BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYER BRAND

MERVYN RAPHAEL

About the Author

Mervyn is the Managing Director and one of the founder
members of People Business (PB) across Asia and Africa. Over
a 30 years career, he has worked with Unilever, AT&T and
Mercer Consulting. Mervyn received his postgraduate degree
from XLRI, and an under-graduate degree in Statistics from
the Loyola College in Madras. He has been certi ed at the
training center of AT&T in Dublin, Ohio. He has also been a
speaker at several forums across Asia, Europe and the United States of America.

esearch in the employer branding space

have looked at multiple inuencing
factors that are bringing new thoughts
to employer branding as a concept, the
focus of branding efforts in terms of
target segmentation, communication
plan, managing the employee experience,
creating impact across geographies or
businesses that the organization has
presence in and a shift in effort from a
largely recruitment driven to an over
arching binding force that inuences how
internal and external stakeholders perceive
the organization experience to be. This
trend is also inuenced by changes in the
economic scenario.
Fewer job opportunities and a constrained
internal job market has led organizations
to take a strong research based approach
toward employer branding. This is led by
a belief that organizations should have a
strong internal focus towards employer
branding, where the denition of employee
value proposition builds the psychological
contact of its employees and aligns the
employee experience to a better engaged
workforce. Leaders in HR and Business are
more aligned to the thought that getting
the employee value proposition along the
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October | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

strengths of the company and addressing

the gaps in terms of employee experience
will create more credible communication
to the outside world and in turn over the
period create a more sustainable employer
brand. Research has shown that benets
of a strong employer brand is tangible in
terms of less cost of hiring, employees
willing to join at less cost, and overall
retention through managing the employee
life cycle through sustainable HR practices
(App, Merk, and Buttgen (2012)).
This article builds on the research in the
eld and synthesizes 5 key elements of a
sustainable employer brand. Research and
case studies of People Business in this area
identies the following aspects as critical
elements of a sustainable employer brand.
1. Aligning the employer brand with
customer brand:
Customer brand symbolizes the products
or services that the organization is
offering in the market. It is closely
linked to the organizational purpose
and embodies the beliefs, trust and the
value that the organization provides.
Organization needs to attract and

retain employees who can deliver the

customer value proposition. This might
be on the technology, quality of service,
innovation, product performance, etc.
Organizations need to ensure they
have practices and processes that help
employees to deliver and they are
excited of doing it over a period. As
Mosley (2007) points out, organizations
are predominantly involved in customer
services and there is a shift from
products to services or there is a mix
of products and services in what they
offer to customers. This means there
is a high degree of direct involvement
of customers with the employees. For
example, a mobile operator will have a
large customer service team to resolve
customer queries. The experience that
customers will get should be aligned
to the promise that is offered by the
customer brand. From an employer
branding experience, this links the
give and take of the psychological
contract. For example, if a quick service
restaurant invests in hiring people who
do not have much formal education
and training them to be employable,
this promise that the organization
is fulfilling should be reflected by
employees providing a great customer
service in the restaurant. At the same
time the leadership behaviors, values,
and culture that builds the employee
experience should be aligned to motivate
them to deliver great performance and
be engaged. Successful organizations
that help their employees to deliver
customer brand will denitely have a
huge competitive advantage.
2. Experience driven employer branding
The evolution of employer branding
as a concept started with recruitment
related branding. The focus was on
messaging that made the organization
attractive to prospective employees.
The key change that is visible in

the employer branding space now

is that organizations are putting
efforts to ensure that the external
branding reects the strengths they
have inside and efforts are made to
bridge the gaps in the communication
to experience. As Moroko and Uncles
(2008) mentions, the key is that the
external communication should be in
line with the internal experience. For
example, if the organization promises
great learning on the job as a value
proposition to campus recruits and
they nd that they are put in mundane
jobs that are repetitive the promise the
very basis of psychological contract is
lost and the efforts to attract and retain
people in future might be at risk. The
touch points that the organization
has from leadership encounters, HR
practices, internal communication,
should live the employer brand. For
example, if an organization believes
in respect for people and the leaders
use foul language on the floor or
disrespects his/her team member
publicly, the very essence of the brand
is lost. At a high level of maturity of
an employer brand, the branding is
very much aligned to the values in the
organization.
3. Target Segment aligned branding
It is critical that the employer brand is
aligned to the employer segments that
we are addressing. There are many
segments that the branding efforts may
target, for example, campus recruits,
experienced employees, employees of
different geographies. Organizations
are now moving to have a unified
employer brand across segments
with focused communication and
brand activation specic to the target
groups. Mosley, Richardson, and
Rottweiler (2013), in the research jointly
conducted by People in Business and
CRF Institute found that majority of
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the organizations are putting efforts

for audience segmentation and aligned
branding. The research also found that
the intensity of the value proposition
is amplified in delivery by some
organizations for their high potential/
high performance employees. This
makes an interesting strategy as the
key employees feel the impact of the
value proposition more strongly.
The underlying aspect here is that
organizations can manage their unied
employer brand effectively and sustain
it across target segments by amplifying
certain aspects of the value proposition.
This segmentation is also based on
the cost considerations of attracting
and retaining the talent (Moroko and
Uncles, 2009). Organizations that need
to build a sustainable brand need to put
in practices, that touch the employee
right from contemplating to consider
employment to even after them quitting
the rm.
4. Business and employee involvement
Research and our experience of
conducting employer branding efforts
in various organizations show that clear
business case for branding, business
leaders championing the cause along
with HR, and involvement of various
internal target segments as critical
success factors. Research by Mosley et
al (2013) nds that biggest derailment
factor of employer brand projects is
ineffective stakeholder engagement.
The factors that should be kept in mind
at the starting of an employer branding
effort is to clearly dene the business
case, have business leaders actively
engaged, ensure that line managers
and employees at different levels are
involved, and overall the business case
is translated into measurable outcomes
that the organization can communicate
over a period of time. Organizations
should be aware that any branding
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October | 2013 NHRD Network Journal

effort is a strategic effort and should be

driven with sponsorship from the top.
5. Branding communication
The key of building a successful and
sustainable employer brand is also to be
popular with both internal and external
stakeholders. The messages that convey
the employee value proposition should
reach the current and prospective
employees and influencers. For
example, the employer brand should
be visible to influencers like media,
PR Agencies, universities, recruitment
consultants, etc. The role of internal
communication is also increasingly high
in terms of ensuring that employees are
aligned. Mosley et al (2013) found that
organizations are increasingly using
social media and intranet as mediums
of communicating EVPs. It is also
interesting that stories that corroborate
/ are proof points to the EVPs are
used as effective mechanisms. The
employee engagement survey and its
results are also used as data sources to
corroborate whether the organization
is living the brand. For example in a
major IT rm, videos of employees were
shared on intranet on how they were
given opportunities as promised by the
EVP. Similarly, the company website,
especially the career pages is reworked
to depict the employer brand. While,
communication without reality can
lead to disaster, a strong brand without
communication may not lead to results.
It is important that internal and
external stakeholders believe in the
communication. A recent research by
CLC (2011) found that prospective
employees believe the communication
channels in a range from 21% to 81%
depending on the channel deployed.
The most credible are current employees
and friends. The worst are job ads,
and online forums. This also brings
strength to the point that a successful

and sustainable brand can be built only

through creating a credible experience
and communication with the current set
of employees.
As Mandal and Krishnan (2013) mentions,
based on research and case studies of
People in Business, there are strong
benets of employer branding. It helps
employees to strongly identify with the
unique proposition provided through
both tangible and intangible benefits,
consistent articulation and communication
of employer value proposition, creates
an opportunity for gap identification

and clarity on areas of improvement,

helps in better attraction and retention
of employees, and reduces the cost of
employee engagement. The important
aspect here is that organizations should
look at employer branding as a strategic
HR initiative with a strong focus on
aligned communication and an integrator
of HR process from entry to exit. It is a
strong differentiator of positioning the
employer uniquely against competitors
and also a strong base towards enabling
organizations in their journey of becoming
a top employer.

References:
App, S, Merk, K, and Buttgen, M. (2012). Employer Branding: Sustainable HRM as a Competitive Advantage in the Market for HighQuality Employees, Management Revue, 23(3), 262-278.
CLC (2011), Turning Employees into Advocates, Force of Ideas, Corporate Executive Board.
Mandal, A., and Krishnan, S.K (2013). Creating a compelling employee value proposition, Human Capital, August, 38-42.
Moroko, L., and Uncles, D.M. (2009). Employer Branding and Market Segmentation, Journal of Brand Management, 17, 181 196.
Mosley, R.W. (2007). Customer experience, organisational culture and the employer brand, Brand Management,15 (2), 123134
Moroko, L., and Uncles, D.M (2008). Characteristics of Successful Employer Brands, Journal of Brand Management,16, 160 175.

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