The University of Texas at Tyler

Department of HRD and Technology

Employee Recruitment and Retention: Branding

A term paper submitted for

HRD 3306 Team Building
Instructor: Tommy Gilbreath

By
Team Patriots
Ashley Cook McKenzie McPherson
Melissa Pruitt Emily Richards
Valerie Vargas

July 20, 2018

 Brain Stacy once said “the smartest business decision you can make is to hire qualified

people. Bringing the right people on board saves you thousands, and your business will run

smoothly and efficiently.” Employee branding is a clear and consistent communication, as well

as a meaningful brand throughout the company. When done correctly, employee branding helps

a company hire the top candidates, attract talented people, and allows others to become interested

in the brand. Employee branding has changed over the years. Before smartphones and the

convenience of the internet 24/7, companies used the radio, newspapers, and billboards to

interact with the public. If someone wanted to look at the company closer than just the

advertisements, he would have to directly talk to someone that works there. Today, companies

customize their hiring process. There are different roles and positions that require different types

of people. Newer technology is changing the way that companies hire their employees.

Performing interviews is an important part of the hiring process. The person giving the interview

needs to know what they want to learn about the person they are interviewing. Companies can

benefit from positive or negative feedback. Negative feedback is necessary in order to determine

what areas need to be focused on improving. While employers still control the face of their

organization with their marketing, they have much less control over the associations people make

with their branding. In regard to recruitment and retention, is it important that the hiring process

is collaborative. Four significant categories of employee recruitment and retention: branding are

as followed: making the right hires, training interviewers, never stop training, and asking for

feedback.

Making the right hires in 2018 is much different than the previous decades in this society.

By choosing the most qualified and best fit candidates, this gives a possibility to increase
employee retention. Today, making great hires is about recognizing amazing matches that may

often not be what you expected. These days it is impossible to simply search resumes and

conduct interviews. Some large organizations are still hiring their new employees in the exact

same way they did ages ago. Entry-level to management candidates go through the same process,

from background checks to references, that previous generations did to the same degree, not

considering other more progressive options.

One of the newer, more progressive and successful methods for making the right hires in

2018 is to customize your hiring process. Different roles and positions will require different

personality traits and skill sets, meaning that running every potential new employee through the

same cookie cutter hiring process could cause your organization to miss some potentially unique

and qualified candidates. Hiring can now be compared to more of a marketing approach of

establishing a target market audience in terms of hobbies, personal beliefs, professional

experience, along with other factors other than experience alone.

Another two key methods for a successful hiring experience are prioritizing applicant’s

experience and hiring for your organization’s cultural fit. A way to enhance applicant’s

experience through the hiring process is to see your candidates as “customers” instead of

applicants. This comes into play with the Millennial age group (18-34), as they are accustomed

to a highly responsive and personalized consumer technology experience. If an organization is

going after a top recruit is important to meet them where they are, rather than them coming to the

organization, if possible. This will leave the potential candidate with a view of the company or

organization having a human touch and also leave them with a positive view of the organization;

in turn making them more likely to make it through to the final interview and decision to join the
company. Cultural fit is tied into the way an employer treats potential candidates and applicants

as well. Even the most qualified candidates for an organization will not fully contribute if they

feel they do not fit into the culture of the company, work environment, or leadership in place.

Culture, in terms of an organization is defined as what values, norms, and practices define your

organization beyond the mission statement and brand. All recruiting materials should make the

culture very obvious and clear in order to attract candidates with the same values and make for a

successful hiring experience. The more the company honestly depicts it’s corporate culture as an

important qualifier, the more successful the hiring process will be, and candidates have a much

larger percentage of staying and succeeding within the company.

Ensuring a speedy hiring process is crucial when recruiting highly desired candidates.

The longer the response consideration time is, the more turned off a candidate may be who could

possibly receive a more desirable offer while they are waiting to hear from an organization.

While this makes perfect sense, according to the Wall Street Journal (2017), the time it takes to

screen and hire has nearly doubled over the last few years. Being strategic about the process,

streamlining as much as an employer can, and taking as much time off of the hiring process

should be an important priority in 2018 for employers. Once again, taking too long to decide can

result in the best candidates committing somewhere else. Because of this, ensuring a speedy

hiring process can absolutely increase the company’s chances of hiring and retaining the most

desired candidates.

Making new and continuous improvements is very crucial to the hiring process. Every

day now, new opportunities appear, and new technologies enter the market. These all can

improve the way organizations attract, screen, and hire candidates. As long as the organization
evolves with the changing times and reviews and updates it’s hiring process frequently with the

ever so changing times of our technological era, making the right hires can and should be

successful for any organization or company.

To follow out and ensure that the correct hirese are chosen, companies need to perform

successful interviews. The employer giving the interview with a candidate needs to determine

what he wants to learn about the candidate. Interviews may sometimes be viewed as a habit or

just a simple, easy step in the hiring process. Although, interviews should not be limited to

strictly learning the facts. According to Harvard Business Review, an effective interview should

include the following: “the proper kind of preparation for the interview, value of such procedures

as having an outline of points to be covered and taking notes, use (and misuse) of questions and

questioning techniques, the kind and amount of control that the interviewer should exercise over

the discussion, and analysis and evaluation of information obtained” (Trull, 2014). Both the

employer and the interviewee should prepare properly for an interview. Although, too much

preparation can also cause problems.

The employer needs to have a written outline and a specific time limit for the duration of

the interview. In the outline, there needs to be questions that are focused on what knowledge the

employer wants to gain about the candidate. The atmosphere of the interview should not feel

intimidating, but rather friendly. Instead of making the interview seem intense, build the trust of

the interviewee by making it seem more relaxed. Sarcasm and humor should not be used unless

the interviewer knows the interviewee fully understands that. When it comes to interviewing,

“there is an appalling lack of effort given to systematic attempts at building improvements into

this age-old process” (Trull, 2014). The process of interviewing can always be changed and
improved. Questions should be used as a tool, in order to discover the ideas the interviewer

wants to know. In bigger, important interviews, it is smart to have one or two trusted colleagues

to be a part of the interview.

There should also be questions that will show the potential of the interviewee. Finding

the potential of the candidate should be a main goal, as well as learning what his answers for real

solutions are. Giving possible scenarios of problems that can occur and asking for the

interviewee’s opinion will give insight to how he thinks and reacts in specific situations. This can

help determine if the interviewee is actually fit for the job. If an interview is going well, the

interviewer needs to sell the job. This ties to building the trust of the interviewee in the

beginning. An interviewer must be genuinely interested in the personal needs and satisfactions of

the interviewee.

Before ending an interview, the interviewer should make sure that the interviewee has no

unanswered questions. The information gained from the interview should be analyzed and

documented, along with a follow-up if needed. Interviewers need to always remember to “lower

[the] candidates’ stress levels by telling [him] in advance the kinds of questions you plan to ask,

ask behavioral and situational questions, and sell the role and the organization once [the

interviewer is] confident in [the] candidate” (Knight, Smith, & Stephenson, 2015). Finding the

perfect person to fill a job position will normally take some trial and error, but by using effective

interviewing it will make the entire process smoother.

Some employees want to go the extra mile, do a good job, and perform successfully. “By

investing the appropriate training in employees, they will develop a greater sense of self-worth as

they become more valuable to the company.” (Freifeld, L 2013) When given the proper training,
some employees become more confident in their work. This leads to a more pleasant work

environment and helps improve employee retention. Some employees even enjoy coming to

work when they feel appreciated on the job and are shown recognition for their hard work. There

are many steps a company or organization can take to ensure the employees have the proper

training that is needed. Training benefits the organization and each individual employee. This is

beneficial to each individual because of the expansion of knowledge and skills within each

employee. The organization benefits from training by growing from the knowledge and skills

learned, making the organization more successful as a whole. Training employees within an

organization can be as simple as correcting someone on a task that was completely incorrectly, or

as complex as a hands-on learning class for the entire staff.

Organizations often fear spending time and money to train and develop employees. They

fear that those employees will take the newly acquired skills to another organization. However,

when an employee feels that his job takes a part in the organization's success, he will want to

improve his knowledge and skills. Keeping employees interested in continuing their career by

using training is a way to demonstrate that the company values them. (Freifeld, L 2013).

Training shows the employees that the organization is interested in their individual success.

It is often difficult to feel engaged or be productive in a workplace. Although, it is not

impossible; there is always a way to feel more engaged in a workplace. For best results, it is

often better to place employees in areas that interest them, where they feel more comfortable at,

or have experience.

When training employees, it often gets overwhelming trying to take in all the information

at one time. An easier way to help remember things is by “chunking” it or breaking the
information down into smaller pieces. (Mehta, K 2016) It is easier to retain information by

breaking trainings down into multiple steps, and makes it less overwhelming for employees

trying to process the information. It helps if someone explains how something applies to his job

or how it can personally benefit an employee. Once they understand the concept, employees are

more excited to learn and put the effort into bettering themselves at work.

There are different options for training. As previously mentioned, trainings can be very

simply or more complex. In-person training allows employees to have one on one sessions with

an instructor in a classroom setting. Setting up a workshop for employees to attend is a great idea

because it allows for a lecture type experience, but also gives training with hands-on. E-Learning

or online based training allows employees to do a self-paced course online. With technology

advancing, many organizations rely on online resources for training. Simulations allow

employees to mimic the process: role play, case study, on the job training, and hands on training.

Organizations offer different training methods depending on the job and the budget.

Annual reviews are one of the best ways to create new goals for employees. This is the

perfect time to talk to employees about areas that need improvement, promotions, training or

educational paths can help (Mehta, K 2016). When an organization offers training programs and

is willing to help employees grow, it allows employees to perform better and helps prepare them

for greater responsibilities. When an employee feels appreciated for their hard work, the

employee is by far more loyal to the organization than other employees who feel

underappreciated. Compared to employees that do not really care for improvement in an

organization, employees that feel appreciated and trusted are more likely to give more effort

towards the success of the organization.

 Learning needs to be an every day practice in every organization or company. Work

should be viewed as an opportunity, not an obstacle. Instead of making up excuses each day on

why one does not have time for additional training, one should look at each day at work as an

opportunity to learn something new. There are hundreds of opportunities all around, improve

writing skills, speaking, decision making, understanding a new system, new process (Wilder, J).

Learning is vital to the overall success of an individual and the organization as a whole. In

addition to training and learning, feedback is also considered a strategy in organizations.

Providing feedback can sometimes be hard even for senior level management, but when it

comes to employee retention it is an important part of keeping employees satisfied. Being liked

is highly important to many people in the workplace and this sometimes makes it hard to give

potently negative feedback. However, it is imperative that companies get this feedback in order

to stay on track for employee retention. When feedback is encouraged, it can really impact the

way a business treats its employees in a positive way. When this is done appropriately it can

improve performance, working relationships, and build employee confidence.

Corporate feedback can help a company achieve its goal of constant improvement that

enables open and honest feedback. Encouraging feedback is also as important as asking for

feedback. Positive feedback creates and environment where employees have strong working

relationships with management and this leads to better coordination. There are many types of

positive feedback some of the best ways to do this are to: “Commending a colleague for

providing you with a solution, discussing team progress and lauding their commitment,

celebrating a specific milestone and providing a reward.” These sound like obvious ways to give

positive feedback but because they are obvious they often are the ones that are most often
forgotten. Encouraging feedback is not only good for creating a strong work environment it can

also create confidence in employees. The best way to do that is to make them feel “respected,

safe and, perhaps, a little bit out of your comfort zone. Feedback must be tailored to the person,

making them feel valued and letting them know why, where and how they need to grow and

improve.”

When giving feedback to employers it is important to follow these few steps: ​“begin by

telling what you like, pause and think about your reasons for giving feedback, tell them what

they could have done differently, and explain in detail what you would like them to do next”

(Mehta, 2016). In order to make sure that the feedback is well received it is best to start is by

letting them know what you like first. This is not a time to criticize, if the first part of feedback is

negative, it immediately shuts down any further communication. This might be challenging, but

for this line of communication to be truly effective the feedback must be sincere. When giving

feedback it is important to think about what your reason for giving the feedback is. ​“Team

success, company growth, or relationship building are great motives for the feedback process”

(Mehta, 2016). ​In the next step of the feedback process, the individual giving the feedback needs

to think about why the feedback is needed the and what the root cause is. When there are

problems in a company sometimes the problems are not as simple as they seem. Employees need

to be informed of what they could have done differently to produce a different outcome in the

situation. This is where the person giving feedback can show how they would of handle a certain

situation and what steps they would have taken to improve it. The last step is explaining to

employees what they should do next time in that same or similar situation after establishing what

is wrong and how it could have been handled differently. It is important to come up with a plan
for future situations in order to make sure the same problems are not continually a problem.

In conclusion, employee branding is a thorough form of communication that represents

branding within a company. Employee branding assists in hiring employees, attraction of quality

of employees, and peaks interest from other companies. When it comes to branding, “building

the right team and retaining [the] top talent is critical for success today, and it's why employee

retention is essential for long-term growth” (Employee Recruitment and Retention Strategies).

Because of the success, employee branding is constantly evolving. Employee recruitment and

retention are very complex subjects. By using proper techniques and strategies, recruitment and

retention help in efforts of branding and having success in a company. Finding and hiring the top

performers for a specific position is a task within itself, but it is important for the success of the

organization. Once finding the best candidates, the hiring process they go through needs to be in

top order and easy to understand. By holding interviews correctly, employers will be able to

determine which interviewees are the best fit for the position and organization. In order for the

best candidates to be chosen, the employer must sell the organization during the interview.

Individuals are more likely to choose the organization they feel most comfortable with. Once

hired, organizations should never stop training employees. Things change over time and learning

information little by little will help keep employees trained. Trainings can also lead to more

opportunities to give feedback, which is important within organizations. Feedback is necessary

for employees to understand how well they are performing. Positive and negative feedback both

allow for growth within employees individually, as well as the entire organization. These four

categories of employee recruitment/retention and branding: making the right hires, training

interviewers, never stop training, and asking for feedback, are what helps keep employee
branding evolving like it is today.
 Citations

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Freifeld, L. (April 18, 2013) Training increases employee retention. Retrieved June 16, 2018
from ​https://trainingmag.com/content/training-increases-employee-retention/

Insightful Hiring Quotes from 9 Business Experts & Leaders. (2014, January 15). Retrieved from
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Knight, R., Smith, C., & Stephenson, C. (2015, August 12). How to Conduct an Effective Job
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from ​https://hbr.org/1964/01/strategies-of-effective-interviewing

Wilder, J. (June 4) Great companies never stop learning. Here’s how to do it. Retrieved June 16,
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