Employer brands – what are they and where did they come from?

Employer Branding – Back to Basics

Right, let’s begin with the basics: What are brands and how are they different to each other?

 

Branding expert, Kevin Keller, defines a corporate brand as the sum of associations concerning product attributes, benefits, attitudes. These associations are held in memory, and are subject to change over time as different associations are formed. Note that the corporate brand specifically deals with performance variables related to a company’s operations.

 

The employer brand, then, deals with associations specifically related to employment at a particular company. This is not just a semantic difference. Consider a situation where you strongly identify with the shoe brand, and are perfectly happy with the performance and quality of their shoes. At the same time, you’ve also come across damning reports about their employment practices. It is perfectly rational for your operational attitude, and your employment attitude towards the company to be completely at odds with each other.  The way in which they manage employment relations does not necessarily influence your satisfaction with their product.

 

Specifically, an employer brand creates a psychological contract between the potential employee and the organization about employment at the company. This makes it important to deliver on your promises. If your job advertisements promise a vibrant and fast-paced environment, you better deliver on that promise. If the employee does not find themselves working in the environment described, this is akin to the employer breaking a psychological contract with the employee. Struggling with high turnover? Carefully consider what you are promising during the recruitment process and the reality of the job description.

 

Good Employer Brands – A lesson in history 

The cat has been out of the bag for a long time, since 1982 in fact, and again in 1993, and actually quite frequently ever since. In 1982 a seminal study on employer branding (even though that’s not what the authors called it), there was found to be a significant statistical correlation between employer image and likelihood to apply for a job. In fact, along with gender, it was the only significant indicator whether or not a candidate will apply for a role.

 

Another study 1993 found similar results, with an added note that more information about the company, not information about the role, is conducive to soliciting applications. Fact: candidates care more about the quality of the employer brand than the job specifications.

 

More recently, in 2006, a couple of researchers AGAIN found that better employer brands solicit better candidate responses (are you seeing a pattern?). Additionally, they concluded that consistency of recruitment messages also play a role in this equation. They call for part-time recruiters, new hires, and internal marketing to be consistent with what is promised throughout the recruitment process. The employer brand is not only created in job ads, it is disseminated through all levels of the organization. We get back again to the psychological contract – messages must be consistent with reality. Moreover, the messages must be consistent when anyone in the organization communicates to potential hires. Organizations must therefore develop slogans and key messages.

 

This is where we reach a slight contradiction in the literature. Remember how putting more information about the company and not the job requirements produce better responses? Well, branding researchers know that too many value statements are confusing and produce weaker responses. What we can draw from this is to focus on building the recruitment brand, but doing so in moderation (candidates still need to know what the job is about). The ad is not totally about the job, neither is it totally about the company – strike a balance, address both adequately.

 

Show me the money: Practical Benefits

So you have a good employer brand, now what?

 

Having a good employer brand serves to establish your brand, meaning that faced with many choices, people will automatically choose your brand. Imagine filling every job with no advertising.

The reason for these phenomena is that a good brand signals lessened risk to the user (read: safety in numbers).  We are biologically wired to trust whatever the rest our tribal band does: a tenet branding takes advantage of – “come over here, trust us, everyone else likes us”.

 

Yes, having a good employer brand reduces time, effort and costs in attracting new hires and staff retention.

 

Key point: People don’t necessarily care how good the operations of a company is, they are more likely to care specifically about the employer brand when considering employment opportunities.