In the UK we’ve become obsessed with the notion of the Employer Brand.  There are a number of definitions but, in short, this is essentially the brand (in its physical and behavioural forms), the employer presents to existing, potential and new employees. 

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with positioning brand as a concept as applicable to the internal audience and employee audience as the customer audience. And it’s a welcome change to perceive employees and potential employees as customers of the internal support functions.  However, it’s an equation without balance.

I believe our HR functions can and should take a step further towards embracing the role of brand management in the motivation, development, recruitment and management of employees (see Brand Engagement ). That extra step means moving beyond Employer Branding and embracing the notion of the Employment Brand. It calls for a lot more than a simple shift in semantics.

We can lure employees to our employer shop window with silvery-tongued promises, clearly differentiated package, glitzy brochures featuring models airbrushed offices and slick recruitment processes, with a seamless link between the core business and linked suppliers like recruitment companies and marketing organisations.  But how do we keep them people once they step through the doors and complete the induction programme? How do we prevent potential brand ambassadors from becoming brand saboteurs if they become disenchanted with the difference between what they were promised and what they experience?

Just as a brand, from a customer perspective, isn’t the promise made but the promise delivered, the Employment Brand is the result of the Employer Brand minus the Employee Brand (i.e. what the people processes promise minus what they actually deliver). 

It’s a simple twist but by focusing on the notion of Employment Brand it keeps the minds of those responsible for managing the people processes firmly focused on constantly ensuring they understand what they’re promising new as well as existing employees and that they are delivering against that promise. 

This approach calls for close collaboration between recruiters; inductors; measurers; people developers; communicators and brand managers. It’s a massive and positive opportunity for HR departments to step confidently into the brand breach with their marketing colleagues:

-         to develop one compelling story about the brand

-         to work to a consistent set of values

As recruitment markets gradually move back in favour of the talent pool, this shift in emphasis may just be a genuine brand differentiator.

We’re all familiar with the cliché that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In fact it’s the philosophy on which process management methodologies like Total Quality Management and Kaizen are based.  But what has process and systems thinking got to do with the subtle arts of people-centred services like HR management, Organisation Development and the concept of Employer Brand?

As some of you will know, I believe the term employer brand is a misnomer. As I’ve stressed in this column previously, Employer Brand is only half the story.  It represents the “promise making” part of the equation.  A more appropriate term is Employment Brand which takes into account the promises made by the organisation about the working practices, values, norms - or put another way - the culture, but also factors in the reality and actual employee feedback about the delivery of the promise.

We’re accustomed to seeing the application of principles like customer relationship management and the management of the customer value chain by our marketing colleagues concerned with the brand projected to customers.  But how many of our HR colleague are applying similar principles to the management of the employment brand.  I would suggest, right at this moment, very few.

The value of a process-focused approach to managing Employment Brand is that it:

- stimulates cooperation between the key internal stakeholders responsible for managing the links in the chain

- it drives consistency in how the brand is interpreted and communicated

- it encourages performance measures at each link in the chain and provides a platform for more effective relationship management at each stage

To illustrate my point, take a wander through the vacancy pages of even premier recruitment sites like Changeboard, and PR Week.  How many simple but explicit errors can you detect in the advertisements?  Now ask yourself how this makes you feel about the capability of the agency in question to manage your account, cv or personal profile with appropriate care and sensitivity.  If you’re the client of the agency, how well do you think they are representing your brand and what are the explicit and opportunity costs of these errors?

It’s a little unfair to single out the recruitment agencies that are largely reliant upon the quality of the briefing they receive from our own ceos, but hopefully it helps to illustrate my point.  It’s tough for HR professional to ensure they are sufficiently in tune with the strategic goals of the business and translating this data into the processes they promote and stakeholders they rely upon as they manage the evolution of the Employment Brand. 

What is clear, however, is that managing the Employment Brand does call for systems thinking.  And this presents another opportunity for collaboration with our more explicitly external facing colleagues in order to bring the brand to life from inside.

Ian