By Jason Marra
The development of a company brand to create trust between the business and consumers has consistently been a high priority, not only for the companies themselves, but for the marketers and agencies charged with the responsibility of conveying such a message. A well known and respected brand can create a loyal customer following who are dedicated to the company and the products that it offers. Just look how Apple has dominated the mobile market with a strong marketing focus on the dual goals of brand and product development.
The benefits of branding have simply not stopped here. Businesses now realize that the value, quality and trust associated with a company influence the demand for employment opportunities within the firm, creating a direct correlation to the quality and quantity of prospective employees striving to gain employment within that particular company. Being a recent extension of the marketing paradigm, employer branding is the latest buzzword that describes the perceptions which the general public has of an organization as an employer. These perceptions have been acknowledged as one of the key strategies for firms in attracting and retaining suitably qualified and experienced staff in an increasingly competitive environment. With the expansion of the global marketplace and the advances in communication technology, some industries are battling for talent far and wide. As businesses continue to drive value-added policies and increasing productive capacities, the skills and management of the human resource base is becoming the key competitive advantage itself.
So why develop employer branding? In today's competitive marketplace that is associated with rising costs of sourcing and hiring qualified staff, wouldn't it be great if the public perception of your business, its personality and culture, were conducive for potential employees seeking you out? This is what employer branding can achieve for your business. Utilizing your employees as your strongest brand advocates and ambassadors requires the involvement of the entire organization in adopting and communicating the message that your business is where prospective employee's future careers lie. However, shaping or reinforcing an employer brand does not happen overnight, or the result of a single action...but the results are certainly worth it.
The benefits of engaging in such a program are innumerable. With a growing shortage and increasing competition for skilled workers, those companies that are well respected within the business community will have no problem in attracting and retaining quality staff. Those staff, through their experience and expertise, will be able to produce tangible results for the company through increased productivity and bottom line results. Furthermore, smaller organizations can also benefit from engaging in employer branding by becoming an 'employer of choice', where individuals will sacrifice short term gains and higher wages offered by larger competitors, for a rewarding career path.
At Fuel we're passionate about employer branding, recruitment advertising and candidate attraction. So much so, that we've built our agency around these disciplines. We've taken the classical, full service agency model and applied it to recruitment communications.
Fuel Advertising is a fully media accredited full service advertising agency, specializing in Recruitment Marketing. We have over 60 clients from around New Zealand. In the last 5 years, we have managed to acquire a significant market share with Local Government, government funded Education clients and medium to large corporate clients.