Employer Branding and Talent – the hottest commodities on the job market.

Organisations spend millions on their corporate brand. But how much do they invest in their Employer Brand? What is the process involved? What are the business benefits? How do you measure the ROI of your investment on your employer brand? International research consistently shows that companies with a strong employer brand attract, engage and retain talent better than their competitors and the difference shows in bottom line returns and increase in shareholder value.

The next generation of talent acquisition and development: What will it look like after this recession?
Today’s economic challenges are affecting employment across the globe and across industries. Yet, the different attitudes today’s workforce have about their careers and their lives – and their ability to access and share information with unprecedented speed and depth will affect all organizations’ ability to retain, recruit, deploy, and develop their top performing talent in the future.

Is there truly a match?

Traditional job search methods such as job boards are obsolete, offering both prospective employees and employers ‘matches’ based on ‘keyword’ searches. These sites offer limited functionality and therefore, very little value-add for the time and effort spent there. As a result, both hiring managers/recruiters and the prospects they seek are now using alternative means to find each other and, more importantly, to do their due diligence to ensure that they are seeking a ‘career match’ that truly aligns the organisation’s current hiring need with the individual’s long-term career and life strategies.

With the advancement and mass adoption of Web 2.0 technology, the timeliness and ability to exchange knowledge and information is ever expanding. As a result, individuals and organisations alike are beginning to rely more on knowledge-based ‘recommendations,’ rather than assuming that the traditional job posting and interview process provides sufficient information to drive career decisions.

Millennials are driving this trend. They are multimedia whizzes who can produce and access information more easily than their older counterparts. In fact, according to recent studies, most of them communicate via text-messaging, and a majority of them prefer text and instant-messaging over e-mail. The ways that they communicate with others are inspiring new online ways for potential employers to connect with them as well. Both employers and potential job seekers can access a tremendous amount of information through blogging and social communities.

Why employer branding is here to stay

Leading companies are fast realising that valued employees, like profitable customers, are free to make choices, to join, to engage, to commit, to stay.

Many new management disciplines have risen to prominence over the last 20 years. The pattern is now familiar. First there is the seminal book heralding a new dawn of management effectiveness. Consultancies appear on the market with well-packaged implementation programmes. There are a flurry of articles, conferences and guidebooks featuring competing models and pioneering case studies. In some cases there may even be an awards programme. And then, just as people are settling down to await the results, the fickle wheel of management fortune takes another turn, and there’s a new game in town.

Employer branding is one of the new games in town. Some years ago, the number of page references ‘employer branding’ elicited from Google was around 250. Now: Results 1 – 10 of about 2,600,000 for employer branding.

Organisations cannot take the commitment and loyalty of their employees for granted.

Despite the desire to ensure that employees are broadly satisfied with their working conditions, it has largely been taken for granted that if you give people a decent job they will gratefully do your bidding. This is not so. Leading companies are fast realising that valued employees, like profitable customers, are free to make choices, to join, to engage, to commit, to stay. They are also beginning to realise that to attract the right kind of people, to encourage them to remain loyal and to perform to the best of their abilities requires a far more focused, coherent and benefit-led approach than companies have been used to providing. Given the long term trend for organisations to treat their valued employees more like valued customers, we believe that the logical conclusion for most will be to sharpen up the way in which they manage the brand that these people work for – the employer brand.

Employer branding provides an effective commercial bridge between HR, internal communications and marketing.

People management has long been the poor cousin of marketing management, with HR regarded by many organisations as an administrative cost centre rather than as a vital component in the creation and delivery of business value. This is fast changing. Most businesses have woken up to the vital importance to the business of recruiting, retaining and developing the right people. The service sector, particularly, has woken up to the fundamental importance of engaging employee commitment in delivering customer satisfaction and loyalty. The growing commercial emphasis of these activities is bringing HR and internal communication practice increasingly in line with the approaches and disciplines more commonly applied to the creation and delivery of external value, namely marketing and brand management.

Employer branding draws on a discipline that has proven lasting value in the marketplace.

Branding and brand management have evolved over time, but the central tenents of the discipline: close attention to the needs and aspirations of the target audience; focus on benefits; competitive differentiation; and the marshalling of a coherent and consistent brand experience; are as central to brand management today as they have ever been. The foremost reason why employer branding is here to stay is that in driving and sustaining people’s commitment and loyalty there has been no more effective approach than brand management. No doubt it will involve a further evolution in brand management practice. We believe that HR has as much to offer marketing as marketing to HR. Both sides can learn, both sides will benefit, and if, as we believe, the greatest net benefit will ultimately be to the business, employer branding will be here to stay.

designer 0.33l and 0,66L bottles, as well as continuing to retail exclusively in the Food Halls.

Exceptional taste and quality

VEEN comes from a free flowing spring in the natural wilderness of Finnish Lapland, one of the least populated areas of Europe, resulting in exceptionally low nitrate levels. The low minerality in the Lappish soil creates a unique, smooth taste.

“VEEN’s smooth taste pairs well with excellent food and wine, we are delighted that diners at Harrods restaurants will now be able to appreciate the match.” Says Tomi Grönfors the MD of VEEN Waters Finland Ltd.

VEEN LongJohn

The crystal clear Extra Flint Glass was the natural choice for VEEN bottles to protect the taste and quality of the water as well as to ensure recyclability for sustainable product development. The clear Scandinavian design form of the new LongJohns bottle is a brand signature, with the the ”LongJohn” embossing bringing a contemporary twist. The name comes from the design’s continuous wallpaper pattern that resembles the classic underwear design used in Finland. The bottle is created and manufactured in close co-operation with Owens-Illinois.

Check it out  @ www.veenwaters.com

Thanks Tomi. We are proud.