Importance of Employer Branding

Importance of Employer tagEmployer Branding1.0 IntroductionEmployer Branding is the most little people precaution returnic in todays flattened global business environment. The economic downturn has further brought attention to the importance of people in delivering the rat promise. Increasingly the sh beholder nurse of a come with rests in its intangible assets e.g. its people, reputation and culture. Organizations spend millions on their corporate brand. But how much do they entrust in their Employer Brand?Employer stigmatisation plays an important role in attracting and restraining talent in the face of a shrinking talent pool. HR professionals ar considered in the beginning responsible for employer stigmatisation initiatives, with most of the companies reporting HR as one of the key stakeholders in employer brand management. While employer stigmatization is predominantly seen as the celestial orbit of HR, market baseing too plays an important role2.0 Literature re view2.1 What is Branding?It is a way to package in institution about functional attributes, economic value, and mentalbenefits so its easily understood and absorbed by the target audience.Marketers today engage in two contrastive types of mark namely external branding and employer ( cozy) branding. The latter yet to pick up in full speed, has tremendous authorization in this increasingly competitive scenario.2.2 out-of-door BrandingDefining External Branding The image that an establishment projects to consumers, suppliers, confideors, and the public.An external brand gives learning on the attributes of the goods or services to flow rate and potential buyers.It answers questions such as2.3 Internal BrandingDefining Employer Branding The image that employees have about what what type of employer an formation is. Whether the brand is obvious or implicit- and even if it has not been deliberately developed- every organization has an internal brand.An Employer Brand (or Internal Brand) gives current and potential employees tuition about the engagement experience and what is expected of them.It answers questions such asEmployer branding can be defined as a form of the corporate branding by which companies establish an image of services they provide, in order to attract or impress employees (Bates, 2001).The below provides an overview of the different types of branding. Product branding focuses on communication to customers about the companys products. Corporate branding communicates the companys financial results to the stakeholders.In the marketing literature, the importance of reconciling perceptions of the firms internal and external image in managing the congruence of all brand messages has been recognized (Dukerich and Carter 2000 Duncan and Moriarty 1998). Not only does this positively influence the perceptions of these messages among employees, potential employees, and customers, but it also ensures that employees argon properly aligned with the b rand and what it represents (Keller 2002). This allows employees to live the brand and reinforces corporate values and expectations of performance among bran- bleak and living employees (Ind 2001). Ind also recognizes that around companies have de facto employer brands without a formalised marketing approach. However, at a time when the financial markets are increasingly recognizing human capital as a source of value for firms and shareholders (Cairncross 2000) Michaels et al. (2001) propose the explicit development and communication of the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to attract and uphold talented employees. Clearly, there are a number of different marketing inputs that contribute towards the formation of the employer brand, from the development of an EVP to recruitment marketing plans, and outputs which may require advertising, press coverage, sponsorship, word-of-mouth endorsement and contacts with employees (Kennedy 1977 Dowling 1994 2002 Stuart 1999). In this way, the formation of the employer brand image is closely associated with the firm in its role as an employer.In the recruitment literature, Gatewood et al. (1993) go up that the employer brand image is a particularly portentous predictor of early decisions made by peeled recruits about their employers. Turban et al (1998) find that employer brand image positively influences both applicant perceptions of recruiter behaviors and post-interview job and organizational attributes. As to how potential recruits form images of a particular organization, the phenomenon of signaling has been investigated and found to have an influence on employer brand image, particularly in the early stages of the recruitment process (Taylor Bergmann, 1987). That is, recruitment experiences are interpreted as signals of un liven organisational characteristics (Barber, 1998 Rynes, Bretz and Gerhart 1991). For example, job applicants may infer employer brand values based on their recruitment materials e.g. an org anization that emphasizes promotion and salary may be perceived as valuing dedication to career (Honeycutt Rosen 1997).Also, Goltz and Giannantonio (1995) found that recruits infer more positive characteristics about an organization when exposed to a friendly recruiter than an unfriendly one. Moreover, Rynes, Bretz and Gerhart (1991) find that line employees have a bigger signaling impact than staff recruiters and that both are conditioned by the feedback of applicants regarding their impressions of the employer brand image.Very often employer branding is thought to be restricted to recruitment communications and only be c at one timerned with the attraction of employees. In candor however, this is not the case. An employer brand explains how the organisation has been communication and engaging with all of its stake holders be it current, prospective or past employees.Another critical thing to be noticed is that unlike other branding initiatives, an employer brand is not a true brand in its own right. It is not something envisioned and executed by recruitment and advertising agencies that stands alone and separate. An employer brand will be successful only if it operates in conjunction with the organisations corporate and consumer brands.It therefore becomes pertinent to find a connect between employer brand and the existing brands and reflect the behaviours trooped finishedout the organisation, to investors and consumers. It should be able to bring out the real and the aspirational truth about accomplishmenting in an organisation and mirror the values that are exhibited through the external corporate and consumer brands. If there is a disconnect between the two, the brand promise that is assumption to new employees will vanish as the reality of working in a very different organisation to the one promised.The roots of the concept of employer branding str and so on back to the 1990s. However, due to uncomfortable market conditions and a grim street cor ner, the concept could not flourish completely and it has only been in the last five social classs that employer branding has become a study force.In 1996, Simon Barrow and Tim Ambler gave this definition We define the Employer Brand as the package of functional, economic and psychological Benefits provided by employment and identified with the employing company. The most significant role of employer branding is to provide a comprehensive framework for management to be able to define priorities, increase productivity and improve recruitment, retention and commitment.Employer branding may seem superficial from a certain percentageage point of view, since it is not directly helping in increasing the sales s and thus impacting prat lines but it is definitely here to stay. Organisations have realised that its people provide one of the few distinct competitive differentiators in todays world. Good talent management makes sense and employer branding is an important part of an organis ations armoury from now on. In order to be able to create a successful employer brand, there are three critical stakeholders who must be involved.Senior management to give insight into the vision, strategic intent, core objectives, competition landscape and reason of consumers attitudes towards the organisation.Key employee groups in order to give opinions on the activities that take place on the work floor, benefits, management and communication within the organisation.Relevant external labour pools to highlight their judgement of an organisation, any roadblocks to success and perception of the organisation in the market. Like all other kinds of branding exercises, employer branding does and will pay off.Following are some benefits to a good employer branding exerciseTrue differentiation in campuses from where recruitment is doneEnthusiastic and aspirational set of messages to be sent out to potential as well as existing employeesMainting a brand consistency through the candida te/new starter journeyA better understanding of how the organization is perceived externallyHigher engagement levels for the existing employeesFinancial returns can also be observed in the long run through efficient employer branding practices. If the right kind of employer branding exercise is done, it will lead to a reduction in the amount of money needed to invest to bring good people into the business.The Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is an important outcome of employer brand. It essentially comprises of the promise that the organization makes to current, future and potential employees. In the process of define an employer brand, the organizations EVP is automatically created.For example, on a new-made employer branding project for HSBC, it was found that the central tenet of the organisation was the investment in, and development of, their employees. The organisation invests hugely in its people, there are opportunities to work locally, nationally and internationally. Beca use of these reasons the EVP that was developed for HSBC was Here you can.As mentioned earlier, Employer branding is not just about reaching potential employees but also about the existing ones. It is about an employer promise which is consistently carried through all stages of employees experiences of that organisation through recruitment processes, into employment and then even after having odd the organization.There is a strong correlation between the engagement and commitment levels and the different stages in the lifecyle of the tenure in an organization. An employee who joins an organisation with an exemplary EVP will exhibit high levels of commitment compared to if he were joining the organization with a poor EVP. After a year, if the EVP is correctly managed, commitment will fall but not as low as the commitment level in organisations with a poor EVP.2.4 Current ScenarioA lot of work has been done on employer branding, its importance, characteristics etc. Firms from divers e industry sectors have formally defined, and are strategically managing, their employer brands. There is no doubt that many practitioners view having a successful employer brand as desirable but there has not been much progress on measuring the effectiveness of employer branding. Quantifying employer branding is very critical from new talent point of view as an index is psychologically better conceived and also making a comparison among organizations.Currently analytics companies such as Hewitt Associates and Mercer conduct surveys for the best employer brands once every year based on certain parameters. However, these surveys are valid only for a certain period of time and there is no utensil to compute the value of an employer brand at any other point of time.2.5 Absence of Measurement of Effectiveness of Employer BrandingSixty-two percent of respondents to a recent survey verbalize they support employer brand initiatives, but only 24% have metrics in place to measure these ini tiatives. The research was conducted by the Bernard Hodes spherical Network. Not surprisingly, The study reveals that a key driver for employer brand development is the need to acquire talent in a competitive global market, said Alan Schwartz, president and CEO. Other findings of the research includeThe most frequently cited key expectations of employer branding were ease in attracting candidates (84%) and recognition as employer of choice(82%).Ninety-four percent of respondents use their corporate Web sites more than other channels, such as printed materials, to promote the employer brand.Seventy-nine percent of respondents reported that HR is one of the key stakeholders in managing the employee brand.3.0 Research ObjectiveThe objective of the research is to develop a quantitative frame work on employer branding of organizations. As a first contour of this work, I would first identify key metrics to measure employer branding. The second phase of the study would develop a generic framework which would help new talent and/or organization to calculate the index of a brand as an employer.4.0 RationaleSuch a mathematical framework would help to pretend and compare the value of an employer brand at any point of time that would benefit all the stakeholders including current employees, potential recruits, competitors etc. It would enable organizations to understand if their efforts are in the right direction and how they stand vis-a-vis their competitors5.0 HypothesisAll organizations make efforts to establish themselves as sought after employer brands. However, the perception of the employer brand varies from soul to person be it a new talent or an existing employee.6.0 Research QuestionsIdentifying key attributes that employees/ new talent consider important when looking at an organization as an employer brand.Relative weightages given to the attributes identified aboveDeveloping an index to calculate comparable values for various employer brands across industr iesResearch methodologyResearch DesignThe study was divided in two phases. First phase was focussed on conducting an in depth secondary research along with qualitative primary research to identify wide range of attributes or metrics which impact employer branding of an organization. This was followed by the designing of questionnaire targeted at final year students at various post graduate colleges.The second phase of the study further analyzes the collected data to build up a mathematical kindred between these set of attributes and index of employer branding. The index would be a guide for new recruits to quantify the employer brand and also help them to compare employer branding of different employers.A sum up of 3 focus group discussions were conducted, which had respondents who were in their final year of graduation and could also be looked at as potential employment seekers.The participants in the FGD were students from management institutes like MICA, Lal Bahadur Shastri (D elhi) and Fore School (Delhi). Each group lasted for about approximately 90 minutes.The discussion guide contained questions about the respondents ideal workplaces, identification the organizations that they would like to work for and the reasons for it, the attributes considered while considering potential employers, employers that they would least be interested in along with the reasons for it. The discussion at long last concluded with the means and methods by which the students finally go about for seeking employment. The main objective of conducting focus group discussions was to come up with a set of attributes that capture all important aspects of employer branding. finished these focus group discussions I was able to arrive at a set of 48 attributes, all of which seemed extremely important from an ideal work place point of view. The following are the attributes that emerged from the various FGDs.A friendly and informal working environmentAn attractive overall compensation package (Basic, HRA, LTA) (fixed component)Application of intimacyBonuses (Variable Component)Brand name of the organizationCustomer-orientationEmotional attachment with organizationEncouragement for new initiativesFeel good factor with the organizationFinancial Health of participationFlexible working schedule relative frequency of appraisal cycleGaining career-enhancing experienceGlobal alignment of the organization (MNC)Good relationship with colleaguesGood relationship with superiors proceeds opportunitiesHumanitarian organisation gives back to societyImpression formed by recruiters of the organizationIndustry in which company operates innovative employer novel work practicesInnovative products and servicesInternationally diverse mix of colleaguesJob ContentJob content and satisfactionJob security within the organizationKnowledge manduction opportunitiesKnowledgeable supervisorLeadership style of supervisorNon-monitory benefits (medical check-ups, insurance at work place, c lub memberships, maternity/ paternity leave)Opportunities for overseas exposurePositive feedback from current or previous employeesProducts (essentials, luxury etc)Quality of Top ManagementReputation of the organizationRewards recognitionScope for creativityScope for lateral movement agate line OptionsStress-free working environmentSupportive and encouraging colleaguesSupportive supervisorSynchronization between corporate goals and employee future plansTraining and development of its employeesVision of LeadershipWebsite of the organizationWorking hours/ weekWorking in shiftsAll these attributes were tested in the survey instrument to arrive at the final set of metrices for measuring the value of employer branding.Employer Branding in Times of RecessionThere are various points of views on how box has impacted employerbranding. On one hand, the thought process says that recession has increased the human resources because of widespread layoffs and thus made employer branding relative ly less important. During the recession periods, one of the primary objectives in all the organizations was to increase the top lines while managing to reduce the bottom lines. And this was made possible by showing a number of employees the way out.Another point of view towards the impact of recession claims that it is at these times that an organizations behaviour towards its employees goes through a litmus test. This is the timefor organizations to ensure not to spoil their employer brand by large scale endpoint of employment or general misbehaviour with its existing employees. Infact this is the time to step in and make efforts towards strengthening the employer brand along with being able to retain the talent in the organization. As has been noted by many HR experts, it always easier to retain an existing and trained employee rather than to get a new one. Thus, to conclude according to this second school of thought, employer branding becomes all the more critical in times of re cession, making it even more important to retain existing talent.Data CollectionRespondents 102 respondents from Delhi and Ahmedabad, all in the final year of graduation from management institutes.Section 1 DemographicsThe demographics include variables such as gender, age, total number of years of work experience, monthly kinfolk income, area of management specialization.demographic VARIABLE GENDERWhat is your gender?Frequency part well-grounded percentageaccumulative percentageValid1. Male6462.762.762.72. Female3837.337.3100.0 add102100.0100.0DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLE AGEWhat is your age?Frequency percentValid shareCumulative PercentValid1. Under 20 years76.96.96.92. 20-24 years6866.766.773.53. 25-34 years32.92.976.54. 35-44 years2322.522.599.05. 45 years and above11.01.0100.0 chalk up102100.0100.0DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLE TOTAL NUMBER OF YEARS OF WORK EXPERIENCEWhat is your total number of years of work experience?FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid1. No experience2928 .428.428.42. Less than a year3534.334.362.73. 1-2 years3029.429.492.24. 2-3 years54.94.997.15. More than 3 years32.92.9100.0Total102100.0100.0DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLE MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD INCOMEWhat is your monthly household income?FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid1. less than Rs. 25,00087.87.87.82. Rs. 25,000- Rs. 50,0001817.617.625.53. Rs. 50,000- Rs. 1,00,0005957.857.883.34. More than Rs. 1,00,0001716.716.7100.0Total102100.0100.0DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLE AREA OF SPECIALIZATIONWhat is your area of specialization?FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid1. Marketing3635.335.335.32. Media2019.619.654.93. Market Research/ Analytics109.89.864.74. finance3029.429.494.15. HR54.94.999.06. Operations11.01.0100.0Total102100.0100.0DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLE ASPIRED INDUSTRYWhich industry do you aspire to work in?FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid1. Consulting4342.242.242.22. Manufacturing1716.716.758.83. Media1413.713.772.54. IT32.92.975.55. Finance1817.617.693 .16. Others76.96.9100.0Total102100.0100.0Section 2 Information SoughtThis section includes the data collected to understand the sources of information used by students to know more about a potential employer and the nature of information that is sought while developing an understanding about the potential employer.SOURCES OF INFORMATION TO KNOW or so A GIVEN COMPANYWhat are your sources of information to know about a given company?1. PeersFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid17068.6100.0100.0 lacking transcription3231.4Total102100.0What are your sources of information to know about a given company?2. ColleaguesFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid14140.2100.0100.0MissingSystem6159.8Total102100.0What are your sources of information to know about a given company?3. Family membersFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid13332.4100.0100.0MissingSystem6967.6Total102100.0What are your sources of information to know about a given company?4. Online searchFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid17270.6100.0100.0MissingSystem3029.4Total102100.0What are your sources of information to know about a given company?5. Company personnelFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid15150.0100.0100.0MissingSystem5150.0Total102100.0What are your sources of information to know about a given company?6. Press reportsFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid13029.4100.0100.0MissingSystem7270.6Total102100.0What are your sources of information to know about a given company?7. OthersFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid12221.6100.0100.0MissingSystem8078.4Total102100.0NATURE OF INFORMATION desireWhat is the nature of information you look for when applying to a company?1. Type of workFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid16260.8100.0100.0MissingSystem4039.2Total102100.0What is the nature of information you look for when applying to a company?2. Investor informationFrequencyPercentValid Per centCumulative PercentValid12423.5100.0100.0MissingSystem7876.5Total102100.0What is the nature of information you look for when applying to a company?3. personalized experience of employees in that companyFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid14241.2100.0100.0MissingSystem6058.8Total102100.0What is the nature of information you look for when applying to a company?4. Best Employers Survey rankingFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid12524.5100.0100.0MissingSystem7775.5Total102100.0What is the nature of information you look for when applying to a company?5. Work life sleepFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid15049.0100.0100.0MissingSystem5251.0Total102100.0What is the nature of information you look for when applying to a company?6. Pay packagesFrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid17169.6100.0100.0MissingSystem3130.4Total102100.0What is the nature of information you look for when applying to a company?7. OthersFrequencyPercent Valid PercentCumulative PercentValid13332.4100.0100.0MissingSystem6967.6Total102100.0Section 3 reliableness compendiumThis analysis has been done to study the properties of measurement scales and the items that compose the scales. The Reliability Analysis procedure calculates a number of commonly used measures of scale reliability and also provides information about the relationships between individual items in the scale. of import (Cronbach) model of reliability has been used to check for internal consistency, based on the average inter-item correlation.Case Processing SummaryN%CasesValid102100.0Excludeda0.0Total102100.0a. Listwise deletion based on all variables in the procedure.Reliability StatisticsCronbachs AlphaCronbachs Alpha Based on Standardized ItemsN of Items.874.89248Cut-off criteria. By convention, a lenient cut-off of .60 is common in exploratory research alpha should be at least .70 or higher to retain an item in an fitting scale and many researchers require a cut-o ff of .80 for a good scale. The Cronback Alpha in this case is .874 and thus, the data set is consistent.Section 4 Factor AnalysisPrincipal Component Analysis has been conducted on the collected data in order to establish a relationship between inter-related variables and to represent them through a set of a few underlying factors. It would help in identifying the intrinsic factors thus, examining the inter dependent relationships.The following are the specifics on the factor analysis1. Descriptives1. initial solution2. Correlation matrix1. Coefficients2. KMO and Bartletts2. Extraction1. Analyze Correlation matrix2. Display Screen plot3. Extract Eigenvalues over 14. Rotation Varimax (uncorrelated factors)5. Options manikin by size and Suppress values less than .20Output of Factor AnalysisTotal Variance ExplainedComponentInitial EigenvaluesRotation Sums of Squared LoadingsTotal% of VarianceCumulative %Total% of VarianceCumulative %dimension0110.00120.83620.8369.35719.49319.4932 7.84516.34437.1806.46513.46832.96235.76812.01649.1965.81212.10945.07144.2118.77457.9704.5039.38254.4535