Modeling Employer Branding Communication:

The Softer Aspect of HR Marketing Management

Soumya Gaddam*
Considering the past research studies, Employer Branding has been
one of the hottest strategies in employment. It is an international
concept where the demand is for skills and competence. By creating
brand images, employers are struggling to differentiate themselves in
both internal and external environment. Branding is a term by itself
which gives a taste of innovative and creative possessions. On the same
lines, Employer Branding is also very prominent in the Human Resource
Management (HRM) field and acts as one of the communication magic
tools for acquiring and retaining the talent in this fast changing
technological era. This article, through illustrative examples, provides
a holistic perspective on employer branding and the application of
concepts of employer branding used for attracting and retaining the
talent pool. It gives valuable insights into the practices of HR executives
and how they are related to employer branding. The article further
discusses different factors like psychological motives, organizational
cultures, values and branding strategies, which influence the HR
executives to attract and retain the employees in the organization. The
concept of employer branding communication helps the companies
to differentiate themselves from the other companies in the field.

Introduction
The concept of Employer branding relates to attracting and retaining the skilled human
resources in the organization. Employer branding is a holistic term taken from the
field of marketing and is related to strategic brand management. Todays fast-paced
changing business environment has a greater impact on every organizations highly
qualified and motivated workforce. In order to keep pace with the changing market
dynamics, every organization is trying to place itself in a unique position on the
corporate ladder. There is a huge demand for competent personnel, which is escalating
steadily, particularly the demand for vital positions which require technical and
in-depth expertise to meet the current requirements of the job market. On the contrary,
the labor market is becoming more difficult due to the ongoing demographic changes
all over the world. Though the magnitude and pace of this change may vary in different
* Research Scholar, Icfai Institute for Management Teachers, Hyderabad, India.
E-mail: soumyasagiri@gmail.com

2008 TheEmployer
Modeling
Icfai University
Branding
Press.
Communication:
All Rights Reserved.
The Softer Aspect of HR Marketing Management

45

countries, many recent research studies have outlined some significant facts. There
will be a decline of 20% in the workforce population in the age group of 20-29,
while there will be an increase of 25% in the age group of 50-64. 1 If we consider
that this will have a direct impact on labor market in many organizations, this will
in return, generate the problem of the labor crunch to find highly skilled and
challenging successors to replace at least 30 to 60% of senior executives. In the next
five years, it is estimated that a minimum of 70% of senior executives will be eligible
for retirement. 2 Due to this reason, organizations will face huge talent crunch and
high job mobility among the talented workforce.
In the past decade, it has been observed that employees changed their jobs only
twice or thrice in their entire career. But in todays technology-based world, the
growing propensity to switch jobs is at a mounting pace. 3 As a consequence, the
skirmish for the best employees has resulted in fierce antagonism among HR
professionals for recruiting the best talent from the job market. The approach of
recruiting the talented potentials needs to change in this competitive world. The
organizations need to differentiate themselves in the job market when it is related
to the battle for the talent. Employer branding helps in creating an identity among
the current employees and acts as a choice among the future employers for recruiting
the talent. The traditional recruitment process creates only huge databases, whereas
the current process identifies the right talent for the right position. However, in the
case of employer branding strategy, the corporations will be able to create talent
relationship management which replicates customer relationship management, the
employee being one of the customers. This creates a good image in the minds of
the employees, customers and stakeholders and in turn helps to capture the potential
talent pool.

Literature Review
Employer Branding
Even today, one is far from reaching the roots of employer branding; it is considered
a relatively new discipline and a broader perspective of HRM. Currently, there is
an increasing awareness of employer branding, which is vital for the organizations
to attract the expert pool.
The concept of employer branding originated in the UK in 1990, though new
researches on employer branding are developing outside it. The term Employer
Branding was created in October 1990, by Simon Barrow, the chairman of the
1

Hartmut Buck and Bernd Dworschak (Eds.) (2003), Ageing and Work in Europe Strategies at Company
Level and Public Policies in Selected European Countries (http://www.demotrans.de/documents/
BR_DE_BR15.pdf), p. 11, Verlag, Stuttgart.

Gandossy R P and Kao T (2004), Talent Wars: Out of Mind, Out of Practice, Human Resource
Planning, Vol. 27, No. 4, p. 16.

Chambers E G et al. (1998), The War for Talent, The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 3, p. 48. See also Michaels
E G et al. (2001), The War for Talent, p. 5.

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The Icfai Journal of Soft Skills, Vol. II, No. 1, 2008

consultancy, People in Business. Every organization needs to ensure that the

employees brand matches with the marketing brand. In most of the organizations,
the messages delivered by the company are consistent with the employees actions,
behaviors and values.
Employer branding, in the commercial context, acts like an adhesive that helps
in bonding different components of the organization to ensure the employees
commitment, loyalty, advocacy and satisfaction. This in turn ensures market share,
profitability, business growth, stakeholder and competitor respect, and the
organization as the preferred employer. Employer branding is not just an issue about
HR or marketing, but something much more. It is not just about having a charismatic
leader; it is related to the very heart of the organization, and involves the process
of creating emotional connectivity in the heart and soul of the workforce.
The definition of branding in the Concise Oxford Dictionary is to impress
unforgettably on ones mind, and employer branding is an extension of this
definition. Most of the organizations create an impression in the minds of others
and this impact can be felt 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Even when the
organization closes down, its image remains for sometime with the customers,
suppliers, employees, their friends and families, and in the minds of its competitors.
A powerful employer branding has a significant indirect correlation with
organizational profitability, as is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Employer Brand Model
Retention

Employee
Satisfaction

Brand
Advocacy

Employee
Commitment

Employer
Brand
Employee
Attraction

Customer
Satisfaction

Customer
Loyalty

Profitability

Performance

Source: Employer Branding and Talent-Relationship-Management: Improving the Organizational

Recruitment Approach, Author: Robin Jeffrey Katoen, Andreas Macioschek, Ume University,
Ume School of Business, Department of Business Administration, Supervisor: Per Nilsson,
Masters Thesis, Spring 2007.

Employees Psychological Motives

Employer branding has a great impact on the psychological motives of the employees.
To attract the employees, companies go for different types of beneficial employment
packages, in terms of financial compensation, working environment, achievement
motivation, work-life balance, education for future, internal and external support,
Modeling Employer Branding Communication:
The Softer Aspect of HR Marketing Management

47

professional development, career planning, inspiring colleagues, emotional

attachment, possibilities like working from home, flexibility in working hours, leave
and compensation benefits, social and mental satisfaction, challenging work, secured
employment, project procurement, etc. These are some of the basic issues, which
motivate the employees.

Organizational Culture and Values

Organizational culture or corporate culture comprises of the attitudes, beliefs, values
and shared norms of an organization. The culture of an organization plays a vital
role in creating employer branding. The physical working environment, the structure
of the organization, the size of the organization and the organizations approach to
work are part and parcel of an organizational culture. Organizational culture and
values have a greater impact on the mission and vision of an organization. They are
powerful communication tools for creating both internal and external branding.
Organizational culture is the basic personality of any organization. It is one of the
important factors, which account for the success and failure of any organization.
There are different dimensions of the culture. Organizational values, heroes, rites
and rituals and cultural network are some of its dimensions. Values are the beliefs
that exist in the heart of corporate culture. Informal network and communication,
which is hidden in the hierarchy, is called cultural network. This acts as the basis
for building employer branding.

Employ(ee/er) Branding Discrepancies and Integration Imperatives

An organizations brand image and reputation integrates its employee and employer
branding. Both should have balance, should play a major role in projecting the
organizational culture and image and should be used in recruiting and retaining
employees. With the combination of marketing and HRM, the employee and employer
branding has emerged as a new concept, like internal and external marketing
techniques, for identifying and retaining skilled personnel. In employee branding,
the strategy focuses on huge competition for production and markets, resources,
competencies and talent investors. The strategy is used even for bringing benefits
in recruitment and training. The major advantage of employee branding as a
competitive source is that it is interrelated with employer branding, to place the
organizational brand image on an external platform. This external platform acts as
an effective communication tool for attracting competent resources to the system.
Both of these are interrelated even for the implementation process by the HR.
Although there are no major discrepancies existing between these, proper alignment
is required to affect a synergy.

Research Methodology
The methodology used in this paper is case-based research. The literature review
is done on employer branding and the implications of employer branding on internal
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and external environment are analyzed through explaining some practical cases.
The data was collected from the Universum IDEAL Employer Survey, which has been
interpreted in this paper by using current situations and cases.

Employer Branding Recruiter Magic Tool in Recruitment Process

When we consider the brands Titan, Nike, IBM, Giny & Jhony, they immediately
evoke a product image and reputation. Consumers are cognitively accustomed to
having the product images indelibly marked on their minds. With some brands,
consumers create long-lasting relationships and with some others, they develop a
strong feeling of reliability, trust and nostalgia. Employer branding is the imperative
unlocking key for recruitment, says Donald Decamp, COO of Com Health Group,
a healthcare staffing firm. He further adds, Employer branding goes beyond a
companys reputation. 4 To increase the retention rates, an organizations branding
messages truly need to align with the reality that exists for its employees. Promises
and loyalties are no longer dominant paradigms of the employer and employee
relationship. Attraction and retention of talent depends upon the organizations
culture, vision, mission and the ability to achieve its objectives.
In the case of a consumer brand, there is an emotional relationship between the
product and the brand. In the same way, there is a relationship between the employer
and employees, between stakeholder and community. If an employee plans to leave
an organization, the employer asks him in the exit interview why he is leaving the
organization. Most of the employees may simply answer that they do not know the
reason. At this point the employer needs to relook at his fundamentals such as the
culture of hiring and the image of the organization. Developing the organizational
brand image by the employer is part of employer branding. Changing that image into
a working relationship with the organization and with the potential recruits is how
the process works. Understanding that relationship is often a process of discovery,
says Jo Bredwell, senior partner at JWT Specialized Communications. 5 Employer
branding is not about people wanting to hear soft and fuzzy things. It is about
disclosing the realities of the corporation and conveying its essence. In simple
words, it is about understanding the organizational culture, entrepreneurial attitude
and presenting the reality to prospective employees. Getting the key stakeholders
in recruiting to agree on who they are as an organization, as Bredwell remarks, is
one challenge organizations face. The procedure for branding is about how different
employees succeed within an organization and express themselves in more efficient
and effective ways to attract more talented professionals. Successful employer
branding is developed without any extraordinary frills, and its implementation
depends on the aspirations of a company and its ability to deliver the promises.
4

http://www.careerjournal.com/hrcenter/articles/20040413-kennedy.html

www.employerbrand.com

Modeling Employer Branding Communication:

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49

The competition for attracting talent in the world market is fierce. The inexorable
attrition rates stipulate the need for expertise, knowledge, experience and education.
In the new era, far beyond employer branding is Talent Branding which acts as
a cornerstone for an efficient long-term retention and recruitment strategy. This
creates a greater long-term strategic impact, which acts as a media for creating a wellmanaged firm which could be a great place to work. Conversely, weak Talent Brand
nullifies even the best recruitment and retaining strategies. Talent branding needs
to be set in brand equity, and if well-managed, any organization can retain the best
talent, which creates a predicament for competitors to get the best manpower.
Building employer branding efficiently through different stages of recruitment helps
in creating a way to implement employer branding. This is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Building Employer Branding through Different Stages of Recruitment

Planning

Human Resource Planning

Staffing

Job Analysis

Recruitment Strategy

Internal
Channels

External
Channels

Informal
Channels

Formal
Channels

Selection Method

Source: Employer Branding and Talent-Relationship-Management: Improving the Organizational

Recruitment Approach, Author: Robin Jeffrey Katoen, Andreas Macioschek, Ume University,
Ume School of Business, Department of Business Administration,
Supervisor: Per Nilsson, Masters Thesis, Spring 2007, p. 22.

Practical Implications of Employer Branding in the Real World

A few insights into how companies use employer branding as an effective
communicative tool for the recruitment process are now discussed.
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The Icfai Journal of Soft Skills, Vol. II, No. 1, 2008

Infosys
An employee in Infosys speaks about the organizational culture, vision, mission,
image and his relationship with the organization and how he succeeded within the
organization as well as how well the organization fulfilled his career aims and his
achievements. This style of employer branding is used to recruit the best talent,
through testimonies given by their employees in the recruitment advertisements.

Source: www.timesofindia.com, e-paper, July 11th, 2007 Edition.

Ford Motors
Innovatively, Ford Motors reviewed its organizations recruitment process and
revamped the old advertisements for the intake of graduates. It conducted a survey
on the most attractive and efficient reachable slogans and messages for recruiting
fresh graduates. After a broad research on the perceptions of the employees, the
company tested a wide variety of ideas, themes, slogans, images and headlines.
Finally, one concept called Natural Passion simply struck an arpeggio with the
participants. It helped in creating the brand image of the organization among the fresh
recruiters. This advertisement won the Times Best Graduate Recruitment Advertising
and Brochure Award, which is very significant because it was judged by 13,000
undergraduate contestants in the High Fliers survey. 6

Google
Google has a distinct employer branding in the market. Their work style, facilities,
culture, policies and procedure are entirely different when compared to the other
organizations. The organization has a different innovative brand identity in the
recruitment market. According to many famous market surveys, Google was ranked
the second best place to work by many employees and fresh graduates.
The organization is very passionate about its employees and about how passionate
6

The role of employer branding in recruitment Nick Holker, Work, www.employerbrand.com

Modeling Employer Branding Communication:

The Softer Aspect of HR Marketing Management

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Source: www.employerbrand.com

employees are about their work and commitment towards the organization. They
believe in creativity and innovation. The lifestyle and work culture of Google
employees can be seen in the following advertisement.

Source: www.googleimages.com

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Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart is the worlds largest retail chain market that plans to enter India within
a few years. It is planning employer branding in India through advertising firms,
in order to create a strong relationship with the employees for its operations in India
like logistics and cash-carry business. There is a huge labor crunch in many sectors
including the retail sector, since most of the workforce shows interest in the IT sector.
In India, Wal-Mart has a tie-up with Bharti Enterprises for its requirements of
workforce, of about 2500 professionals at various levels of the organization for its
human-capital-intensive Indian operations. Wal-Mart plans to spend huge amounts
for creating employer brand in India.

Fresh Graduates Pre-Ex Ante Analysis on Ideal Employer

Universum, a global employer
branding company, conducted
a survey on 5,451 MBA students
who participated in the MBA
Edition of The Universum
IDEAL Employer Survey,
which is the largest survey of
its kind. They derived critical
results

from

the

survey

including what are the ideal

places to work. The results
from the survey show that
Google, Apple, Toyota and
Starbucks are some of the best
places to work. They identified
these companies as the best

Source: http://retailindiatv.blogspot.com
/2007/03/wal-mart-going-for-employer-branding.html

places to work through students

priority and rankings regarding employer characteristics, preferred location, salary
expectations, top corporates, communication and best internships.
Google was placed as the second best employer and most popular place to work
for MBA students in 2006. The survey had shown a drastic shift from the
129th rank in 2005 to the 2nd . Competing with McKinsey, Google also acquired top
10 places in all the industry rankings. There are many other companies that earned
the top 10 positions in the survey like Goldman Sachs (number three), Bain & Co.
(four), BCG (five), Apple (six), Microsoft (seven), GE (eight), Nike (nine) and Bank
of America (ten). Among students, the most interesting place to work, according to
Modeling Employer Branding Communication:
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the survey, are Procter & Gamble, Google, PepsiCo, Nike, BCG and Starbucks,
which stood in the top five in relation to consumer goods. 7

Employer Branding Responsibilities of HR Executives

There are many crucial factors that need to be considered before branding a company,
especially when every prospective employee shows a great interest in his future
organization. It is all about being a company where people will want to work. And
definitely stressing on literally being a company where people want to work,
because unless you have a great workplace you cannot create such an image. 8
The HR plays a vital role in creating employer branding. Some of the responsibilities
of the HR for building employer branding are given below:
Initial workforce planning.
Having effective recruitment strategies.
Providing better benefit packages to reduce attrition rates.
Overcoming and forecasting drops in employee turnover.
Building a great place to work, which should include freedom,
organizational environment, rewards (both tangible and intangible),
learning and career growth, challenges and responsibilities, flexible
timings, job security, work-life balance, etc.
Encouraging top management supporting HR practices like vision and
mission.
Creating space for recruitment.
Building public relations and networking.
Incorporating the brand image.
Maintaining consistent track record of business leadership.
There are some interesting examples of famous HR professionals playing key roles
in developing employer branding. DK Srivastava, the Vice-President of HR at HCL
Comnet says, It is said that any unsatisfied customer advises 10 people about his
experience while a discontented employee tells a hundred. Employer branding
reflects the work culture in a business. Therefore, it is of much significance. Through
right branding, the company can recruit the best talent and strengthen its positioning
amongst its employees. HP conducted a survey and found that more employers are
trying to bring awareness among the outgoing college graduates and also among the
7

http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/apple_among_the_ideal_employers/

http://www.beakware.com/resources/employment-brand.php

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The Icfai Journal of Soft Skills, Vol. II, No. 1, 2008

employees in the organization through different means like advertisements, media

and workshops.
In the survey, they also found that there is direct correlation between employer
branding and business success. HCL confirms that their policies and procedures
are more innovative to their employees. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, on the other
hand, prefers to give emphasis on both the internal and external customers.
Paying attention and delivering the promises is what matters in building the image
and this creates a hassle free path to be one among the top listed employees. The
company tries to deliver to the employee the choice and wide range of career
opportunities. They consider employee motivation and satisfaction very important.
They deliver customized programs to the employees based on Maslows hierarchy
needs theory, as explained by Atul Srivastava, the head of people relationship
management at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. 9

Are Corporations Keeping Employer Branding Real?

Every organization tries to attract the talent pool because of aggressive competition.
But how far these organizations try to project their employer branding in the market
ethically is also very important. The organization should not bombard their image
with too much information to attract the workforce. They need to show the real
picture like growth, identity, vision, mission and benefits of the organizations to
the employees instead of showcasing unrealities about themselves. Andy Doyle, HR
director at a support services firm, Morrison, said, The problem you face is that
you have got to be authentic, reflecting the real culture and principles of the
organization. You can sell a fascinating picture of employment, but if it doesnt match
reality, the worker will get up and leave after three months in the job. 10 Every
employer should always keep these words in mind and create a genuine employer
branding, which would fetch real profits for the organization.

Conclusion
Employer branding, which is a very significant concept and a very complex process,
needs to be handled with care while planning, processing and implementing.
The message and promise of an organization, which is executed well,
will certainly raise the corporate brand image in the market. As a result, more work
force would show interest in working with the organization. It helps for better talent
management, for acquiring the right fit, and also for staying ahead of its competitors.
Finally, it creates immense and extensive bonding with stakeholders, employers and
forthcoming employees in the market.

Reference # 50J-2008-03-05-01
9

http://www.expressitpeople.com/20030512/cover.shtml

10

http://www.hrdirectorsclub.com/

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