Some companies are strong talent magnets while many are not. The attractiveness of a company is a function of multiple parameters. However, there are a few critical components in the organisations’ strategy that help them stand out. More often than not, they have a strong reputation built over the years for the practices they follow and the products and services they deliver to their customers.
In the digital era we live in, current and past employees of a company discuss and offer their opinions about their experiences of having worked with the company. These conversations lead to building sentiments about the company and its talent brand. A strong brand helps a company attract the desired talent and retain them. How do we build and leverage this talent brand?
Build it!
Organisations need to make sure that their talent brand has a high net promoter score which will help them reduce the cost of attracting potential future employees. Moreover, their star performers feel safe about their future prospects and stay longer.
Leadership team of the organisation holds the key to having a huge number of promoters of the talent brand. Their behaviours, beliefs and approach towards human resources shape the people practices in the company. For example, a huge number of interested applicants come in contact with the company officials through the recruiting process. Their experiences during the course of the recruitment process is a reflection of the company’s culture and contributes to shaping the talent brand. All of these flow down from the beliefs and behaviours of the top leadership team.
People experience the organisation culture in multiple ways, right from the way work is allocated to them, their performance is monitored to the way they are rewarded, coached, mentored and developed. These methods are largely uniform and consistent over a period of time; hence, they embody the talent brand. One has to put efforts to monitor how the talent brand is shaping and improve the experience of the employees.
Read also: Turning the tide
Grow it!
Deviations in processes and variation in styles of managers give rise to differing experiences among employees. However, the variations across the organisation must be within a certain range so that the talent brand doesn’t see spikes in positive or negative experiences.
It is a fact that negative experiences get highlighted and could potentially drown the positive voices. Hence, companies have to find ways of keeping the variation within control. They need to invest in the leadership skills of the folks leading teams and functions so that the managers are able to lead their respective teams in a meaningful and inspiring way.
Secondly, efforts of involving employees to take certain conversations to the public platforms help in spreading positive vibes. Who doesn’t love transparency? Employees wear it on their sleeves as a badge of honour. This can be contagious and hence, hugely positive for their company.
Over a period of time, we need to sustain the efforts in leadership development and building a transparent work environment. This helps the talent brand grow stronger.
Read also: Are you happy at work?
Leverage the brand!
It is not enough to be a great place to work for a year or two, win a few awards now and then. Companies have to keep at the initiatives and programmes in a structured manner, monitor their effectiveness and improve them periodically. Employees need to feel empowered, valued, recognised and rewarded fairly. They need to achieve growth for themselves and see a path ahead. These need to be showcased internally as well as externally to build an environment of positivity and progress. That helps us strengthen the brand and start a virtuous cycle to sustain it.
Read also: Hire People aligned with your organisation’s Purpose
Ref:
http://blog.indeed.com/2017/09/19/employer-brand-talent-brand-why-difference-matters/
https://www.greenhouse.io/blog/4-reasons-why-your-talent-brand-matters
https://www.m4ws.com/blogs/what_is_talent_branding.php
