Yesterday’s Advisor presented some findings of BLR’s Employment Branding Survey; today, we share further results from the study, including the most successful branding actions taken by respondents, and how they monitor external branding.
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391 participants responded to the Employment Branding Survey, conducted in June 2015.
Keeping an Eye on the External Brand
A slight majority (54%) of participants regularly monitor what is being said about their organization in outside sources. The most common way respondents monitor their brand is via the Internet in general (60.8%), followed by LinkedIn (47.1%), and GlassDoor (43.8%). The “Other” sources, indicated by 17%, included (but were not limited to):
- Formal and informal reports from stakeholders
- Feedback from vendors
- Trip Advisor
- Customers
- Word of mouth
- Yelp
- Patient and visitor satisfaction surveys
Limiting Negative Comments
A minority (43.7%) of respondents try to limit negative comments shared publicly by current employees, and they are most likely to attempt this by policy (60.7%) over training (48.7%) or request (37.6%). Among the 12% of respondents who employ other methods of limiting negative comments, they specified:
- Communication of company projects and goals, and overall openness;
- Individually see what the issue is and how it can be resolved; and
- By employee engagement.
One respondent said, “I have not found any negative comments by our employees.”
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Training Current Employees on Branding
48.1% of respondents don’t have any employee training regarding branding, and this was the most common response to this question. 30.6% teach their employees the right way to describe the company online and to others, and 29.6% specify what not to share publicly.
Branding and Top Candidates
Somewhat surprisingly, the majority (54.9%) of our response pool does not believe that their branding has brought the company into contact with top candidates it would not otherwise have attracted.
How Effective Is Branding Across the Board?
Again, the percentage of participants with branding programs find their efforts in the below four areas at least somewhat effective. Overall, respondents tend to find branding programs to be most successful in attracting candidates, but they find branding to be less effective when it comes to improving engagement.
Walking the Talk
Of course, branding is only as good as the action behind it—that is, you must walk the walk as well as talk the talk. When asked if the actual work at their company lives up to its branding, the largest share of participants (38.4%) responded “Somewhat.” 30.6% said that yes, their branding is a reflection of the actual work, while 14.8% admitted that it was not.
The Most Successful Actions
We next asked our survey respondents “What is the most successful thing you have done for employment branding at your organization?” Here are a few of the responses from the 109 participants that shared:
- “Training staff to own the organization.”
- “Involving employees in our business.”
- “Sponsorship for cricket.”
- “Creating a consistent message across global offices.”
- “General company business reputation.”
- “Nothing.”
- “Appreciation Day.”
- “Updated message, produced new videos to showcase current employees.”
- “Changing our internal focus to improve our own perception and reality of what a great company this is to work for now.”
- “Promote good agricultural practices.”
- “Promote our company culture, and make sure that I choose candidates who will culturally fit in our organization.”
- “Make our mission statement part of our daily routine. Live the values.”
- “We have increased our hourly wage rate to be the best in the area.”
- “More employee team activities both inside and outside of the office. Regular salary reviews, comparing to industry. Employee recognition.”
- “We haven’t established a really good employment brand yet. It is part of our current HR Strategy that is in progress.”
- “It has enhanced performance.”
- “Still working on it, but we have upgraded our ATS (applicant tracking system) to allow for sourcing, hiring, and onboarding electronically and on a single platform. Engaged an enhanced profile on Glassdoor and are working to be more active socially through marketing and content directed at recruiting and HR issues (employee- and candidate-centric).”
- “We make our jobs fun and reward the behaviors we want.”
- “Securing a Great Place to Work award.”
- “Very weak program currently. Have increased social media usage on LinkedIn, including a slideshare talking about company and sharing direct and indirect content around Employee Stock Ownership Programs. We are a 100% employee owned company, which is unique and speaks heavily to our culture.”
- “Established structured interview process for every position.”
- “Encourage, praise, and demonstrate respect for performance and individual staff and the community we service.”
- “Go into the community volunteering as a representative of the company. Share our branding and set a good example for all.”
- “Recruitment drive on campus.”
- “We just switched to a new ATS that will allow us to build candidate pools and we recently sent out a branded email to our members encouraging them to refer candidates for our open positions. The email highlights some of the testimonials from our team members, as well as the benefits of working at our company.”
- “Capturing our stories: connecting employees with their passion for the work they do through ‘applause’ recognition for each other, quarterly employee spotlights, and other activities that celebrate those who are caught living our values.”
- “Revised career site stressing our value proposition and our mission.”
- “Publicize our employees’ successes.”
- “I wish I could answer that—but we really haven’t embraced it.”
While employment branding is not necessarily formalized yet at many organizations, it’s becoming a larger part of forward-thinking strategies in many HR departments. We look forward to seeing how employment branding develops in the next few pivotal years—and how many different new ways businesses will find to put their best faces forward. Thank you to all who participated!
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You DON’T “walk the talk,” you Walk the walk, and talk the talk. “Walk the talk” is stupid and makes no sense at all.