- Jo Faragher
With surveys predicting widespread skills shortages, you’d have thought that candidate-hungry employers would have got to grips by now with their branding strategies.
But despite often now having to fight over top candidates, research by talent management company Rethink Group suggests that too many businesses are missing out on star recruits because they’re not effectively communicating their employer brand.
So although almost three-quarters say that employer brand is on their corporate agenda, that message doesn’t appear to be getting through. And one of the key sticking points is that the internal culture is simply not matching up – this was the case for half of those surveyed.
Could this be a case of “this is how we want to be” clashing with the dim reality of “this is how we actually are?” After all, it’s one thing to claim on your careers website that you’re a dynamic, agile, fast-moving business when in reality it takes six weeks just to get a day’s holiday signed off.
According to Rethink’s research, companies in Ireland are more likely to have an internal culture in place that is helping them to achieve their branding ambitions. One of the ways these employers are achieving this is through closer partnership between marketing and HR – ensuring that the external messages being communicated are an authentic reflection of what life is actually like.
It’s also important to ensure that, while senior leaders have buy in with decisions on employer brand and in driving it forward, they do not try to impose it rigidly – that different departments can ‘walk the walk’ in their own way. Remember too, that by being honest about the culture of the company, candidates who will fit in with this culture will naturally be attracted to that employer – those that don’t will self de-select.
A strong employer brand is not only helpful in recruitment, it can support an organisation in meeting its goals. Tying appraisals to employees’ performance against certain values relevant to that brand (such as great customer service), for example, can drive up business performance too. Employees begin to live the values and culture of the company, and will often go the extra mile.