Should your business marketing be the employer branding expert?
I think that’s a fair question to ask.
And the answer is: no, they should not be expected to be an expert in employer branding unless they have years of hands-on experience in employer branding.
In this episode of the Building a Modern Employer Brand podcast I talk about why your business marketing colleagues are unlikely to be the experts in employer brand marketing and why it is important for you to get rid of the monster in marketing.
In this episode:
- Why your business marketing team is not the expert in employer branding?
- Understanding the versatility of business marketing.
- What makes all marketing fail unless..
- Why HR & talent marketing can afford to be more confident about becoming talent marketing and employer branding experts?
Why business marketing is unlikely to be the employer branding expert?
If you are an experienced HR or talent acquisition professional, you know the difference between a beginner, generalist, specialist and an expert.
You know to classify a person as an expert in something only if they have years of education, practise and experience in that area.
The more demanding the role, the more challenging the tasks and the higher expectations there are for the results inthea role, the more likely you are to trust an expert over a rookie.
Becoming an expert in something takes years of hands-on experience supported by education and regular learning.
Does your marketing team have years of day-to-day experience from convincing and converting active and passive job seekers and building an employer brand?
What is an expert?
An expert is someone who is very knowledgeable and skillful in something. They have comprehensive and often authoritative, high level knowledge in a specific area or a particular subject.
Think about a general doctor.
Even if they have years of experience from general medicine, you would not want them to be the one operating on your brain or making decisions about your cancer treatment, or even treating your persistent allergy without getting an expert’s advice.
The more challenging the issue, the more persisting the problem, the more costs and risks involved, the more we prefer an expert over a generalist.
If your company turns to employer branding because there is a strategic business need, you need employer branding expertise.
However, if employer branding is just something fun decided on the operational level without any goals or expectations, or even a budget, it’s unlikely to be employer branding at all and you don’t need an expensive expert for it.
Does your employer branding need an expert?
Why are you employer branding?
What needs to happen as a consequence of building your employer brand?
If you are looking to generate more applications from your recruitment campaigns, employer branding is not the right strategy.
Companies who struggle in the war for specific talent need an employer brand.
You need the employer branding expertise to know how to position your company in a highly competitive talent market. A campaign or two isn’t going to solve this. But an employer branding expert knows this and will tell you this.
What if your problem is an outdated employer image hurting your overall business?
Does your marketing team know how to fix that?
Do they have time to get to the bottom of it? And what more, do they have the time to employer brand communicate consistently and regularly to change your market perceptions and solify the desired employer brand image?
If all you need is a quick campaign to get a few applications, anyone in marketing can do that. It’s not rocket science exactly.
Your employer branding requires an expert when your business success relies on your organization’s ability to regularly attract the talents your business needs and you have a history of struggling with it.
How to know if your marketing team has employer branding expertise?
You need to think about this like a talent acquisition professional.
How do you figure out if your candidate has the expertise for the vacancy?
You find out what expertise is needed, what expertise is available, how to recognize the kind of expertise you are looking for and what are the signs of success you need to look for and ask for to identify the necessary level of expertise.
People with years of experience from hiring marketing and communication professionals are well aware of how many types of roles and responsibilities there are within marketing and communication.
You also know, if your marketing team lead is looking to hire, let’s say a digital marketing expert, you are not going to suggest them candidates who specialize in market research, have a history in designing packaging or are experienced in writing short form copy text for print adverts.
As the rightful owner of the employer brand perceptions of your organization, HR & talent acquisition must make sure the help you get for employer branding is the right kind of help.
Knowing how to assess if your marketing team can help, understanding what you need and need to achieve and appeciating what time and resources your marketing colleagues have available for you is the starting point for successful employer branding.
How HR and talent acquisition collaborate successfully with business marketing?
Key to any successful collaboration are:
- Clarity over what needs to be achieve.
- Understanding what it takes to achieve the expected results.
- The skills and expertise required to make the right decisions.
- Hands-on time to do the work as planned and expected.
- Respect for each other and the mutual agreement for the expexted outcome.
In all talent marketing, employer branding included, marketing is likely to know a lot about tactical and technical elements of marketing and media. But they (should) also know what information is needed to apply their information and expertise in the best way.
Unless your marketing team has branding expertise, you might need to bring in branding expertise from somewhere else.
If your marketing team isn’t communication professionals, this is messaging, you might need to bring in a communication expert from your communication team or externally. Getting the message right is key.
Your HR and talent acquisition have talent insight and access to more talent insight.
Talent acquisition knows the market, the competition and the kinds of expectations and needs talents have when they start to activate as job seekers.
And your employer brand manager should know which talent marketing strategy is the best choice for achieving what needs to be achieved.
What you need is the knowledge, the experience, the skills, the insight and the time employer branding takes.
How to choose the right type of HR marketing strategy >>
Why your business needs an employer branding strategy?
7 steps to a modern recruitment marketing strategy >>
Choosing target audience for your employer brand strategy >>
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Like what you hear? Learn more about how to build the Magnetic Employer Brand at Talent Marketing School
Subscribe online to Talent Marketing School and start learning how to build the modern employer brand based on the Magnetic Employer Branding Method™️ I developed and have tested already with hundreds of growth organizations over the years.
This method gives you a systematic approach to storytelling based employer branding. When you learn the system, you can apply it to other talent marketing too. When you become an online student at Talent Marketing School, you get access to all core lessons and courses teaching how to build the modern employer brand based on this method. You cannot learn this method anywhere else but at Talent Marketing School.
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