What is an HR brand
An HR brand is the image of a company, its reputation as an employer. It can be internal, that is, aimed at existing employees, and external, for potential applicants. Both are important, of course. Because one dissatisfied former employee with a couple of tweets can neutralize all efforts to build an external HR brand.
Reputation is important to attract good, sought-after specialists. And what forms it helps the company retain employees.
Let’s imagine a situation: a person is looking for a job. He has experience and qualifications. He chooses from several companies, all offering a good salary. And in this case, money is not everything. He will ask his friends and search on the Internet what it’s like to work in a particular organization. If the search quickly leads him to the public “Anti-rating of employers in the city of N,” most likely, the applicant will find another offer.
Or, let’s say, there is only one offer and there are no negative reviews on the Internet. Or we are even dealing with a novice specialist who needs experience at any cost. Such people can get a job, but if the company is hell, they will leave at the first opportunity. For an organization, such turnover results in unnecessary waste of time and money on finding and adapting a new employee.
To prevent this from happening, you need to work on your HR brand.
What to pay attention to when developing an internal HR brand
It may seem that an external HR brand is more important, because it is aimed at a wider audience of potential applicants. This is not true, because if employees feel bad in a company, it will inevitably leak out. Developing an external HR brand without an internal one is like fixing a leaky pipe with tape. Sooner or later it will explode.
But if you first take care of the state of affairs within the company and what current employees think about the organization, the external HR brand can begin to develop by itself (which is not enough, we will talk about this later). Moreover, the internal HR brand creates a base from which you can start outside.
An internal HR brand consists of several components that are worth taking care of. Here are some of them.
Company values and mission
For many, these words make them roll their eyes and imagine strange meetings where bright-eyed employees sing the company anthem and make three “kus” when the CEO appears. But this, of course, is not about that.
Of course, the main motivating factor to work effectively and stay in the company is this is the salary. Often people are ready to put up with the fact that the company is doing things that are not close to them. Because, as the modern classics said, “for money – yes!” But income alone is an unreliable way to retain a person, because the salary can easily be outbid by the same amount.
At the same time, people usually like it if they work for a company with similar values to theirs and feel that they are doing something important. For example, a pacifist chemist would be more happy to create a medicine than a secret poison. A vegan will feel more comfortable in the production of leatherette bags, from the sale of which the organization donates money to support animals, than in a sausage shop.
Mission is what a company exists for. Values are the principles by which it operates. And they are needed not for show, but to attract people who will share them. However, this is important not only for the HR brand, but for reputation in general. Both investors and clients will pay attention to them. For example, some people find it important to buy from an ethical brand and not just work for such a company.
Conditions and opportunities in the workplace
In other words, how comfortable the employee is at work. Conditions are what the company offers right now in addition to the salary: from a comfortable workplace and coffee machine in the office to voluntary health insurance, the opportunity to work remotely, corporate psychologists and courses.
But employees also need to have perspective if they want to develop: whether they can grow and learn within the organization. Career Opportunities – second in importance point for specialists when assessing loyalty to the company and their desire to work effectively.
Corporate culture
Comfort involves not only bonuses and opportunities, but also the climate within the company. It is important how conflicts are resolved, how management behaves, whether there are mediators who can be turned to if some communications get out of control.
What to pay attention to when developing an external HR brand
The effectiveness of an external HR brand is determined by the company’s recognition, the number of people willing to work here and the speed at which vacancies are filled. Of course, the last parameter has nuances, because an organization can search for a specialist for a long time, wanting to get the ideal employee. But the dynamics as a whole can be tracked.
These are the parameters that are important.
Identity
The corporate identity of the company allows you to increase brand awareness. An interesting logo, a sonorous name, corporate colors – all this works to create an associative series. For example, large banks are often named by their corporate colors – red, yellow, green. And everyone understands what we are talking about.
Community
Corporate blogs, pages on social networks, your own website – many platforms help talk about the life of the company. On them, the organization can reveal the features of internal processes, mention the advantages of working there, and convey its mission and values. And ideally, also share useful information in order to attract not only those who are already interested in the brand, but also everyone else.
At the same time, it is important to separate client and HR texts. The former help sell your products. The latter sell your company, and are read by specialists who could collaborate with you. They are more interested not in what you do, but in how you do it.
The tone of communication and the communication itself
The communication style of people officially speaking on behalf of the company must correspond to the stated values both in blogs and in comments. It’s no good when an organization advocates ethical communications and the message sender insults subscribers, or when a cancer charity makes dark jokes about death on their blogs. It is also important to maintain the chosen tone of communication while working off negativity.
Promotion
Naturally, mostly bad information is spread. A good one will have to be taken care of with the help of a promotion strategy. These could be collaborations with other brands, excursions to the office for bloggers, news events – for example, interesting cases and research.
When and who needs to create an HR brand
If a company has not been in existence for the first time, most likely it already has some kind of HR brand, it just formed on its own. Moreover, it will not necessarily be negative, although this is possible. But this does not mean that it is too late to do something. You can start anytime. It’s easier for a new company: it can think through its positioning in advance and build an HR brand from scratch.
This will be useful for almost all organizations, except perhaps those that have no turnover or are not planning to expand. It may not be worth putting in a lot of effort to fill a vacancy that appears once every five years.
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