Who drives employer branding?
This year, Brett Minchington, chairman and CEO at Employer Brand International, issued the Employer Branding Global Insights Research Study.
It suggests that 37% of employer brand strategies are driven by HR, with CEOs (18%), marketing (14%), executive team (12%), and teams of HR, marketing and communications (11%), behind. At a regional level, HR is the main driver of employer brand strategy in 10 of the 16 locations surveyed. In Australia and the UAE, however, the CEO is typically responsible for employer branding, suggesting that, here, it is viewed as a business practice and strategic initiative be driven by management.
Social media and unique selling points
Employer branding is encouraged and researched through LinkedIn and agencies across the Middle East and worldwide. With the expanding role of social media hubs, we should expect the focus on employer branding to increase, causing companies to force it onto their strategic agendas.
Specific employer branding roles are now appearing across some organizations in the Middle East. While some of them report to HR, others might report to the internal communication or corporate affairs departments, depending on the structure and the size of the organization. Employer branding relies on being able to sell what is unique about your company.
Examples include career development opportunities, a unique culture or other competitive benefits. Once these and other strengths have been identified, the brand building process can begin.
Being authentic and consistent
It is not enough to create a set of values, vision and mission for the company. You also need to assess whether those values are ‘lived’ across the whole organization. An important step is to develop a future-looking employer brand proposition that targets the ‘right-fit’ candidates in the market. This requires compiling the right messages to create the future employee experience, before eventually defining what differentiates your organization.
As an HR professional, you must ensure that the targeted candidate is the right cultural fit for the company. Be consistent, clear and precise in describing what kind of employer you are and how you define your employer value proposition.