When someone accepts a position with a new employer, they are accepting on trust the messages and information provided by the employer on the nature of the organisation, its culture and its employment offering.
Whilst many candidates will act with a degree of caveat emptor as they make their decisions, most will have an expectation that the information provided is broadly based on reality.
An employment brand is a promise regarding the employment value of an employer provided to an employee. Getting the promise right can deliver significant commercial advantage through the attraction, engagement, retention and performance of talent. However, the effect of a negative gap between what was promised during the recruitment process and what is experienced by new employees can lead to significant performance, retention and engagement issues.
So, what are 5 common errors made by organisations and what can be done to mitigate them?
The organisation is not the employer brand
Studies have shown that the organisation attractors – size, market position, growth, sector etc. can account for as little as 5% of the attraction decision. However, many organisations employment messages often make organisation attractors the focal point of recruitment communications.
The challenge to mitigate this issue is about aligning the right stakeholders, creating a consensus around best practice and creating a partnership/employer branding platform comprising HR, communications, marketing and business stakeholders to ensure the understanding of the broadest possible context of employer branding and to develop and drive all activity from that platform. Leverage this platform to drive employer branding projects and recruitment marketing/branding related change.
Culture, Culture, Culture
Often summarised as "how things get done when nobody is looking", Culture is an area that requires the most qualitative measurement and accurate articulation as it is foundational to the day to day experiences of employees. Unfortunately, most organisations do not measure their culture in any qualitative way and as such the messages are often at significant odds with the reality. Likewise, many hiring managers and recruiters struggle to deliver a detailed and consistent articulation of the culture.
Understanding, documenting and articulating corporate culture is challenging and it can be difficult to align stakeholders to a common view, particularly when the reality is at odds with what is currently communicated. However, defining a framework to build up a valid cultural picture is a great first step – an example is the OCAI (organisational cultural assessment instrument) but there are many others. The important thing is to choose a template structure and measure, investigate and articulate the culture consistently using that framework.
Employment Value Proposition (EVP)
The EVP includes those elements of the employment offering that relate to the nature of the work itself. The EVP, along with corporate culture, affords employees the greatest opportunity to compare and contrast one employer with another. Typical elements include: salary, bonus and benefits, career development, training, quality of work, management quality, quality of colleagues, flexibility etc.
Given the importance of the EVP, it's surprising how many organisations do not specifically measure their EVP, preferring a generalised and subjective articulation to a data led, structured approach. As with culture, hiring managers and recruiters also struggle with a clear, consistent and detailed articulation of employment value.
Gathering and analysing primary data on an EVP and challenging the resulting assumptions in stakeholder forums can provide a powerful foundation to identify common EVP strengths from which a common and valid employer brand can be constructed. Likewise, it can ensure that areas for development are qualitatively identified for mitigation.
Leverage the common EVP strengths and the cultural realities in to a realistic brand substantiation statement (narrative on the strengths of a employers offering) to embed into recruitment messages. Then distil an employer brand slogan around which you can build your recruitment marketing communications and on-going employer brand equity.
The Corporate Leadership Council provides an excellent framework and interesting research on EVP elements and can provide a great template to build your own survey and tools to develop your employer brand
Embedding the message
Many organisations that have developed a strong and valid employer brand often fail to truly embed the message at every candidate touch point. Even with investment in recruitment marketing material, on and off line, it is difficult for candidates to find a detailed qualitative understanding of culture and employment value.
Try to find it on your own corporate site against a benchmark of comprehensiveness and you may struggle. Likewise, when you get to front line recruiters and hiring managers, few are capable of consistently articulating a structured overview.
Evaluate what is currently available to candidates on-line and ensure that candidates can easily find comprehensive content either on-line or via a downloadable PDF. At the very least it will save recruiters briefing time later and will drive self-selection for candidates with whom the culture does not resonate. Likewise, look at role profiles as an opportunity to further reinforce messages. Utilise your off-line materials to reinforce key messages whilst driving candidates on-line for a more comprehensive overview.
Understand who engages with potential employees and at which stages. Have a communication plan for each stage and stakeholder, along with an appropriate briefing template. An internal employer branding intranet or downloadable PDF file is a great place to start, along with regular remindative stakeholder communication on the importance of driving valid and consistent messages to potential employees.
When it comes to employer branding, the further from the source the weaker the message can be. When using agencies and search firms, and indeed employee referrals, it's essential to ensure that the employer branding message is delivered with quality and consistency. Ensure that partners are briefed and measure candidate experience of briefing during the recruitment process.
Feedback mechanisms
With annual engagement surveys, exit interviews and the ease of cheap high quality internet driven bespoke surveys, information on the employment brand and various stakeholders perspectives on it have never been easier to obtain. However, many organisations neglect to utilise existing data or to gather specific data on candidates or employees perspectives. This makes data driven insights, interventions and improvements difficult.
Develop specific surveys including a candidate experience survey, based around a common template, to understand various stakeholders' perspectives on the EVP, culture, organisation attractors and the quality of the briefing received on the employer brand. Include surveys to: New employees on joining and after 6 months; Rejected candidates; Employees leaving the organisation – to understand what their perspectives are and what they are rejecting about the employers' EVP.
Establish teams to analyse, report on findings and to make recommendations on initiatives to improve outcomes.
Whilst this blog has been written with the focus on employer branding as a recruitment tool, clearly branding for current employees can also have a significant performance impact. However, given the breadth of the subject, I decided not to include in this article.
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