Fifteen years ago, if you asked a young person what company he would like to work for, there was a good chance that he would answer that in an investment bank. Ten years ago, those preferences might have shifted toward one of the consulting big four. Five years ago it would seem that the majority was inclined towards the technological giants. And if they were asked today, perhaps many would opt for a startup with innovative DNA or for companies with a sustainable spirit. In this dance of corporate love affairs, fashions, the social sensitivity of the moment or reputational intangibles have a prominent weight. But for a few years now, companies have also had a powerful tool to try to tip the scales in their favor: employer branding.
According to the definition of Richard Mosley, one of the pioneers of this discipline halfway between marketing and people management, employer branding is “the broad spectrum of thoughts and feelings with which people associate an employer, both positive and negative, both true and false, based on direct or indirect experience”. In other words, employer branding has to do with the way in which a certain company is perceived as a place to work.
According to the InfoJobs–Esade Annual Report on the State of the Labor Market, 81% of Spaniards state that they find out about the company’s reputation before registering for an offer or attending a job interview. In light of these data, says Guillermo Palacios, country manager Spain at JobTeaser, it is not surprising that “employer branding has become a key element for many companies in their strategy for attracting talent and, more specifically, the young talent”.
The need to attract a certain type of profiles that are scarce in the labor market makes companies start up their communication machinery not only to transfer abroad the benefits of their products and services as up to now, but also those of their conditions labor. For Almudena Rodríguez-Tarodo, senior advisor Employer Branding and Employee Experience at Grayling, an appropriate employer branding strategy is one that “knows how to identify the soul of the organization and show it through real stories told by the employees themselves.”
“What really adds value is that a company offers an image that corresponds to what workers experience on a day-to-day basis”
That element is key. And it is that in the midst of the digital society and information overload, the candidates are no longer satisfied with listening to the beautiful success stories of the corporations. They want to see them in the first person, feel them in the voice of their protagonists. As Sergio Balcells, country manager of Welcome to the Jungle in Spain, comments, “what really adds value is that a company offers an image that corresponds to what workers experience on a day-to-day basis, and give visibility to that reality daily”. In short, completes Rodríguez-Tarodo, it is about “opening a window that allows visualizing the corporate culture and management style from the outside”.
The magnets of talent
What makes a person want to work in a certain place? The PeopleMatters consultancy has identified four factors that decisively influence this decision:
“The notoriety of the brand, the reputation of the company, the sector in which it operates and what its employees transmit with their first-hand testimonies about what it is like to work in that specific company,” summarizes its director Miriam Aguado.
Regarding specific attributes, aspects such as (work when, where and how the employee wants), the physical space, the possibilities of development or are some of the most valued by candidates when opting for a company to work. A list, points out Almudena Rodríguez-Tarodo, to which in recent times the concept of ‘purpose’ has been strongly added as an expression of giving meaning to one’s own work beyond that of serving as sustenance. “Candidates want to work in companies that have values aligned with their own interests. They want, to some extent, to contribute to improving the world in which they live through their work,” she argues.
Different profiles, different interests
Another important key when building an employee brand strategy is to avoid coffee for everyone. Rodríguez-Tarodo underlines the importance of segmenting. “Not all candidates or employees want the same thing or in the same order of priorities. Factors such as age, gender, training, economy or culture have an influence, and companies have to take this into account,” he explains.
In fact, Miriam Aguado adds, priorities and references change in line with the evolution of society, and also depending on the person’s vital moment. “The younger ones pursue learning environments, with possibilities for growth and friendly, close and flexible work environments. People with families value professional and salary growth, security or . And more experienced professionals give importance to the possibility to contribute and continue to grow in their work, the variety of functions and a balanced total reward”, he summarizes.
A picture is worth a thousand words
In essence, employer branding is not very different from what consumer brands do to try to seduce their customers: design attractive and credible messages that arouse the interest of their target audience. With that premise in mind, visual formats such as video or infographics are gaining ground as tools to effectively convey the employer brand. For this reason, explains Guillermo Palacios, “there are more and more companies whose marketing and human resources departments work together, advised by external entities, to establish or maintain the same discourse and consistency of their brand in the different marketing channels. communication”.
“There are more and more companies whose marketing and human resources departments work together”
Of course, recalls Miriam Aguado, without forgetting that what is reported must “emanate from a solid exercise in identifying the value proposition for the employee, which takes into account what makes the company special and different, which is relevant to the talent that is addressed and that, above all, is real”.
And it is that in their eagerness to attract a certain type of talent and differentiate themselves from the competition, many companies have tried to transfer abroad a fresh and carefree image with which the younger generations feel identified. A tactic that, Sergio Balcells warns, can have very short legs if it is not accompanied by internal coherence. “You have to go beyond the ‘football syndrome’. Because it’s useless to fake a cool image if it doesn’t correspond to reality.” Miriam Aguado admits that the temptation to tell “what the target audience expects to hear” is great. However, she warns, in the long run “generating a false expectation will be a much more counterproductive disappointment than not having generated the expectation.”
Beyond the sophisticated communication strategies used to convey it, experts recall that the magic formula for having a good employer brand is essentially quite simple. Sergio Balcells: “In the end, it is about carrying out a strategy and methodology aimed at caring for workers, since they are the main asset of any company. And, in the end, a happy worker becomes its best ambassador”.
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