Employment Branding = Consumer Branding

Almost 400 people took the Business and Labor Resources Employment Branding Survey this past June. The results highlight the importance of marketing and human resources professionals working together to build and maintain an employment brand.

Slightly more than one quarter (26.6%) of survey respondents said their organization has an employment brand program—i.e., “a program directed at employees and potential employees as opposed to a general brand program directed at the population at large.”

Of those who don’t have a brand program, 40.5% said they plan to implement or are considering one, and 50.7% said they may consider one in the future.

Among those whose organizations do have a program, 57.6% said the HR department is responsible for employment branding, 17.1% said a manager outside of HR handles the program and 25.3% responded “Other,” specifying that people who work in social media, community relations, the marketing department, or a combination of HR and marketing manage the program.

Good employment branding can help an organization attract higher-quality candidates, making it easier to fill job openings. It can also boost employee morale, engagement and retention by highlighting points of pride and commonality for employees. Good employment branding can also give consumers a positive image of—and correct misperceptions about—an organization. This is why HR and marcom professionals should work together to ensure that all external marketing and branding—employment and consumer—is consistent across all media channels.

But branding is only as good as the action behind it—your employees must walk the walk as well as talk the talk. It’s disheartening that about 48% of BLR survey respondents don’t provide any employee training on branding, only about 31% teach employees the right way to describe the organization online and to others, and only about 30% specify what not to share publicly. And, when asked if the work at their organization lives up to its branding, the largest share of participants (38.4%) responded “Somewhat.” Another 30.6% said that their branding reflects the work, 14.8% admitted that it doesn’t, and 16.2% didn’t know.

Make your employment branding equal to your consumer branding in messaging, with similar personality, tone, imagery and rationale.