HR branding is one of the components of the company's reputational capital and reflects the degree of development of the corporate culture in relation to employees. The image of the organization as an employer can develop within the framework of a single concept of reputational marketing or outside of it, as a separate phenomenon.
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Manifestations of a negative or positive HR brand
It would seem, why waste time working on the attractiveness of the company on the labor market? It is enough to offer employees a good salary, guarantee official employment, a comfortable office and acceptable working conditions.
But there are dozens of such vacancies on the labor market, and worthy candidates have a choice of where to go to work. For example, a recruiter offers 3-5 vacancies with equal conditions. Which of them will applicants prefer? Why is there a "queue" of applicants for one of the vacancies, while another is considered out of desperation, as a last resort?
It is the development, recognition and attractiveness of the HR brand that allows you to attract the attention of the most promising and potentially successful candidates.
Components of an employer's image
The concept of the company's HR brand is a comprehensive work in several areas at once. The main ones are:
The prestige of working for a recognizable brand. Applicants, like all people, are not without vanity. They dream in advance of the opportunity to "casually drop" in the company of acquaintances who work in Gazprom, Epam, Coca-Cola and other well-known organizations. It does not matter that they are a janitor, the important thing is that they are in a prestigious company. Accordingly, the employee will hold on to his job with all his might, even if the salary is lower than that of competitors.
Positive image in social networks. Reviews and posts from former employees, clients and partners, articles about the company, photos and videos - all this forms the image of the organization as an employer. This is the very "clothes" by which they meet, according to the proverb.
Internal corporate culture. Working conditions, social package, food, schedule, availability of vacations, bonuses, festive events, uniforms or special clothing - all this forms the basis for preventing "staff turnover".
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Systematic and consistent development of each of these aspects guarantees the attractiveness of the company's HR brand for potential and full-time employees.
How does this work?
Not all material methods of increasing the competitiveness of an organization in the labor market are effective in attracting and retaining personnel. Often, a crowd of people wanting to apply for a vacancy with a more intense schedule lines up, while a company offering a salary much higher than the market is bypassed. As in PR marketing, a well-developed positive HR brand begins to work for the company. It allows:
HR managers - have a choice of candidates for a vacant position, giving preference to the most qualified rather than random people;
Organizations - avoid the loss of experienced, trained specialists, the costs of searching, attracting and evaluating new employees, adapting and training newcomers;
Management should reduce costs at all stages of recruitment and retention, partially replacing material incentives with various types of non-material motivation.
Such obvious advantages clearly demonstrate that “letting the formation of a company’s HR brand take its course” is not only wrong, but also unprofitable.
Signs that something is wrong with your HR brand
Recruiters and HR managers should be alerted to the following phenomena:
Few responses to the vacancy;
Applicants from among "random" people;
Failure of candidates to appear for interview;
Refusal of approved candidates to work;
Negative reviews on social networks;
High staff turnover;
Experienced employees leaving for competitors.
The manifestation of two or more phenomena from this list directly indicates that the company is developing a negative HR brand, which means it is necessary to take measures to improve the employer’s reputation and increase its attractiveness to potential employees.
Development of HR brand
Awareness of the need to work on the company's image is the starting point for improving the recruiting situation. Once HR managers understand that there is a problem, they should begin working on eliminating it step by step.
Step 1: Setting Goals
At this stage, it is important to specifically define what is planned to be obtained as a result of HR brand management. It is imperative to define the digital values by which the effectiveness of further activities will be assessed. These may be:
Percentage reduction in staff turnover;
Number of responses and subsequent appearances of candidates for interviews;
The number of suitable applicants or the percentage of relevant candidates from the total number of respondents;
The amount of reduction in recruiting costs for searching and hiring.
It is by these criteria that it will be possible to clearly see whether the HR brand marketing has brought the desired result or whether an error has been made in implementation and some factor has not been taken into account.
Step 2: Comprehensive analysis of the situation and definition of tasks
Once managers have determined what result they want to achieve, they need to understand what is preventing them from achieving it and how to remove the obstacles.
To analyze the situation with the HR brand, companies use:
Surveying employees, ideally an anonymous questionnaire and collecting suggestions for improving work;
Review and evaluate job offers from more successful companies in the same industry;
Collection of information on objective and situational factors influencing the effectiveness of recruiting.
Based on the data obtained, HR managers identify a list of tasks aimed at eliminating or mitigating negative impacts on the attractiveness of the organization for job virtual phone number service seekers.
Step 3: Working with negative factors affecting the HR brand
Having found the "pests" of the company's HR brand, it is necessary to take measures to eliminate them. Typical examples:
A typical, crumpled and unattractive job description. Up to 80% of vacancies are "stamped out like carbon copies", phrases about "registration according to the Labor Code of the Republic of Belarus", "friendly team" and "career growth" migrate from description to description, without attracting the attention of a potential employee. It is enough to make the vacancy unusual, memorable and non-trivial, and the number of responses will increase.
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The objectivity of low salaries, irregular working hours and an inconvenient workplace location is not a reason to give up. It is clear that it is not easy to move a company or raise salaries. But it is possible to neutralize their negative impact on the HR brand. Offer job seekers travel to the workplace by corporate transport, meals at the expense of the organization and bonuses based on work results. And suddenly a plant located "in the middle of nowhere" will become an attractive place to work, and irregular working hours will turn into a source of additional bonuses.
Negative reviews on social networks can be found even in the most successful organizations. Employees fired "for bad reasons", job seekers dissatisfied with a refusal, competitors - they all turn into Tolstoys and Pushkins when it comes to writing nasty things about someone. Most services do not provide the ability to delete negative reviews about your company. But you can cover them with dozens of positive comments. Then the job seeker will think about whether everything is as bad as stated, or whether the authors of positive reviews are right.
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To prevent staff drain, it is necessary to develop team spirit in the team, a sense of being chosen and needed for each employee. Corporate trainings, joint holidays, personal congratulations (material and non-material), attention to personnel problems - this is an incomplete list of ways to motivate and unite employees.
Step 4: Evaluate results and adjust tasks
At this stage, the set goals and their numerical values will come in handy. The task of the HR brand manager is to determine how effective the measures taken were. If the result is achieved, these measures can be continued. But if the effectiveness is much lower than expected, an additional analysis should be carried out and the problem that was not detected the first time should be identified. |
