Daily Concerns of an HR Professional, or How to Build Employer Branding

In the current employee market, more and more companies are struggling to find the right candidates for the job. Many employers and HR department employees wonder daily how to attract candidates and how to retain employees.

Browsing popular job portals, we can read in most advertisements that they offer, among others, development opportunities, medical packages, life insurance, flexible working hours, Multisport cards, etc. However, it turns out that these are now standard offers provided by most companies.

How can we reach the minds and hearts of candidates, and what can we do to stand out among other employers? There is also the other side of the coin – it is worth asking ourselves what we can do to gain the loyalty of the employees we already have on board and even engage them as brand ambassadors.

The answer to this question is a coherent, credible, and consistently implemented Employer Branding strategy, directed both externally and internally within the organization.

Where should we start building employer branding?

Just like with building a marketing strategy, we should conduct a diagnosis of the current state, market and competition analysis, and get to know the target group thoroughly.

Then, depending on the results, specific actions should be planned, starting with building the EVP (Employee Value Proposition), defining Key Success Factors, and developing concepts and plans for specific actions, such as building an online image (regarding external actions) or employee benefit policies.

The essence of EVP is uniqueness and credibility. Any inconsistency, insincerity, and lack of consistency can backfire on the employer. Therefore, it is extremely important to build communication on an emotional level, so that by appealing to positive associations, you are remembered as an exceptional employer and reach the candidate’s heart.

Heart, economy, and functionality.

Oprócz aspektu emocjonalnego, którym może być reputacja, marka, czy misja i bycie częścią „czegoś większego” na EVP składają się także element ekonomiczny oraz funkcjonalny.

Aspekt ekonomiczny dotyczy wynagrodzeń i benefitów. Wynagrodzenia powinny być rynkowe i cyklicznie aktualizowane na podstawie branżowych benchmarków czyli analizy wiarygodnych raportów wynagrodzeń. Dzięki temu tzw. poczucie sprawiedliwości społecznej oraz tzw. podstawowe czynniki higieny pracownika (według motywacyjnej teorii Herzberga) będą zaspokojone. Warto przygotować dość szeroki wachlarz benefitów, aby móc dostosować je do grupy docelowej.

Benefits for Generation Z singles and Generation X employees

Salary is still one of the most frequently mentioned factors for someone wanting to change jobs. Another aspect is employee benefits. During one of the surveys I conducted for a large company employing over 2000 people, it turned out that young and active singles from Generation Z need different benefits (e.g., sports cards, integration outings, access to modern work tools and gadgets) than young parents, who appreciated maternity benefits, medical packages for children, or company kindergartens.
On the other hand, employees from Generation X, as well as busy managers who care for teenage children and elderly parents at the same time, need Concierge services (private assistant), including for elderly family members, as well as a „senior” medical package, and for themselves a richer medical package (including broader diagnostics, rehabilitation, and dentistry).

Flexible solution: cafeterias.

Current trends in benefits policy management indicate that more and more employers, aware of how diverse the needs of their diverse employee teams can be, are using so-called cafeterias. They assume the possibility of individual choice of benefit packages by each employee within a predetermined amount and the possibility of flexible configuration changes, e.g., once a year. The third area of EVP is the so-called functional aspect. It is worth asking how an average specialist or support staff member functions in our company. Do they feel like a cog in the machine or part of a close-knit team working together on an interesting project? Do they only follow the orders of an authoritarian boss, or can they propose and implement their own ideas? Do they have the opportunity for personal development, using mentoring, participating in training and project groups, or have they not learned anything new for years because they perform the same routine tasks? How many of our employees are promoted internally and have the opportunity to develop their career paths? Do we allow employees to work remotely when needed, or do we offer flexible working hours?

EVP and the honesty of the company

If the culture of an organization has established that staying late and taking work home is the norm, we should not be surprised that it will be difficult to recruit employees of this company as brand ambassadors. Certainly, at this point, we will not be credible by placing in a job advertisement that we offer „work-life balance.” After a month of work, a new employee facing reality will feel deceived… Therefore, in my opinion, credibility, honesty, and consistency in building EVP are more important than competing to offer massages to employees working 11 hours a day or access to billiards and table football, which they do not have time to use anyway…

Employee Engagement Survey

When building an internal Employer Branding strategy, it is also worth starting with an internal audit and diagnosis of the current situation, not only to have a reference point for measuring the effectiveness of our actions. One of the basic tools helpful in such an analysis is Employee Engagement Surveys. It is worth selecting the methodology and tool/survey and research methodology to the situation in which the company is. Communication in such a project is extremely important, emphasizing the anonymity of the survey and encouraging as many employees as possible to participate in the survey. The very fact that employees have the opportunity to express themselves is significant. However, the most important thing is what we, as an employer, will do with the results and report. It is crucial to take specific actions and implement remedial programs, which should be „indicative” and then measure their effectiveness. The essence of such programs is cyclicality, so we can compare, for example, employee satisfaction index year by year.

In response to the results of such surveys and as elements of employer branding action plans, it is worth considering standing out in areas such as:

  • A coherent strategy of internal communication (including the development of modern internet platforms with the possibility of creating employee groups, chat with the management board, employee interviews, employee newsletters, etc.)
  • Onboarding (e.g., „Welcome pack” to greet, Induction onboarding program, an assigned employee known as a „buddy” who will welcome the new person in the company and show the practical aspects of functioning in the organization, and a mentor who will introduce the work’s substantive aspects, and perhaps gamification*, which, by using mechanisms known from games in a real work environment, will engagingly involve and effectively guide the employee through the onboarding period)

  • Talent Management (implementing a Hi-Potential program and enabling their versatile development)

– CSR projects engaging employees who feel they are doing something important and helping others together with the company
– Modern tools for development and engagement building, e.g., Virtual Reality training, implementation of a gamification platform for HR and business processes, etc.
– Engaging brand ambassadors and employee referral programs, and many others

It is extremely important to consistently measure and account for planned employer branding activities. These activities can also be approached through the lens of „Employee Experience” – the experiences of an employee throughout their life cycle in the company. We prepare different image-building activities to „tempt” candidates (online activities, or even media advertisements), and slightly different ones during the recruitment process itself (e.g., unusual activities like an escape room).

Even when parting ways with an employee, we should conduct an „Exit Interview.” This allows us, as an organization, to learn and consistently audit experiences at every stage of the „employee life cycle.”

In the next article, I will share a specific case study on the branding strategy of one of the companies where I served as Interim HR Manager.

The author of the article is Beata Molska – Interim HR Manager, business trainer, coach, economic psychologist, long-term HR Director in the financial and distribution industries, and Managing Director of the HR consulting and training company HR ACCELERATE
*Partners of HR ACCELERATE:

Familia Concierge Sp. z o.o. www.familiaconcierge.pl
GrywIT Anna Jankowiak www.grywit.pl