What is HR brand
HR brand is a company’s image, its reputation as an employer. It can be internal, i.e. 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 offset all efforts to build an external HR-brand.
Reputation is important to attract good, in-demand talent. And what builds it helps a company retain employees.
Let’s imagine the situation: a person is looking for a job. He has experience, qualifications. He chooses from several companies, all of which offer a good salary. And in this case, money is not everything. He will ask acquaintances, search the Internet, what it is like to work in a particular organisation.
Or, let’s say that the offer is only one and there are no negative reviews on the Internet. Or we are dealing with a novice specialist who needs experience at any price. Such people may get a job, but if the company is in hell, they will leave at the first opportunity. For the organisation, such turnover results in unnecessary time and money spent 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 the external HR-brand is more important, because it is aimed at a wider audience of potential applicants. This is not true, because if the company’s employees feel bad, it will inevitably leak out. Developing an external HR-brand without an internal one is like fixing a leaky pipe with duct tape. Sooner or later it will burst.
But if you first take care of the state of affairs inside the firm and what current employees think about the organisation, the external HR-brand can start to develop by itself (which is not enough, we will talk about it later). Moreover, the internal HR brand just creates a base from which to start externally.
An internal HR brand has several components that are worth taking care of. Here are some of them.
Company values and mission
These words make many people roll their eyes and imagine strange meetings where employees with burning eyes sing the company anthem and make three “koo’s” when the CEO appears. But of course, this is not the point.
Of course, the main motivating factor to work effectively and stay in the company is salary. Often people are ready to put up with the fact that the company does things that are not close to them. Because, as the classics of modern times used to say, “for money, yes!”. But income alone is an unreliable way to keep a person, because a salary can easily be outbid by the same amount of money.
At the same time, people usually like it if they work for a company with similar values to theirs and realise they are doing something important. For example, a pacifist chemist will be more excited to create a cure than a secret poison. A vegan will feel more at home in the production of leatherette bags, from the sale of which the organisation donates money to animal welfare, than in a sausage factory.
Mission is what the firm exists for. Values are the principles by which it operates. And they are not for ticking boxes, but to attract people who will share them. However, it is important not only for HR-brand, but for reputation in general. Both investors and customers will pay attention to them. For example, it’s important for some people to buy from an ethical brand, not just to work for such a company.
Workplace conditions and opportunities
In other words, how comfortable the employee is with the workplace. Conditions are what the company offers right now in addition to the salary: from a comfortable workplace and a coffee machine in the office to VHI, the possibility to work remotely, corporate psychologists and courses.
But employees also need to have a perspective if they want to develop: whether they can grow and learn within the organisation. Career opportunities are the second most important item for specialists when assessing loyalty to the company and their willingness 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 the management behaves, whether there are mediators to whom you can turn if some communications get out of control.
What to pay attention to when developing an external HR-brand
The effectiveness of the external HR-brand is determined by the recognisability of the company, the number of people who want to work here and the speed of closing vacancies. Of course, the last parameter has nuances, because an organisation can look for a specialist for a long time, wanting to get a perfectly suitable employee. But the dynamics in general can be tracked.
These are the parameters that matter.
Identity
A company’s corporate identity helps to increase brand recognition. An interesting logo, a sound name, corporate colours – all this works to create an associative range. For example, large banks are often called by their corporate colours – red, yellow, green. And everyone understands what it’s about.
