What are Best Practices in the Space of Employer Branding that Enable Organizations Attract and Retain the Best Talent?

A decade ago, few human resource leaders gave much consideration to the employer brand. Today, as markets become more sophisticated and the war for talent intensifies, H.R. leaders are waking up to the importance of employer brand in attracting and retaining skilled, value-adding talent. A recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) study on employer branding revealed that over 67% of organizations view employer branding as a strategic recruiting tool to gain a competitive advantage to attract top talent, and 49% identified the employer brand as one of the top five strategic initiatives for their firm in the next year. There are a vast array of definitions and theories surrounding employer brand. The most sensible and workable definition that we have come across goes like this: an employer brand is a set of attributes and qualities – often intangible – that make an organization distinctive, promise a particular kind of employment experience, and appeal to those people who will thrive and perform their best in its culture. We embarked on our own investigation of what forward-thinking organizations are doing to leverage their employer brand to gain an edge in today’s fiercely competitive labor market. Drawing from real-world examples, we will propose 3 key areas H.R. leaders should hone in on to successfully differentiate their employer brand to attract and retain the best talent