International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-3, Issue-2, Feb.

-2017
http://iraj.in
EMPLOYER BRANDING: WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A SUCESSFUL
BRAND
1
AFREEN FATIMA, 2MOHSIN SHEIKH
1,2
Allana institute of Management Sciences, Azam campus, Pune(411001)
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract— Purpose- The concept of employer branding is becoming popular among the employers. Employer branding has
different attributes, characteristics and is linked to different departments. Marketing, HR, communications, corporate image,
Internal and external branding all has to work together for a successful employer brand. These different elements has been
studied and reviewed in this paper.
Design/Methodology- Bodies of literature has been studied for review and examination for better understanding of the
subject.
Findings- The review of the literature highlights the important characteristics, attributes and the linkage between the areas of
branding. It throws light on what are the areas in which the companies need to focus for a better employer brand. A
framework on employer branding has been proposed for better understanding of the concept.

Keywords— Employer Branding, Internal and External Brand, Corporate Brand, Employee Value Proposition.

I. INTRODUCTION judgment of what is valuable are important in life.

They determine the action and behavior of an
Branding is always connected with marketing. individual in a society. According to (cable and
Branding has been used as a tool for the promotion of judge, 1996) the maximum attraction towards any
the product in the consumer market. But, another organization occurs when the values of the employer
aspect of branding emerged since 1996 when Ambler and the employee is matched. Here, the psychological
and Barrow have coined the term employer branding. factors have been kept in mind when it talks about
They have defined employee branding as a package values.
of economic, functional and psychological benefits
provided by employment and identified with the II. LINKAGE BETWEEN CORPORATE,
employing organization. The application of branding INTERNAL AND EMPLOYER BRAND
principles of marketing to human resource
management has been termed as employer branding. Employer brand, corporate brand and internal brand
Employer branding is use to attract the talent and also has been studied to see the relation between them. A
it insures to engage the existing employees for future corporate brand concerns the systematic plant
references. The basic idea of employer branding is to management of behavior, communication and
make the prospective employees to know about the symbolism in order to attain a favorable and positive
organization values and culture. It also helps in reputation with target audiences of an organization.
making a strong relation with the existing employees Alignment between an organizations vision and
by providing the right culture and values. The employees values must also be met (Hatch and
employer brand put forth an image showing the Schultz, 2001).Employees are the key elements of
organization as ‘a good place to work’ (Sullivan building an organizations corporate brand (King,
2004). Factors like globalization, pressure for 1991).The corporate identity stands for the
organization ethos and values. According to
Speed and innovation, privatization, mergers and Aaker (2004) says, corporate identity is the link
acquisitions, organization restructuring and talent between the organization and customers. Employee is
acquisition are the main reason for the change in the an important and inseparable part of corporate brand.
employment scenario. The demand for good and A closer alignment of values in employees in the
talented employees has increased then the available organization results in a sustainable competitive
supply .The talent attraction and retention has advantage. Internal branding is clearly linked to
therefore become a very important issue for the corporate branding. In an influential article on the
organizations. The whole concept of talent attraction relationship between corporate internal and external
and retention revolves around employer branding. It branding (Foster, khanyapuss and cheng) has given a
is the relation of potential and current employees with clear explanation from different literature reviews
the company’s brand. Employer brand has some about it. It says that when the employees understand
unique features which the organization promises the corporate values then the commitment towards
offers to its employees. On the other hand, values of the brand promise will increase. Also, if the employee
the employees matters when one looks towards the is totally satisfied with the organization then only he
employer. Ones own principle or standards and gives his best possible service to the organization.

Employer Branding: What it Takes to be a Sucessful Brand

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 International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-3, Issue-2, Feb.-2017
http://iraj.in
The internal branding helps in educating the branding. Uniqueness is the key element of branding
employees about the brand values of the organization. and the EVP gives that uniqueness to the brand. So
Thus, increasing the emotional engagement with the sustainable human resource management should
organization. Moreover, if the employees accept and contribute to the employer brand. An interesting
understand the values of an organization, the more point has been included in the same articles of
likely it is to be emotionally attached with it (Cook sustainable development of Human Resource. It says
and Wall, 1986). In the same article the corporate that it is important to create a base from starting for a
brand has also been linked to employer brand. There good human resource input. It supports the idea of
are similar characteristics of it we talk about establishing the educational institute by the
corporate and internal brand. The brand should be organization so that it can help in engaging the
unique, noticeable, relevant and vibrant. Basically the potential employees and ensuring the availability of
employer brand is the total package of functional, high quality human resource the communication with
economic and psychological benefits provided by the student target group through social interactions
employment (Ambler and Barrow, 1996). An campus activities also influences the organizational
organization should provide accurate brand attractiveness. This target group of students can be
information to the employee at the time of hiring. stated as “the warehouse of talent”.
This will create a realistic psychological contract that
will be reflected by the employment experience. Both III. CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EMPLOYER
existing and potential employees have a perception BRAND
towards the corporate brand. This perception is
created through corporate brand itself. Thus, all three Moroko and Uncles 2008, In there exclusive report
components that is corporate brand, internal and regarding the characteristics of employer brand have
employer brand are linked together. reached to create an understanding as to what are the
An article by Stephenie App, Jania Merk and Buttgen characteristics which are important in terms of
gives an insight on Sustainable human resource branding.
management as competitive advantage in the market A qualitative approach was taken to data-collection
for high quality employees. According to the authors and analysis. They use an expert panel for this
to improve the corporate reputation and attractiveness purpose. Depth interviews from various expertise
to potential employees the organizations tend to have been taken for the study. They were asked to
integrate the sustainability into their branding and characterize successful and unsuccessful employer
communication policies. The employer brand often brand according to them. The characteristics which
relates to the organization culture and values which in stands out were i) to be known an noticeable ii)
turn are the core of Corporate brand (Mosley, 2007). being seen as relevant and resonant iii) be
The difference between the corporate and employer differentiated from direct competitors. All the above
brand is that the employer brand includes all the three focuses on the company based attributes,
existing and current employees. Whereas, the employee value proposition and uniqueness in the
corporate brand involves all the stakeholders (Foster brand. ‘Promise’ by an employer brand is also an
et.al, 2010). The main aim of establishing an important aspect of branding. This promise is from
employer brand is to differentiate the organization the side of the organization, all the things which is
from its competitors. They also discussed the theories which offers but only in the beginning but throughout
like signaling theory and social identity theory. The the whole employment cycle. The psychological
signaling theory says that the signals which are sent contract which Ambler and Barrow have talked
by the organization is the base for building the before has to be fulfilled for a strong employer brand.
perception among the potential employees. The They came up with the topology of employer brand
signals are a good source of information for those success characteristics.
seeking for the job in that organization. It helps them
to decide whether to work for the organization or not
(Greening and Turban 2000). Social identity theory
denotes that a person's self concept is influenced by
the image and reputation. It of the organization.
Employees use employer brand to compare different
organizations. The sustainable HRM add value for
employees and thus contribute to the person's self
concept. In the same article of Sustainable HRM
person- organization fit was also discussed. The
match of the personal characteristics and values with
that of the organization increases the chance of
stability. A person is more attached in long run if the
person- organizations fit is matched. Employee value
proposition also plays an important role in employer Source: Moroko and Uncles 2008

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 International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-3, Issue-2, Feb.-2017
http://iraj.in
If the contract is fulfilled then only the employee is Netherlands. A global leader in its sector and
going to be attracted else without the fulfillment of Europe's largest electronic company with 1, 21,000
the contract employee is not going to be attracted. employees. It has its employees in more than 60
Here the contract refers to all the offerings countries. The early adopter of the concept of
(psychological contract promise and truth) which an employee branding, Philips successfully plotted and
organization is providing after joining it. Another deliver the promise. All three areas that are human
topology for managerial implications of employer resource, marketing and communication have to
brand success characteristics was build. come together for a successful employer brand. They
also talked about the four C’s in the talent and Philips
relationship.

Fig.3- The four C’s in the talent and Philips relationship are
Source: Moroko and Uncles 2008 use to structure the recruitment marketing mix

It gives an overview of the strategic issues that forms Concluding their thought they support the branding
with the brand in each cell may face. The first cell is concept. The employee engagement, trust between
of communication breakdown under which the both the parties, promise of what the employee is
companies who lack communication with employees going to offer helps in creating a better brand.
come. The situation of such companies may be
improved with the most strategic integrated approach. In the same context Taylor and Jenner wrote in an
The second cell of strategy mismatch says that in this article describing the scenario of employee branding
case the employees are attracted but due to low in United Kingdom. A survey by Robert half suggest
employee engagement the candidates left the that only 20% of companies were intended to adopt
organization. This kind of organizations has to work employer brand over the next 2 years, compared with
on the internal engagement issues to retain the 35% who were not at all interested. According to that
employees. Third cell talk about those organizations study the employer brand has emerged as an
that are not seen as attractive employers. They don't influential approach to human resource management
have sufficient employment experience which is in the USA and UK in recent years. Four main reason
important to retain the staff. The last cell of to adopt employer branding for also discussed i)
‘sustained successful’ fills the contract. They are brand power ii) human resource research for
capable to attract the potential employees and also credibility iii) prevailing labor market conditions iv)
been able to retain the talent. Due to this the employee engagement.
productivity also increases in such organizations.
V. IMPORTANCE OF EVP
IV. IMPORTANCE OF BRAND PROMISE AND
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Simon Barrow predicts on the changing scenario due
to the introduction of employer branding. He predicts
A powerful write-up by Rosethorn, Hodes and that brand management will emerge as a key to
Mensink on ‘employer branding is more than just a manage effective brand. A separate branch of
fashion statement’ give and insight on does the management will be required to take care of the
company really bother about their branding. They employer branding. He also predicts that human
wrote that branding is a deal between the organization resource function will increase and the human
and its employees. The brand offers a promise and the resource will split into two. As HR people are more
employee buys that promise. The satisfaction level or involved with the employees, it will be better if a
attachment of the employees proves whether the section of HR management take care of employer
organization is fulfilling its promise or not. It also branding practices. Further he added that the CEO’S
raised a question that ‘do the organizations are really will spend more time on their organizations
worried for the attraction and retention strategy’. Do reputation as an employer done with the investment
the companies are able to attract the right talent. They community. The focus will be more people Driven.
gave an example of Royal Philips Electronics of We all can see this happening today which was

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 International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-3, Issue-2, Feb.-2017
http://iraj.in
predicted in 2007. It is clear from barrow's prediction practice’. It says that not much evidence is there to
that the employer brand has become an integral part conclude that the theory and practice of employer
of every organization. Glyn House in his paper ‘the branding does not go with each other. There are some
changing world of employer brand and HR’ have things that are contradictory, but there are some
discussed the importance of marketing in HR. promising practices employed by the results. The
According to Water Thompson (1976) ‘a product is major points which has been concluded were i) the
made in a factory, A brand is bought by a consumer’. human resource managers need to have a good model
One has to focus on the full holistic range of features of employee branding which reflects their
and benefits that are the reason that people choose to organization ii) the human resource manager should
work in an organization. According to him brands are look and learn from the researches in the field of
emotional, they appeal to people and create dream. It employer branding and talent management iii)
is important to work on ‘why people work for us’ the organizations with the legitimate and socially
EVP comes into picture when one wants to be responsible message are more likely to appeal a large
differentiated from the competitors. number of talent iv)The factors of employment can be
different for different types of recruits and for
Housley in an article titled Harnessing shift have different types of existing employees at different
mentioned some of the very important issues career stages v) the organizations need to understand
regarding employer brand. The author has pointed out the differences among the groups of potential and
the shortage of talent in both the developed and existing employees .The EVP must be applied
developing countries like China and India. This differently to different segments vi) employer
shortage of talent has created a reorientation in branding should concerned to develop social as well
Human Resource Management. Thus, the importance as human capital with the continuous innovation in
of employee branding has emerged as a key ray of the practice of branding organization can achieve
hope for attracting the talent and retaining it. what they want.
Employee branding and reputation management have
the power to give organization the competitive edge CONCLUSION
in attracting and retaining. Now a day the people are
no longer attracted by salary and compensation. The
employer brand has emerged as a true differentiator.
It is the only thing which is gives an edge in the
competition for talent. EVP is also discussed in the
same article by Housley. It is the most crucial part of
employer brand. According to the author, for creating
a successful EVP companies must understand three
things i) image in the eyes of potential employers ii)
Unique identity in terms of the true image of internal
working environment iii) CEO messages and
corporate branch are trying to portray the image of
the organization. A global employer brand creates a
consistency of message and experience. In this Fig.4- Framework for understanding Employer Brand
Source: Developed by author
interesting article the author has also mentioned about
generation Y. The current generation Y is young and From the above framework it can be concluded that
they have different needs .Employer brand has to be internal brand, corporate brand and employer brand is
flexible enough to match with the needs of the young linked to each other. The linkage is shown by the
talent. Each and every single employee, alumni and circles that are touching each other. Internal brand
stakeholders can be a tool of employer branding. An talks about employee engagement and this employee
influential article by professor Graeme, Analyses the engagement will increase the satisfaction level of the
employer brand practice. He discussed the brand employee. It is more likely that engaged and satisfied
mage, Corporate Identity and brand reputation. All employee shows loyalty towards the organization.
the above three are said to be the drivers of employer Corporate brand talks about the company’s vision,
brand image. If the employer brand includes ‘who are mission, culture and values. The corporate brand tells
we’ then the corporate identity says ‘what it is ‘.The ‘what the company is all about’. Employer brand
employer brand is the package of all the benefits includes the unique feature of ‘why it is different’
which the organization offers. Corporate identity is from the rest of the competitors. It has to fulfill the
all about the mission, strategy and culture. The third ‘promise’ of the benefits (functional, economical and
driver of the employer brand image is the employer psychological) which it is going to offer while
brand reputation. Reputation is created by the recruiting the employee. The corporate, internal and
potential and existing employees. It is how one employer brand is responsible for building the
perceives the organization. Article also enlightens on perception towards the organization.
‘does the employee branding theories work in

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International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-3, Issue-2, Feb.-2017
http://iraj.in
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