Employer Brand International just released its 2014 Employer Branding Global Trends Study Report, a survey of more than 1,100 leaders from around the world. The goal was to discover how their organizations use employer branding to attract, engage, and retain talent talent, and their plans for their employer brand’s future. Here are the survey’s most important findings.
Employer branding has expanded beyond HR.
Perhaps the biggest discovery made by EBI was that employer branding is no longer owned solely by the Human Resources department. 36% of respondents said HR was solely responsible for the employer brand, while 17% listed HR alongside other departments like Marketing or Communications. I love the idea of of forming an inter-departmental all-star team to manage the employer brand. I’m also glad to see more organizations catching on to the idea of seeking buy-in and cooperation from multiple divisions, since the employer brand touches all corporate interactions. And more stakeholders usually means more resources.
Social media takes the lead.
An organization’s careers website is no longer the main mechanism to promote its employer brand. 76% of respondents named social media as the chief communications channel, while only 64% named careers sites. That’s a huge increase from the survey’s findings in 2011, when social media claimed just 46%. Today, 58% of respondents said that social media “enhanced” their employer brand, while 11% felt that just having a social media presence was an enhancement. If you haven’t added social media to your talent acquisition strategy, you risk falling behind. And LinkedIn doesn’t count.
Success can be measured.
EBI specifically asked how companies measure the ROI of their employer brand strategy. While 24% of respondents said they still hadn’t defined a useful metric, they may want to look at the other 76% that did. Three of the top five are easily determined: cost per hire (33%), number of applicants (34%), and retention rate rate (41%). The most popular answer was employee engagement, which can be tough to measure but is hugely important to overall company success. CEOs want metrics and budgets need justification. I hope everyone realizes that they can marshal hard numbers in support of an employer branding initiative.
The benefits have never been clearer.
What are the other benefits of an employer branding initiative? Respondents’ answers were pretty evenly divided among a number of positive results: ease in attracting candidates (35%); employee engagement (32%); recognition as an employer of choice (28%); reduced recruitment costs (22%). Many organizations reported multiple benefits. As I’ve noted before, there are so many reasons to create a strong employer brand that lead directly to a company’s bottom line — it saves money and increases revenue. Maybe that’s why, in an uncertain economy, 38% of respondents planned to increase their employer branding budget in 2014.
Help take the next step.
While this survey looked at the larger strategic picture, my own agency is currently conducting a more tactical survey about employer branding — the first of its kind. We’re seeking information about completed employer brand projects, examining factors from budget and goals to procedures and results. We’re already starting to see some fascinating trends. If you’ve been a stakeholder in such an effort, please add your insights. You could win an iPad Air.
Jody Ordioni is President of Brandemix.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jody Ordioni is the author of “The Talent Brand.” In her role as Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brandemix, she leads the firm in creating brand-aligned talent communications that connect employees to cultures, companies, and business goals. She engages with HR professionals and corporate teams on how to build and promote talent brands, and implement best-practice talent acquisition and engagement strategies across all media and platforms. She has been named a "recruitment thought leader to follow" and her mission is to integrate marketing, human resources, internal communications, and social media to foster a seamless brand experience through the employee lifecycle.
