Having written “Employer Branding: 5 reasons why it matters & Five Steps to Action” in 2010, a lot has happened since then – Employer Branding has become of one of the most important strategic concerns for the majority of the world’s largest companies. Companies now realise that business success depends on the quality of one’s workforce and their ability to deliver on business objectives. Simply said, without the right competence companies will fail on their business plans.

Employer branding has become important. A Google search on employer branding today generate 2.6 million results instead of 391,000 hits about two years ago. Amazon has 154 listed books on the topic instead of 38 in 2010. Our own research indicates that today over 86% of companies invest in talent attraction and 69% approach employer branding as a thought through, long term and strategic process (based on our Talent Attraction Barometer conducted during the first half of 2012). The evidence is there: companies are taking employer branding seriously.

Back in 2010 we listed five reasons why employer branding matters. Those reasons are still valid today:

- shortage of skilled labour,
- the economic pressures of doing more with less resources means that hiring the best is business critical,
- growth and profitability can only occur if the company has the right competence on board,
- being an attractive employer facilitates recruitment
- and gives bargaining power.

To add to this, we would mention that the workforce has become increasingly mobile, as top performers grab opportunities where they exist, increasing recruitment competition. Moreover, in developed economies successful businesses are the ones that capitalize on the great ideas of their top employees: the ones that drive innovation and see unexploited opportunities.

The steps to action are still the same, however, we would simplify them to a four-step process to: understand, decide, plan, and act.
1. Understand the expectations of career-seekers via market research. Benchmark the company against recruitment competitors.
2. Decide your brand position in the recruitment market, ensure that it’s differentiated.
3. Plan your communication by identifying the right channels & creating the right messages per channel. Create impact by being a good story teller.
4. Act – deploy your communication to your target group, measure your progress and recruit.

See our latest infograph depicting to what extent Employer Branding helps: attract talent, retain talent,  engagement &  performance, and consistent communications. Please select the radio buttons on the infograph to see all results. 1 represents “little extent” to 5 “great extent”. The results show that a good proportion, if not majority, sees their employer brand strategy positively improving their performance in these areas.