What is a Talent Brand?

Talent Brand is the highly social, public perception of your company that incorporates what talent thinks, feels, and shares about your company as a place to work.

How is it developed?

It is extremely important as it is an honest view from a broad range of people, current, past and even prospective employees. Your Talent Brand is made up of lots of different factors. Talent Brand is shaped through sources such as social media posts, review sites, face-to-face interactions and referrals. They all contribute to forming your Talent Brand. These can tell you what people are saying about your company’s culture, management, pay structure, benefits, work-life balance, job security and progression opportunities.

Current employees will talk about what it is like to work at your company, however they are not the only people with a voice. Job seekers may look at how their application and interview experience was. Be mindful that past employees also get to have their say and that will be very honest, as they have nothing to lose (although burning bridges is never a good idea!).

A large part of modern Talent Brand development is due to the significant rise in use of social media as a public platform over the past few years. Thanks to social media, everyone can share their ideas, opinions, and experiences with a brand, product, organization, or employer. The public view of a workplace is no longer decided by internal sources. The situation has changed dramatically in a short period of time, taking the control out of corporate hands and landing it with the public. Therefore, a company must do what it can to influence this, otherwise risk snowballing into a bad reputation and ultimately negative Talent Brand.

Effects of a good Talent Brand

Remember that a strong Talent Brand strategy can significantly reduce your cost when hiring and make a big difference for employee retention. Here are some positive effects that can easily be achieved by spending time on a well-thought-out strategy. Fun fact: Referrals are the number 1 way people discover new jobs.

• High response rates and engagement with job postings
• Higher volume of applicants for roles
• Better quality candidates
• Reduced employee turnover
• Reinforced workplace culture will develop automatically
• Correlation between employee performance and company goals
• Increased motivation for all staff

There are many people involved in improving the Talent Brand, however it is marketing and HR that have the most input and responsibility. By making time to create an effective Talent Brand strategy, the company can stay ahead of their competition in the recruiting process. Ensure your idea of your brand is in line with what your employees are saying. It is a way of obtaining honest, uncensored feedback for company leaders who want to know the truth about employee experience.

Employer Brand

What is an Employer Brand?

An Employer Brand is a company created reputation. It is developed by the Managers / Directors of a company by using clever promotion and marketing. It is how the public will see your company from your eyes and includes the details you have chosen to promote.

Unlike Talent Brand, companies have the majority of control over their Employer Brand marketing, which can sometimes be detrimental as a lot of companies make the mistake of using identical points, such as “Our people are our greatest asset” or “We offer career development and progression.” Although these points seem valid and positive on the surface, when over-used they can become very repetitive and lose meaning. This is what you should aim to avoid with any good Employer Branding strategy.

As the points raised are coming from Managers/Directors within the organisation, they can often reflect an inaccurate and misleading point of view, even when the person has the best intentions. This can have serious effects on employee engagement, staff retention and talent attraction.

So how do we avoid this?

• Always ensure everything you include is 100% honest
• Include your public promise to employees and have practices in place to ensure you meet this
• Communicate your most positive attributes and base it on hard facts
• Include the company mission statement and core values
• Add what makes you stand out from the competition – what makes you better?

Effects of good Employer Brand

Investing time and effort into creating a great Employer Brand will have many benefits for the company. It will make recruiting much easier, as there is an automatic attraction for potential candidates. This will save costs which you can invest elsewhere in the company. It is fabulous general promotion for the business, as it gives you a good platform to compete with other companies in the same field. A good Employer Brand will also create stability, as the environment is consistent. Change can make employees feel uncertain, so retention is key. This will enhance productivity also as employees are happier and more comfortable and want to work hard for a reputable company.

The Link

Considering both of these alongside each other highlights the similarities between your view of the brand and how employees perceive your company. This can create conversations which ultimately lead to an ever-evolving, adaptable workplace which optimises its assets to get ahead in the market.

By listening to what your employees truly value within your business, you’ll get a good sense of what makes you unique and the factors you should promote.

Ultimately you want your talent brand and your employer brand to send the same message so your organisation will be trusted, build a good reputation and show consistency to its intended audience.