At our latest Carter Murray & Frazer Jones event at LinkedIn\u2019s headquarters in London, leading marketing and human resources practitioners explored the benefits and challenges of cultivating an employer brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s biggest recruitment challenge is attracting and retaining talent. For Anne Dobey, Digital Transformation Leader at LinkedIn, that challenge can be understood through the arc of post-industrial history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dobey was the opening speaker of \u2018Great brands land great people \u2013 should customer and employee propositions be aligned?\u2019, an event supported by Carter Murray and Frazer Jones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During and after the industrial revolution, explains Dobey, workers were little more than low-skilled commodities. \u201cThe difference between a good and great worker might be someone who puts a widget in a machine in eight seconds rather than nine.\u201d Meanwhile, a handful of people at the top of the organisational pyramid ensured business success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, the pyramid has become more evenly spread. Heads of business, engineers, project managers and others \u201ccan be the difference between the success or failure of a project, a product or, indeed, a business.\u201d They are no longer commodities \u2013 they are essential talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, to answer the event\u2019s question, do great brands land great people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The gap between affinity and desirability<\/strong> This suggests that consumer affinity with a brand does not necessarily equate with a desire to work there. What\u2019s required, therefore, is an employer \u2013 or talent \u2013 brand that sits alongside the corporate and consumer brand and speaks directly to prospective and current employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LinkedIn found that organisations possessing a strong employer brand saw an 87% uplift in applications, a three-fold increase in conversion-to-hire rates and a 50% reduction in hiring costs. There were other benefits too: those organisations that combined a strong talent brand with high-quality content marketing increased sales by 35% over a five-year cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So for \u2018great brand\u2019 read \u2018great employer brand\u2019 \u2013 one that is nevertheless aligned to an organisation\u2019s core values. For chair of the event Neil Harrison \u2013 Lead Consultant at NH237 Consulting \u2013 \u201cthe common ground \u2026 between marketing and HR\u201d and between company and employer messaging is not necessarily always obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust as we communicate with existing customers and new customers in slightly different ways,\u201d says Harrison, \u201cis there common ground in terms of how you communicate with candidates and those already within your organisation?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s the consistency challenge,\u201d says Paul Davies, Consumer Marketing Director at Microsoft. \u201cIt\u2019s finding the relationship between the company brand and the employer brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more,\u201d Davies explains. \u201cWhen you think about translating that into an employer brand, it\u2019s quite a natural fit. It\u2019s about being the one who can empower millions. It\u2019s derivative of the company brand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Employee and candidate affinity<\/strong> For Amy Sawbridge, Brand Director and Head of Employee Experience at Virgin, that means creating a common \u201cred thread\u201d across 60 companies in 30 countries. As she puts it, it must be \u201cflexible enough to allow each of our businesses to interpret it in an effective and meaningful way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it\u2019s put to her that her organisation has successfully created a \u201ccertain Virgin-ness\u201d across all its disparate companies, Sawbridge says: \u201cWe have a bit of an allergic reaction to over-formalising anything so we prefer to create frameworks to provide guidance rather than a set of prescribed mandates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s important to allow employee and candidate affinity to go beyond the product, argues Derren Young, VP Human Resources at EA. While many of EA\u2019s 350 million gamers are likely to be attracted to a job in the industry, the pull might come from a specific game. \u201cIf you love [the football simulation] FIFA then you probably want to work on FIFA\u201d \u2013 or the reputation and culture of a specific studio, acquired as part of the company\u2019s expansion. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to allow those two things to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Engaging candidates from other sectors<\/strong> Young recognised the predicament. \u201cI\u2019m not saying everyone at EA is a massive gamer but there is some connection between product and the people. So you naturally target people who have some affinity with the business. Reaching out beyond that can be more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Davies says Microsoft faces a similar issue. \u201cWe are a big established business, but new joiners are often surprised by just how entrepreneurial the company feels,\u201d he says. \u201cDiversity in all its forms is highly critical for us, and so we have a significant number of initiatives to attract a very diverse group of employees. This includes DigiGirlz, a global programme to excite high school girls about what a future career in technology is like\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A successful employer brand must align with its customer proposition, agrees EA\u2019s Derren Young. \u201cWe can only be authentic in what we say if it mirrors what the players are experiencing. The whole organisation has to live and breathe the experience.\u201d EA uses the word \u2018play\u2019 to describe the crossover between the consumer experience and the employee experience. That works most of the time, says Young, but can occasionally feel at odds when, for example, a studio is up against a major deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does authenticity mean an employer brand can\u2019t be aspirational too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Davies doesn\u2019t think the two are mutually exclusive. \u201cThey can go hand in hand,\u201d he says, especially in the technology industry where everything is, by default, forward-looking. \u201cWe have a phrase we use: \u2018Come as you are. Do what you like\u2019,\u201d says Davies. \u201cIt\u2019s about allowing employees to operate in a way that works for them. It means, among other things, flexible working patterns. It\u2019s all about the outcome rather than the nine to five.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It turns out that it\u2019s a little more complicated than that. According to Dobey\u2019s research there is surprisingly little overlap between the UK\u2019s Top 50 most valuable brands and those organisations, as measured by LinkedIn, where people in the UK would most like to work. Of the top brands only three featured in LinkedIn\u2019s own Top 20 [1].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Establishing an employer brand is not without its challenges, however. It must speak to multiple audiences and across multiple business units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chair Neil Harrison, identifies a common challenge for established brands, what he calls sector blindness. \u201cSometimes organisations are so well known for one thing,\u201d he says, \u201cit\u2019s not clear that it needs a whole bunch of financial services or procurement people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n