Greater use of metrics– so many areas of thought and execution around employer branding have taken exponential strides forward over the last decade. The application of metrics, however, is not one of them. We struggle to come up with the key parameters which should be measured in terms of how to gauge the impact of employer branding. And we perhaps struggle even more with taking such measurements. We might make use of Glassdoor statistics or application numbers, but this is often done sporadically and in the absence of more telling metrics. Tomorrow, organisations serious about their employer brand will have real-time dashboards, clearly making use of AI/machine learning, which speak to awareness levels, candidate sentiment and internal engagement. By failing to do so, we in turn fail to make the internal case for future investment.
Greater use of storytelling– the enthusiasm for profiling positive employee stories is there for most organisations. Sadly, as an industry, we seem slow to deliver such stories. Perhaps even more sadly, when we do so, it’s typically in a staid, stiff and non-authentic manner. Candidates crave individuals they can relate to and associate with. They want to see in your employees (and their stories), people like them, with similar backgrounds, aspirations, challenges. When organisations do create such film content, such stories remain on careers sites for years. As technology becomes both better and cheaper, there will be a greater democratisation of film and video – not something reliant on expensive shoots. People, change, organisations change, markets change, so should employee stories.
Greater gap between the winners and losers– as labour markets continue to tighten, notwithstanding whatever Brexit will throw at us, the premium for delivering on talent acquisition will grow. Even today, although general levels of acceptance towards and/or enthusiasm about employer branding have improved significantly, there remain organisations struggling to release appropriate levels of funding and involvement in such projects. Organisations such as Google do not complacently rely on their exceptional consumer brand, rather they are passionate about staying ahead, about innovating, about continually moving their employer brand forward.
Head of Employer Branding roles– it’s hugely warming to see the growth in the number of roles focused on this specialism. What is perhaps less positive is the day-to-day and tactical nature of many. And whilst operational excellence is key in terms of delivering a consistent and error-free employer brand, if people are not horizon scanning, then their employer brand will feel more short term than inspirational and strategic.
A more confident employer branding team– as we touch on elsewhere, as employer branding professionals become more educated around the subject, and as this becomes, too, a more aspirational field in which to work, then levels of professional confidence will grow. It will be interesting to see how such confidence deals with a likely Brexit-related slowdown – because employer branding needs to shed itself of the perception that it is important when the economy is strong and entirely disposable during a recession.
Seeking forgiveness not permission– as such confidence buoys employer branding professionals who, tomorrow, enjoy a raised status and a more focused education, there will be more risk taking and statement making. Candidate audiences want strong, clear messages which stand out and differentiate.
More competitor insight– no points for originality, but employer branding does not happen in a vacuum. There is a clear competitor context. Particularly in today’s crowded employment markets, great candidates have a great deal of choice. Tomorrow will see employers much more aware of what their competitors are saying as well as paying. For organisations with direct and very tangible competitors – I’m thinking about major professional services organisations – then there is huge awareness of the output being delivered by their rivals. There will be an increasing focus on this.
Candidate insight– an area of on-going frustration is that an investment in understanding what candidate audiences think about an organisation is one of the first victims to perish at the altar of cost savings. This will become increasingly important. How can an organisation reach out to candidates if it doesn’t truly understand their drivers and motivations? Whilst terms such as disruptive play well to the press and shareholders, they do not feel quite so reassuring to employees. And whether they perceive such an organisation as an employer of choice or just the opposite? Tomorrow’s employer branding professionals will have a much closer, empathetic and topical understanding of who they seek to recruit.
Ambiguous employment– there will be an increasingly nuanced relationship with employment and employers. We already have a sizeable (if often over-estimated) gig economy, and tomorrow we will see more client secondments, sabbaticals, time-outs and parental leave arrangements. Organisations have to be capable – both through messaging and technology – to retain engagement levels amongst such audiences.
Professionalisation of the sector– employer branding has long been a field people have rather fallen into, on both agency and client side. This is changing and will continue to do so. Employer branding is featuring with increasing regularity on university syllabuses and the certificates awarded by the likes of Universum and the Employer Branding Institute will only accelerate this. Employer branding itself will become a career destination in its own right. With more and better educated people seeking to join the profession, there will be greater demands on suppliers and the outcomes they seek to achieve.
The candidate experience– to date, there is more chat than achievement in this space. We instinctively feel that enhancing the candidate experience is a good thing, but there can be many obstacles. With greater use of metrics, there will be more absolute clarity around the tangible differences that a positive, value-adding experience means to candidates, in terms of recruitment effectiveness, employer reputation/branding implications and employee referral enthusiasm. Much of the improvement around candidate experience will touch on a more confident employer branding sector and their relationships with and influence on hiring managers.
Consistent application through the employee lifecycle– even today, there is a natural assumption that employer branding is little more than recruitment marketing. Tomorrow’s employer branding will be as tangible and as influential internally as it is externally. There is a greater connection today between marketing and employer branding than there is with internal communications and employer branding. Tomorrow will see much more cohesion between such communications – what an organisation says to external audiences, then candidates and then employee pools, will share much DNA. Because employer branding will be as much about an organisation’s attempts to retain and engage as it is about talent acquisition. Perhaps more.
Relationship with marketing– although this has improved substantially in the last decade, tomorrow will see this accelerate and become more a marriage of equals. This is down to research findings such as the recent Edelman Trust data which suggests that people will buy from organisations that treat their people well. This will become more important than people wanting to work at employers whose customer service they admire. Delivering, then, a great employer brand and treating employees well will be seen as a hugely positive adornment of your customer proposition.
Employer branding as ‘always on’ – tomorrow’s employer branding won’t be an area of focus every three or so years. Organisations operate in dynamic, disruptive markets – no employer brand which wants to remain relevant and topical can afford to stand still and wait for the next three to four year cycle to come around again. Greater use of metrics – both internal and external – will mean that employer branding professionals have a much more intuitive feel for how their brand is performing and delivering and whether it needs moving on.
Being more natural about diversity and inclusion– if today, this can, on occasion, feel clunky and an add-on for some employers, tomorrow’s organisations will be entirely authentic and natural about diversity and inclusion, particularly as they are woven into an employer brand. It will be what they are rather than what they are trying to do. But, as always with employer branding, organisations claiming to be inclusive, will have to deliver an entirely inclusive employee experience. And one that touches on every characteristic – too often, whilst improvements have been made around gender, race and sexuality, there is much work still to be done around social mobility, the disabled and mature employees.
Procial media channels– I know, horrible word, however, the clear division between people’s personal and professional uses of social media will either dissolve or there will emerge an additional strand which will touch on all aspects of people’s lives.
Employer branding ambassadors/advocates/influencers – moving beyond people’s inevitable suspicions around this, tomorrow will see key employees spending more and more time on social/procial media channels promoting their employers and pushing their EVPs. Clearly, authenticity will be key again here.
Referrals– the UK will reach similar levels of referral hiring to the US. This will happen because of the advent of more empowering referral technology, greater inclusivity negating criticisms around diversity and greater employee faith in the candidate experience they are encouraging friends and family to undertake.
Alumni marketing and boomerang hiring– we’ve talked about this for a long time in the UK and very few firms get it right. But they will tomorrow. Partly the result of the pressures of the labour market, but also, more positively, due to the improvements in the employee experience. People will then leave employers with a more positive perception of their time there and be more inclined to return at a later date.
Over to you, what are your thoughts around this?
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 