employment branding - building talent market equity

Copyright 2003 eBrands Pty Ltd

Employment BrandingEmployment Branding

Building Talent Market EquityBuilding Talent Market Equity


OverviewOverview

• Define Employment Brand equity

• Reasons and outcomes

• Component parts of the challenge

• Trends

• What is a successful platform – achieving one

• Tips for implementation


Career Brand Attitude


About Brand EquityAbout Brand Equity

• Employment branding– Where HR meets marketing to build an effective

communications solution

• Brand equity– Investing in a brand and being in a position to

capitalise on its value

• Marketing– Matching product to the needs of the market

• Branding– Creating a memorable and unique identity


About Brand EquityAbout Brand Equity

• At the core of all brands are the functional and the rationale

– What the company can do

– What you feel about the company

• Intrinsically linked to

– Performance

– Desire to work

– Pride


The fuss about employer branding?


Why Employer Branding?Why Employer Branding?

• It’s impact on business has been qualified

– Customer interaction with employees will equate to business performance

– A financial co-efficient with Recruitment Costs vs. Recruitment Capability

– Direct impact on a company’s overall brand model

– The quest for advocacy


Why Employer Branding?Why Employer Branding?

• Upside– Increase existing staff morale and commitment

– Improve overall business performance

– Increase candidate attraction volume and quality

– Competitor hiring potential

– Improve industry peer perception

– Create a sense of employment value

– Increased propensity to generate…


Employer Branding Employer Branding OutcomesOutcomes

• Talent equity upside– More volume

– More interest

– Active candidate pools

– Empowered recruitment channels

– Lasting brand relationships

– Recruitment resilience and self-sufficiency

– Cost savings (compared with existing recruitment methods)


So why not just do it?

Right now?


Employer Branding ChallengeEmployer Branding Challenge

• The catch– Marketing meets HR successfully or

un-successfully in many organisations

– Sometimes the company’s product is opposed to the culture of the people they are seeking to hire

– Existing brand defects are difficult to overcome

– Products are financial transactions; careers are emotional transactions

– The candidate is making the investment

– Perception takes time to build


Sneezers are important because…


Brand HierarchyBrand Hierarchy

• Awareness

• Trust

• Transactions

• Satisfaction

• Commitment

• Advocacy - Sneezers



• The quest is for advocacy

– Customers

– Staff

– Manifests in larger candidate pools generated by DESIRE and REFERAL

• To get there needs awareness

• Converting the talent market to advocacy is CAPITALISING ON YOUR TALENT MARKET EQUITY


Employer Branding TrendsEmployer Branding Trends

• Better research and understanding

• Maturation of job boards and services

• Traditional brand agency models becoming outdated

• Internet deployment for cost effectiveness

• Brand alignment practice

• Cost effectiveness

• Advertising

• Innovation

• Attempts to achieve advocacy


Creating A PlatformCreating A Platform

• Understanding your starting point

• Managed stakeholders driven with effective outcomes

• A plan

• Impact assessment

– For example, increasing the candidate pool might require a different recruitment management process

• Professional, measured execution

• The ability to capture results and monitor progress


Platform ModelPlatform Model


ComponentsComponents

• Talent market equity consists of the following brand elements:

– Consumer Brand Image

– Business Reputation

– Employer Reputation

– Corporate/Sector visibility

• Targeted strategies can overcome the 3rd and 4th elements as being simply by-products of the first


ResearchResearch

• Investigate and support the business requirement for employer branding

• Start from within by surveying and questioning internal staff including– Recent recruits

– Cultural fit candidates

– Departmental leaders

• Survey the external market and suppliers– Your recruitment suppliers should do this

for you


Research - ExampleResearch - Example

• Leading global FMCG grocery client

• 20 country survey to evaluate competitive employer brand position

• Involved staff, management, recruitment supplier and graduates

• It was suggested stability and career development would be the key driver

• In fact ETHICAL PRACTICE was their key differentiator


Research - GoalResearch - Goal

• Your goals are to:

– Understand the target talent market

– Understand their drivers

– Assess brand messages for corporate fit

– Find the compelling career offering TRIGGER

– Ensure the support of Internal staff


Listen to the target market


Tip #1Tip #1

• “No strategy whiteboard sessions until you have some real facts”.

• Every client survey we have performed has altered our clients sense of perspective.


StrategyStrategy

• Use findings to back whiteboard study

• Select stakeholders and MANAGE their buy-in

• Consider the impact of all stakeholders and channels in the process

• Deliver the vehicles

– Message

– Media

– Advocacy tools


Strategy - ExampleStrategy - Example

• Leading Australian financial services

• Looking for a more resilient recruitment strategy

• Feedback found target market was a strong Internet user

• Developed a plan involving brand, Internet and software in an integrated campaign

• Reduced overall recruitment cost substantially while increasing capacity

• Created and managed a fresh candidate pool


Strategy - GoalStrategy - Goal

• A realistic and inspiring employment brand plan

• Organisational support and buy-in

• A COMPELLING CAREER OFFERING

• Improved brand alignment tactics for the organisation

• A platform for the business objective

– Improved industry perception

– Management of own recruitment function

“How to maximise your effort for reward?”


Tip #2Tip #2

• “Once the message is selected it must not be changed for the duration of the campaign, as all awareness will be lost”.

• Try different mediums or channels, but don’t abandon your research or your findings for short-term gains unless your business really requires it.


ExecutionExecution

• Partnership selection criteria– Understand the business

– Experience

– Motivated by success

– Cultural organisational match

• Brand

• Internet

• Recruitment process

• Internal brand alignment


Execution - ExampleExecution - Example

• Leading Australian call-centre recruiter

• Unusable web interface prevented capitalisation of industry brand equity

• Managed stakeholder project; scope, design, technology and implementation partners

• Web site within 6 week timeframe processing over 15,000 candidates per month


Execution - GoalsExecution - Goals

• Crystallize the strategy into an effective marketing mix

• Maximise all channel strategies including– Brand

– Intranet

– Internet

– Recruitment suppliers

– Employee referral

• Ensure that the internal initiatives that are required to support the marketing message are carried out


Tip #3Tip #3

• “Do not take to market a message that your current staff do not believe or support.”

• That’s the quickest way to lose the path to advocacy.


BenchmarkBenchmark

• Benchmark– Set the KPI’s

– Instigate verbal and electronic benchmarks

– Create an ROI model


Benchmark - ExampleBenchmark - Example

• Leading financial services company

• Aggregation of electronic benchmarks

– Web site & Intranet metrics

– Recruitment performance source data

– New employee orientation and expectation surveys

– Centrally collated

– Able to refine and add value to brand awareness layer


Benchmark - GoalsBenchmark - Goals


– Evaluate the employer brand strategy

– Refine its execution

– Ensure that the deliverables achieved are in line with the organisations overall goals


Tip #4Tip #4

“Be prepared to support your employer brand activity by delivering analysis for bottom line benefit”.

The tie between a strong employer brand, corporate performance and recruitment performance is what will help you to sustain your employer branding efforts.


FeedbackFeedback

• Feedback closes the circle and triggers an equity strategy turning point

– Involve the stakeholders in the feedback

– Consider the brand hierarchy weaknesses (awareness may be great but trust/commitment may be poor)

– Initiate the strategy to improve those layers


Feedback - ExampleFeedback - Example

• Leading global FMCG grocery client

• Global country representatives reported over single country data sets changes versus aggregate

• Identified that the differences in advocacy levels varied widely to a single key factor

• Client tackled this by ensuring the career development path and technique was its focus for the coming year


Feedback - GoalFeedback - Goal


– Understand the target talent market

– Understand their drivers

– Assess brand messages for corporate fit

– Find the compelling career offering TRIGGER

– Ensure the support of Internal staff


Tip #5Tip #5

• “Adapt as your market adapts”.

• Great messages survive the test of time.

• Great strategies acknowledge corporate, market and personal change.


Contacting UsContacting Us

• eBrandswww.ebrands.com.au+61 2 8437 [email protected]

• Employer Branding presentation

– http://www.ebrands.com.au/estrategic/employer.htm

http://www.ebrands.com.au/



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http://www.ebrands.com.au/estrategic/employer.htm






employment branding - building talent market equity

Business

brand messages

market branding

existing brand defects

career brand attitude

talent equity

target talent market

target market

recruitment suppliers