Attrition worries in your organization? Review your employer branding strategy now!

Published on Feb 7, 2020

“If the reputation of a company’s products and services is its face, the talent brand is its heart and soul” Hank Stringer, Chief Executive Officer, Stringer Executive Search & Rusty Rueff, Start-up Advisor.

Your clients can only be the second-best ambassadors of your organization because they are not insiders. Your best ambassadors are your employees who know you from the inside. This is exactly why you should quickly act when you see your attrition rate is not at its healthy best. Most organizations panic and resort to various quick fixes and ignore one critical aspect – their Employer Brand. Your Employer Brand matters to not just attract the right talent, but is also a critical aspect in employee retention .

Here are some difficult questions that you need to ask as an organization in your inquiry into what’s going wrong and how you can reduce attrition:

IS YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYER BRAND ATTRACTING THE RELEVANT TALENT ?

"If their employer brand is boring and unattractive, so too will be their talent and performance," says Edward E. Lawler, Professor of Business at the University of Southern California.

If you want to attract people who will stay with you for at least ten years but only speak about quick benefits in your branding materials, be certain to not attract the talent that suits you best. The mismatch between the brand and reality will end up disheartening your employees. Let the language that you speak resonate with the core values that your organization stands for. Ensure that you align your employer brand image with the values and culture of your organization. It should be in sync with the overall corporate brand. Anything else would only prove to be unsustainable. Also, ensure that you are not compromising your core values in the name of employer attractiveness.

Who is responsible to build your Employer Brand?

One of the biggest mistakes that organizations make is to leave the employer brand identity to hang between the HR and communication departments. We, at Han Digital have seen (from our experience in Employer Branding) that the branding exercise should be owned by the leadership of the organization and carried out by the entire organization, including the employees. Define your employer value proposition and direct your efforts towards fulfilling it for the employees. Involve your top leadership in defining the brand, involve the employees in building this brand, and create a constant flow of activities internally to strengthen the Employer Brand internally. In our talent strategy engagements with our clients, Han Digital ensures that from the employee who writes the JDs for the client organization to the employee who handles their social media, everyone works with the employer value proposition and the employer brand in mind.

Be it the employee who writes the JDs for client organizations or the employee who handles the clients social media, Hand Digital’s client talent strategy engagements ensure that all employees work with the employer value proposition and the employer brand in mind.

Do you engage with your employees on social media?

The voice of your employees is heard loud and clear in today’s world of social media. For organizations that value their employees; this is a fantastic medium to build the employer brand. You don’t need any more validation about the kind of organization you are. Work with your employees in building this brand image on social media. Talk about your values, your work culture and engage regularly with your employees on these platforms. Respond to the reviews and comments on Glassdoor, LinkedIn and Twitter to show that you are willing to listen. Once you demonstrate to your employees that you listen, they will become your voice.

Have you tried ‘stay interviews’ with your employees?

Most organizations religiously conduct exit interviews but forget to approach their employees who have chosen to stay with them! The people who have chosen to stay will have the key to what strategies you should adopt to retain your employees according to this Forbes article by Bill Conerly. So gear up now and go to your longest serving employees and ask them how the organization has kept them happy. Once you know your strengths as an employer, it shouldn’t be difficult to spread the joy!