Introduction
In todays markets, a brand that stands for something and stands out from the crowd goes a long way to sell products as well as attract high-quality employees. The HR team can contribute to the brand by helping the marketers tell the story of the unknown service ethic of the company or how they inspire their diverse employees. The brand of the company is a part of the employee experience from attraction to departure.
While the brand attracts, it also reinforces connection and commitment between employee and organization. It is also representative of the organizations culture. When employees tell others about their company, the culture and brand are wrapped into one story. Every time an employee shares information about the organization, it is a story about challenges, successes, and failures. These stories give listeners a feel for the companys character is this a company that is resilient, persistent, competent, caring? How the story is told matters. Individual reflection can yield pride or resentment. Once in the organization, the candidate will either embrace the culture or not. One of the elements that influence this is the employees personal alignment to the mission of the organization. If what attracted the applicant to the company transitions to a sense of belonging and common purpose, that employee will be proud to work for their organization. When employees are proud of their companys work, there is a foundation or engagement that is supported by culture.
Scenario
Alley, an HR Pro at CapraTek, laughed, realizing that Molly did not know about CapraTeks many charitable works. CapraTek has many divisions! I know you work in public affairs, and maybe what the company does in IT research may not seem to be the kind of contribution to society you were hoping to make. However, one of CapraTeks divisions is committed to the development of orphan medications. Do you know what those are?
No, Molly replied slowly. Not really. Honestly, Alley, I do not think there is much information on the pharmaceutical part of the company in the public domain.
Well, there are diseases called orphan diseases’. They are called that because they either affect 200,000 or fewer people worldwide or the disease is common but ignored because it is far more prevalent in the developing world. It is not profitable to create medications to treat or cure these diseases because so few people have them or the people who have common diseases like malaria and tuberculosis are poor. I am not sure if you know this, but it can cost upwards of 2 billion dollars to develop a single drug, and some of those do not make it through FDA trials. CapraTek, though, researches treatments for orphan diseases, and we forgo profits. This is something the company does to improve society through better health. We work along with two other companies, sharing the burden of finding cures and treatments, and I think it is pretty wonderful.
Alley, I had no idea. Robert, what about you?
Nope, not a clue, replied Robert. Molly, if people in CapraTeks public affairs office do not know about this, then I guess nobody does. Maybe your job is a little more important than you thought! As a public affairs pro and future HR pro, what do you recommend we do to get this aspect of who we are and what we do into the media?
Your Challenge
As a member of the CapraTek HR team, you have been tasked to write a 34-page internal memo about employer branding and how it can benefit organizations like CapraTek. You will submit to the internal memo to the company leadership team in order to recommend the changes that you would like to make to the CapraTek career website.
Instructions
Read the Maurer article and review the Google careers website.
Maurer, R. (2019). Despite worker complaints, Google is still worlds most reputable employer. HRNews.
Look for information about corporate culture, benefits and compensation, social responsibility, and career development.
How would you assess their brand as a candidate?
Select two more corporations to review their career websites for comparison. Select other tech companies of similar sizesuch as Facebook and large tech companiesand look for the same characteristics as the Google site.
Write a 34-page internal memo about employer branding and how it can benefit the organization. Include the following in your memo:
To, From, Internal Memo: Employer Branding, Date.
Follow a format similar to a normal paper, including an introduction, conclusion, and the following elements:
Describe the overview of employer branding concept and its benefits to an individual employee and to the organization.
What is brand?
What is the impact of branding on potential employees?
How can recruiters use the employers brand to attract people?
How does employer branding influence strategic retention?
Analyze the 3 most influential features to include on a company career website: benefits, compensation, culture, social responsibility, or career development. Give examples of how each feature can be done well based on your website reviews.
Describe what kind of branding and recruitment would attract you as a career candidate.
Explain best practices for responding to negative reviews on social media about an organizations employer brand.
