mail and express company, where people still work as most offices already are closed.

During these intensive hours, they learn more about the exquisite possibilities TNT has to offer. “The

24 hours of TNT” is a business course especially for Master students, studying at any Dutch

university. The students are then challenged to work in groups on producing a case about the

opportunities that digitalization could hold for TNT. The clock finally gets back to "0" and the

Management Development Manager opens the bottles of champagne! After an extremely intensive

whirlwind journey through the world of TNT, the participants are briefly able to enjoy some well-

earned rest. Everybody is tired.

Attraction is an on-going process, which lasts through all the stages of the recruitment programme and

should be consistent with all other company expressions. Let´s look at a few examples of good

practise.

- To obtain awareness for the employer brand it is important to connect to mass media, but also

recruitment PR plays a significant role, e.g. in providing a standard briefing with uniform key

messages.

- To market the company, a lot of companies organise face-to-face communication moments, but

attraction is also vital in the selection phase. It is important to have an appealing selection process

during which the candidates learn more about themselves and obtain proper feedback, especially

in case of rejection.

- According to Cullen, 15

long-term success at finding, selecting and hiring outstanding employees

depends not simply on a great website but on an integrated e-staffing effort. "Leading companies

15 Cullen, Run-of-the-mill e-recruitment sites - 01/2001HRM-adviesbureau Cambria Consulting

(www.cambriaconsulting.com)

Met opmaak:

opsommingstekens en

nummering

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have fully integrated their staffing processes making them not only paperless and efficient but also

highly effective. They have re-engineered these processes so that the right people have the right

information at the right time for evaluating the right type of candidates. Designing effective e-

recruiting sites has been an important catalyst for these major redesign efforts. Some companies

have mastered e-recruiting; most haven't; and the gap between the best and the worst e-recruiting

websites is huge”.

- And finally, recent hires and current employees are the best ambassadors of a company and should

therefore play a role during the whole recruitment process, including their presence during an

induction programme. The purpose of induction is to ensure effective integration of staff into or

across the company16

. The length and nature of the programme depends on the complexity of the

job and the background of the new employee, but in general contains the organisation's history, its

products or services, its culture and values, outline of job requirements and how the role fits into

the organogram and explanation of terms and conditions. Without an effective induction

programme, new employees might have a bad start and never really understand the organisation or

their role in it. The results of a British recruitment and retention survey showed that 19% of

leavers had less than six month's service17

.

4.4 SELECTION METHODOLOGY

The process of branding oneself as an employer is to know what kinds of people succeed within your

organization and to express it in a way that it attracts more of those people. Given the diversity of

targeted leadership competencies and corresponding assessment methods and tools, research suggests

significant value of a holistic approach to assessment, involving a battery of tests and multiple

information sources, rather than any one single test. Research indicates that prediction validity

increases with the utilization of multiple assessments. Within this context, interviews are the most

prevalent assessment tool used in the selection process.

16 Definition from CIPD, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

17 London: CIPD (2006). Recruitment, retention and labour turnover survey 2006.

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Figure 2 leading-edge assessment centre GITP

A well managed professional selection method adds value to the positive image of the organization. A

leading edge assessment center includes the following elements18

:

I. On-line questionnaires

Research suggests that cognitive ability tests are useful in predicting job performance as such

assessments test for analytical and reasoning ability. Literature reveals that testing for cognitive

ability among potential leaders is important as leaders are expected to be able to gather, integrate,

and analyze information in order to develop solutions and solve problems.19

It is more often used

for starters and young professionals than for senior staff. Typically, cognitive ability tests are

structured either as multiple choice or constructed response tests and may be delivered in either

pencil and paper or online formats.

18 Georges Taels. EFMD Conference Madrid May 2007

19 Shelley A. Kirkpatrick and Edwin A. Locke, "Leadership: Do Traits Matter?" The Executive (May 1991).

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II. Personality questionaires

Personality tests provide insight into individuals’ needs, attitudes, motivations and behavioral

tendencies. The “Big Five” is the most widely accepted personality structure and is constructed

around the core personality factors that influence behavior.20

Factor Definition

I. Extraversion. Degree to which a person is active, gregarious, sociable and

talkative

II. Agreeableness

Degree to which someone is cooperative, courteous, flexible,

forgiving, good-natured, soft-hearted, tolerant and trusting.

III Conscientiousness

Degree to which an individual is achievement-oriented, careful,

hard-working, organized, planful, persevering, responsible and

thorough

IV. Emotional Stability

Opposite of emotional instability, which is the degree to which a

person is angry, depresssed, emotional insecure and worried

V. Openness to Experience

Degree to which an individual is artistically sensitive, broad-

minded, cultured, curious and original

III. Structured interviews

Unlike cognitive ability or personality tests, interviews do not focus on specific constructs but

are designed to assess different candidate attributes. For example, highly structured interviews

may measure cognitive ability, tacit knowledge, or job knowledge, while unstructured

interviews may measure social skills and personality.21

Research indicates that interviews may

possess more predictive value for executive selection than tests of intelligence and personality

alone22

. It is therefore important that companies include interviews in the executive selection

process.

20 O. Behling, 1998. Employee selection: Will intelligence and conscientiousness do the job? AME, 12(1).

21 IVAN ROBERTSON AND MIKE SMITH, "PERSONNEL SELECTION.” MOTIVATION AND JOB DESIGN : THEORY, RESEARCH AND

PRACTICE. LONDON INSTITUTE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT 1985

1 22

Scott Highhouse, "Assessing the Candidate as a Whole: A Historical and Critical Analysis of Individual

Psychological Assessment for Personnel Decision Making” (2002)

Personnel Psychology 55 (2), 363–396.

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IV. One day assessment center

Assessment centers grew out of the perceived need to assess non-intellectual aspects of human

performance. Assessment centers measure a variety of job-related skills and abilities and also

often measure interpersonal, communication, planning and organizing and analytical skills.

Typically, assessment centers consist of simulation exercises and group exercises

Trained assessors observe, classify and evaluate behaviors and discuss overall judgments

about potential employees’ performance. Some large companies have their own assessment

centers, while mid-size and smaller companies sometimes send candidates to third-party

consulting firms for evaluation.

4.5 EARLY CAREER MONITORING

“All good work on brand positioning, marketing and communication can easily be undone by a poor

interaction between a customer and a brand representative. How often has a customer-employee

“moment of truth” turned into a relationship killer, rather than a loyalty builder?23

H. Pringle annd W. Gordon

An employment offer that fails to provide value to employees will not succed in its effort to build a

positive and productive employer brand. According to research of Larkan the cost of employee

turnover averages in companies with 50% of an annual salary for frontline personnel to 41 % of a

middle manager salary (including lost of productivity direct reports).24

The objective of performing early career monitoring is to know what the early-careerists say about the

company, to determine their needs and how the company can meet them. The implementation of early

career monitoring differs across organizations but the challenges and techniques are similar. Good

practise among some international companies is to conduct a survey among their potentials and other

targeted personnel early in their careers to find out why they have joined and why they might drop out

as well. Through these surveys these companies maintain in touch with their employees and are able

to adapt the building blocks of their recruitment programmes. This is the major insight provided

through these surveys.

During our interviews with young talents from Western and Eastern European countries we have

gathered input around “what makes a company-employee relationship worthwhile and should be

sustained after recruitment”. Two factors seem to be important25

:

- Development possibilities

23 H. Pringle annd W. Gordon in Brand Manners (John Wiley & Sons 2001)

24 Larkan, K. The Talent War” pg. 76. Marshall Cavendish International 2007

25 N = 83. The “young talents” interviewed by the authors were citizens from Poland, Russia, France, Ireland

Spain and the Netherlands.

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- Integrity of the company

The access of adequate training programs plays a crucial role in the evaluation of the first years of

employment. Also the availability of new and daring assignments within the company will add to the

positive image of the company. Not only are new employees internationally mobile, they seem

increasingly tempted to be employed in an internationally operated company. Distance collaboration

tools will generate new and increasingly more powerful usage of the “web”. Early recruits exchange

their experiences through the internet, as a consequence we could call the employer brand is “viral” .

Next is the integrity of the employer. We observed a growing interest in corporate social responsibility

(CSR) over recent years. In a passive way CSR means adherence to the law. It’s obvious that the new

recruits do not like to be embraced by experiencing poor ethical behaviour by their new employer. In a

more expansive and proactive way it also means “out of the box-thinking” and active participation,

which new recruits seem to appreciate as it provides them with a (small) role in shaping the future of

society.

We want you! Look at the executive quiz, drawn up by Korn/Ferry, an international executive

search firm. In this way they try to convince employees that ´there is always a better job

available for you somewhere else`. Whereas Monsterboard says it at follows in one of their radio

advertisements: “ Doesn´t your company give you enough development opportunities? You can

always go to Monsterboard.” The hunt for talent is open!

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Conclusion

A strong work culture tends to go hand in hand with strong financial performances, according to the

data collected by researchers at Hewlett associates. “Best employers“ experienced 13% revenue

growth between 2000 and 2002 compared with 7 % for other companies, and an average profit growth

of 21% in the same period compared to minus 44 % for others”26

.

Defining (high) potential and young professional talent and developing it is critical to a company´s

long term success. Talent management needs be focused around the following activities:

- “Finding and bonding”

- “Bonding and exciting ,

- “Exciting and growing”

Finding, bonding and creating talent will be essential for future growth of a company. Employer

branding is a critical factor in effective recruitment. Becoming an employer of choice means that an

organization's branding message truly aligns with the reality that exists for its employees. Employer

branding is about consistency in all company´s communications. Five building blocks (employer

branding, Employee Value Proposition (EVP), attraction strategy, selection methodology and early

career monitoring) in the recruitment process have been identified. It's about how the company attract

and select recruits and how the employment offer is composed. A true employer brand is target group

focused, relevant to the company´s needs, differentiated and established only through the delivery of

value in the employment offer. Adequate recruitment and retention strategies will pay off its

investments.

26 Larkan, K. The Talent War” pg. 33 Marshall Cavendish International 2007