What keeps a CEO awake at night?
Obviously there are a lot of answers to that question, but reputation and recruitment are both high on the list of worries. And they are related… Damage to a company’s reputation doesn’t only have an effect on sales, it can weaken the employer brand; a weak employer brand can mean it becomes more difficult to recruit good candidates – and where a big issue for many companies is that of skills shortage, this can become a critical problem.
Some companies have the reputation of being great employers, and inevitably receive a lot of candidate applications. This is, of course, a double-edged sword, as some of those candidates, inevitably, won’t be a good fit for that company. Dealing with a vast pile of candidates for whom there isn’t a good job-match within the company is a potentially time-consuming and expensive problem – and not having enough applications from suitable candidates because of a poor reputation is another.
Managing your reputation as an employer – your employer brand – goes together with managing the application process. Get them both right, and you should end up with a manageable workflow, dealing with (mostly) suitable candidates. And if your reputation as a good employer matches the reality of the candidate experience – and the new joiner experience – then the marriage of candidate and job is likely to be a successful one.
It isn’t easy, and, like any marriage, is more likely to be successful with good communication. It is important to clearly communicate what your company can offer and what it cannot, in order to help people decide whether they are likely to be happy; and the experience that each and every candidate has is likely not only to affect your working relationship with the successful individual, but also to affect your reputation with all those who are unsuccessful.
There’s a lot to consider, because employer brand isn’t just about managing the application process… here are just a few of the many questions that could come up:
- How well do the internal processes – from application to retirement – fit with the desired employer brand?
- Does the employee perception of the employer brand match the perception of outsiders?
- Is there only one ‘view’ of the employer brand, or is the perception different depending on where the employee is (hierarchically or geographically) – or maybe on their skillset?
- How close is the employer brand to the corporate, external, brand?
- If there is a mismatch between desired perception and reality, how much organizational change can the company deal with in order to close the gap?
It’s not surprising that this is such a hot topic at the moment; these are difficult questions.
At the Employer Brand Management conference, to be held on 12 December at the Royal Mint in London, brand managers, business leaders and reputation experts will discuss employer brand, including topics on:
- Ensuring a competitive differential by aligning the employer brand with the customer experience
- Building in measurement and metrics to employer brand management
- Developing greater engagement with digital tools
- Using employer brand management for long term growth
- The role of the CEO and senior management in employer brand management
And there’s that CEO again…
Visit Transform Magazine to find out more about the conference.
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye
