Getting More From Millennials: Developing Your Employer Brand

Getting the most from your workforce has never been easy. Doing it in a way which gets workers to buy in to corporate values and objectives is at the core of the challenge.

Understanding and promoting your employer brand in ways which attract, engage and inspire employees to do more will set you apart from competitors. Identifying new challenges, benchmarking your branding efforts and creating an inspiring workplace will help your company gain that competitive edge.

The urgency of this challenge is not just about creating a culture of excellence and the associated ROI. Its more fundamental than that.

Rise of Generation Y and the Need For Better Engagement

The immediate need for an attractive employer brand which encourages loyalty is created by the new priorities and work cycles of Millennials.

Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the average worker stays at each job for 4.4 years, but the expected tenure of the workforce’s youngest employees is a little over half of that.

Generation Y’s preference for shorter tenure presents a big challenge to employers looking to retain and develop their top talent. For companies, losing an employee after a year or two means investing time and resources on training & development, only to see the employee go to a competitor before that investment of product and industry understanding really starts to pays off.

If workers can make a personal connection to their organisational culture and its identity, they will consider it as attractive or unique. This type of emotional connection will not only promote a strong sense of membership but it also brings a sense of loyalty to an employer that they won’t want to leave.

Creating Two Way Conversations

Cascading values and goals, investing in professional development and creating two way conversations will inspire workers to feel valued and promote a desire to repay investment you’ve placed in them.

Increased loyalty will, in turn, create a culture where employees are more likely to go that extra mile because they buy in to corporate objectives.

How Does Your Employer Brand Measure Up?

So how do you create the metrics to ensure your on the right path to engage with your employees and maximize productivity?

A good exercise to help you stay competitive and on track is to answer the below handy checklist. By going through these considerations, you’ll get an idea of how your employer branding initiatives measure up against best practice organizations.

Answer yes or no to each of the following questions and then total your score out of 20.

• We have created an employer brand strategy
• We have developed a social media strategy
• We have conducted research to determine the perception current employees have about our company
• We have done research to understand the perceptions prospective employees might about our company
• We monitor what is being said online about our brand
• We have identified the leadership competencies we aspire employees at all levels to have
• We have created a database of talented employees who we’d like to hire when the time is right
• We have got a careers section on our corporate website
• We have at least two of the following working closely on our employer brand strategy – HR/Marketing/Communications/IT
• Alignment to brand values is part of our performance management system
• We have an active coaching and mentoring program in place to transfer knowledge and build internal capabilities
• We have defined our employer brand metrics
• Managers have access to a leadership development program
• We have defined our employer value propositions (EVPs)
• We have reviewed our EVP’s in light of the Global Financial Crisis
• We have an employee referral program which we promote to staff and stakeholders
• We conduct an employee engagement, satisfaction and/or climate survey at least once per year
• We participate in an external annual best employers and/or employer of choice survey
• We use an online system to automate our recruitment process and rank candidates against weighted criteria
• Each employee has a documented career development plan that is reviewed at least annually

So How Did You Rate?

0-5 = Very early stages
6-12 = A good start
13-17 = Some tweaks are needed
18-20 We are Employer Branding experts!

Better Branding and Bigger Results

Creating or developing an employer brand which considers the needs of a changing workforce, lowers staff turnover and inspires better performance is no easy task.

The benefits, however, can be huge. Developing strong company goals and showing your staff that you want to go the extra mile to help their professional development will pay dividends in the years ahead!  That’s because understanding changing cultures, the role of communications and being able to benchmark initiatives will help your employer brand attract, retain and grow top talent and the leaders of tomorrow.

Photo Credit

About the Author: Jilaine Parkes is a knowledgeable and passionate HR / Organization Development Professional with nearly 25 years combined experience in large, dynamic organizations and independent HR / OD Consulting. While holding senior HR management positions in Bombardier, Kraft Foods, Canadian Tire, Lavalife and Cineplex Entertainment, including a one year stint in Prague, Czech Republic, Jilaine has designed and driven initiatives in Business Planning, Leadership Development, Employee Development, Succession Planning, Performance Management, Learning & Growth Strategy and Team Chartering.

In addition to having worked as part-time faculty at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario she has also worked within the Fanshawe organization in the areas of Leadership and Performance Development. In early 2009, Jilaine partnered with Bruce Croxon (Co-Founder of Lavalife and a star of CBC’s Dragon’s Den) and launched an online Performance  Management software company featuring the automated Performance Management module known as Sprigg. In addition to driving Sprigg’s expansion across the US, Canada and UK, Jilaine is an accomplished public speaker and facilitator with a humorous, very direct and down to earth style.