Strategy and objectives are the starting point for any employer brand (EB) and should be designed to guide practitioners through the process, towards defined and measurable goals. Of course, the EB strategy and objectives must complement the overall business plan and must be created to aid supply of the specific people resources required to drive that business forward. This recession has caused employers to re-visit their business plans and squeeze them to suit current conditions. The EB plan must also be re-visited so it remains able to support the business plan.

However, as shown in the figure below (click on image), only 18 per cent of employers have a strategy to maintain a strong employer brand during layoffs/recessions. During the field period of the Employer Branding Survey, EB strategy had not yet evolved. EB professionals must react quicker to be able to deliver talent resources required to drive business forward.

Employers’ EB strategy is focused evenly over four areas, as observed in the chart below. Not all employers pursue the same strategy. However, employers could consider harmonising their strategy to make better use of resources. For example, the strategy, go from a national employer brand to a strong multinational employer brand will share many components as handle and unite multiple employer identities (mergers, parallel local brands). Both require introducing coherency to the employer brand and unification of these strategies will lower costs.

Click on image below

About the survey
Conducted late last year, the survey reflects the views of some 875 HR, recruitment and employer branding executives and marketing, PR and university relations managers.  (Geographically, these were split between Europe (38.7%), Scandinavia (35.9%), Asia-Pacific (12.8%) and North America (12.6%).

For more info about the EB Insights 2009 report, please email Christopher.Mossevelde@universum.se