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Conducting an Employer Brand Audit

10 Stepsto Corporate Recruiting

SPECIAL ISSUE!EmployerBranding

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD. Win the War for Talent with Employer Branding

PROFESSIONAL

THE MAGAZINE OF HUMAN RESOURCES THOUGHT LEADERSHIP | DEC 2007 /JAN 2008

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C O N T R I B U T O R S

THIS ISSUE DECEMBER 2007/JANUARY 2008

KIM PETERSOur cover story on page 24 tackles the nuts and bolts of employer branding. Who better to break it down for us than Kim Peters, vice-president of online classifieds at CanWest MediaWorks and working.com, Canada’s national job search network.

PATRICIA MCQUILLANPatricia writes about internal branding strategy in “Walking the Talk: Internal Branding” on page 39. Patricia founded brand consultancy Brand Matters in 2000 following 12 years in brand management at RBC, TD Waterhouse and Kraft General Foods.

BRETT MINCHINGTONIn “Building Brand Equity” on page 32, Australian writer and employer brand specialist Brett Minchington talks about the importance of auditing your employer brand to determine the key drivers of why people enjoy—or dislike—working for you.

RYAN ESTISRyan Estis discusses salesmanship in recruiting in our debut HR 101 column on page 42. Estis is chief talent strategist of NAS Recruitment Communica-tions and senior associate of the Employer Brand Institute, as well as an author and featured keynote speaker on best practices in talent management.

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WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU benchmarked your employer brand against the best in the industry? Are you aware of the key drivers of why people enjoy (or dislike!) working for you?

An organization’s ability to attract and retain talent depends on defi ning and communicating clear employer value propositions (EVPs) to a target audience, while consistently delivering on the employment promises made during recruit-ment and on-boarding initiatives. Right now, someone is either reinforcing the key behaviours and positive messages about your employer brand, or quietly destroy-ing them.

A tactical way to determine the strength of your current employer brand, and identify priorities for the future, is to conduct a comprehensive employer brand audit, which will provide clarity when assessing brand effectiveness and identify priorities for further investment.

Determining audit objectivesThe aim of the audit is to determine the key drivers impacting the strength of your employer brand as perceived by your internal (current employees) and external (active and passive candidates) target audience.

The audit seeks to quantify and provide an understanding of two particular gaps:1. The gap between what employees want and what they perceive your employment

is offering based on their direct and indirect experiences with the company;2. The gap between the employee-employer relationships you currently have and

the one you need for the future to deliver organizational business goals.

BUILDING

BRAND EQUITY

Auditing your employer brand will determine the key drivers of talent attraction and retention

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Objectives should also provide clarity to your employer brand strategy and identify priorities for future spending and initiatives.

Conducting an employer brand auditAn initial meeting should be sched-uled with the branding team and senior managers to discuss object-ives and the success of current attraction, engagement and reten-tion strategies.

Existing employee measurement, research and HR data should be reviewed to determine any indica-tors of employer brand drivers and to establish guidelines and object-ives for any further research that may need to be undertaken.

Undertake an assessment of the company’s recruitment manage-ment system, sourcing methods and recruitment advertising to

determine alignment with the com-pany’s employer brand. Highlight any capability gaps in systems, processes and policies that support the delivery of the employer brand promise.

Review of exist-ing consumer brands research Analyze existing consumer brand research to determine any oppor-tunities to leverage the market reputation of the company’s brands. Companies with market-leading brands enjoy a higher share of voice, and synergies between the consum-er brand and employer brand should be exploited in attraction and reten-tion activities.

Review of talent acquisition and talent development systems When reviewing your talent

development approach examine what already exists. Build on what’s working. But also ask what would make you unique and different. How can you build loyalty?

One of the major considerations in creating a talent development process is the ability to enable dif-ferent parts of the business to talk to each other. As part of the back-ground research it is important to capture a broad spectrum of views from the CEO and the board, senior and line managers and the current cadre of people who are considered to be talented members of the HR team.

Qualitative and quantitative research methodsThe CEO and a sample of senior managers from different areas should be interviewed to:• Identify leaders’ perception of the

actual organizational culture and the preferred ideal organizational culture;

• Identify leadership’s view on the essential tangible and intangible attributes in an ideal employee and why these are considered to be important;

• Identify mission critical roles and what the firm can realistically deliver in its employment offer-ing.

Conduct employee focus groups to:• Defi ne the driving motivators for

engagement and retention of cur-rent employees and to determine any gaps between the aspirations and perceptions of management and employees about the employ-ment experience;

• Determine what employees value most in the employment offering and how well the company is cur-rently meeting these values.

External researchResearch a sample of the company’s external target audience to provide

‘‘Right now someone is either reinforcing the key behaviours and positive messages about your employer brand, or quietly destroying them.’’Step 2.

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a view of the company’s image as a “great place to work.” This may include interviewing key vendors (e.g., recruitment agencies) and talking to active and passive candi-dates accessed from the talent data-base. Opinions of key clients and stakeholders should also be sourced as they may be infl uential in identi-fying and referring talent.

Competitor reviewReviewing the career website and recruitment advertising of key com-petitors will assist in determining the market positioning of each com-petitor. Gaps can be identifi ed and exploited as part of the positioning of the company’s employer brand.

Outcomes of the employer brand auditA detailed analysis of the data collected in the audit will iden-tify the key drivers of the com-pany’s employer brand, competitor strengths, talent acquisition and sourcing strengths, and the level to which systems, processes and poli-cies support talent acquisition and retention strategies.

Use the data to create a strategic road map to provide clarity and pri-orities in mapping out an employer brand strategy that will drive the company’s talent acquisition and retention strategy. The road map should determine the metrics for tracking and measuring return on investment and success of future employer branding initiatives.

Above all, the audit and subse-quent implementation of your employer brand strategy should ele-vate the standards and competen-cies of the whole organization and raise its profile as an employer. When asked to describe the brand of the organization, there should be a common belief based on shared vision, goals, aspirations, behav-iours and practices. The audit pro-cess ensures senior managers are involved and committed to the pro-gram. The road map links all the stages together in a holistic way. The key drivers of the employer brand are prioritized and metrics are established to track and meas-ure the success of future employer brand initiatives.

Brett Minchington (brett@employerbrandinstitute.com) is an employer brand strategist, managing director of Collective Learning Australia, co-founding partner of the Employer Brand Institute, and author of Your Employer Brand Attract-Engage-Retain.

Kaye Thorne (kaye@employerbrandinstitute.com) is an international talent coach, employer brand specialist, managing partner of Talent Perspectives, co-founding partner of the Employer Brand Institute and author of 14 books including Personnel Today’s One Stop Guide to Employer Branding and her most recent, The Essential Guide to Managing Talent.

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Employer Branding Store

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Over 300 pages of Employer Branding Best Practice including 9 Global Case Studies from the World's most published author on employer branding, Brett Minchington. The follow up book to Your Employer Brand Attract, Engage, Retain, ‘'EMPLOYER BRAND LEADERSHIP - A Global Perspective' defines a practical approach to building a world class employer brand from concept to design, to organisation wide integration, to measuring your return on investment. This book is the most comprehensive book in the world published on employer branding Sharing the best insights from his Employer Brand Global Tour where he has shared best practice and trained thousands of managers in more than 30 cities in 20 countries, Brett's new book, ‘'EMPLOYER BRAND LEADERSHIP - A Global Perspective' is a practical management resource for leaders at all levels and includes frameworks, models, tools, strategies and tips to assist you to lead your employer brand strategy. The art and science of employer branding has been embraced by leaders of top companies around the world and the role of the employer brand leader is growing in importance as a way to strategically manage a company's ability

to attract, engage and retain talent. This book will ensure your focus is guided in the right direction and provides key learnings from 9 global case studies of top companies such as IBM, Deloitte, BASF and Sodexo who have journeyed down the employer brand strategy path before, saving you time, energy and investment.

Focused on the attraction, engagement, and retention of talent this engaging book is highly recommended for Company Directors, CEO's, MD's and Senior Managers in companies of all sizes responsible for shaping the future of their organisation. The book features the innovative Employer Brand Excellence FrameworkTM which may yet be the best solution to the attraction, engagement and retention of employees in a shrinking talent pool. The publication contains International research findings in employer branding from leading firms such as Hewitt Associates, The Corporate Leadership Council, Hudson, Watson Wyatt, the Conference Board, Hays and The Economist. Internationally supported, this book presents a number of solutions to the complexities facing organisations today as they address the challenges of attracting, engaging and retaining talent in their organisations.

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