All About Employer Branding — A Twitter Chat
Last Saturday was like any other, quiet and lazy, but only until 5 PM rolled around. The evening brought a storm in the form of a Twitter Chat, where experts in the field of Employer Branding enlightened us about the topic.
What is an Employer Brand? Your Employer Brand is the image or reputation you seek to project to your potential employees. In simpler terms, it’s what job seekers and employees really think of your Brand.
In a world where Brands are getting more and more conscious about their employees, it’s become indispensable to establish an Employer Brand.
Q1. What is the relation between the corporate brand and the Employer Brand?
The pregunta primera started us off on a technical discussion. One that brought in a variety of answers, yet they all seemed to be on a similar path.
Piyush Sharma (@coachpiyush): While the primary goal for building a corporate/consumer marca is to sell more products, that for an employer brand is to sell the company as a great place to work.
Gautam Ghosh (@gautamghosh): A well known corporate brand is obviously a great help for Employer Branding, because the Talent Acquisition team does not have to work hard to create awareness. However, with the spotlight also comes more scrutiny :)
…with the spotlight also comes more scrutiny
Manish Sinha (@unkomn_thots): Many companies treat it as disjoint sets. Actually they overlap a LOT. In a fluid digital world. They are overlapping even more. At Core — they are the same. The wrapping is different. One pulls the right-fit employees. The other pulls the right-fit partners.
This part is what you should really pay attention to if you’re hoping to build an Employer Brand for your organization. Our speakers list out el vario hurdles, and how you can overcome them.
Leena Sahijwani (@leenasahijwani): Cultivating & nurturing differentiating factors effectively & sustaining resonance with employees inside the organisation is a lot of hard work. This must be based on unwavering employee experiences and reflect their aspirations!
Kunjal Kamdar (@kunjal23): Creating un sentido of belonging and purpose is the biggest barrier and also the biggest oportunidad for companies to build it.
Gautam: When cultures are very similar across companies in an industry, trying to create a differentiated Employer Branding estrategia is tough.
Shilpi (@buzshilpi):
1. Lack of clear understanding of importance of Employer Brand
2. Non integrated approach towards building Employer Brand
3. Leveraging right tools to communicate about the brand
4. Good Content strategy and execution
5. No dedicated resources
Manish: Not a barrier but a challenge. One must Walk the Talk. That takes courage and hard work. You Can’t Advertise or Communicate Your Way To A Good Employer Brand. You Have to Work Your Way. Then Live it Through.
Shweta (@shweta_hr): Culture, Leadership involvement & employee experience.
It comes as no surprise that opinion was unanimous on this one. It’s a digital world after all!
Piyush: The digital revolution has made the concept of employer branding take off in a big way. No company which wishes to attract, nurture and retain the best-in-class talent today can afford not to pay attention to building a strong employer brand.
Social medium remains the más important digital channel which is poised to grow in the future too.
Gautam: The digital medium is everything to Employer Branding. It is where futuros candidates go to research company on revisión sites and ask questions about it (on Quora), research leadership and results (on news sites)
Manish: Digital Media is the large pond where the prospective and current employees are. So, the employer brand MUST Authentically LIVE there.
Employees are looking to Test and Taste — the Knowledge, the Culture and and the Thought Leadership of the Employer Brand on Digital Media
Q4. What’s the role of leadership in investing in digital tools to leverage Employer Branding?
This question presented us with a spectrum of answers, ranging from “very little” to “plays the más important role”.
Kunjal: It all comes down to the acceptance of the leadership team. Show them the right datos and purpose, and it will help in attracting right investment.
Leena: Digital is an effective medium but just one of many. Employer Brand must be felt and experienced for it to be real. Leadership Interactions, employee experiences, co. processes & practice design must reflect the brand- leadership has to show the way.
Gautam: Actually very little. Most digital tools are public ones and don’t really need any investment for Employer Branding.
In one of the places I worked the Customer Support team which had a social listening tool let me leverage it to deep dive into sentiment analytics and topics
Shilpi: Share the data and drive the shifts required. Also, leaders need to push themselves out of convenience zone.
Manish: More than a Digital Tool. The biggest impetus to employer branding that leadership can give is Employee Empowerment. Leadership can make the process of Employer Branding — More Accessible and Democratic
Questions that have either/or answers always present interesting arguments on both sides. Although our panel mostly agreed that both are important, there were interesting opinions about how the interdependent relationship between the two should work.
Gautam: I may be biased but I think it should be in HR. In marketing if there’s a person handling Employer Branding will be treated as a second class citizen there and constantly get lower resources. Reality of organizations
Leena: HR & Marketing among other functions must be part of el empleador brand team with quizás corporate brand leading the way 2 shape employer brand. One must remember that employees are your brand ambassadors & should have a strong role to play in the process.
Manish: In an ideal world. Both should work in tandem. In a less than ideal world — The content & values should be drafted by HR. The narrative by marketing
Pallavi Varma (@morallygreydesi): HR is the core, but marketing is what carries HR’s message. It’s a tandem flight. HR w/o marketing won’t reach people — marketing w/o HR is hueco words.
Q6. What are the top 3 trends in Employer Branding during pandemic times?
The answers here reaffirmed our belief that the dynamic between the company and the employees needs to be healthy, and accommodating. Every panel miembro stressed on el actual situation, and el impacto it’ll have on the future of the organization.
Piyush: As el mundo comes to terms with the emerging futuro of work in a pandemic-struck era, 1. content, 2. technology and 3. employee advocacy will all play un papel crítico in empleador branding.
Kunjal: 1) Companies are actually putting People First 2) Well-Being is gaining importancia 3) Importance of transparent and oportuno communication.
Gautam: Top three trends in Employer Branding
1. You are competing globally for talent as people are WFH
2. Employee experience is reimagined — and out of office
3. Work-life balance and mental health are more important than traditional perks to attract and retain
Leena:
1. Purpose of the organisation & its importance in employee’s marca perception has gained more prominence
2. How organisation deals with the current situation and its possible effects on employees & how they handle it will have lasting brand impressions
Shilpi: Being in travel, I loved @brianchesky @airbnb response to Covid — Authentic, Empathetic and Compassionate
One of the más important emerging tendencia is the wellness quotient — physical, mental and emotional
Manish: Top 3 Trends
#1 Practice Visibility & Agility in everything you do
#2 Display Authentic Leadership
#3 Marry Profits With Purpose
Pallavi: Human SKILLS are a resource — humans aren’t. Humans are human. Treat them as such. You need 1) PATIENCE 2) RESPECT 3) SACRIFICE to make your employer brand sometimes. You decide what matters.
And that was el último question for our Twitter chat, but it wasn’t the last discussion.
The discussion was kept alive long after the thank you’s were said. The amazing ideas and insights by everybody are still buzzing around in our heads.
This blog can barely do justice to el real experience. So go ahead and follow us on Twitter, because you can be sure this wasn’t our último Twitter chat! There are many more to come, and we’d amor for you to be a part of it.
