Employer branding - strengthening the employer brand

Wächter & Wächter invented employer branding in 1964 and is still very active in this field today with brandguards. Integrated into an owner-managed agency group with an international network, brandguards combines the experience, tools and advantages of classic communications agencies with those of management and HR consultancies.

As early as 1964, instead of a simple job advertisement, the agency developed an overall concept that used a wide range of activities to make the profession of nurses and the clinics behind them attractive. ( see also my DNA...) Read what I. Wächter-Lauppe has to say about employer branding in an interview with R. Reichenbächer.

1. What are the reasons why a medium-sized B2B company should focus more on employer branding?

German medium-sized customers, often hidden champions operating globally, need highly qualified employees, especially in the engineering field. And they are lacking: We simply have too few engineers in Germany, but there is also a shortage of qualified employees worldwide. Demographic trends, an aging and shrinking society, mean that the problem will become even more acute in the future. By 2015, there will simply be 25% fewer available employees between the ages of 30 and 45. In addition, there is a growing diversity in society, which presents companies with new challenges in personnel marketing and human resources work.

Medium-sized companies have the additional problem that they are often not well-known and that they have no or a comparatively weak image as an employer brand. High potentials in particular are still primarily drawn to the big players in the world: BMW, Porsche, Lufthansa and the major management consultancies. Many candidates are not aware of the advantages that medium-sized companies offer. A company can only master these challenges if it is a strong, attractive brand, creates a firmly anchored positive image in the minds of the target groups and radiates trust. The goal of employer branding is to find the right employees, but also, very importantly, to retain them and support them in using their skills and motivating them to give their best. Or to use terms from the world of brands: the goals of employer branding are brand awareness, brand attractiveness and brand loyalty.
attraktivität und Markenloyalität.

Therefore, the target groups of employer branding are not only applicants, but also employees and their families. Internal communication is just as important as external communication. Personnel marketing, personnel policy and personnel development are all part of employer branding.

2. How do you, as an agency, convince companies of the importance of this issue?

With economic argumentation: We always orient ourselves in our offers and our work to the business goals of the customers: This is expressed in our claim we create business . If companies cannot accept orders due to a lack of skilled workers, then the economic relevance is obvious. In addition, there are possible cost savings if the right applicants are hired who fit in with the culture. The costs wasted by ineffective, incorrect hiring of college graduates are enormous. And demotivated employees, whose expectations have not been met and who therefore do duty by the book or even less, cost any company a fortune. At Wächter & Wächter, we think in these terms and support companies in designing their employer brand and the associated internal and external communications in such a way that the brand becomes attractive to the right employees and employee loyalty increases. Employer branding is offered at Wächter & Wächter by the Brandguards unit. Partners and employees bring in experience from management consulting and human resources and work closely together with the creatives and specialists from the other units. We see ourselves as creative management consultants for brands. In this way, we combine the advantages of classic communications agencies with those of management and human resources consultancies. We are part of an integrated, owner-managed agency group with an agency group with an international network.

3. When your agency deals with the topic of employer branding for one of your clients, how do you go about it? How do you go about it? How do you approach the topic? Do you start from the company's brand core, for example?

A thorough analysis of the company is essential, but we make this process as lean and effective as possible. The evaluation of existing material usually already gives us many clues. Talks or workshops with managers and employees serve to look behind the scenes, but they also involve employees and participation creates commitment. One goal of employer branding is to create loyalty. Company loyalty and corresponding employee commitment cannot be forced, but it is easier to achieve when employees are involved, when they participate in decisions and when common core values are lived. That's why it's also extremely important for us to involve employees and management in the employer branding process and not just develop nice ads as outsiders.

Together with the company, we develop the positioning as an employer brand and the central brand message. And this, of course, has a lot to do with the brand core and the general brand message. If, for example, a company positions itself as particularly customer-oriented, then it is essential to seek out and promote employees for whom cooperation, partnerships and interaction with other people are important values and who are open to the ideas of others. Employees sense very quickly when the culture of a company does not match the postulated values and brand messages. Then they either leave again or they undermine - consciously or unconsciously - the brand messages that are sent to customers.

The same rules apply to positioning an employer brand as to a product brand or a corporate brand: the brand must be built on a strong idea. The brand message must be focused, credible and relevant to the target groups and differentiate itself from the competition. This sounds very simple, but is usually the more difficult part. Who wouldn't want to offer their employees - as well as their customers, by the way - everything: The opportunity to work innovatively, in wonderfully functioning teams, offer global development opportunities, any freedom to make decisions, interesting tasks and security, work life balance and and... Most job advertisements, which are supposed to communicate what exactly awaits an applicant in this company, contain the same phrases over and over again and the texts can be changed at will in many cases. What is really important to the company, what is the strong idea that makes the company? For example, is it really innovative, what does that mean to the employee?

For example, is there a program that allows employees free creative time? What sets the employer apart from others? What kind of people does the company look for, e.g. high-flyers who take risks or down-to-earth people for whom safety is most important? We discuss these questions intensively with those responsible in the companies, in order to then jointly determine the strategic positioning. From this, we then derive the creative positioning story, develop the core image and guidelines for HR work and communication.

4. What communication measures are taken?

The measures cover the whole range:

Internal:

• Personal- Management training
• Personnel development planning
• Blogs
• Employee newsletters
• Events
• Incentives

External:

• Advertising
• PR
• Online
• Dialogue
• Word-of-mouth recommendations
• Guerrilla measures
• Events
• Trade fairs
• University marketing
• Recruitment Interview

Only an integrated concept promises success. Different channels. One message.
Which measures are the most important depends on the company's situation. However, PR is usually very important. Sometimes it can make sense to combine product, company and personnel advertising, e.g. if employees express their pride in the company or product as testimonials in the brand advertising, or vice versa, if the brand is first made known in the personnel advertising, thus achieving that the company becomes known in the region and the employees can proudly say, I work for this company.

5 The classic job advertisement is usually handled by the company's HR department. What about employer branding? Is the marketing department involved here?

We have clients where only HR is involved, others where the project is driven by marketing. The ideal ones are those where HR, Corporate Communications and Marketing work together. And as with all projects, if top management is behind it, then success is much easier to achieve.

6. Do you have experience regarding feedback on employer branding measures?

We offer customers support in solving their challenges. And we want to be measured against that. If the main issue is low awareness, then measures to increase it are the order of the day. With the usual small budgets, this calls for a lot of creativity and unusual actions. Success can be measured with classic tests. However, these are usually quite expensive compared to the budgets involved. The enthusiasm of those responsible and the employees are good indicators of the success of creative measures. When it comes to recruitment, classical feedback mechanisms that measure the number of applications and the source.

If, on the other hand, it's about employee engagement, then there are employee surveys that can incorporate specific employer branding questions. But really, employer branding is about an overall concept. The right employees in the right place, becoming convinced brand ambassadors for the company, that's the goal. So if we achieve that employees proudly carry your company's message to the outside world, then we have achieved a great deal.