With the rise of the global economy, there is a growing concern about employer branding among the domestic as well as the international corporate sphere, regarding the attraction of potential candidates and retention of actual talents.
Organizations are in a bid to attract talented employees to improve branding outcomes through strategic recruitment, employee development, career progression, tailoring benefits packages, sustainable retention, and branding.
Pew Research Centre found that 43% of people used mobile phones to look up job information, while only 18% used it to submit job applications. Thus, employer branding is earning more and more acceptance worldwide.
The World Employer Branding Day International Summit will be held on April 26, 2018. This award recognizes employer brand leadership excellence and the amazing work being implemented around the world.
Employer branding is the way of ensuring employees’ satisfaction at the work place, which was first introduced by Simon Barrow and Tim Ambler in Journal of Brand Management in December 1996. The initial objective was to test the application of brand management techniques to human resource management.
Now, it is an effective tool to bring out an optimistic image of organizations to related stakeholders through attracting talents, engagement, and retention initiatives used by the modern business world.
Employer branding establishes the identity of a firm as an employer, including the firm’s values, systems, policies, and behaviours toward the objectives of attracting, motivating, and retaining the firm’s current and potential employees.
It is an effective tool to bring out an optimistic image of organizations to related stakeholders
It is a strategy employed by an organization to create an Employer Value Proposition (EVP) that conveys to the desired current and prospective employees why the organization is unique and appealing place to work in. EVP is used to define an organization’s employment offer.
The most common employment offers are competitive salaries, job security, employee fringe benefits, employee development programs, pleasant working atmosphere, good work-life balance, and career progression opportunities.
Universum, the world leader in employer branding, has a global talent attraction index, according to which, the “world’s most attractive employer 2017” was Google, retaining the top positions in both categories: Business and engineering.
Students are attracted by Google’s relaxed and creative work environment, international atmosphere, and innovative products. Google offers great benefits and opportunities that are hard for other companies to match. Other similar companies include Microsoft, Apple, General Electric (GE), BMW Group, IBM, Intel, Siemens, Sony, and Samsung.
A branding strategy
To develop an employment branding strategy, organizations may need to concentrate on the following:
1. Good HR planning to identify what talent is needed
2. Continuously developing the EVP
3. Develop an employee marketing strategy regarding recruitment and retention
4. Work with related groups as holistic branding approach
5. Use metrics as measurement tools to ensure quality of hires and brand awareness
Employer branding is now an emerging issue in Bangladeshi companies. At the same time, this concern creates a competitive environment among organizations.
One of the most credible awards on employer branding for excellence in corporate governance is “Global Best Employer Brand Awards.” The purpose of this award is to find out the most competitive organizations who try to alleviate the interest of related stakeholders. It is believed here that employer branding is the reflection of its employees’ convictions toward the job.
Successful businesses strive to dovetail the interests of both employees and customers in their path to profitability, while happy employees lead to enhance happy customers. Organizations are looking at intellectual capital as a corporate asset to deliver shareholder values.
The key to retention and performance of workforce lies in effective engagement of employees. This leads to pride, and pride builds commitment, loyalty, and a strong sense of respect at work.
Any effective engagement gets translated into reputation, which builds the brand. This award is prescribed on the basis of following competitive criteria: Talent management, innovative HR strategy, managing health at work, excellence in HR through technology, innovative recruitment, retention, and career development strategy, and global HR and corporate strategy.
On the basis of above principles and criteria, the Best Employer Brand Award in Banglaedsh 2017 -- which is accredited jointly by World HRD Congress and CHRO Asia -- has declared the top brands in Bangladesh: Aamra Group of Companies, Arla Foods Bangladesh Ltd, bKash Ltd, DHL Global Forwarding Ltd, Digicon Technologies, Gweebarra Food and Bakery Industries Ltd, Gemcon Group, Intertek Bangladesh, SMEC, Robi Axiata Limited, Elite Paint and Chemical Industries Limited, Sanofi Bangladesh, Pacific A-1 Group, and Unilever Bangladesh.
An optimistic employer brand encompasses an organization’s mission, values, culture, and personality, and also ascertains that the organization is a great place to work at.
It helps to gain financial benefits from socio-psychological determinants of employee engagement and work performance. Thus, they can build a sense of trust to their employer and pride in belonging to the organization. It is the key for competitive success in the modern knowledge-based economy.
Sabreya Khanom Zuma is Faculty, School of Business Studies, Southeast University
