Dive Brief:
- While product and company brand have both received adequate attention from businesses, more organizations may need to consider their talent brand – especially as millennials "who act less like employees and more like consumers" enter the workforce, Meghan Biro, founder and CEO of TalentCulture, wrote for Forbes.
- Less than 30% of the working population is concerned about the product brand of their employer, Biro reports, and are instead more concerned about the "three-dimensional nature" of the workplace: "the who, what and where."
- Biro mentions a fourth dimension that employers need to consider as well: the tone. Employers should understand their atmosphere and mission, two factors that drive employee engagement, and actively work to maintain their brand.
Dive Insight:
Four years ago, data came out that said a "strong talent brand" can reduce cost-per-hire by a whopping 50%, according to Biro. While that data is old, even more millennials have entered the workforce (currently a job seeker's market, anyway) meaning there are compelling budget reasons to put effort into the talent brand.
Above all, employers must actively manage their talent brand by pinpointing their message and then working to build and maintain it, Biro says – which will inevitably become part of making HR a more strategic function in the business space. Unfortunately, HR may be a little behind when it comes to strategic planning, meaning effort will likely be required to catch up.
