HR professionals often look to current employment trends in order to focus their strategic initiatives. One of the biggest trends in 2019 is the fluidity of the current workforce. Employees are more likely to spend less time with a company and are more comfortable moving to new opportunities than ever before.

Depending on what survey you look at, 60-to over 70% of the current workforce is reporting that they will look for a new job in 2019. This statistic focuses HR teams on traditional areas of employee engagement and satisfaction, as well as recruitment and retention. What about nontraditional HR functions? Brand creation and management are typically Marketing efforts? Should HR be involved?

Before you roll your eyes, because you think HR people can’t be creative… think about what a company brand actually is? In the simplest terms it is the company’s identity and how that is communicated both internally and externally. A company’s identity is essentially the experience or corporate culture inside a company.

As HR focuses on retention and recruiting, the brand needs to be in lock step with these efforts. A Marketing team and HR team that are working to control the corporate culture messaging will be impactful in combating turnover of top talent as well as attracting the employee that will be the rightfit.

A company’s corporate messaging is controlled in nontraditional means as well; a marketing department does not always have control over the messaging via well-crafted press releases or a flashy website with glowing testimonials. There are numerous ways that current and past employees can communicate their personal views and experiences with a company, which is often the brand that is communicated to potential employees. Strong brands will undoubtedly attract strong talent. Strong brands must have strong client experience and a genuine corporate culture.

• Deloitte reports that 94% of executives and 88% of employees report that ultimately corporate culture is significantly important to company success.
• 13 companies that have appeared on Fortune’s annual 100 Best Companies to work for list every year report higher returns.
• One third of workers would pass on the perfect position if the corporate culture was not a fit.

Other HR Functions to Support Brand Messaging:

• Diversity in all areas of employment: Diversity translates to better representation of a company’s clients. Diversity represents inclusion of all candidates that possess the right skill set. Think of diversity in broad terms of gender, age, ethnicity, LGBT, and even things like geography or levels and areas of experience, disabilities…
• ASK your Current Employees: Consider asking your employees for their thoughts before they go put it on an anonymous website. Seems simple, but when is the last time you did it in a meaningful way.
• Align brands: Internal departments should be contributing to the overall messaging to create a holistic and unified brand.
• Evaluate flexibility and work life balance: I am shocked at the number of clients we still work with that are just not embracing employees working remotely. The reality is depending on the geographical location of your operations, the right talent might not be within a 25-minute commute.

This weekend I sat down with my cousin who is finalizing interviews for a very senior executive position. She is deciding between two very similar offers. One higher salary, one better stock options, and the deciding factor, as she put it, “I just felt like I fit at this company.”

SOURCES:

• http://rh-us.mediaroom.com/2018-11-27-More-Than-One-Third-Of-Workers-Would-Pass-On-Perfect-Job-If-Corporate-Culture-Was-Not-A-Fit-Survey-Finds)
• http://www.cfo.com/people/2014/04/treat-employees-well-see-stock-price-soar/)
• https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr-qa/pages/cms_023007.aspx