Employer branding and recruitment marketing are two often overlooked areas of a company's HR function, even more so in emerging but fast growing economies like Myanmar. With its rapid growth, the talent war in Myanmar's economy becomes more and more intense as demand for highly qualified and skilled human resources continues to rise. At the same time, the availability of large pools of qualified candidates remains a challenge. Myanmar's large population assures enough supply to meet demand at the blue collar level, but for many highly-competitive job functions, the availability of high-value jobs is greater than the number of suitable job seekers. Consequently, the best talent has on average multiple options to choose from and this creates a need for companies to build strong employer brands in order to attract quality applicants.

The confusion between these two processes is not uncommon because both of them are mainly centered toward obtaining the most suited talents to fill a company’s roles although what it takes to properly fulfill the respective areas of employer branding and recruitment marketing differ vastly. Below are four core differences between these two.

Difference #1

Employer branding is the process of establishing an identity of an individual or a business and making it known to a target group. An employer brand is a set of ideologies, practices, values and attributes that a company and its people collectively embody. Employer branding, in a way, is identifying the value proposition of a business within the market and trying to distinguish it from the competitors.

Recruitment marketing, on the other hand, is a plan or a roadmap orchestrated by a company to attain the employees or workforce for that company. If an employer brand were a house, then recruitment marketing is hosting an open house because unlike employer branding which is similar to building a house with great functionality, aesthetics and other unique features, hosting an open house has more to do with getting people to notice those characteristics and pinpointing why they should be buying the house.

In Myanmar, proper employer branding is not a very popularized practice due to the usual confusion between employer branding and recruitment marketing but “the house and the open house analogy” stated above might be a useful rule of how branding and marketing differ.

Difference #2

Employer branding usually starts from within the company. It makes an attempt to construct a workplace conducive for personal and professional growth of the employees. Employer branding should be original and it should be implemented to accommodate the needs of the employees.

Recruitment marketing, however, aims to highlight to the candidates and prospective employees why the company could be a great place to work at. However strong or distinct an employer brand is, if the employees cannot perceive its values and contributions, then the employer branding is not effective, which is why it is always vital to know how to convince the employees to come work at the place however strong the extent of the employer brand reputation is.

Myanmar has been recently opening up for local startups as well as foreign investments and a lot of them are starting to integrate Employer Value Proposition (EVP) into their employer branding plans. EVP is basically what the company can offer to its employees in exchange for their contributions. EVP is not only useful for the companies to build a brand, it also allows them to strategize effective recruitment marketing campaigns.

Difference #3

Employer branding always comes first. A brand is anything people are able to associate a person or a business with and it is how people recognize a product or a service. Employer branding is essentially a foundation of business success and it makes the process of making deals with any stakeholder so much easier since a positive employer brand allows people to identify the business as well as the employer himself better.

Recruitment marketing is of secondary nature and it is hardly feasible without having an employer brand. An employer brand is something that’s supposed to be embedded within the recruitment marketing plans and strategies and not establishing an employer brand first only attenuates the efficiency of a recruitment marketing process.

The misleading differences between the roles of employer branding and recruitment marketing can sometimes prompt the employers, HR practitioners and marketers to set wrong priorities; recruitment marketing should be based on an employer brand and not the other way round. But a lot of established companies and even startups in Myanmar today are beginning to solidify their own brands before launching the recruitment marketing campaigns, departing from the past trends whereby not a lot of effort had been delivered to the process of employer branding.

Difference #4

The goal of branding something is to make people remember it and constantly changing a brand apparently does not serve the aforesaid purpose. Successful businesses all over the world retain their success by making people remember their brand several years down the road. If any part of the brand keeps being modified unnecessarily, brand consistency can be disrupted and that can jeopardize the credibility of the brand. Therefore, employer branding should aim toward the goal of creating a name that everyone wants to work for.

On the other hand, recruitment marketing does not require consistent throughout times because the goal of recruitment marketing is to communicate the job prospects within a company and their value proposition to the potential candidates and therefore, it needs to be ensured that the recruitment marketing processes are properly calibrated to attract the right people.

Staying true to the brand is a distinguishing aspect of any business. Trying to alter the integral parts of the company brand in accordance with the market trends is a misguided practice although tweaking it slightly due to cultural or political standards might not be an issue. However, adapting the marketing plans or strategies that go hand in hand with the preferences of local job seekers can often reel in much more capable talents than can one-size-fits-all recruitment marketing approaches. A lot of multinational corporates operating in Myanmar usually employ recruitment marketing approaches different from their originating countries to align to the wants and needs of Myanmar’s job seeker population.