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Introduction
The concept of Employer branding relates to attracting and retaining the skilled human
resources in the organization. Employer branding is a holistic term taken from the
field of marketing and is related to strategic brand management. Todays fast-paced
changing business environment has a greater impact on every organizations highly
qualified and motivated workforce. In order to keep pace with the changing market
dynamics, every organization is trying to place itself in a unique position on the
corporate ladder. There is a huge demand for competent personnel, which is escalating
steadily, particularly the demand for vital positions which require technical and
in-depth expertise to meet the current requirements of the job market. On the contrary,
the labor market is becoming more difficult due to the ongoing demographic changes
all over the world. Though the magnitude and pace of this change may vary in different
* Research Scholar, Icfai Institute for Management Teachers, Hyderabad, India.
E-mail: soumyasagiri@gmail.com
2008 TheEmployer
Modeling
Icfai University
Branding
Press.
Communication:
All Rights Reserved.
The Softer Aspect of HR Marketing Management
45
countries, many recent research studies have outlined some significant facts. There
will be a decline of 20% in the workforce population in the age group of 20-29,
while there will be an increase of 25% in the age group of 50-64. 1 If we consider
that this will have a direct impact on labor market in many organizations, this will
in return, generate the problem of the labor crunch to find highly skilled and
challenging successors to replace at least 30 to 60% of senior executives. In the next
five years, it is estimated that a minimum of 70% of senior executives will be eligible
for retirement. 2 Due to this reason, organizations will face huge talent crunch and
high job mobility among the talented workforce.
In the past decade, it has been observed that employees changed their jobs only
twice or thrice in their entire career. But in todays technology-based world, the
growing propensity to switch jobs is at a mounting pace. 3 As a consequence, the
skirmish for the best employees has resulted in fierce antagonism among HR
professionals for recruiting the best talent from the job market. The approach of
recruiting the talented potentials needs to change in this competitive world. The
organizations need to differentiate themselves in the job market when it is related
to the battle for the talent. Employer branding helps in creating an identity among
the current employees and acts as a choice among the future employers for recruiting
the talent. The traditional recruitment process creates only huge databases, whereas
the current process identifies the right talent for the right position. However, in the
case of employer branding strategy, the corporations will be able to create talent
relationship management which replicates customer relationship management, the
employee being one of the customers. This creates a good image in the minds of
the employees, customers and stakeholders and in turn helps to capture the potential
talent pool.
Literature Review
Employer Branding
Even today, one is far from reaching the roots of employer branding; it is considered
a relatively new discipline and a broader perspective of HRM. Currently, there is
an increasing awareness of employer branding, which is vital for the organizations
to attract the expert pool.
The concept of employer branding originated in the UK in 1990, though new
researches on employer branding are developing outside it. The term Employer
Branding was created in October 1990, by Simon Barrow, the chairman of the
1
Hartmut Buck and Bernd Dworschak (Eds.) (2003), Ageing and Work in Europe Strategies at Company
Level and Public Policies in Selected European Countries (http://www.demotrans.de/documents/
BR_DE_BR15.pdf), p. 11, Verlag, Stuttgart.
Gandossy R P and Kao T (2004), Talent Wars: Out of Mind, Out of Practice, Human Resource
Planning, Vol. 27, No. 4, p. 16.
Chambers E G et al. (1998), The War for Talent, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 3, p. 48. See also Michaels
E G et al. (2001), The War for Talent, p. 5.
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Employee
Satisfaction
Brand
Advocacy
Employee
Commitment
Employer
Brand
Employee
Attraction
Customer
Satisfaction
Customer
Loyalty
Profitability
Performance
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Research Methodology
The methodology used in this paper is case-based research. The literature review
is done on employer branding and the implications of employer branding on internal
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and external environment are analyzed through explaining some practical cases.
The data was collected from the Universum IDEAL Employer Survey, which has been
interpreted in this paper by using current situations and cases.
http://www.careerjournal.com/hrcenter/articles/20040413-kennedy.html
www.employerbrand.com
49
The competition for attracting talent in the world market is fierce. The inexorable
attrition rates stipulate the need for expertise, knowledge, experience and education.
In the new era, far beyond employer branding is Talent Branding which acts as
a cornerstone for an efficient long-term retention and recruitment strategy. This
creates a greater long-term strategic impact, which acts as a media for creating a wellmanaged firm which could be a great place to work. Conversely, weak Talent Brand
nullifies even the best recruitment and retaining strategies. Talent branding needs
to be set in brand equity, and if well-managed, any organization can retain the best
talent, which creates a predicament for competitors to get the best manpower.
Building employer branding efficiently through different stages of recruitment helps
in creating a way to implement employer branding. This is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Building Employer Branding through Different Stages of Recruitment
Planning
Staffing
Job Analysis
Recruitment Strategy
Internal
Channels
External
Channels
Informal
Channels
Formal
Channels
Selection Method
Infosys
An employee in Infosys speaks about the organizational culture, vision, mission,
image and his relationship with the organization and how he succeeded within the
organization as well as how well the organization fulfilled his career aims and his
achievements. This style of employer branding is used to recruit the best talent,
through testimonies given by their employees in the recruitment advertisements.
Ford Motors
Innovatively, Ford Motors reviewed its organizations recruitment process and
revamped the old advertisements for the intake of graduates. It conducted a survey
on the most attractive and efficient reachable slogans and messages for recruiting
fresh graduates. After a broad research on the perceptions of the employees, the
company tested a wide variety of ideas, themes, slogans, images and headlines.
Finally, one concept called Natural Passion simply struck an arpeggio with the
participants. It helped in creating the brand image of the organization among the fresh
recruiters. This advertisement won the Times Best Graduate Recruitment Advertising
and Brochure Award, which is very significant because it was judged by 13,000
undergraduate contestants in the High Fliers survey. 6
Google
Google has a distinct employer branding in the market. Their work style, facilities,
culture, policies and procedure are entirely different when compared to the other
organizations. The organization has a different innovative brand identity in the
recruitment market. According to many famous market surveys, Google was ranked
the second best place to work by many employees and fresh graduates.
The organization is very passionate about its employees and about how passionate
6
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Source: www.employerbrand.com
employees are about their work and commitment towards the organization. They
believe in creativity and innovation. The lifestyle and work culture of Google
employees can be seen in the following advertisement.
Source: www.googleimages.com
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Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart is the worlds largest retail chain market that plans to enter India within
a few years. It is planning employer branding in India through advertising firms,
in order to create a strong relationship with the employees for its operations in India
like logistics and cash-carry business. There is a huge labor crunch in many sectors
including the retail sector, since most of the workforce shows interest in the IT sector.
In India, Wal-Mart has a tie-up with Bharti Enterprises for its requirements of
workforce, of about 2500 professionals at various levels of the organization for its
human-capital-intensive Indian operations. Wal-Mart plans to spend huge amounts
for creating employer brand in India.
from
the
survey
Source: http://retailindiatv.blogspot.com
/2007/03/wal-mart-going-for-employer-branding.html
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the survey, are Procter & Gamble, Google, PepsiCo, Nike, BCG and Starbucks,
which stood in the top five in relation to consumer goods. 7
http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/apple_among_the_ideal_employers/
http://www.beakware.com/resources/employment-brand.php
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Conclusion
Employer branding, which is a very significant concept and a very complex process,
needs to be handled with care while planning, processing and implementing.
The message and promise of an organization, which is executed well,
will certainly raise the corporate brand image in the market. As a result, more work
force would show interest in working with the organization. It helps for better talent
management, for acquiring the right fit, and also for staying ahead of its competitors.
Finally, it creates immense and extensive bonding with stakeholders, employers and
forthcoming employees in the market.
Reference # 50J-2008-03-05-01
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http://www.expressitpeople.com/20030512/cover.shtml
10
http://www.hrdirectorsclub.com/
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