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EMPLOYER BRANDING
Five building blocks to attract select and retain young talent through the recruitment strategy
Marijke Jansen 1 & Han van der Pool
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1 INTRODUCTION
The market for talent is competitive and will be even more competitive in the face of aging work-
forces, emerging markets, lower unemployment rates and an increasing demand for more skills,
knowledge, experience and education. McKinsey Quarterly already stated the problem in 1998.
“Companies are about to be engaged in a war for talent that will remain a defining characteristic of
their competitive landscape for decades to come. Yet most are ill prepared and even the best are
vulnerable” 3.
As a consequence of this ´war for talent´, a lot of companies are fishing in the same pond looking for
qualified professionals and starters. There is an ever growing importance for companies to become
attractive as an employer. How can they become a ´employer of choice´ for demanding talent at
today´s labour market? In other words, how can they make sure that talent people chooses to work for
their company and that they choose to stay, even when they are approached by others companies.
One of the best weapons in a competitive labor market is a strong employer brand that attracts and
retains key talent. The labour market is much more fluid today, with more and better information
available to employees than ever before. Companies brand themselves as employers through the value
proposition of their employment offer. Much like the branding of regular products a job offer must
meet employee preferences, be differentiated from competing offers and having a strong reputation or
brand. Companies need employer branding and strategies to differentiate themselves.
Employer branding as a concept to attract, select and retain young talent can only work if the
recruitment strategy has been adapted accordingly. It is the umbrella for all steps in the recruitment
process, which we divide into five building blocks: employer branding, Employee Value Proposition
(EVP), attraction strategy, selection methodology and early career monitoring. The ´right´people will,
most of the times, not simple come to an employer. Therefore proper recruitment is key to support
effective employer branding strategies.
Consequently, recruitment, development and engagement of junior talent is critical to building a bench
of high quality talented employees capable of executing a company´s strategy, and thus being prepared
1 Marijke Jansen has worked a.o. as internationaal HR manager at Heineken and is specialised in talent
management and employer branding.
2 Han van der Pool is MD Manager at TNT. He has actively been involved in the attraction and selection of high
potentials for international companies. a.o. Royal Ahold and Heineken.
3 The war for talent (1998) the McKinsey Quarterly, Issue 3
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for the ´war for talent´. In this chapter we limit ourselves to discussing the challenges for international
companies to attract, select and retain young talent. We define young talent as recent university
graduates and young professionals with an academic background and maximum 8 years of working
experience. According to Universum Communication4 this will be the labour market´s most wanted
work force for the next years.
In the next paragraphs we indentify the difficulties in finding talent. Further more we would like to
explore why a successful branding concept is integrated; lived and breathed in all five building blocks
of a recruitment programme.
2 TALENT-PIPELINE
All over the world countries are facing a shortage of talented employees in all sorts of sectors and
disciplines that might have its impact on economic growth. Examples vary from finding professional
nurses in the UK to finding dedicated call centre staff in New Zealand5 and everything in between. We
have identified five factors explaining the fast growing difficulties in filling the “talent- pipeline”.
I. Demographic developments. The shortage of well qualified employees due to retirement of the
so called “baby boomers” will have a negative effect on economic growth. The demographic
decline of the population in West European countries and beyond will create a “talent war”
between companies.
II. Educational mismatch. There is a mismatch between the educational level of graduates leaving
higher education and the current business needs. This will have effect on the availability of
talented people in the job market. Furthermore, the availability of talented “beta”- educated
graduates has been declining in the last decade, while at the same time, business is in great
need of these talents.
III. Economic growth. Economic growth is another important factor. The economy is doing well
in most of the Western countries. Some industries are already signaling overheating effects in
their economy and are not able to fulfill their vacancies.
IV. Shortage of foreign talent. Finding high-potential talent in so called developing countries is
not a solution anymore. Countries like India or China are experiencing a shortage of their own
talent and are consequently securing them for their own economic growth.
V. Emergence of the generation Y. A new generation of talented employees is emerging. This
generation is born in the eighties of last century. They are the first generation raised in a
“connected” environment with mobile phones, computers and internet. Freedom, enjoyment
and work life balance are essential to their career-plans. They seek an employer with an
interesting product-line, a nice set of employee benefits as well as an employer with a good
reputation. Having said this, it is much more difficult to attract, recruit and retain generationY
in the current situation.
4 Universum Communication is an international research and management consulting firm from Sweden.
5 Turnover and retention in a tight labour market: reflecting on New Zealand Research by Erling Rasmussen and
Vivienne Hunt
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3 EMPLOYER BRANDING
The meaning of the word ´brand´ can best be `a product or service produced by a company under a
specific name´. A brand has a strong psychological element and contributes to the “character building”
of an organisation. It is important to make realistic promises to the customer of the product or service
to overcome doubts which might be in place in the minds of the customer.
Employer branding is a concept borrowed from the business side of the enterprise. Product branding
exists for decades and is designed to develop a lasting image in the minds of the consumer so that they
start to automatically associate quality with any product or service offered by the owner of the brand.
An employer brand does the same in that it creates an image that makes (potential) employees want to
work for the company because it is a well-managed firm, where workers are continually learning and
growing. Once the image is set, it generally results in a steady flow of applicants.
Companies manage two interrelated brands, a product or service brand in the product market and an
employer brand in the labour market. The product and employer brands are related and mutually
supportive. A strong product or service brand can play an important role in the strength of the
employer brand. The employer brand, in return, is instrumental in attracting and retaining employees
who can add value to the company and its products, thus reinforcing the product or service brand.
There is a long-term impact if a company is perceived for being a well-managed firm and a great place
to work. Conversely, a weak employer brand can decrease the effects of even the best recruitment and
retention strategies. Effective employer branding pays off when organizations gradually find it easier
and less expensive to recruit and retain top talent, while their competitors must look harder and pay
more to get good people.
Most companies, which have an employer branding strategy have the intention to increase:
knowledge about the company as employer;
preference for the company as employer (become an employer of choice);
the intention to apply with the company.
Accordingly, employer branding is the process of placing an image of being a "great place to work" in
the minds of the targeted candidate pool. It tells the story of who you are as an employer, what you
have to offer and how it is delivered. Developing an image as an employer is part of employer
branding. Turning that image into a working relationship between an organization and its potential
recruit is a process, which needs an integrated approach.
4 AN INTEGRATED APPROACH
Employer branding is a critical factor in effective recruitment. An integrated approach for the
attraction, selection and retention of talent is necessary to create a great recruitment programme and
therefore organisation development is needed next to brand development. To develop employer
branding as a useful organizing framework for strategic human resource management, the company
should structure its HR organisation around the brand and align corporate and employer brand
communications. A branding concept should be directly derived from the company strategy and
business goals. The branding concept gains added value if it takes into consideration HR strategy,
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goals and requirements as well as an understanding of the labour market and relevant target groups. A
brand should be implemented together with other relevant HR building blocks to become a successful
concept.
Furthermore, employer branding uses the tools of marketing research, PR, and advertising to change
the image applicants have of "what it is like to work at the firm." And if talent does not consider
loyalty as the most important aspect of the employer/employee relationship anymore6, attracting and
retaining talent relies much more on being able to fulfill a certain promise. And that promise varies
from organization to organization, depending on its culture, mission and ability to achieve its goals.
Having said that, successful employer branding is not built only on the aspirations of a company, but
also on its ability to deliver on the promise.
It takes some time to develop a presence in the labour market. It takes engagement from the top of the
organisation to sponsor the employer brand, the employer brand will either not match the company´s
strategy or the brand will not sufficiently get off the ground. Engaging senior management in the
employer branding process is therefore important and it is not just the domain of the HR department.
Ideally HR should work closely with the marketing and communications department to ensure that
there is consistency in the development and communication of the employer brand internally as well
as externally7.
Employer branding is about consistency throughout all the company´s communications. It's about how
the company looks for recruits, how internal communication operates, how the reward package or the
career development programme is defined. But it is also about the company's advertising, the office
environment, physical presence at recruitment fairs and how the company treats people when they
have to let them go8.
6 Business Week, Winning the Talent Wars, February 2007
7 Brett Minchington, managing director of Collective Learning Australia, quoted by Craig Donaldson in his
article ´senior engagement key to employer branding´ published in Human Resources, Australia´s leading
information resource on HR issues.
8 Andrew Marritt, from Andrew´s strategic resourcing blog
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Company strategy and business goals
Define workforce strategy, goals and requirements
Develop understanding of the labour market and the target group(s)
to attract and to retain to achieve these goals
Alignment with marketing and communication
Figure1. Five building blocks of a recruitment programme
In the above mentioned recruitment model the five building blocks are connected and integrated in a
logical order.
4.1 EMPLOYER BRAND
The brand explains the key elements which makes a company attractive, unique and distinctive from
competition. To create a powerful and distinctive brand, the mission, values and spirit of the
organisation should be captured. E.g. if the values are respect and quality, then these values should be
experienced in every step of the recruitment and talent development process.
A strong employer brand is based on:
I. the brand values of the relevant product of the company;
II. analysis about what it is that makes the company unique from competition in the labour
market;
III. information about the needs and requirements of potential employees.
Early Career
Monitoring
What is done to
check if the
promise has been
delivered
Selection
Methodology
What methods
are used to select
top graduates?
Attraction
Strategy
What techniques
and channels are
used to scout,
attract and pre
select top talent
Employee Value
Proposition
What is the
employment
offer to potential
recruits
Employer Brand
What are the key
elements that
makes the
company
attractive
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Not just a job, it is a way of life! In this example you see how Accenture explains what it is like to
work for them.
It is our opinion that employer branding is a tool to attract, select and retain the "right fit". However,
top talent doesn't necessarily mean "right fit". Product branding doesn't start with the product, it starts
with the consumer. The company must therefore research who it´s target market is and identify the
needs and requirements of it´s target group, as an employer brand is the sum of what ´consumers´
(potential recruits, staff and ex-staff) think about the company as a place to work. Only then a
compelling employment offer can be developed that connects the company with the "best fit" talent.
We have used dialogue sessions as a methodology to research and analyze the market and target
group.
Dialogue sessions
Dialogue sessions are interactive sessions, during which leading edge young people and managers
work together and openly discuss the current employer image, the desired image and how this image
can be strengthened with a recruitment and selection approach while also exploring for new solutions.
Participants get the chance to enrich concepts by building on each others ideas: ideas are exchanged or
tested and brand concepts further developed.
To stimulate the creative thinking process, materials like moodboards (see frame), photo´s and other
stimulus materials are used during the sessions. The selection of the dialogue participants is critical to
generate the correct atmosphere and output. This selection of leading edge young people with a
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diverse background and education can be done through (international) job fairs, student platforms and
recruitment and selection agencies. The group should consist of maximum 10 participants.
To realize a workable result it is important to prepare the session properly and to structure it to come
from more generic insights to concrete company sprecific solutions. The concepts must be:
relevant for the company
differentiating from competition
appealing to a young and more senior target group.
The organisation of a dialogue session is complex, but worth the effort. A company is provided with
tremendous first-line insight and added value by really connecting with young and more senior talent,
learning what their perspective is and leveraging their creativity.
Example
Moodboard dialogue sessions to design an optimal recruitment strategy for an international fast
moving consumer goods company.
Participants position their favourite company they would like to work for, in a matrix which consists
of 4 axes: enjoyment / achievement – for me / not for me9. Depending on answers, additional
employers and the position of the own company can be explored and placed in the matrix.
The advantage of this technique is that relevant insight is provided in the motives of talented young
people as well as the relative position of the own company versus competition. From own experience
we can share that extensive dialogues with young talents from Western and Eastern European
countries have resulted in consistent conclusions with other survey data about generation Y:
9 Source censydium model (http://www.censydiam.com).
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Internet plays an essential role in the selection of a future employer.
The corporate image is of great importance.
The first job has to be a great reference on their resume.
Working in an international context with foreign colleagues is favoured.
The organizational climate needs to be dynamic and demanding.
The future employer needs to have opportunities for personal development through career
planning, training and development offerings. The existence of a Corporate University is
perceived as a great benefit.
4.2 EVP
At the heart of a strong employer brand is a compelling employment offer or employee value
proposition (EVP). Beyond the opportunity to work for a company with a leading product or company
brand, these offers describe levels of compensation and benefits, work environment, work–life
balance, company culture and so on. Over time, the ability of a firm to deliver on its offers to its
employees will form the foundation of its employer brand image, just as a firm’s ability to deliver on
its product offering contributes to the reputation of its brand.
The employer brand must communicate a unique value proposition about the company´s employment
experience that is relevant, positive and consistently leveraged. For some companies the employer
brand is the same as their product or service brand. However for companies where the perception of
the company as employer is different to their brand(s), this will not be the case. Certain fast moving
consumer goods (FMCG) companies, where branding is done for their products and not for the
company as employer10
.
For most firms there is one employer brand with different employee value propositions. The
proposition can be tailor-made for various groups of (potential) employees. There is one brand, but it
means different things to different stakeholders, because they value different things in life. For
example, senior managers have different expectations from an employer than the new generation
starters. Ideally the EVP will engage the right fit talented people. The company´s employer brand is
established within but extends externally, and should have a common image for both current and
potential employees, Therefore the proposition is built internally as well as externally to avoid
differences in the employer brand image.
10 HR, recruitment, staffing & employment articles, trends and soundbites from Andrew Marritt, July 2006
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T-mobile´s EVP claims: “At T-Mobile, we don’t just deliver the best wireless service. We create the
best careers in the business. Our jobs come fully loaded with opportunities to make a difference. We
are confident, daring and talented. We work hard, have fun and enjoy the spotlight that comes with
success. We’d love to count on you to join our team and set a new standard of service for our
customers. Do that and you can count on us to deliver a career experience like no other.”
We advise you to take a few moments to look at some career websites. It is interesting to see how
some companies promote themselves and some don´t. In this respect, would you feel T-mobile´s
EVP is distinctive and attractive?
4.3 ATTRACTION STRATEGY
An essential step in developing an understanding of the target market is segmenting employees into
defined groups based on a variety, and potentially unlimited number, of segmentation criteria. Ideally,
the labor market should be segmented into target groups that correspond to the needs and objectives of
the company. This process can take place in both internal and external labour markets where certain
employee groups can be targeted for attraction (e.g. programmers or experienced financial analysts)
and retention (e.g. software engineers or female managers). Segmentation can also take place on hard-
to-observe traits in the workforce, such as behavioral characteristics or employee values (this
information might be most readily available from current employees).
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After segmentation the question is how to get the target group interested in the company. The most
successful attraction strategies emphasize features that are both relevant to this target audience and
differentiated from those of competitors. Attraction gives the employer brand a ´face´. High key are, of
course, corporate websites which should be the example of what the employer brand looks like and
“which should have a positive image with clear statements regarding mission, vision, company goals
and corporate values”11
.
There are many channels in the labour market to market the company as an employer. Some examples:
Channel marketing: connect to fraternities or international student associations like AISEC /
Integrand and participate in some of their events.
Above The Line (ATL) communications12
: use career websites, develop a standard personnel
advertising format, develop print and/or RTV campaign.
Below The Line (BTL) communications13
: develop brochures, gadgets, standard briefing with
company key messages etc.
Sponsorships: participate in congresses, organise student events, awards for thesis etc.
Promotions: organise face-to-face moments with potential recruits at job/career fairs, in-house
days etc.
Attraction products: a yearly rumour-around-the-brand activity creates awareness and builds brand
equity14
. .
11 Sylvia van de Bunt Maandblad voor Accountancy en Bedrijfseconomie, Volume 77, no. 3, maart 2003, pp.
122-129
12 Above The Line (ATL) is an advertising technique using mass media to promote brands. Definition from
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
13 Below The Line (BTL) is an advertising technique. It uses less conventional methods than the usual specific
channels of advertising to promote products, services, etc. than Above the line (ATL) strategies. Definition from
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
14 Brand equity is the value built-up in a brand. It is measured based on how much a customer is aware of the
brand. It can be positive or negative. Positive brand equity is created by effective promotion and consistently
meeting or exceeding customer thoughts. Negative brand equity is usually the result of bad management.
Definition from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Example 24 hours of TNT
After an exhaustive selection procedure, 24 talented students are invited for this adventure.
“The 24 hours of TNT” Is an exclusive event arranged for 24 selected top students to get to know the
most efficient and effective Post & Express company of the world.
In 24 hours they see all kinds of aspects of the company. The students take a close look behind the
scenes of the mail and express company, where people still work as most offices already are closed.
During these intensive hours, they learn more about the exquisite possibilities TNT has to offer. “The
24 hours of TNT” is a business course especially for Master students, studying at any Dutch
university. The students are then challenged to work in groups on producing a case about the
opportunities that digitalization could hold for TNT. The clock finally gets back to "0" and the
Management Development Manager opens the bottles of champagne! After an extremely intensive
whirlwind journey through the world of TNT, the participants are briefly able to enjoy some well-
earned rest. Everybody is tired.
Attraction is an on-going process, which lasts through all the stages of the recruitment programme and
should be consistent with all other company expressions. Let´s look at a few examples of good
practise.
- To obtain awareness for the employer brand it is important to connect to mass media, but also
recruitment PR plays a significant role, e.g. in providing a standard briefing with uniform key
messages.
- To market the company, a lot of companies organise face-to-face communication moments, but
attraction is also vital in the selection phase. It is important to have an appealing selection process
during which the candidates learn more about themselves and obtain proper feedback, especially
in case of rejection.
- According to Cullen, 15
long-term success at finding, selecting and hiring outstanding employees
depends not simply on a great website but on an integrated e-staffing effort. "Leading companies
15 Cullen, Run-of-the-mill e-recruitment sites - 01/2001HRM-adviesbureau Cambria Consulting
(www.cambriaconsulting.com)
Met opmaak:
opsommingstekens en
nummering
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have fully integrated their staffing processes making them not only paperless and efficient but also
highly effective. They have re-engineered these processes so that the right people have the right
information at the right time for evaluating the right type of candidates. Designing effective e-
recruiting sites has been an important catalyst for these major redesign efforts. Some companies
have mastered e-recruiting; most haven't; and the gap between the best and the worst e-recruiting
websites is huge”.
- And finally, recent hires and current employees are the best ambassadors of a company and should
therefore play a role during the whole recruitment process, including their presence during an
induction programme. The purpose of induction is to ensure effective integration of staff into or
across the company16
. The length and nature of the programme depends on the complexity of the
job and the background of the new employee, but in general contains the organisation's history, its
products or services, its culture and values, outline of job requirements and how the role fits into
the organogram and explanation of terms and conditions. Without an effective induction
programme, new employees might have a bad start and never really understand the organisation or
their role in it. The results of a British recruitment and retention survey showed that 19% of
leavers had less than six month's service17
.
4.4 SELECTION METHODOLOGY
The process of branding oneself as an employer is to know what kinds of people succeed within your
organization and to express it in a way that it attracts more of those people. Given the diversity of
targeted leadership competencies and corresponding assessment methods and tools, research suggests
significant value of a holistic approach to assessment, involving a battery of tests and multiple
information sources, rather than any one single test. Research indicates that prediction validity
increases with the utilization of multiple assessments. Within this context, interviews are the most
prevalent assessment tool used in the selection process.
16 Definition from CIPD, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
17 London: CIPD (2006). Recruitment, retention and labour turnover survey 2006.
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Figure 2 leading-edge assessment centre GITP
A well managed professional selection method adds value to the positive image of the organization. A
leading edge assessment center includes the following elements18
:
I. On-line questionnaires
Research suggests that cognitive ability tests are useful in predicting job performance as such
assessments test for analytical and reasoning ability. Literature reveals that testing for cognitive
ability among potential leaders is important as leaders are expected to be able to gather, integrate,
and analyze information in order to develop solutions and solve problems.19
It is more often used
for starters and young professionals than for senior staff. Typically, cognitive ability tests are
structured either as multiple choice or constructed response tests and may be delivered in either
pencil and paper or online formats.
18 Georges Taels. EFMD Conference Madrid May 2007
19 Shelley A. Kirkpatrick and Edwin A. Locke, "Leadership: Do Traits Matter?" The Executive (May 1991).
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II. Personality questionaires
Personality tests provide insight into individuals’ needs, attitudes, motivations and behavioral
tendencies. The “Big Five” is the most widely accepted personality structure and is constructed
around the core personality factors that influence behavior.20
Factor Definition
I. Extraversion. Degree to which a person is active, gregarious, sociable and
talkative
II. Agreeableness
Degree to which someone is cooperative, courteous, flexible,
forgiving, good-natured, soft-hearted, tolerant and trusting.
III Conscientiousness
Degree to which an individual is achievement-oriented, careful,
hard-working, organized, planful, persevering, responsible and
thorough
IV. Emotional Stability
Opposite of emotional instability, which is the degree to which a
person is angry, depresssed, emotional insecure and worried
V. Openness to Experience
Degree to which an individual is artistically sensitive, broad-
minded, cultured, curious and original
III. Structured interviews
Unlike cognitive ability or personality tests, interviews do not focus on specific constructs but
are designed to assess different candidate attributes. For example, highly structured interviews
may measure cognitive ability, tacit knowledge, or job knowledge, while unstructured
interviews may measure social skills and personality.21
Research indicates that interviews may
possess more predictive value for executive selection than tests of intelligence and personality
alone22
. It is therefore important that companies include interviews in the executive selection
process.
20 O. Behling, 1998. Employee selection: Will intelligence and conscientiousness do the job? AME, 12(1).
21 IVAN ROBERTSON AND MIKE SMITH, "PERSONNEL SELECTION.” MOTIVATION AND JOB DESIGN : THEORY, RESEARCH AND
PRACTICE. LONDON INSTITUTE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT 1985
1 22
Scott Highhouse, "Assessing the Candidate as a Whole: A Historical and Critical Analysis of Individual
Psychological Assessment for Personnel Decision Making” (2002)
Personnel Psychology 55 (2), 363–396.
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IV. One day assessment center
Assessment centers grew out of the perceived need to assess non-intellectual aspects of human
performance. Assessment centers measure a variety of job-related skills and abilities and also
often measure interpersonal, communication, planning and organizing and analytical skills.
Typically, assessment centers consist of simulation exercises and group exercises
Trained assessors observe, classify and evaluate behaviors and discuss overall judgments
about potential employees’ performance. Some large companies have their own assessment
centers, while mid-size and smaller companies sometimes send candidates to third-party
consulting firms for evaluation.
4.5 EARLY CAREER MONITORING
“All good work on brand positioning, marketing and communication can easily be undone by a poor
interaction between a customer and a brand representative. How often has a customer-employee
“moment of truth” turned into a relationship killer, rather than a loyalty builder?23
H. Pringle annd W. Gordon
An employment offer that fails to provide value to employees will not succed in its effort to build a
positive and productive employer brand. According to research of Larkan the cost of employee
turnover averages in companies with 50% of an annual salary for frontline personnel to 41 % of a
middle manager salary (including lost of productivity direct reports).24
The objective of performing early career monitoring is to know what the early-careerists say about the
company, to determine their needs and how the company can meet them. The implementation of early
career monitoring differs across organizations but the challenges and techniques are similar. Good
practise among some international companies is to conduct a survey among their potentials and other
targeted personnel early in their careers to find out why they have joined and why they might drop out
as well. Through these surveys these companies maintain in touch with their employees and are able
to adapt the building blocks of their recruitment programmes. This is the major insight provided
through these surveys.
During our interviews with young talents from Western and Eastern European countries we have
gathered input around “what makes a company-employee relationship worthwhile and should be
sustained after recruitment”. Two factors seem to be important25
:
- Development possibilities
23 H. Pringle annd W. Gordon in Brand Manners (John Wiley & Sons 2001)
24 Larkan, K. The Talent War” pg. 76. Marshall Cavendish International 2007
25 N = 83. The “young talents” interviewed by the authors were citizens from Poland, Russia, France, Ireland
Spain and the Netherlands.
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- Integrity of the company
The access of adequate training programs plays a crucial role in the evaluation of the first years of
employment. Also the availability of new and daring assignments within the company will add to the
positive image of the company. Not only are new employees internationally mobile, they seem
increasingly tempted to be employed in an internationally operated company. Distance collaboration
tools will generate new and increasingly more powerful usage of the “web”. Early recruits exchange
their experiences through the internet, as a consequence we could call the employer brand is “viral” .
Next is the integrity of the employer. We observed a growing interest in corporate social responsibility
(CSR) over recent years. In a passive way CSR means adherence to the law. It’s obvious that the new
recruits do not like to be embraced by experiencing poor ethical behaviour by their new employer. In a
more expansive and proactive way it also means “out of the box-thinking” and active participation,
which new recruits seem to appreciate as it provides them with a (small) role in shaping the future of
society.
We want you! Look at the executive quiz, drawn up by Korn/Ferry, an international executive
search firm. In this way they try to convince employees that ´there is always a better job
available for you somewhere else`. Whereas Monsterboard says it at follows in one of their radio
advertisements: “ Doesn´t your company give you enough development opportunities? You can
always go to Monsterboard.” The hunt for talent is open!
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Conclusion
A strong work culture tends to go hand in hand with strong financial performances, according to the
data collected by researchers at Hewlett associates. “Best employers“ experienced 13% revenue
growth between 2000 and 2002 compared with 7 % for other companies, and an average profit growth
of 21% in the same period compared to minus 44 % for others”26
.
Defining (high) potential and young professional talent and developing it is critical to a company´s
long term success. Talent management needs be focused around the following activities:
- “Finding and bonding”
- “Bonding and exciting ,
- “Exciting and growing”
Finding, bonding and creating talent will be essential for future growth of a company. Employer
branding is a critical factor in effective recruitment. Becoming an employer of choice means that an
organization's branding message truly aligns with the reality that exists for its employees. Employer
branding is about consistency in all company´s communications. Five building blocks (employer
branding, Employee Value Proposition (EVP), attraction strategy, selection methodology and early
career monitoring) in the recruitment process have been identified. It's about how the company attract
and select recruits and how the employment offer is composed. A true employer brand is target group
focused, relevant to the company´s needs, differentiated and established only through the delivery of
value in the employment offer. Adequate recruitment and retention strategies will pay off its
investments.
26 Larkan, K. The Talent War” pg. 33 Marshall Cavendish International 2007