Nowadays, companies are finding it more and more difficult to compete with each other to attract the best employees. Whilst the building of HR methods has advanced, many still believe that workers are attracted by “free tea and cookies” – overlooking the real values and perks of the job.
How an employer is perceived by a jobseeker – the value of HR
The concept of “employer brand” originated in the 1990s. It encompasses the functional, psychological and economic benefits that an employee receives from employment.
Human Resource Management is an effective tool for managing employees and job seekers and motivating them to achieve better performance or attracting them to join the company. Recent studies showed that, nowadays, material values are seen as less important than a harmonious and productive work environment.
That is why attracting professionals by offering a higher salary alone doesn’t work as it used to. You need to understand and create values that will attract applicants – this is what HR branding is about.
HR marketing is a step towards strengthening the positive image of a company as an employer. Among them are loyalty programs within the organisation – training programs, including pay while you learn the job schemes for probationers, free access to the gym, subsidised or even gratis dental and medical treatment, and so on – all perks of the job that are appreciated by different segments of the target audience.
HR branding and its stages of creation
- Hiring – attracting employees and conducting interviews.
- Adapting – challenging new employees in the intern process, which brings out their talents faster and helps them realise the career opportunities available.
- Protecting – taking action to ensure valuable workers don’t quit. Assessing KPIs and encouraging staff to see their potential for staying with their current employer.
- Dismissing – companies may receive negative feedback from disgruntled former workers. A good HR manager must therefore work through every dismissal and make the break as amiable as possible. For example, by conducting an exit interview, during which a person’s feelings about leaving may be explored and ensure their departure is amicable. You don’t want them posting their grudges and criticisms online.
Timing is everything with HR branding
It is necessary to constantly work to improve your company’s reputation. Carefully review the points listed below, and if at least two of these resonate with your organisation, immediately start working on your HR branding.
- You post a job, but there are few responses.
- You send out job offers, but they are not accepted, or the number of positive responses is small.
- Your competitors offer better salaries.
- Nobody knows about your company.
- Job seekers fail to turn up for interviews or just ditch such opportunities.
- Your staff turnover is high and vacancies for replacements placed at short notice.
To assess your current situation, ask ADVES to conduct a full background check on your reputation. From the results, you will be able to develop a strategy to improve your image.
Strong HR brand and its benefits
A company’s solid online reputation is often the main reason for someone to want to work for it. Its name and values often outweigh other factors, including the financial ones.
- A strong brand contributes to high competitiveness.
- Employee engagement, loyalty and productivity increase.
- Employer gets a wide selection of qualified candidates to choose from.
- KPIs increase.
If a person doesn’t like his job, he goes to work just for the money – to pay his bills. But if the firm he works for has a respected reputation, it makes him proud to be employed by them. He’ll be enthusiastic, loyal, productive and creative – a person who will throw himself completely into the job to make sure he doesn’t lose it but, instead, advance his career prospects.
Basic HR branding tools
- Brand Book describes the values and goals of the organisation, which should be equated with the values and goals of employees to do their best.
So what is an ‘ideal’ employee? It used to be what an employer deemed it to be in a particular job requirement. But that’s changed according to the latest research, which says that, in the modern workplace, both sides of the equation have to be taken into consideration. For example, a director and an employee may be asked the same question: “What qualities should a person have to work for the company for more than five years?” The replies will differ. The director may say that the employee should be responsible and satisfied with the salary. At the same time, the worker may answer that the person should be well educated, qualified for the position, and he/she should live nearby.
The Brand Book should include steps to strengthen the company’s HR reputation. It should be all about communication tactics and strategies to retain talented staff and build excellent internal communications whilst exercising proactive external HR branding to pull in valuable applicants.
Brand Book development is usually entrusted to third-party agencies but under the close supervision of a company’s HR manager and director. This approach allows better scope to advertise the benefits of the brand and develop an effective strategy for its promotion.
- Value Proposition – bonuses and benefits offered to employees:
- work specifics and working conditions;
- team culture;
- salary and bonuses;
- career perspectives.
- To measure the effectiveness of your HR branding, you need to evaluate the following within a specific time period:
- the number of applications for a vacancy;
- the time spent on finding the right person internally;
- the number of people who recommend the company;
- the financial performance of the company;
- the team’s effectiveness;
- the number of highly qualified applicants;
- the company’s website traffic.
- Also, the following should be identified:
- what new staff members think about the company during their job probation period;
- the reasons why staff leave.
Best HR marketing practices
A well-built HR strategy will help create a positive employer brand that will attract and retain valuable talent.
Monitoring and analysing company’s online reputation
In advance, prepare a semantic core – a list of search queries by which applicants are looking for your company. For example, you may use these keywords alongside your company’s name:
- ADVES + reviews;
- ADVES + employee reviews;
- ADVES + working conditions, etc.
Enter each request in the search box and view the first page (the top-10 results). Analyse if there is any negative content. Then, take a look at the bigger picture – discover if there is any feedback from current and former employees, going right back to when the company started. This analysis should give you a comprehensive understanding of what impression staff and current job seekers have had and do have about your company, what to do to improve matters in the workstream, and how to create an effective brand book and EVP.
Analyse the objectiveness of the negative. That’s to say, if a dismissed negligent employee complains online about the penalties he received, then his review is biased against you and your HR reputation.
Work through negative reviews on review platforms, responding on behalf of your organisation in a factual but firm manner. Describe the problematic situations which occurred from your perspective and provide the evidence to back up what you say, thereby countering the negative and unfair comments. Never get personal, even if you know your critic is wrong. If the review is fair, apologise. The image of the organisation depends on your behaviour on the Internet. Also, you can encourage your current employees to place positive reviews online, expressing what they enjoy about their work and why they are content in their job.
Questionnaire
Ask staff members to complete anonymous ‘working comfort’ surveys. At the same time, the observance of confidentiality should not be in doubt. Ask for specifics on the pros and cons of working in the company. This way, you will increase the loyalty of employees. Analyse the questionnaires after completing the survey. To do this, divide workers into several groups: according to their needs, their values for the organisation, their problems. By doing so, you will get a better understanding of how to work with your team. Identify any negative trends and then develop a strategy to correct them.
Conclusion
In HR branding, the main goal is to attract talented people who are keen to work for the company. Companies with a positive image attract talented people who will, in turn, make a great contribution in the workplace. Thus, you ensure a reduction in the time and cost of finding new workers and assure a good selection of worthy candidates.
It’s also necessary for the lesser-known organisations and the newcomers to work on their HR reputation. If that includes your company, trust the ADVES team to analyse your reputation background and correct the negative impressions appearing online.
Remember, by analysing the reputation of a company and fixing it if needed, you will make it far more attractive to job seekers who will hopefully be falling over each other to come and work for you.