A customer asked me to think together with her on what it would mean for her company to implement ‘Employer Branding’. The coincidence (if that exists) was that shortly before her request I attended a masterclass Employer Branding from Brett Minchington. Brett travels all over the world to spread the ideas and importance of Employer Branding. His definition of employer branding is: “The image of your organization as ‘a great place to work’ in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market (e.g. active and passive candidates, clients)”. Quite some companies saw the importance of Employer Branding and started to work on it. And it is slowly becoming a trend in business. Unfortunately, quite some top managers go for the easy and quick solution. And that is in this case even contra-productive. They hire a marketing agency who is making a plan how to attract new people by giving a nice image of the company. But in this tense labor market you need more. You have to give to a potential new employee a value proposition. Or in other words: you have to make clear to that specific employee why he wants to work in your company. And Employer Branding is only a part of the whole package. A complete employee value proposition contains a recruitment strategy, an implemented employment feedback, a decent reward and benefits system and a corporate brand. And further you must do in the daily business environment what you promised in the recruitment process. Otherwise the new employee will lose his enthusiasm and engagement very soon. Therefor it is a must that internal and external branding are aligned. The HR department and marketing department must exchange knowledge and implement actions to have an aligned approach. HR has most of the time no real knowledge of the company reputation, the external perceptions and image. And they are not aware of the value of the external brand. On the other hand, marketing departments are not aware of employees understanding of the brand and how they deliver on the brand promise. And that while employees the key factor in this.
But this all written down, changes nothing and you want to recruit new good people. And you want also that they stay in your company. I think that the best things to consider is to look to 2 aspects: 1. What are the attraction drivers and 2. Why people leave a company.
What are the attraction drivers?
What makes that people choose for a certain company to work? A lot of research is done on this topic. And one of the nicest is that there has been a research in which they split the most important attraction drivers in the employer view and the employee view. The results:
     
Ranking     Employer view                                                  Employee view
1                 Competitive base pay                                         Competitive base pay
2                 Reputation of the organization                            Challenging work
                   as a great place to work        
3                 Challenging work                                                Convenient work location
4                 The business /industry of the organization         Opportunities for career
                                                                                               advancement
5                 Opportunities to learn new skills                         Vacation/holiday/paid time off
6                 Opportunities for career advancement                Reputation of the organization   
                                                                                                as a great place to work
7                 Organization’s financial health                             Flexible schedule

Three things mentioned as an attraction driver by employees are not on the top 7 of the employers: Convenient work location, Vacation/holiday/paid time off and Flexible schedule. You can build an advantage when these 3 topics are implemented in the organization besides a competitive base pay, challenging work and opportunities for career advancement. And it helps you also when people see the company as a great place to work.

Why employees leave a company?
Having recruited good people is one but how to you take care that they stay and being engaged?
We can look on the same way to this topic. What is the employer thinking and what are the employee’s thoughts? The results from when to 10 if the lack is:

Ranking      Employer view                             Employee view
1                  Good Salary                                  Interesting work
2                  Job security                                   Full appreciation
3                  Promotion and growth                   Feeling of having influence
4                  Good working conditions              Job security
5                  Interesting work                            Good salary
6                  Tactful discipline                           Promotion and growth
7                  Personal loyalty to employees      Good working conditions
8                  Full appreciation                            Personal loyalty to employees
9                  Help with personal problems         Help with personal problems
10                Feeling of having influence           Tactful discipline

It is clear, people don’t leave because of their salary, it is for employees on the fifth place. The first 4 reasons that employees mentioned have all to do with good leadership.  

Dear top managers and employers, put away you own point of views and work on the real facts. That can help you a lot and you don’t need to do much on Employer Branding.