Marketing and HR are the bread and butter of an employer brand. Sometimes, they can operate independently of one another and sometimes, they cross paths to work together. Behind any effective employer brand are dedicated HR and marketing departments that, when both work together, can yield an employer brand that works.
The Role of Marketing in Employer Branding
Marketing is an important aspect of every business segment and accordingly, it is a key element of a highly visible employer brand. Orchestrating a good marketing strategy is integral to showcasing the brand of an employer effectively to potential recruits. Many top-notch employers here in Myanmar and beyond not only have a well-shaped employer brand, they’re also backed by a dedicated marketing team that ensures that the current and prospective employees are able to see what the defining features of a company and their employees is. One common mistake that some employers make when promoting their brands is that they fail to factor in the need for publicity and a grand outreach plan, leaving their internal branding efforts reaching less than a desired amount of the market. To combat that, here below are two essential marketing components of branding an employer.
1) Social Media Marketing
As cliché as it sounds, social media is irrefutably the most significant tool that every marketing professional should leverage to promote an employer brand – especially in Myanmar. The social media outreach of an employer is vital to engaging candidates and existing employees alike. The importance of social media and digital marketing in employer branding becomes much more accentuated these days with the majority of people electing to adapt to online media channels to communicate with each other and acquire information about a perspective employer. Being an employer active on social media with a good image increases brand exposure not just to potential recruits but also to customers who may become more aware of the products and services the company provides. Myanmar is a country rich in its social media usage diversity. Many people here use Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn for different purposes while some other global channels popular elsewhere like Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr are not really common here.
2) Content Marketing
Social media is one thing but what goes on it is another. It is imperative for social media to have matching content to your brand, because people want to see what’s interesting, appealing, and thought provoking to them while scrolling their phones or on their computers. Social media content should be tailored according to who you’re trying to reach out to, which is the case in every business. If your company is going big on employer branding and getting people to notice your job opportunities, the content that you streamline on social media should serve that purpose. There is a wide range of content you can create to engage the job seekers and employees; for instance you can deliver consistent and informative blog posts for one thing. Blogs are a really great strategy for employers who want to deliver a specific type of message to their audience. These blogs can be written in general but they can be integrated with some other messages like job opportunities available in your company.
The employers can also publish content on the company’s internal news, employee highlights, testimonials, and the company’s unique features like culture and working environments to entice any prospective employees. But again, keeping in mind content should be carefully synchronized with the social media channels that it goes through to yield the best possible engagement or publicity outcomes. Language is also an important consideration to make for content creators because English is neither the native tongue nor the primary language of classroom instruction in Myanmar; so content creators want to be careful about what they create and who they create for and develop the language accordingly.
The Role of HR in Employer Branding
HR is just as important as marketing to execute a good employer brand. HR has traditionally been recognized as the a driver of employer success, which is true to a good extent. HR has to work with both internal recruits and potential candidates to ensure that they all feel positive about working for the company. Here below are two essential roles of HR for a good employer brand.
1) Employee Advocacy
Your company’s current employees are arguably the most credible testimonials who can best convince the prospective employees to come work for you. Their word and referral is as important as your job ads or social media posts because job seekers know for a fact that current working employers in a company can always give them a first hand account of what it is like to work at it in an authentic manner. So, making your current employees feel satisfied and happy with their jobs is one of the best things HR can do to promote the company’s eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) - a framework used to determine how likely it is for a company’s employees to recommend the organization as a good place to work for.
2) Benefits and Compensation
Monetary and non-monetary benefits are important; similarly to company values, culture, and work environments for an all around good employer brand. Job seekers tend to conduct a cost-benefit analysis before making a decision about working for a company and you, as an employer, need to ensure that the job opportunities you have for them are worth their time, energy, and other sacrifices. This sounds quite self-explanatory but some employers inadvertently ignore certain incentives, an act that could end up dissuading candidates from applying for the job just because they think ‘it is not worth it’. So HR should strive its hardest to ensure that the employer can attract the right candidates using the right mix of monetary compensations like salary, commission, and bonus opportunities as well as non-monetary incentives like growth opportunities, giving staff a learning curve, and desirable company culture.
Combined Aspects that Both HR and Marketing Share
1) Employer Value Proposition
The employer value proposition is what makes a company different or unique. An employer value proposition lets the current and future employees know what sets the company apart from other recruiters. The bit that HR contributes to the employer value proposition is simple – figure out what the value prop is and how to promote it. HR can liaise with other departments within the company like operations and CSR to sketch out what makes the company a great place to work for. HR may not be single-handedly responsible for painting the whole picture of a company’s employer brand but it is fair to say that HR should be intimately familiar with why employees would should to work for a company; so it is a good practice for HR to pour in much effort to succinctly define the employer value proposition which is then handed over to marketing.
2) KPIs and Success Metrics
Performance measurements of an employer brand is an important task shared by both HR and marketing. Both departments are responsible to track and analyse if an employer brand is connecting with the public or not. An employer brand that works serves three purposes; it draws the attention of job seekers, turns them into candidates, and retains employees for a long period of time upon employment. Both HR and marketing have their own KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of their operations; HR may use the number of applicants for a particular role, the number of successful candidates, their conversion rates, employee retention rates, and turnover ratios to evaluate the effectiveness of an employer brand while marketing people may look at social media analytics such as engagement rates to verdict the brand outreach.
HR and marketing should go hand in hand while crafting a good employer brand; some roles are specific to just one of them but some cross over into both. A seamless coordination between these two is a key factor to employer branding success and can be achieved through two of these departments working together. If you are finding an effective solution for both employer branding and recruitment, why don’t you advertise your jobs on JobNet.com.mm and let your jobs be seen by the largest pool of Myanmar professionals? By leveraging the most advanced digital Applicant Tracking System, simplify your recruitment process and make an effective employer promotion to hire your next team member.