Organizational branding is essential if you want to stay ahead of your competitors. With branding, not only will you have a happy and engaged workforce, but you will also attract top-notch talent. Your organization will also attract powerful clients and potential investors, thereby increasing productivity. There are two forms of branding in organizations, namely employee branding and employer branding, which we will dive straight into.

A Complete Guide to Employer and Employee Branding

The primary role of employer and employee branding is to keep a good reputation for an organization. For example, the first thing that potential applicants do when you post a job opening is conducted the necessary due diligence.  This research can either be on google, social media platforms, or market inquiries. That is why with employer branding in HR, you will have nothing to worry about but wait for the best applicants' resumes.  Top management gets together at least once a year to create business strategies. These strategies focus on growing the brand, building the brand, elevating the brand, and so much more. All these focus on what is happening within the company's products and services.  Over time, it has become clear that additional focus, especially on the employer and employee, is necessary. Thus, employer and employee branding are coming forth. Some companies are creating employer brands, where they build a robust identity both internally and externally. This helps when they are looking to add the best employees to their teams. Employer branding separates companies from their competition, drawing on distinct and appealing attributes within the organization's culture.

What is Employee Branding?

Employee branding is an emerging concept. It requires each person within the company to take up a certain persona. Once they have this person, the employees will then have the motivation to ensure that customers and other stake holders are able to see that brand image. With an employee brand, there are additional opportunities that the employees are able to take up within the industry. These could include speaking and engagement opportunities, as well as mentoring and more. Employee branding is all about the perception that stems from how employees view their employers.

Employee Branding vs. Employer Branding

As much as employers require to market to their customers, they also need to market internally to ensure that they keep the best members of their teams. A good employer brand will give employees justification as to why they should work in a particular organisation. The right employee branding techniques will ensure that the organisation creates its own powerful brand ambassadors. As such an important function of any organization, the HR role in employer branding has various facets. These include: -

• Recruitment – This refers to the way that people interact for the first time with the HR department.
• Career development – When employees are clear about the importance of employer branding, they understand how to elevate themselves within the workplace.
• Employer value proposition – This looks at the values and benefits that employers are able to offer their employees. It ties into the organization culture.
• Compensation and benefits – There are organisations that have good branding when it comes to offering excellent compensation and benefits. This is one of the most powerful forms of employer branding.
• Talent Management – This comes through referrals from current employees who are able to communicate the identity of the workplace. With this, they can lead different programs for development within the organization.

With HR branding as a part of employee branding, any organization can attract and recruit excellent talent. It also ensures that existing employees have a positive experience. This is important because when looking for new talent, existing employees are often sought out for opinions on their employment experience by job seekers. What is necessary for the HR team is to clearly define attributes that are necessary to build the employee brand. In addition, they need to create employee journeys to reward those that stand out as excellent brand ambassadors for the organization.