Successful companies have a good workforce that has the required talent and skill to handle the jobs. These companies use employer branding techniques to hunt for a talented workforce in the competitive labor market. Therefore, employer branding is a company’s capacity to distinguish itself from the competition and market that identity to a specific group of candidates. Employer branding also allows companies to control and favorably change their narrative, resulting in increased talent acquisition and retention. According to Arasanmi & Krishna (2019), employer branding strategies that include organizational support systems excel in keeping and retaining talent for extended periods. Building an employer brand takes a series of steps and collaboration of the stakeholders within the organization. Companies can use messaging to nurture and direct their employer brand, but they don’t have complete control of what other people think of your firm and what they say about it when they are out in public. The following are some examples of typical employer branding activities: Creating a visually appealing career website on job platforms like Indeed and Monster, created to manage complex profiles, and creating and distributing appealing job descriptions and advertisements. This employer branding is something that the business can only influence. Each company should build an effective employer branding plan to attract superior talent, lower hiring costs, and reduce employee turnover. (Write My Business Essay)
One of the companies with strong employer branding techniques is HEINEKEN. The company has a captivating video that helps to promote its brand by recruiting the best-qualified personnel. The video is a key component of the company’s “Go Places” campaign, which asks candidates to react to a series of questions in three to five seconds. The results provide you with a personal profile based on the Enneagram model, which you must provide with your resume when applying for your ideal job at HEINEKEN (Most unique employer branding campaigns,” 2021). Through online recruiting practices, professionals with a passion for knowledge and a sense of adventure are sought by HEINEKEN. Dessler (2020) argues that many Canadians look for employment over the internet, and it also provides employers with a wide selection of adequate skills. Individuals with a passion for knowledge and a sense of adventure exemplify its core principles and culture and what sets it distinct from its competitors by having a curious mind and a diverse skill set. According to HEINEKEN, the company seeks to promote the employer brand campaign with a multichannel approach that includes earned amplification, paid media partnerships, online and social media engagement, geo-targeting of job sites like LinkedIn and promotions at career fairs and events (“Home,” 2019).
LinkedIn is a very efficient platform for both employers and their potential employees. Potential employees can form groups according to their skills and expertise, and HEINEKEN as an employer, will easily access their services. The most popular social media channel for Heineken is Facebook, which has over 20 million Likes. Heineken has geo-targeted its Facebook Page, which means they are serving material particular to their audience’s location. Because the regional Fan Pages are combined, the overall Likes counts add up to an astounding total (“How Heineken uses social media – Case study,” 2021). HEINEKEN has a very strong social media promotion strategy that other firms should learn from. The firm has several regional Twitter accounts. Still, the most popular are @Heineken, which has more than 137,000 followers, and @HEINEKENCorp, which publishes company plan updates and promotes other Heineken brands (“How Heineken uses social media – Case study,” 2021). Heineken has many regional accounts on Instagram, similar to those on Twitter.
Starbucks has grown to be one of the most well-known and well-liked companies globally with a good employer branding strategy. All qualified individuals, including minorities, women, veterans, and people with disabilities, are equal opportunities to work at Starbucks. The company is well-known for its use of social media, promoting its corporate culture, and building an online interaction for its workers. Starbucks has dedicated Twitter and Instagram accounts to job seekers, where the firm expresses its gratitude for current employees and engages with potential hires (examples of companies doing employer branding right,” 2021). Starbucks has a Facebook account with more than half a million followers. With over 12 million followers, Twitter is one of Starbucks’ most handy customer service platforms. (Unmetric, 2019). In addition, Starbucks has developed goods, particularly for Instagram. The Unicorn Frappuccino, beautiful, colorful, and Instagram-friendly, is an instant sensation on the platform (Unmetric, 2019). The firm is also on YouTube, where to engage fans and followers, the brand has used a range of videos.
Sharing employee success stories is a big part of Starbucks’ workplace branding social media posts. Starbucks has a Jobs Playlist on its YouTube channel dedicated to success stories, and these tales are shared on Twitter and Instagram. Starbucks recruits externally through Participating in career fairs and conducting on-campus interviews and information sessions, a special area of the company’s website, using websites like Monster.com, Vault.com, Glassdoor.com, and SimplyHired.com post job openings and also classified advertising in newspapers (“Recruiting, motivating, and keeping quality employees,” n.d.). Employees who are willing to work at Starbucks access the sites with ease and seek information on the requirements before applying for the job. Starbucks has a good employer branding strategy with vast use of social media platforms but still requires improving and matching that of HEINEKEN so that it can compete healthier while seeking for potential employees.
With its employer branding approach, General Electric (GE), one of the world’s oldest energy corporations, rebranded itself as a digital company. GE has changed their employment brand over the last five years by empowering both employees and candidates, concentrating on the requirements of their people in more than 170 countries across the world, and making their mission – “imagination at work” – a reality (WilsonHCG | Global RPO, Executive Search & Talent Acquisition Solutions, n.d.). GE accomplishes this with a series of topical and contemporary advertising. “What if Millie Dresselhaus, Female Scientist, Was Treated Like a Celebrity?” was the title of one of the videos. It was made public to highlight GE’s objective of employing 20,000 women in technical positions by 2020 (examples of companies doing employer branding right,” 2021). Internally, GE uses an intranet and collaboration software like SharePoint and Yammer, which makes it simple to “follow” and communicate with potential candidates even when there are no open positions. Outside of the company, social media networks like LinkedIn are crucial for recruiting. Professionals with specialized expertise join LinkedIn groups dedicated to promoting their fields of expertise.GE employs corporate schooling to recruit more diverse workers into their workforce. Employees are educated through a system of professional development activities known as corporate education. The corporate school was a crucial component of Progressive Era personnel strategies aimed to address labor recruitment issues resulting from a perceived shortage of skilled workers in the country for General Electric and other companies. (Nelson-Rowe, 1991). Potential candidates benefit from corporate schooling since they get the chance to train, interact with the firm and each other, and the company is assured of a well-trained workforce. The employer branding strategy at GE fails to adequately suit it’s demand for labor having in mind that the company is one of the oldest businesses. The management should use more social media platforms in advertising for vacancies and also allow employees from diverse backgrounds into their organization.
PwC has previously been constrained by the impression that it was a firm of accountants. This reputation made the company fail in securing good talents in the job market. PwC’s marketing team began focusing on the firm’s employer branding strategy to broaden the company’s appeal to a younger talent pool and modify its image (examples of companies doing employer branding right,” 2021). Dessler (2020) says that young generations will always seek to benefit from any form of technology that eases and make their search for jobs a success. This behavior thus has impacted the methods PwC is using to attract new young talents to their workforce. The firm launched a website named CareerAdvisor in 2015. The corporation pushed the site with digital and social media advertising and reached out to job centers on college campuses via the website. PwC got a database of new talent due to the web page, which drew in 27,500 users (examples of companies doing employer branding right,” 2021). Pre-hires learn about what to expect in their first days and weeks and connect with the company and other pre-hires through a worldwide, online, mobile network (PricewaterhouseCoopers, n.d.). Potential candidates can interact through the websites and pot rays their skills and expertise that the company can choose. On diversity, PwC employs 55,000 people representing a diverse range of colors, ethnicities, genders, backgrounds, faiths, and beliefs and makes them understand that they are one corporation (PricewaterhouseCoopers, n.d.). The company has also put an approach for long-term change based on supporting employees’ professional development, and they are always developing to fulfill their specific needs better. This effort has helped the PwC to recruit and incorporate a more diverse workforce into the organization.
HEINEKEN is exemplary because the company values its employees more than PwC, GE, and Starbucks. From my research, HEINEKEN is changing its employer marketing strategy to focus on employee tales to instill pride in its employees, increase awareness and engagement among potential hires, and improve the quality of new hires. Every employee would want to work for a firm that considers them part of the organization, and thus, I would choose to apply for a job at HEINEKEN to achieve such desires. On the other hand, PwC requires improvement through innovating effective employer branding strategies. According to PwC’s Future of Recruiting survey, 49% of prospects have turned down a job offer due to a bad recruiting experience (PricewaterhouseCoopers, n.d.). The use of outdated strategies to recruit potential employee fails to attract the expected workforce at PwC. PwC should become experts in virtual collaboration and digital communications to succeed in the future of hybrid work. As a youth on social media platforms searching for potential employers, I would assume working at PwC and rather choose a more progressive organization like HEINEKEN. The firm should also aim to allow job seekers to take control of their recruitment and employ strategies to bring in a diverse workforce. Dessler (2020) says that a diverse working force is a necessity in any corporation. Best practices in hiring processes, effective training programs, a focus on career development initiatives, and maintaining a productive and cohesive organizational culture are just a few of the elements that contribute to your reputation with people today. General Electric and Starbucks are average the two firm require minimal improvements by shifting to a more aggressive employer branding strategy and rise to the height of the HEINEKEN. The firms should not only employ labor that is available in the market but should also gear toward hiring improved quality of the labor.
In conclusion, the search for labor in any organization has proven difficult with the existing competition from other similar firms. When hiring a labor workforce, every corporation wishes to hire highly skilled personnel in limited supply. An organization’s success is highly dependent on the quality of skilled labor working in that particular firm. These factors have led firms into putting in place strategies meant to draw potential skills into their workforce through employer branding techniques. Diversifying during the recruitment process brings on different board skills into an organization and helps enhance employee relations and eliminate biasness in the recruitment process. Companies with strong employer branding strategies like HEINEKEN have the best advantage in attracting the best labor workforce in the market. Companies that seek to attract Millennials into their labor workforce should use social media platforms since the majority of the youth use these platforms to seek employment. Organizations should also take great concern for society around them to promote a friendly atmosphere and allow potential employees to get the courage to seek employment in these organizations.
References
Arasanmi, C. N., & Krishna, A. (2019). Employer branding: perceived organisational support and employee retention–the mediating role of organisational commitment. Industrial and Commercial Training.
Dessler, G. & Chhinzer, N (2020). Human resources management in Canada, fourteenth Canadian edition.
Examples of companies doing employer branding right. (2021, August 6). Beautifully simple recruitment software for SMBs | Occupop. https://www.occupop.com/blog/5-examples-of-companies-doing-employer-branding-right
Home. (2019, January 28). The HEINEKEN Company. https://www.theheinekencompany.com/newsroom/heinekentaps-into-talent-around-the world-for-go-places-20-campaign/
Nelson-Rowe, S. (1991). Corporation schooling and the labor market at General Electric. History of Education Quarterly, 31(1), 27. https://doi.org/10.2307/368781
PricewaterhouseCoopers. (n.d.). Application process for experienced candidates. PwC. https://www.pwc.com/c1/en/careers/experienced-career/recruitment-process experienced.html
PricewaterhouseCoopers. (n.d.). The new virtual reality of recruiting. PwC. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/workforce-of-the-future/library/new virtual-reality-of-recruiting.html
The 5 most unique employer branding campaigns. (2021, August 5). Beamery Talent Operating System. https://beamery.com/resources/blogs/the-5-most-unique-employer-branding-campaigns
Unmetric. (2019, February 12). Starbucks’ social media strategy – What brands can learn from Starbucks. https://blog.unmetric.com/starbucks-social-media-strategy
(n.d.). WilsonHCG | Global RPO, Executive Search & Talent Acquisition Solutions. https://www.wilsonhcg.com/hubfs/The%20GE%20Journey_Final.pdf