Is the concept of “Bring Your Child to Work Day” familiar? Big companies like Google and LinkedIn also have “Bring in Your Parents Day”, whereas employees are officially allowed to invite their parents over to their place of business and hang out with their adult children for a whole or half day? Similarly, Big Four companies KPMG, EY, Deloitte, and PwC, as well as similar major professional services firms like Friedman and Accenture do quite well at sponsoring alumni networking events where their employees have a chance to reconnect with their alma mater and give professional advice to students who they used to be once as another manner of allowing the ties that bind us to be strong. So, why do these companies that have successful employer brands cater to more than just their own employees as part of the attempt to build up their brand recognition?

The first thing that typically comes to one’s mind when someone says “employer branding” is “employees”. Because just as scary costumes affiliate with Halloween, employer branding oftentimes is correlated directly to employees. This is no longer the case in the modern HR landscape because the goal of employer branding is not just to get people working for a company, it’s also to retain them and build a better employer value proposition for future employees. If we think of the company as a blossom; when one wants good nectar, one takes care of the flowers, not just the nectar itself. The bottom line more or less resonates with the employer branding process; when a company wants good employees, it should take good care of their affiliates as well.

To continue on this line of thinking, then who exactly are those affiliates? The closest ones are the employees’ immediate and extended family members, who’s ties bind stronger than most if not all employment. Family is important to any employee no matter which side of the globe his or her company is based out on. Doing well by employees’ family members is almost tantamount to doing a favor for the employees themselves. Like it was mentioned earlier, many major companies in countries such as the US have integrated such “Bring in Your Parents Day” to build a stronger rapport between the parents and their children, the parents and the company and of course, the company and the employees. Such a relationship building strategy as part of creating an employer brand, therefore, fortifies the relationship among the company, its employees, and their parents and as a result, these companies suffer less from high turnover rates and low retention by being seen as a place where their familiar bonds are validated.

The second group of people affiliated from which employees that work for high-reputation companies usually take good care of is the community group and background networks that the employee came from. It is a natural thing when people identify themselves as part of a group, frequently the one they grew up with. Companies that excel at employer branding do so by allowing employees to continue to connect with their own communities in a profound way; and one such way is to give the employees some time off to volunteer for their community or the causes they care. Or sometimes, companies donate to these communities as corporate philanthropy to show that they care about not only their own employees but also the people they identify with, and in turn what is important to the employee is important to the company. Colleges or universities that their employees went to are also a group that they keep close at heart. Great companies tend to help their own employees reunite with their alma mater through alumni networking events where they have an ample chance to help young college students with career planning, resume reviewing, and even getting a job by referring to HR. Further, there could be benefit to the company by targeting high-calibre Universities that the returning employee could mention as a great place to work, in turn expanding the recruitment pipeline for the company by word of mouth from a trusted source.

Some local Myanmar companies are still at a point in their development where company employees are the only target of an employer branding strategy. Frequently due to budgetary constraints or potentially other reasons, these companies would choose not to allocate their resources to branding for the sake of their employees’ affiliates. But now is a good time to start doing such because Myanmar’s recruitment landscape is changing and traditionally used employer branding techniques may no longer be enough to stand out. Now is the time for Myanmar companies to make the leap and try investing in not just the employees but also the people they care about - and see if that could ramp up the company’s retention figures like never before.