Employer Branding: 7 trends

Employer Branding is changing fast.

Seven trends we see.

1. Purpose/ purpose/ purpose

In the last years is has become more important for organisations to have a clear and compelling purpose. Future and current employees more and more are looking for organisations that contribute to making the world a better place. As it is not so clear for many organisations how they do this, there are still many purpose and mission statements that make a somewhat ludicrous impression.

2. Employer Branding and Consumer Branding are merging

Labor market communications and consumer marketing used to be separated. Today the disciplines are more coming together, especially in organisations where consumer marketing is important. Last year Anne Jaake, CHRO of Hunkemöller, was elected as CHRO of the year (in the Netherlands), and one of the reasons was that she had done such a good job in combining employer and consumer branding. Also, applicants who are in the end not selected are potential clients.

3. Real people/ real stories

Employees and future employees of organisations are looking for real stories told by real people. Brochures and carefully crafted messages do not longer work. People base their opinion on the way your organisation comes across on social media and in real life. A nice example here: the Instagram account of the Arcadis Global Shapers (a global network of young professionals working at engineering/design company Arcadis. Every week another Global Shapers shows her/his workweek in a series of Instagram postings (see selection at the top). Real people, real stories.

4. A virtual experience is a real experience

The “employee experience” is an important current trend (read “10 HR trends for 2017”). The status of people today is less determined by the car or house they own, but more by unique experiences they can communicate about. It seems that virtual experiences are becoming as important as real experiences. Designing the employee experience, from start to finish, is an important element of employer branding.

5. An individual approach is required

In two ways an individual approach is required. Organisations must be able to match what they offer with the individual wishes and capabilities of employees. This is an important focus area for HR. As the communication preferences of people also greatly vary, a tailored communication approach enabled by a variety of channels is necessary for success.

6. Creating communities

This is also a trend that has been evolving over the last years: organisations are creating and maintaining themes communities for potential employees. Through the communities candidates can be offered experiences and connect to real people.

7. Broad involvement

Employer branding is no longer the domain of recruitment only. In fact, it can be considered a responsibility of everyone involved with organisations: management, employees, clients, suppliers and family and friends.

Seven trends in employer branding, creating opportunities to improve employer branding.

This blog post was published earlier on the website of ambitionOne.