The importance of having a strong employer brand cannot be emphasized enough and is understood to play a vital part in building a strong talent acquisition function. Most companies resort to a project-based approach to build the brand, but that doesn’t serve the purpose well as one cannot measure the results systematically.

In this article, I propose a framework that merges the recruitment function with the employer branding function in order to build the employer brand, drive the TA function and demonstrates RoI.

Setting the right targets: Today, companies have technology platforms and processes to accurately perform manpower planning. Once the planning is frozen, it needs to be analyzed to identify talent needs, detailing skill clusters required in the coming quarters. Based on the historical hiring funnel, the number of applications that ought to be received for each skill cluster must be determined. Then, this data needs to be fed into the communication plan to determine the number of people who need to be engaged with in order to meet talent needs of the company.

Carving out the right EVP: The Employee Value Proposition (EVP) captures the uniqueness of a company from talent’s perspective and therefore companies need to build a strong and unique EVP in order to make themselves attractive to talent. According to a research by CEB, organizations with a less effective EVP pay a 21 per cent higher premium to acquire new employees. If the EVP is communicated properly and every employee lives up to it, it will in turn translate into your employer brand. The employer brand decides how talent treats a company and its job opportunities. Therefore, it’s vital that EVP strikes a chord with the target talent community and is kept relevant to the talent community by continually tweaking it based on feelers from the talent community.

Get the science of communication right: The communication strategy must define the channels and the messages and how they will be disseminated, including details about mailers, promotions on social media platforms, media destinations, etc. Talent CRM technologies available today can help in doing this effectively. These technologies allow templatization and customization of communication thereby allowing low skilled stakeholders to perform high quality communication.

Moving talent from awareness stage to applicant in talent supply chain

The traditional consumer decision journey moves from Customer Awareness to Familiarity to Consideration to Purchase and finally to Loyalty. The talent too undergoes the same stages while responding to the EVP communication trigger. The talent will first become Aware of the company not just by its name but by what it stands for. Slowly, he/she will become Familiar of the work culture and the benefits of being part of it. At this point, the talent would explore opportunities in the company and Consider various positions and finally Purchase/Offer Accept and commence working for the company. The company’s communication effort will not only build awareness and moves talent through the various stages, but also helps build Loyalty among employees and keep them in.

Calibration of this communication effort will help build and leverage the employer brand in order to attract talent. Once execution of the plan commences, the teams will know how Talent is spread across ‘Awareness to Loyalty Cycle’ in each of the channels. Companies can monitor the progress over time and ensure a strong talent supply chain for future talent needs.

In conclusion, a systematic approach to building a strong employer brand entails building the right target by having an accurate and detailed manpower planning. There is a need to understand ‘what needs to be communicated’ by way of building a strong EVP and keeping it relevant by having an ear to the ground. The company should execute a ‘communication plan’ tightly through the year to build the talent pipeline and ensure that all the effort is calibrated towards ensuring a strong talent supply chain. Deploying talent CRM and analytics platforms will help companies better understand result of its communication and respond to talent swiftly.