The following literature reviews analyze both theories and empirical findings relate to the topic of the study. There are two parts in this chapter: (1) connotation of employer branding, (2) the strategy of employer branding. The literature review acted as the theoretical base and helped the researcher to design the interview outline.
Connotation of Employer Branding
Definition of Brand
Based on the definition of American Marketing Association (AMA), brand is ―a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or combination of them which is intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors‖
(AMA, 1960). The brand is an identification of one product, one company, or one kind of service, and provides the primary points of differentiation between competitive offerings which could be critical to the success of organizations (Wood, 2000). And according to practitioners, the idea of brand is demonstrated as ―a mixture of attributes, tangible and intangible symbolized in a trademark, which if manage properly, creates value and influences‖(Internbrand, 2007). When brand transform from an icon or concept to an activity, the term ―branding‖ could refer to differentiating people, place, and firms also. As the time pass by, this idea goes beyond the product-oriented level but extends to the different areas. The application of brand to human resources management has been termed ―employer branding‖ (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004).
Definition of Employer Branding
The term ―employer branding‖ was first coined by Ambler and Barrow (1996), and be defined as ―a package of functional, economic and psychological benefits provide by employment, and identified with the employing company‖. Subsequently, Backhaus and Tikoo (2004) develop the concept of employer branding into a continuous activity and define it as ―the process of building an identifiable and unique employer identity, and the employer brand as a concept of the firm that differentiates it from its competitors, and examine employer branding as the organization-wide level‖. Following, Backhaus and Tikoo (2004) present an employer
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branding framework combining the resource-based view (RBV) and brand equity to initiate the proposition of employer branding, which provides the organizational mindset for strategic human resource management. (Figure 2.1.)
Figure 2.1 Employer Branding Framework. Adapted from ―Conceptualizing and
researching employer branding‖ by Backhaus, K, & Tikoo, S, 2004, Career Development International, 9(5), p.505
Brand of product concept targets on attract the potential customers and keep the original customers, while employer brand aims to ensure the company attract prospective recruit of quality and retain its current employees (Edward, 2010). As the result, Sullivan (2004) demonstrates employer branding as ―a targeted, long-term strategy to manage the awareness and perception of employees, potential employees.‖
To be perceived as ―a good place to work‖ is an essential driver for corporate to attract job seekers and motivate factor current employee to stay. This organizational image is constructed by the culture, systems, attitudes and employee relationship. Based on Mandhanya and Shah (2010), employer branding is conceived as the image which is projected by employer through the
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In the similar vein, Conference Board (2001) addresses that ―the employer brand establishes the identity of the firm as an employer. It encompasses the firm‘s value system, policies, and behaviors toward the objectives of attracting, motivating, and retaining the firm‘s current and potential employees‖. This research follows Ambler and Barrow‘s definition to develop the research framework.
Definition of Internal Branding
The definition of employer branding illustrates that employer branding manages the talents from both outside the firm and within the firm. The two perspectives refer to different dimensions of the strategies in practicing employer branding. Backhaus and Tikoo (2004) first propose the idea of external marketing and internal marketing. External marketing of the employer branding is to attract the target employees and to add value on the product and corporate brands. Internal marketing is to develop a workforce that could ensure the high quality delivery of brand promise and set of values to the stakeholders (Backhaus & Tikoo, Agerholm, Esmann, et al). Based on the different functions of external and internal marketing, there are different approaches to build an employer brand among these two (Mandhabya & Shah, 2010).
Knox and Freeman (2006) and Lievens et al. (2007) extend the two perspectives to three. They adapt a framework to study employer branding, which perceived organization from three perspectives: Internal (the perceptions of current employee), external (the perceptions of outsider), and constructed external (employee‘s perceptions of the comprehension of outsides).
The result shows that there exist obvious differences between these three perspectives and current employees tend to perceive what makes an employer brand attractive (Mandhabya &
Shah, 2010). Following this, Mosley (2007) suggests that the last decade there has been a trend which emphasis ―internal branding‖, and that takes more attention on ―inside -out‖. He then concludes that employer brand management seeks for the improvement through the employee
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experience, and the critical improving factor is relying heavily on interpersonal interaction.
Yaqub and Khan (2011) also illustrate that the internal marketing of employer branding establish a trait for workforce which is hard to be imitated. Owing to the fact, further emphasis should be put on the perspective of the current employees if we would like to know what is the factor
which determines the attractiveness of employer branding.
Purpose and Importance of Employer Branding
Then, why the employer branding matters now? The previous researches from literatures and agency reports all advocate the importance of implementing employer branding. Edwards (2005) describes the importance of employer branding from the HR perspective. He states that employer branding ―represents an opportunity for the HR department to be more strategically focused, and be more involved in other key functions of organization such as marketing.‖ Further, employer branding presents a vital picture for HR department when designing policies and practices.
Talents have become the unique factor when compete with other companies. Employer branding emphasizes on how the company is seen by current and potential talents which refers to the background status of ―winning the war on talents‖. According to the Financial Times, there are approximately 77% of organizations meet talent management problems, and poor talent management would cost the stock market approximately AU$ 4billion a year. How to identify andattract target talent, furthermore, retain valued staffs has become a critical issue for business.
Standing in the front line to recruit and retain employees, HR could establish or polish the system and strategies to achieve the effectiveness and effect under the guideline of branding. In Srivastave and Bhatnagar‘s research ―Employer Brand for Talent acquisition‖ (2010), they indicate that employer branding is an effective tool for effective recruitment, employee engagement and retention. Aside from the function of recruitment and retaining, the other HR activities also upgrade though the implementing branding. Employee induction, training, development, and performance management could tend to be more focus and more concerned with the core value (Edwards, 2010); with the interaction with employee, it strengthen the image presentation of the organization and the communication activity; the main idea of employer branding ―wining the heart and minds ‖ of employees could achieve to live the corporate‘s brand
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ultimately. Fernon (2008) proposed that employer brand could deliver organizational success by attracting and retaining the right people, and it also provide an environment in which employees live the brand, at last, improve organizational performance in key business areas of recruitment, retention, engagement.
Discussed from the outside in, employers are finding it is difficult to recruit the ―perfect fit‖
employee, which means the one who match the organizational culture and position in the global recession (Quantium survey report). But if concentrating on the implement of employer branding, the employer could increase their appeal to the target candidates, and the organization would gain the distinct advantage in the labour market. Under this situation, it implicates that employer branding certainly distinguish the talent winners from talent losers due to the link of talent management and employer branding.
To sum up, completion for talent is heating up in many industries and gradually become intense. The essential factor for attracting valued talents is to identifying the distinctive qualities of organization that create an emotional connection between employer and employee. And employer branding is playing the crucial role to sharpen the way companies market themself and distinguish themselves among others.
Content of Employer Branding
Many agencies have conducted best employer research regionally and globally. They explore the core factors which constitute a best employer, how do they build employer branding, and summarize the common outcomes they share. Hewitt (2004), a talent and organization consulting agency, illustrates that owing to the struggling economy and changeable business environment, many top-level employees tend to upgrade their ability and job skills to adapt to the uncertainty instead seeking the security from the company. As a result, when they want to look for job opportunities afterward, they would focus on the company which could place higher value on intangibles, such as learning opportunities, work-life balance, advancement of career, recognition, and providing respect to employees; in general, the talents are attracted by the employer which place a high value on employees‘ needs. They want to stay in companies which desire to survive in the long-term. And those companies share some common characteristics of
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best employer, which are inspired leadership, unique company culture, focus on growing talent, strong sense of accountability, aligned HR practices and excellent execution.
On the other hand, Brett Minchington, the prestigious international Employer Brand Institute (EBI) publishes an article in 2007 to discuss employer brand effectiveness. They identified 14 enablers which contribute to the development of a company‘s employer brand, including strategic intent, recruitment & induction, communications, leadership, internal business processes, performance management, innovation and re-invention, work environment, measurement & evaluation, thought leadership, global perspective, corporate social responsibility, developing people, and customer relationships. Further, they reinforce other key behaviors derived from the study, which is listed below:
1. Train employee to deliver brand promise to customers
2. Increase involvement and engagement of employees across all levels in the development of strategic plan
3. Establish, support, and sponsor innovation
4. Identify employer value propositions (EVP) and reinforce unique employment offering through internal and external communication
5. Design workplace with good working condition
Based on the foundation, Brett Minchington (2009) addresses six key areas from the management tendency to focus on the development of employer brand strategy. It indicate that determine how employer branding is viewed inside your company is the first step. The organization should concern with the engagement, attraction and retention initiatives.
Furthermore, avoid regarding the branding as department project but align it with overall business strategy. Subsequently, discover the employer brand. the development of employer brand have to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of organizational culture, work experience, key talent drivers external perceptions, leadership vision, in order to construct an environment which is authentic, compelling, differentiated and being embraced by the employees.
At last it suggests that the CEO and senior manager strive on engaging the key stakeholders, increase the channels of communication, ensure the employer value proposition could be transmitted to stakeholders. With an aim to clarify the brand positioning, Standard Chartered
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Bank and Phillip both address themselves to make sure that the consistent brand is communicated globally through recruitment communications.
Through the main concept of the key factors above, it is suggested that focusing on highlighting employee experience is the way to create distinct and competitive brand for employee. Except focus on employee experience, the both studies commonly advocate that consistency in delivering value is the imperative concept of employer brand. In the real practice study of Philip, the researchers uncover how Philip position themselves in the employment market and how they proactively manage the inflow of talent into the company. One of the important key point is the objective-setting ―to find a solution that created consistency‖
(Leeuwen et al, 2005). They utilize the ―employment lifecycle‖ to deliver a consistent experience for individuals when they have ―touchpoint‖ with different stakeholders during every period they interact with company. And for the potential recruits, the touchpoints exist in the interaction between company and candidates. Philip reinforce that employer branding is beyond the scope of recruitment, but about ―keeping up the promise‖. The corporate should have consistent promise in both customers and employee; in a nutshell, treat employee experience like customer experience. For example, they deliver the message ―touch the lives every‖ to the customer because they believe ―if our product aren‘t there, the technologies we‘ve developed will be‖.
Following, the literatures also present that constant delivery of brand promise can maintains high commitment and high performance among employees, reach organizational effectiveness, and furthermore, achieve the organizational effectiveness. It ensures a steady supply of applicants (Srivastava & Bhatnagar, 2010).
Criteria and Measurement of Employer Branding
There are abundant of literature demonstrate the criteria of a successful employer branding.
As the broad literatures addressed, successful employer brands have some common characteristics which distinguish themselves from other firms. Sullivan (2004) proposes the eight elements of employer brand, which includes a culture of sharing and continuous improvement, a balance between good management and high productivity, obtaining public recognition (great place to work lists), employees ―Proactively‖ telling stories, getting talked about, becoming a benchmark firm, increasing candidate awareness of your best practices, and finally, branding
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assessment metrics. Navigos (2011) also publish the four most important criteria to be an employer of choice. In this report, it indicates that an employer should have positive effect on having a good leadership team, having a good working environment physically and spiritually, and the employer would support for employee‘s training/development and growth, at last but not the least, paying good salary, bonuses and good benefits. Based on these various dimensions, Maxwell and Knox (2009) summarize the traits of these criteria for achieving the objectives of employer branding— be consistent with the realities of organization, be different from those of competing employers, and should be attractive to members of the target audience. Hewitt Associates (2009) presents some specific characteristics which contribute the selection of being a best employer, they are equipped with compelling promise to employees, leadership commitment, connection to the company and strategy, aligned people practices, and differentiated high-performance culture. Derived from the synergy of these characteristics, Hewitt then summarizes that aligning people practices with corporate strategy, creating an environment which generate positive employee experience and produce strong business result are the common factors which shared by the best employers. Furthermore, they list 3 broad areas where the best employers are differentiated, which are relentless execution of programs, persistent empowerment of managers, and highly efficient HR functions.
Strategy of Employer Branding
Strategy of Employer Branding
Strategy, by definition, is a method or plan, which is designed to achieve a desired future, or aims to solve a problem. The strategy of employer branding means a method which intent to achieve the employer branding objectives. Based on Minchington (2007), the four-point plans consist of the employer branding strategy. The first step is concept. It aims to identify the strength of the current employer brand and the distance between the completion of aligning the corporate brand and business objectives. The second step is to design the content of the strategy.
The framework covers three major themes in the employer branding, which are attracting, engaging, and retaining. In this stage, the planner needs to define the EVP and employer
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behavior identity, consider the impact on the employer brand, investigate the perception of different people. The third step is integration. In this stage, the two crucial concepts are communicating the EVP both externally and internally. And the last step is evaluation. It is to measure the effect of employer branding in each aspect of the organization. To sum up, the strategy follows the sequence of planning, which could be regarded as a procedure to implement employer strategy in the corporate.
In the same vein, there is another strategy of employer branding which belong to process-oriented. Estis and Micnchington (2009). They proposed six key areas to focus in developing employer strategy. First one is to define how your employer brand be viewed by the current employees, future staff, candidates, clients, and customers. The major activities are such as the attraction, engagement. The second one is to identify the objectives and scope of employer branding. The third one is to identify the relations of HR and marketing. The fourth one is to find the employer brand. The fifth one is to engagement with the top management levels. The last one is communication planning.
According to the strategy above, there are some ideas which repeated. That is the 3 folds of key activity in strategy: attracting, engaging, and retaining. Under a firm framework of employer branding strategy, the operations or activities could be generalized into these three categories. In this study, researcher focus on the attracting aspect and put more emphasize to seek the attribute of attraction to the current employees and potential talents.
Attracting
Corporates are striving to develop unique methods to approach talents, have their attention, further, stick their eyeballs and hearts into these corporates. A good branding can attract prospective candidates‘ attention and boost their interest to apply the position in the company (Mandhanya ＆ Shah, 2010).There are several activities of employer branding fall into the category of attracting. Based on the literatures, EVP (Employee Value Proposition) is one of the crucial methods in employer branding. It is the commonly used measure to describe the mix of characteristic, benefits, and styles of working in an organization. It demonstrates the attributes and value an employee derived from his membership in an organization (Heger, 2007), including
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the totality of culture, employee relationship. According to Corporate leadership Council (2006), there are three quantifiable benefits an effective EVP can provides organizations, which are improved attractiveness, greater employee commitment, and compensation savings. Developing a right EVP strategy could build a positive image and served as the key differentiator of success for organization to become increasingly competitive in seeking the talents (Bell, 2005). Some significant change can be found since address the EVP, based on CLC (2006) accordingly, it can help to attract and retain the talents while appeals to different market of talent; it enhance the ability to prioritize the HR agenda and create a strong people brand
Employer branding is the essence of the employment experience (Manhanya & Shah, 2010).
Linking the employee with fulfillment and satisfaction produce the attractiveness of organization and also own the competitive strength to impact candidate‘s attention. According to the survey of CLC (2006), the top ten EVP attributes could be the driver of the attraction, which could be sum up as compensation, health benefits, organization stability, work-life balance, future career opportunities, respect, job-interests alignment, location, retirement benefit, and ethics.
Organizational Attractiveness
In this current competitive era, organizations all around the world are trying to attract people who can be regarded as asset for firms (Yaqub & Khan, 2011). Based on the previous researches, the employer branding could be viewed as a set of activities which attract the
In this current competitive era, organizations all around the world are trying to attract people who can be regarded as asset for firms (Yaqub & Khan, 2011). Based on the previous researches, the employer branding could be viewed as a set of activities which attract the