Articles

Employer Branding – one of the keys of staying ahead

How to enable companies to stay ahead of competition? In today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive market, companies are increasingly turning to branding as a differentiator. However, branding is all too often, only viewed as external and customer-focused. The need for, and benefits of, internal employee-focused branding has not received due emphasis or attention.

The external brand promise you make to your customers is only part of the equation of success. Such external brand promise has to be delivered and “lived” by your employees, and they can only do so if the internal brand promise you make to your employees is well aligned with your external one. The equation of success will not be complete unless the two perspectives : “outside looking in” and “inside looking out” are cohesive and well-balanced.

Your internal, employer brand affects everything you do in your organization – performance management; talent attraction, motivation and retention; employee commitment; training and development; internal communication. Because its impact is so pervasive, potential neglect of employer branding efforts can have negative implications that filter throughout your organization processes and marketing programs.

However, building an effective employer brand is probably more complicated than anticipated – the reason is reflected in one of the key findings of our research * – a majority of corporations described the relationship between departments responsible for external and internal branding as “not close”.

To make matters worse, only less than half of the respondents have regular, formal measures to monitor the effectiveness of their branding investment and brand equity.. The best way to achieve such assessment is through symmetrical and interactive communication channels effectively customized for the organization. And the most efficient way for the employer to build a solid set of values that its employees can buy-in… is to learn from its staff’s values and take ownership of them.

Based on our research and market data collected through a variety of client projects in the Greater China region, we have adopted an integrated, 3-phased approach to helping organizations charter their own road map in employers’ branding to increase their competitive edge – Research, Re-align, Re-focus.

From research-based and data-driven input to help them better understand where gaps could exist; to re-grouping their Employer Value Proposition in key messages for effective communication to employees; to on-going metrics to assess and re-focus according to changing market trends, our key role as a consultant is that of an objective, professional outsider equipped with market data and best practices.

Multi-nationals seeking to strengthen their foothold in Greater China will have rather different needs and concerns to that of local conglomerates seeking to cross the threshold into the international corporate arena. Our approach has been to work in partnership with each of them, through their various business lines and support functions, to truly understand their issues and needs, so that customized solutions can be worked out. Such partnership extends to the various levels of staff that we work with, and in many ways, help to “walk the talk” of strengthening internal synergy, even after the project is completed.

It is only through continuous monitoring and improvement that a brand’s competitiveness can be sustained. That together with a group of informed and motivated employees will hold the key to success.

* Watson Wyatt’s 2004 Employer Branding Survey in Greater China .

Helene Li, Communication Practice Leader, Greater China, Watson Wyatt Worldwide

November, 2004