As an informed HR, you know that employer branding is the tool companies are investing in so as to recruit tech talent in Singapore. Unfortunately, securing buy-in from management is proving a challenge.
What do you do? From our interactions with management teams across industries, we’ve found that engaging them at their level is what works best whenever you’re proposing something. So, in this article, we’re sharing five tactics you can use to make a solid pitch for employer branding. Pick any of these or mix them up to create a custom tactic. When ready, schedule that meeting and present your case with confidence.
5 Valuable Tactics to Convince Management to Invest in Employer Branding
Data is important when dealing with management and so you’ll need to do your homework well. Also, management usually decides on the basis of costs vs. savings, risks vs. returns. For that reason, present your case in the form of a problem and the solution, and show how the business will cut down costs and increase revenue. With that in mind, here are the tactics you can implement.
1. Discuss the Effects of the Changing Labor Market
The labor market is changing and that affects your ability to hire the tech talents your company needs. To get management to consider employer branding, present research data which shows that:
If you suspect they’ll need more time to digest this, notify them of the situation and say that you’re working on a solution. After a week or two, schedule a meeting to discuss your suggestion.
2. Connect Employer Branding to Your Company’s Goals
If there’s something management has their eyes on, is the the company’s short and long-term goals. Any idea or solution which can help achieve these goals will be easily embraced. Take time to understand how your company seeks to achieve these goals. From there, tie employer branding activities to the goals and processes involved, to show that this investment will help achieve those goals faster, reduce overall business cost, and maximize returns.
This shouldn’t be very difficult since management understands that your company will need a skilled workforce to achieve its goals. Your job will be to present the “How” of attracting, hiring, and retaining those talents. As part of your research, check out employer branding case studies and leverage the inspiring success stories to market the path to your company’s success.
3. Benchmark Your Recruitment Strategy Against the Competition
Management knows the competition’s big numbers, i.e. market share, YOY revenue, etc. Now add to these by sharing the numbers which show how they get those big numbers. Benchmark against your competition on the basis of visits to your website’s career page as well as your pages on LinkedIn and Glassdoor. Also check Glassdoor ratings and reviews and don’t forget rankings in your industry’s “Best Places to Work” lists. These numbers reflect brands’ popularity and reputation, and therefore, their ability to attract the kind of candidates who will drive innovation and growth.
If the numbers show that you’re playing catch up, then you have some work to do. Identify weaknesses in your recruitment strategy and come up with a fix. Show how this solution will improve your attractiveness as an employer and increase your chances of building stronger teams for business growth.
Pro Tip: Ensure that your solution includes hiring passive job candidates by engaging a specialist tech talent recruiter like the BGC-Group. We have connections with tech employees and are experienced in connecting passive candidates with new opportunities.
4. Share Your Vision for HR
For a compelling vision, start by conducting an audit of current HR processes. Analyze employee performance and check how everything affects the company’s bottom line then put together a report. Here is an example of how you can summarize your findings:
I analyzed our employment records for the past 3 years and noticed a concerning trend: recruiting cost and time are increasing and up to 40% of new staff are leaving within one year, citing low job satisfaction. The effect is that team morale is going down, we’re losing expertise due to mass exits, and HR is stuck in a cycle of hiring and training new staff.
From here, share how you plan to make employees love their jobs more, convince candidates to accept job offers, and get students to dream of joining your company.
Business impact? You’ll be able to build creative and diverse teams quickly, future projects will be completed faster, products will reach the market faster, and profits will be realized within shorter time frames.
5. Use Internal Data to Sell Employer Branding
If your teams’ performance is low or average, tap into this situation to make a case for employer branding. Collect performance data from departmental heads as well as employee sentiment through employee feedback and exit interviews.
The answers to such questions can help you figure out whether new hires are the right culture fit, whether your Employee Value Proposition needs tweaking, and even what kind of comments are likely to be left on employer review sites. Once the stage is set using this data, everyone will agree that something needs to be done.
Pro Tip: Since you’re utilizing company data, stress the fact that you consulted departmental heads and they agreed to support the solution because they saw it would increase employee engagement and productivity.
If your challenge is a management team that wants to control everything, present the solution in the form of “packages” so they can choose one. Take it further and list the “features” of the packages so they can pick specific activities and create a custom solution. In case you need more help with this, just get in touch with us.
Read More: How to Create the Right Work Environment for Your Tech Talent