Brand Awareness Quotient: A Metric for Effectiveness of Employer Branding Initiatives

Introduction

In today's fluid employment environment, companies feel intense pressure to better define and promote their employment attributes, both internally to current employees and externally to prospective employees. This is known as “employment branding.” The goal of employment branding is to create an effective “employment brand,” a package of employment attributes that are readily identified with the company, and serves to attract and retain a desirable workforce. This package of attributes consists of “functional, economic and psychological benefits of working for a company.” It is essentially the process of placing an image of being a great place to work in the minds of a targeted candidate pool.

A strong employer brand is related to:

• •

  Pride of individuals expected from being organizational members

• •

  Quality and Quantity of the Applicant pool.

• •

  Stable and positive workforce attitudes and organizational performance as compared to broader market.

• •

  Reduction in new hire premiums

According to a LinkedIn survey of more than 4,700 talent acquisition professionals, companies with a strong employer brand save up to 50% per hire¹. That’s more money you can save or put into strategic use for your business. Employer branding is how an organization markets what it has to offer to both potential and existing employees. A strong employer brand should connect an organization's values, people strategy and HR policies and be intrinsically linked to a company brand.

Every organization has internal and external Stakeholders. Employees, Managers, Executives, Board members, Union members and others who reside inside the company and benefit directly from their contribution to the growth of the company are the internal stakeholders. They commit to serve the organization. The concept of internal marketing specifies that employees of an organization are its first market. The most important of them are the Employees as they play a major role in the growth and sustainability of the organization. Organization culture reflects the brand promise made to its recruits and hence it becomes important to carry out effective internal marketing. Hence, internal branding becomes the major goal of internal marketing and aims to develop workforce committed to the set of values and organizational goals established by the firm. The bond and synergy between the brand value and the business model brings the feel good factor for the employee which in turn makes them to stay longer and be more engaged, leading to higher productivity. ‘Employer branding’ minimizes the loss of talented employees and enhances the level of staff engagement. It improves employee relations and helps in increasing the productivity thus yielding higher profitability to the organization. A good employer brand ensures that the brand is in the top choice list or is a ‘brand of choice’. Employees who join the company and stay with it are better able to connect themselves with the brand and find it easier to align themselves as per the organization’s visions and values. They commit to serve the company with high performance. In short, it helps in maintaining the organization’s long term competitiveness and its core competencies.