TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF BUSINESS
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT

PLANNING, RECRUITMENT & SELECTION

CODE: 707015

LECTURER:
09/07/2020 1
1. Introduction
2. Brands and brand management
3. Defining employer branding
4. The benefits of employer branding
5. Establishing an employer brand
6. Employer rebranding exercises
7. Debates about employer branding

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Distinction between the terms “employer branding” and “employee
branding”
• Set out the major stages in an employer branding exercise
• Contribute to the creation of employer branding
• Advise about approaches to the decontamination of employer
brands

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

Brands and brand management

– The monetary value of a brand to the company that owns
it is often well in excess of the value of the plant,
equipment and people required to bring relevant goods
or services to the market
– It is possible to develop brand images that differentiate a
product from its rivals and hence to target particular
groups of consumers and gain competitive advantage
– Very substantial amounts have to spent developing
brands, but one established their power to generate
sales is so great that less money has to be spent on
advertising or on marketing the products concerned

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

Brands and brand management

– Consumers have a tendency to become

loyal to brands once they have tried them,
reducing the likelihood that they switch to
products or services offered by competitors
– There are major risks associated with the
contamination of a brand image

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

Defining employer branding

• The package of functional, economic and
psychological benefits provided by
employment and identified with the
employing company (Amber and Barrow,
1996)
• A targeted, long term strategy to manage
awareness and perception of employees,
potential employees and related
stakeholders with regards to a particular
firm (Sullivan, 2004)
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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

Defining employer branding

• Building and sustaining employment
propositions that are compelling and
different (Berthon et al, 2005)
• A set of attributes and qualities - often
intangible - that makes an organization
distinctive, promises a particular kind of
employment experience, and appeals
to those people who will thrive and
perform to their best in its culture.
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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

The benefits of employer

branding:
• Recruitment
• Retention
• Performance
• Other benefits

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

Establishing an employer brand

• Stage 1: Understand your organization
• Stage 2: Create a compelling brand promise
• Stage 3: Develop standards to measure the fulfilment of the brand
promise
• Stage 4: “Ruthlessly align” all practices to reinforce the brand
promise (By the Hewitt Associates consultancy)

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING
Analysis
• Walker (2008) suggests that the following methods are the most
useful and effective for gaining the required information in a
systematic fashion:
– senior management workshops
– an audit of existing employment-related communication material
– internal focus group with a cross-section of employees
– external focus group with people in target groups
– in-depth interviews with “carefully identified individuals who have a
detailed, intelligent view of the organization
– online survey

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

Analysis
Five keys set of traits:
– sincerity (honest, sincere, friendly)
– excitement (trendy, spirited, innovative)
– competence (reliable, secure, successful)
– sophistication (upper class, prestigious)
– ruggedness (masculine, tough)

Lievens (2007)

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING
Analysis
• Five-trait model - the “Corporate Character Scale”
Davies (2007)
– Agreeableness (warmth, empathy, integrity)
– enterprise (cool, trendy, innovative, daring, imaginative)
– competence (leading, achievement-oriented, technical)
– chic (charming, stylish, exclusive)
– ruthlessness (arrogant, aggressive, controlling)

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

Analysis
• Four core types of employer brand (The McKinsey
consulting organization):
– prestige
– cause
– high risk/big potential
– work-life balance

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING
Definition
• This activity is various labeled as “defining the brand
identity” (Whitenack, 2001) and “formulating the employee
value proposition” (EVP) (Michaels et al, 2001)
• The three attributes which considered accurately define the
essence of BBC jobs and differentiate the corporation as an
employer from its major competitors.
– kudos
– public service
– opportunity
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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

Definition
• Another example: The Nano's restaurant chain.
• Here the following five “core value” were identified:
– pride
– passion
– integrity
– courage
– family

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING
Definition
The eight chief themes that • competitive rewards
the company stresses in its • teamwork
• leadership
recruitment and HR
• equality and diversity
communication (Severn
• communication
Trent Water:):
• safety, heathy and well-being
• work-life balance
• personal development

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 Communication
Ensure that consistency is achieved and
that all forms of communication with
potential recruits, job applications
(successful and unsuccessful), new
starters and existing employees are
aligned appropriately to help
communicate the core brand message that
has been settled on.

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING
Segmentation
• segmenting a market
• demographic segmentation
• segment by attitude

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 Measurement
• IDS (2008) suggest that the
following HR metric are used in
order to measure the impact of an
employer branding exercise and to
justify the expense of carrying it
out:
707015- Chap 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING
– number of job applications
– number of speculative applications
– number of application in response to
specific campaigns
– time it take to fill vacancies
– ratio of job offers to acceptances
– number of employee referrals
– staff retention levels
– number of internal promotion
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CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

Employer rebranding exercises

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 Employer rebranding exercises
• Example:
The McDonald's fast food
restaurant chain
– improvement opportunities
– flexibility
– energizing environment
– continuous learning

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 Employer rebranding exercises

• Other examples:
– British American Tobacco (BAT)
– Lloy's of London
– The British Library

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 CHAP 9 - EMPLOYER BRANDING

Debates about employer branding

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