Strategic Role of HR in Employer Branding

 

Figure 01: Full Tilt Consulting (Facebook)

Having a strong employer brand is no longer optional. This is important if you’re looking for the best talent in the industry for your company. Whether you have a great work environment, win numerous awards or employees have complaints about your company, your employer brand can either make or break you.

Companies know how desirable a good reputation is, but the exact importance of employer branding in HR is sometimes overlooked, or worse, ignored. With talent shortages becoming a growing issue, employer branding plays a vital role in helping you attract, retain, and develop top talent.

What are the significance factors of employer Branding HR (Rassool,2023) 

1. For Recognition

 A strong employer brand can earn your company a lot of recognition and quickly increase your brand awareness. All qualified candidates strive to work for reputable, respected organizations that have successfully cultivated their employer brand. So when you market yourself as an exceptional employer of choice, you'll have no problem attracting top talent.

Employer brand instills a sense of belonging and allows all candidates to truly understand your work environment. The first thing you can do is lay the foundation by promoting your values ​​on your website, branded career pages, and social media platforms. Additionally, you can always broadcast moments of achievement on LinkedIn, such as winning a respected award, your massive recruiting initiative, or working with a leading brand around the world. When you do this, why not highlight the experiences and success stories of new and existing employees to help you easily convert the right candidates. 

2. Improve the employee Retention 

3. Increase the Business Performance 

Key Factors effected to employer Branding 

Figure 02. Factors influencing for employer branding

1. Salary & Wages paid by the employer - If the employer pays well among to the other competitors in the same industry, that will lead the employer branding to attract the best employees 

2. Employee Benefits given by employer  : Employee Benefits given by employer: Another factor is what benefits employees receive if they are on that employer's team. If the company facilitates more benefits for employees such as insurance covers, career advancement, bonuses, welfare facilities, etc, Those will lead the attract and retain employees.

3. Job Security 

4. Working Environment

5. Work life balance 

Example for the best employer in the world according to the research survey

According to (Universum Blog,2023) reveal the most top ranking attractive employers in 2023

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/universum_worlds-most-attractive-employers-2023-ranking-activity-7119649683999723521-QEOk?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

 

Example- In the Business  * 1. Apple 

                                              2. Google 

                                              3. J..P Morgan

                                              4. Amazon

                                              5. Microsoft 

According to Alan Price Human Resource Management, 4th edition Book: (Online Blog, 2023)

"The basis of employer branding is the application of the same marketing and branding practices to a company's human resource activities (specifically, recruitment and retention) as it uses for consumer-targeted marketing and branding efforts. In other words, the business markets its brand image to its staff. And just as customers will cease buying a company's products or services when a promise is unfulfilled, its employees will also leave if the company fails to live up to its employer brand promises."

By Analysis  the above studies reveal the employer branding having relationship with HR Functions, (whatishumanresource blog, 2022)

 - Employer branding requires alignment of management and HR practices to ensure the employee experience matches the image being portrayed. 

- Employer branding requires the work environment and experience to sell the corporate image to human resources.

- Employer brand refers to an effective and talent management system—recruitment, induction, training and development, and performance management.

What HR professionals help to develop and improve the employer branding

According to Cascio,Et al (2016) mentioned the following activities can perform as HR Professionals to develop and improve the company branding. 

1. Manage anonymous surveys, use suggestions box and use exit interviews.

Understand current and previous thoughts, opinions, and concerns of employees. Find out what's important to them and seek their advice before proceeding professionally with internal and external communications efforts.

2. Alling the company management's messages to strategic decision and objective of the company

3.  The organization's internal and external actions and its values ​​should convey the same brand message. All the employee including the management representing the organization brand. 

4. Value of the employee in the organization which is making them feel they are part of them, which could add to the employer branding activities also. Making the videos, discussions those Sharing the employees' ideas, and experiences through their career paths. Those activities can be sharing different communication models. Eg: Social Activities

Eg: MAS Holding - Doing the activity name as " MAS' Women Go Beyond Program 

                                                Source : MAS (2023) Youtube

5. Competitive compensation package:  If the employer makes a range of salary slabs considering industrial packages which they paid in the market then employees feel them appropriate and fair paid for their service. It will lead to retaining the employees within the company. A manager should do the Salary

survey annually to ensure the company pays a reasonable package for employee positions. If the company pays well, new candidates will attract positions.

6. Treat each employee with respect - Company should be equally treat the all of the employee of in the organization. It will leading the building the trust and loyalty for organization. Eg: Respecting diversity team and inclusion. HR specialties should be do the engagement activities for drive the activity. Eg: Arrange special events, birthday celebration, recognition of the special achievement of  employee. 

Conclusion 

HR Professionals contribute to employer branding and its strength process. As mentioned above, factors need to measure the effect on employer branding, therefore as professionals need to measure the indicators of the outcomes. The company's ability to attract top talent candidates, considering the engagement level of the employees, customer satisfaction as well as financial performance, etc, would be used for the measurement of the branding process to HR.

HR professionals play a strategic role in creating and maintaining employer branding within the company. When it comes getting the recruitment process and retention process, first HR person should know about the company values before the publicity of the branding thing because without knowing company values, one could not attract the potential candidate. The organization can make the recruiting process by aligning the organization's expectations. Organizations can make the recruiting processes increasingly successful by using their employer brand in the human resource management sense. The efficacy can be evidenced if the employer brand is conveyed correctly to people. Candidates who are appropriate for the company are more likely to apply, and those who are not appropriate do not apply, which implies a rebalancing of the hiring process of the organization.

 

References 

Cascio, W. F. and Graham, B. Z. (2016) "New Strategic Role for HR: Leading the Employer-Branding Process," Organization Management Journal: Vol. 13 (online) Available from https://scholarship.shu.edu/omj/vol13/iss4/2 ( Accessed 09th April 2024)

LinkedIn (Undated) How can HR use social media to boost employer branding?(LinkedIn)  Undated. Available fromhttps://www.linkedin.com/advice/3/how-can-hr-use-social-media-boost-employer-branding?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&utm_campaign=share_via ( Accessed 09th April 2024)

MAS ( 2023 )ජීවන ගමන සහ වෙනස අතර අරමුණ සොයා ගිය MAS LINEA INTIMO ආයතනයේ භාග්‍යා සෙනවිරත්නගේ කතාව (Video) Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b0lrMJVuA (Accessed 12 April 2024). 

Rassool,T (2022) The Importance of Employer Branding in HR: 7 Big Things Recruiters Need to Know in 2022.(blog entry ) 18 July. Available at https://www.elevatus.io/blog/the-importance-of-employer-branding-in-hr/#:~:text=Employer%20branding%20is%20important%20for%20recognition,-By%20default%2C%20fostering&text=Therefore%2C%20when%20you%20market%20yourself,glimpse%20into%20your%20work%20environment (Accessed 10 April 2024)

Zaware, N. (2020) The Significance of Employer Branding in Human Resource Management for Organizations. SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol 04,  ISSN: 2456-6683 (Online) Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342398645_The_Significance_of_Employer_Branding_in_Human_Resource_Management_for_Organisations/link/6071fd9b299bf1c911c1f3c9/download?_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIiwicGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIn19(Accessed 10 April 2024).