The challenges of attracting, integrating and retaining the right people for a given organization are well known globally. Tens of thousands of positions remain unfilled in any given geography in North America alone.
The tendencies of globalization, the emergence of a brand new and distinct generation (Y) in, and the gradual disappearance of a previous generation (boom) from the workforce, changing perceptions about leadership, collaboration, integration, strategy, etc. are obviously changing the dynamics of competition. It is no longer enough trying to compete with technology, compensation and benefits, generous training and social allowances, or by trying to make the workplace “fun”. All these measures are fundamentally reactive, putting companies in increasingly more disadvantageous positions, both from the financial and reputation point of view.
As a conventional HR tool, Employer Branding must enjoy much more attention and a much more adequate foundation to address such challenges.
Employer Branding provides context for the high level alignment of corporate strategy, executive leadership and the employees, among other things. Without the definition of the Employer Brand, all initiatives in these areas are happening blindly, without real foundation and direction, including even such specialized functions as recruiting, compensation or training.
The reason why Employer Branding can fill a function of integration is because it is based on the same foundation as other vertical and horizontal areas, including strategy, marketing, communications (vertical), HR, finance, technology (horizontal), etc., but when it comes to manifestation, it is at least as strong as marketing and branding.
This foundation is organizational identity. Without organizational identity HR is nothing more than a set of administrative functions, marketing is only a reaction to the environment (trends, tendencies, competitors, etc.), strategy is focused exclusively on survival, while management and staff show up only for the money. In short: without organizational identity there is no foundation for any kind of integration.
It is obvious that organizational identity is not to be confused with brand identity. Brand identity is only the reflection of organizational identity. Our choice of the term organizational identity (as opposed to corporate identity) is well founded, since the company is not identical with the (organic) organization. One of the factors that makes Employer Branding significant is that it should enable the company to reflect true, i.e. organic organization.
A successful Employer Brand turns the company into an organic whole (although never perfectly!) with a serious creative force of attraction, which enables real innovation, as well as the attraction of appropriate people with the righ talent, ideal customers, partners and investors.
Main steps for defining the Employer Brand and Communications
1. Definition of organizational identity as context
2. Design in the context of purpose, evolution (unfolding), style and awareness
3. Comprehensive communications audit in the context of the defined organizational ID: PR, marketing, internal and/or HR communications, as well as related channels (e.g. intranet, website, job boards, etc.), identifying gaps, deficiencies, inconsistencies
4. Introducing change necessary to lift potential or virtual identity to the level of actuality (organic organization enablement, change awareness/readiness/management, training, etc.)
Following this exercise, HR (and of course other business units) will become a better integrated, more organic part of the corporation and such performance indicators as retention ratio, total cost per hire, training ROI, employee productivity, etc. become much more efficient.
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