One of the main challenges faced by Employer Branding strategy has to do with the ability to retain employees.
By “retaining” in talent management, we refer to those actions focused on looking after employees with the best performance, or those considered most valuable, so that they do not want to leave their career plan within the organisation.
When expressed like this, the concept seems a bit imposing, since it is based on the need to make an “extra effort” when managing talent in order to keep employees motivated. Basically, this means that the work dynamic is not stimulating and attracting enough; it does not favour employees on deciding to stay at the organisation for a long period of time.
A change of perspective
What if, instead of thinking about retaining talent, we think that what is really important is to truly motivate, from the very first day. In his book International Businesses, Charles W. L. Hill, states that “companies must be concerned about what is really important for their people and, only then, will they be able to respond with a value proposition developed based on their professional and personal needs” (Giraldo, 2014).
In this sense, we are talking about a more positive and futurist strategy. As we mentioned in our previous post, Better employer brand = better talent attraction, when we speak about a company that is concerned about constantly motivating their employees, we are speaking about talent management that not only drives tangible results, but also intangible ones (such as improving the employer brand); this becomes a win-win scenario both for the organisation and the people.
The motivated talent cycle
Understanding that having motivated talent is a cause and, at the same time, an effect of a good employer brand, is key. This can even be seen as an endless cycle in which:
- the company identifies its ideal talent,
- it seeks to address the needs of that talent to attract it,
- people feel constantly motivated within the organisation,
- employees become the main promoters of the organisation.
We have consciously described this cycle as “endless” considering that motivations are not static and that transformation in the workplace also involves rethinking about organisational management decisions and actions. Thus, the task of improving the employer brand never finishes, and responds to different variables.
It is no coincidence that one of the current trends is “employee experience,” which transfers the concepts of customer service to talent management, understanding that employees are “customers” of the HR department.
A study by Brandon Hall concluded that 52% of companies that prepare the recruiting process thinking about the candidate’s experience registered 10% increase in hiring, additionally 78% of candidates with a positive experience affirmed that they’d recommend colleagues for future processes.
According to Irene Arensburg, PeopleMatters Manager: “treating candidates as if they were customers and designing a recruiting process based on their needs is a bet to count on the talent required for reaching the vision of the organisation.”
Reflecting on this trend leads us to conclude that promoting a good employer brand is much more than a strategy; it is a habit that is put into practice on each decision made within the organisation.
