Why Employer Brand Is So Important

Why Employer Brand Is So Important 

What is Employer Branding

Having a prestigious employer brand is  so important for an organization’s strategy because it helps companies to recruit better candidates.

The first article regarding the subject of , “The Employer Brand”, was published in 1996 by Ambler and Barrow, where they define the concept as “the package of functional, economic and psychological benefits provided by employment, and identified with the employing company” (Ambler & Barrow, 1996)

The research by Backhaus and Tikoo (2004) contributed to a further conceptualizing of the phenomena by creating a theoretical framework and they define EB as “the process of building an identifiable and unique employer identity” and the employer brand as “a concept of the firm that differentiates it from its competitors” .

According to Sullivan (2004) employer branding is as “a targeted, long-term strategy to manage the awareness and perceptions of employees, potential employees, and related stakeholders with regards to a particular firm”.

Martin et al. (2011) further developed the concept and define it as “a generalized recognition for being known among key stakeholders for providing a high-quality employment experience, and a distinctive organizational identity which employees value, engage with and feel confident and happy to promote to others”.

Based on the research presented ’’Employer Branding’’  is here defined as “a strategy of internal and external communication of the unique attributes that establishes the identity of the firm as an employer and what differentiates it from others, with the aim of attracting and retaining potential and current employees.

Benefits of Employer Branding  

According to Taylor (2010) there are three main benefits of employer branding and those are related to recruitment, retention and performance.

·         
      
      Help retain employees and recruit new ones

A Strong employer brand will help employees to feel proud about them self being a member of the prestigious organization. Being a member of a right company is a so important fact of the employees.

Majority of employees who are searching for a job via social media prior applying and through  they have some sort of idea about the employer & they will able to take some idea about the employer expectation & see if they potentially fit to the organization culture.

·  Reduce the recruiting cost & Employee become the  ambassadors of  organization 

If the employer has well-established brand then they don’t need to spend much on recruiting process. Potential & interested candidates will apply for the positions naturally and the employer can spend this money to branding or on product/service development which will help to get ahead from the competitors.

The current employees becomes the brand ambassadors of the organization and as a result if the more current employees talk positively about the organization, the more organization get good &  talented candidates. Also when new candidates continue the same practice ,this help the brand become stronger without spending much on marketing because awareness increased word of mouth.

Performance

When the brand awareness is increased the organization performance increase parallel.

Internally ,the employer brand generates value by creating a unifying and strong culture as well as increased employee satisfaction and commitment(Backhaus and Tikko,2004;Gaddam, 2008;Edwards, 2010)

The employer brand has an indirect effect on the profitability through increased performance and commitment as well as increased customer satisfaction(Gaddam, 2008)

Additional benefits includes more potential candidates,more internal recruitment,lower time-to-hire,lower cost-to-hire,lower absenteeism,increased job satisfaction and a positive spine-off effect on the organization's product and corporate brand(Beardwell and Claydon, 2010)

References

Ambler, T. and S. Barrow, 1996. The employer brand. Journal of Brand Management

Backhaus, K. and S. Tikoo, 2004. Conceptualizing and researching employer branding. Career Development International.

Sullivan, J., 2004. Eight elements of a successful employment brand. ER Daily, 23February. Available from http://www.ere.net/2004/02/23/the-8-elements-of-asuccessful

Martin, G., P.J. Gollan and K. Grigg, 2011. Is there a bigger and better future for employer branding? Facing up to innovation, corporate reputations and wicked problems in SHRM. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(17)

Gaddam, S., 2008. Modeling employer branding communication: The softer aspect of HR marketing management

Edwards, M.R., 2010. An integrative review of employer branding and OB theory

Beardwell, J. and T. Claydon, 2010. HRM a contemporary approach