Letting your brand do more for your talent

When companies talk to us about their talent challenges, we often hear the familiar refrain, "we're a training ground for our industry - more than half of our competitors' staff were ‘trained' by us".

On one hand, it is an excellent compliment to the company that they are seen as the leader in talent training and industry best practices; on the other hand, it does not change the fact that they have not been able to keep their staff.

Sadly, many have used compensation as a key tool to counter this exodus. However, depending on their reasons for leaving, more money or days off may not hit at the heart of the matter, or in the worst case scenario, encourages the employees to define their job satisfaction in those terms.

Rather than being a conclusion that companies are resigned to, more enlightened companies have learnt to tackle the scenario with a strong talent engagement brand in order to arrest the exodus.

Brands - your greatest weapon in the talent war

A recent Hudson survey shows that compensation only formed 23% of a candidate's consideration set in their job selection. Other factors such as the brand reputation, career potential were collectively more important.

More and more, the talent market is searching for brands with which they identify with, in terms of philosophy. They are looking for brands that are willing to craft out a common vision with them on how far and wide they could potentially go in terms of career development.

Talent engagement brand does more than just provide the standard Employer Value Proposition. It is the idea that your external brand naturally gives rise to a unique set of values, culture and philosophy with which you can motivate and inspire your internal audience with.

It works in two ways - it draws the right people to your brands, and then activates them to deliver on the brand once they join.

By proactively and competently managing the branding of your company both externally to your customers and internally to all employees, companies can better manage the employment journey as a seamless experience for potential and current employees. This ensures perfect alignment with the internal and external brand, whilst managing employees expectations to retain key staff to drive growth and profits.

Talent Engagement Brand begets External Brand Experience

The Talent Engagement brand also has a direct impact on the external brand experience.

Employees who join a brand only to realise that the internal brand or culture does not match what is advertised externally or communicated to the outside world - this misalignment can cause unhappiness and confusion in their delivery of the brand.

This is especially true for the service industry, where employees are usually the first point of contact with customers, and any unhappy employee may carry across a potentially erroneous, or worse, a negative and, thus, damaging image to the customer.

Who's really in charge of the Talent Engagement brand?

The Talent Engagement brand is even more important in managing employees expectations. Companies, who do not realise that employee satisfaction is similar to customer satisfaction and must be catered to, will miss opportunities to retain their key, talented staff. 

With the power of the internet and the infinite variety of forums and staff blogs available, the Talent Engagement brand is represented not just by the Human Resource department, but also by immediate supervisors, top management, as well as front line staff.

It is key for companies to bear this in mind when they are recruiting or communicating with employees; that a multi-layer approach involving top management, human resources, marketing, and other departments, all have to work together to provide a consistent internal brand.  This is even more critical for externally facing staff who carry the responsibility of the first impression of a company's branding to customers.    

Two key assets - brand and talent 

Your talent and your brand are two key assets to your company. The co-relation between the two are now more important than ever in a competitive market place for people and customers. Harnessing one for the other is crucial in the long run.

Doris Ho is managing director of The Disruption Consultancy, the brand consulting unit of TBWA\Worldwide.