All companies want to be successful. In 2010, such success is inevitably the result of acquiring the skills necessary for growth, retaining staff, developing them, and even better, commanding their loyalty. Why? Because human capital has become a major competitive advantage—it is increasingly rare, increasingly mobile and its contribution to a company is unique.
Would you like to improve your ability to retain skills in your organization? Get enough high-quality applications to allow you to meet market challenges? Looking for a way to improve your company’s performance? A way to stimulate employee engagement and increase their loyalty? Manage careers better? Foster cultural diversity?
Some 70% of large European companies have focused on their employer brand over the past few years. In North America, however, only 25% of large businesses have undertaken this process. And yet, all sizes of companies stand to benefit from promoting and positioning themselves as model employers. Such companies stand out from the competition and get more applications; strengthen their reputation and improve their top of mind; finally, they ensure their growth and stability by enhancing the appeal of their offer and their environment, and boosting staff retention and loyalty.
Definition of the employer brand
Building one’s employer brand refers to an approach for creating and then promoting a stimulating, satisfying and motivating job experience. It emerges from the desire of its leaders to build a successful company, stand out from the crowd and dominate their sector. It stems from the desire to become a model employer, via innovative or distinctive management methods, and by a company’s specific vision, mission and values. It aims to develop a collective project through top management’s commitment to current and future employees. The participation and involvement of personnel, their understanding and buy-in are the key success factors that allow the employer brand to achieve the strength required to then be communicated externally.
Much like a customer who becomes loyal to a company for its products and services, a strong employer brand generates similar benefits. The engagement and value conveyed by the company differentiate it from its competitors for the purpose of building customer loyalty. The employer brand process pursues similar objectives, except that it strives to build the loyalty of human capital and concerns the employee experience. The following table contrasts the two:
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Fostering customer loyalty |
Fostering employee loyalty |
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Keeping a customer is cheaper than getting a new one. |
Keeping an employee is cheaper than recruiting and training a new one. |
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Increasing company sales: Purchase frequency and average purchase are higher by loyal customers. |
Increasing the performance/contribution of employees: Greater self-reliance, creativity and engagement power teams and the business. |
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Decreased management costs: We know customers better and vice-versa. |
Decreased management costs: Employees have a better understanding of what’s expected of them and how to deal with their supervisors (and vice-versa). |
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Loyal customers recommend the company more often, and promote the company’s success and quality. |
Loyal employees become ambassadors for the company, since they talk positively about their employer and recommend the company. |
The employer brand is based on and develops via various factors such as job conditions, job satisfaction, quality of life at work, work/personal life balance, recognition at work, and sound management practices.
There are two factors that are essential to keep in mind. First, ask yourself about the strategies to be implemented to lead to the desired organizational performance. Second, this implementation must be managed consistently and your rhetoric should be in line with the company’s reality. Some organizations reflect wonderful conditions, climate or management practices, which candidates discover are not the case when they join the company.
Implementing an employer brand
An analysis of the company’s situation is required to initiate an employer brand approach. What management practices are used? How effective are they? What measures do you have in place at the various stages of your personnel’s employment life cycle? How do you define your work environment? What are employees’ and candidates’ perceptions about the kind of employer you are? What are their expectations?
Communicating your employer brand externally
There are a variety of means open to the company. For smaller budgets, many available channels exist through which to deploy your employer brand—in all your job ads and throughout your recruiting process, via a strategic internship program, the award of bursaries via various institutions, the corporate website, social and professional virtual networks, and contests for your partners, suppliers, customers and of course your employees, who remain your prime ambassadors.
Finally, the deployment of a strong employer brand is a strategy of choice for today’s companies, since employees and candidates will go towards or stay in companies with sound management practices, an appealing project, and a vision and values in line with a rich, distinctive employee experience.
Rémi Lachance, MBA, CHRP, is co-founder of Proxima Centauri, a human resources and organizational consulting company. Since 2008, he has coached and supported a variety of organizations in different fields including IT, consulting services, construction, manufacturing, and provincial and federal government agencies. Mr. Lachance is also a speaker on issues of current interest, including attracting, retaining and building staff loyalty. From 1996 to 2008, Mr. Lachance held human resources management and senior HR advisor positions. He is currently working on a PhD in management at Laval University.
Rémi Lachance, MBA, CHRP
CEO
Gestion Proxima Centauri inc.