In my pre­vi­ous article “Rec­ru­iting and rese­arc­hing in Turkey”  I pro­po­sed that Turkey can be seen as a pro­mi­nent country not only for glo­bal rec­ru­iters but also for rec­ru­iting rese­arc­hers. Since Turkey ranks among deve­lo­ping count­ries and dif­fers from US with his col­lec­ti­vist cul­ture, it is pos­sible to assert that any US based mana­ge­ment app­ro­ach that pro­vi­des posi­tive out­come in Turkey can be seen as universal.

Today I want to share diag­no­sing phase of our Emp­lo­yer Bran­ding pro­cess which gets posi­tive results in Turkish firms.

As emp­ha­si­zed by Sul­li­van all busi­ness has a an emp­lo­yer brand¹. So the ques­tion is whet­her your emp­lo­yer brand is wor­king for or aga­inst your busi­ness. Whet­her your emp­lo­yer brand att­racts bet­ter app­li­cants and sha­pes their expec­ta­ti­ons about their emp­loy­ment.  For this it is wise to check the health of your emp­lo­yer brand before going any furt­her. You can assess your emp­lo­yer brand by ans­we­ring these questions:

1. Is the cong­ru­ence bet­ween emp­lo­yer brand image and emp­lo­yee bene­fits are clear?

Accor­ding to Kap­fe­rer², brand image is the most a effi­ci­ent way to talk to cus­to­mers via trans­la­ting the dif­fe­rent bene­fits about the brand. One com­mon mis­take HR stra­te­gists make is having too nar­ro­wed view of the emp­lo­yer brand and only focu­sing on func­ti­ona­lity.  The result is often a misa­lign­ment with the emo­ti­onal expec­ta­ti­ons of employees.

2. Is your emp­lo­yer brand sum­ma­rize your com­pany as an employer?

The power of an emp­lo­yer brand depend on how it cre­ates and main­ta­ins a posi­tive repu­ta­tion and an imp­lied posi­tive image in the eyes of cur­rent and pros­pec­tive emp­lo­yees. So, in emp­lo­yer bran­ding pro­cess, func­ti­onal and psyc­ho­lo­gi­cal fac­tors that sum­ma­ri­zes the com­pany as an emp­lo­yer sho­uld become the theme of theme of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and sho­uld be seen as a com­mon star­ting points (CSPs) to com­mu­ni­cate the brand essence in accor­dance with its identity.

3. Is your emp­lo­yer brand dif­fe­ren­ti­ate your com­pany as an employer?

The ori­gi­nal objec­tive of bran­ding was to dis­tin­gu­ish pro­duct, ser­vice, com­pany etc. from simi­lars. Today brand name become more than a label of dif­fe­ren­ti­ation, but its dis­tinc­tive pro­perty is still the essence of bran­ding. Emp­lo­yees as well as cus­to­mers like to be asso­ci­ated with dis­tinc­tive orga­ni­za­ti­ons³. So the emp­lo­yer brand sho­uld dis­tin­gu­ish the com­pany in the minds of cur­rent and pros­pec­tive employees. 

4. Is your Emp­lo­yer Brand har­mo­ni­ous with ove­rall human reso­urce strategy?

If it is not the com­pany is in dan­ger of offe­ring cont­ra­dic­tory pro­mi­ses to its cur­rent and pros­pec­tive emp­lo­yees. If emp­lo­yer brand is lin­ked to HR stra­tegy, the firm will bene­fit from a con­sis­tent inter­nal “pla­ying field” on which to operate.

5. Is your emp­lo­yer brand have a con­sis­tent positioning?

Brand posi­ti­oning pro­vi­des the foun­da­tion of all exter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons. A suc­cess­ful emp­lo­yer brand sho­uld appear the same ever­y­w­here with only minor vari­ati­ons. For example Google .…. Failure to cont­rol con­sis­tent posi­ti­oning could lead to dif­fe­ring of the emp­lo­yer brand across tho­ro­ugh dif­fe­rent stakeholders. 

6. Is your emp­lo­yer brand use right mix of media vehicles?

Emp­lo­yer brand com­mu­ni­ca­tion sho­uld focus the right mix of media vehic­les that will maxi­mize awa­re­ness, unders­tan­ding and result in app­li­ca­tion and refer­ral. Emp­lo­yer brand com­mu­ni­ca­tion inc­lude pub­li­city, adver­ti­se­ment and word of mouth.  Adver­ti­se­ment is short term in nature; others focus on long-term results. Using a right mix of short and long term vehic­les will sup­port the con­sis­tent brand mas­sage that cla­ri­fies the value pro­po­sed by the brand.

7. Is your emp­lo­yer brand have a con­ti­nu­ous rela­ti­ons­hip with cur­rent and pros­pec­tive employees?

An emp­lo­yer brand that pur­ports to unders­tand and lis­ten to its cur­rent and pros­pec­tive emp­lo­yees will have more chance of acqu­iring and reta­ining emp­lo­yees. Emp­lo­yees’ expe­ri­en­ces in the com­pany will serve to strengt­hen the emp­lo­yer brand’s iden­tity as having a emp­lo­yee orientation.

Refe­ren­ces:

1. Sul­li­van J. (2008) Leve­ra­ging Tour Pro­duct Brand to Imp­rove Rec­ru­iting, www.ere.net, Janu­ary 28.

2. Kap­fe­rer, J. N. (1997) Stra­te­gic Brand Mana­ge­ment, Lon­don, Kogan Page.

3. Davies, G. (2008) Emp­lo­yer Bran­ding and Its Inf­lu­ence on Mana­gers, Euro­pean Jour­nal of Mar­ke­ting, 42, 5/6,667–681