HR brand: structure and strategy

Companies that want to scale should think about the HR brand. Let's analyze the necessity and benefits of a strong HR brand in the context of small and medium-sized businesses.

A positive impression of the company in the labor market will minimize the costs of search, recruitment. The amount of budget savings, depending on the number of open vacancies, can amount to millions. To do this, large companies use social media marketing and other tools.

When an external HR brand works, people want to be part of the team. Such an organization is consciously in the understanding of candidates higher in status, more reliable than other employers.

Often, the level of comfort for employees plays a crucial role when choosing offers from employers.

Perhaps the salary level is lower than that of competitors, but at the same time there will be a lot of positive responses in the labor market:

• how to work harmoniously in an organization;
• what development prospects does it offer to employees;
• how comfortable is the internal corporate culture;
• do the values of employees coincide with the values of the company.

Imagine the situation. An applicant who has left a resume on the job search and recruitment site receives an incoming call with an offer to consider a vacancy.

Telephone interviews are conducted:

• external recruiter or representative of the organization;
• the head of the department where the employee is needed;
• internal recruitment expert, HR, office manager.

The candidate's desire to continue the conversation will depend on factors:

• the skill of building a dialogue, who applied with a proposal to consider a vacancy;
• the level of comfort when communicating with the interlocutor;
• positioning of the company in which the applicant may work;
• the representative's manifestation of love for the organization, respect for the leaders;
• the ability to interest an applicant, sell a vacancy;
• depth disclosure of information about the benefits of cooperation;
• positive energy of the interlocutor, transmitted to the company.

This is how the first touch with the HR brand happens. If the person who calls and invites you to work leads a conversation in this way, then the candidate has a projection that it is customary to communicate in a team this way.

• openness;
• positive attitude, smiling;
• polite;
• the ability to listen and hear the interlocutor;
• attention to the completeness of the answers to the applicant's questions;
• a sense of job satisfaction, love for the company.

The second touch will be at the interview, where the candidate assesses the situation inside the office.

When conducting an online meeting, a person will appreciate the comfort of the approach to the interview, the organization of the meeting.

The interaction of candidates with employers at the selection stages creates an impression of the HR brand:

• speaks about what an organization is;
• how managers treat people;
• shows the norms of behavior, communication within the team;
• goals, development dynamics;
• personal characteristics of the team, employee loyalty.

These factors shape the image of the company in the market as a whole.

These factors shape the image of the company in the market as a whole.

Accordingly, when a candidate comes to the office for an interview or goes through a trial period, he evaluates the HR brand according to the characteristics:

• employee behavior;
• the attitude of the manager to the staff;
• how comfortable is it to be, to work in this atmosphere;
• what programs for the development and comfortable existence of staff are there within the company;
• are there corporate events;
• how much employees are interested in career growth.

The air inside the office is saturated with lively emotions, creating a unified picture. If the puzzles add up, the candidate chooses a company for further cooperation.

Initial interactions were successful for both sides. Complete coincidence in values and corporate culture, comfortable with each other. The employee joins the team, starts working.

At this stage, it is important that the first impression is preserved, the work on the adaptation of the newcomer continues, which implies the support of the entire team.

The manager should understand that it will not be easy for the employee at first: it is worth helping to get to know the team better, to feel accepted into the team. It is possible that there are other requirements, other business processes, and the structure of the organization in the previous places.

It turns out that the adaptation period is also included in the components of the HR brand.

There are often cases when what was promised at the interview is forgotten in practice. A person is thrown into the workflow like a child who is learning to swim.

There are few who have learned to swim independently without the support of a mentor. Then the manager returns to the search point, selecting the right employee.

What we see: time, money, physical strength spent on search, selection, observation of human failures. While a hired employee with a correct adaptation system would bring profit to the company, without feeling support, he leaves his place of work with a negative impression of the HR brand.

Word of mouth turns on and then there are many times fewer people willing to work in the organization. Psychological and moral comfort often plays a crucial role in building a strong HR brand.

The foreign market can also spoil the candidate's impression with personal touches. Often in the reviews, the applicant sees information that:

• the company has poor working conditions;
• managers\owners deceive employees;
• profanity is used in communications;
• weak managers are at the helm, unable to set clear tasks, distribute functionality;
• the atmosphere of nervousness and distrust is maintained in the team;
• the company is stagnating;
• employees work sluggishly without desire;
• there is no motivation, no one wants to develop.

Reviews, among other things, form an idea of an organization's HR brand, which is why it is so important to work out, eliminate the causes of negativity in the team.

There are examples of organizations in the labor market that have developed an HR brand from scratch. The main tool is often internal ambassadors represented by employees who are satisfied with their work. The company also uses HR content marketing with the stories of its ambassadors related to working for you.

As a result, they grow from an unfamiliar company into the largest networks thanks to the culture of spreading positive information by employees:

• a young team, ambitious;
• communications have been built, working chats have been launched;
• management listens to the opinion of the staff;
• they launch new projects in which people are involved;
• the staff grows with the company.

People get in line to work in such companies, they have no problems with attracting new staff and scaling. This is how an HR branding works in practice.