‘Monetary benefits’ is not the only factor that makes an employer an employer of choice. We explore ways to strengthen your company brand and mark yourself as a favourable employer in the eyes of the public.
Remember your ambition when you were much younger? Or the answer you gave after your parents asked you what you wanted to become when you grew up? Many would remember their dreams of becoming firemen, doctors, celebrities and the like. The question then is this: How did these vocations gain favour over the countless others?
Employer Branding
Responsible for the public perception of your company, employer branding is defined as ‘the process of promoting a company or an organisation as the employer of choice to a desired target group, one which a company needs and wants to recruit and retain’. The purpose of employer branding is more than merely to raise awareness of its name through print or TV advertisements; it has become essential in helping companies compete in today's competitive labour market.
How do companies strengthen its brand and mark itself as an employer of choice? According to CareerBuilder Singapore’s annual Employer of Choice Survey 2014, 94.6 per cent of respondents felt that the availability of career growth opportunities is the key trait that differentiates an employer from the rest in the market. Other respondents identified the offering of ‘attractive pay, bonuses and other monetary compensation’ (92.2 per cent), ‘a diverse and non-discriminating work environment’ (85.8 per cent), ‘a comfortable physical work environment’ (85.8 per cent) and ‘good employee perks and other non-monetary benefits’ (84 per cent) as differentiating factors.
Jobseekers also look towards being a part of a company that exudes warmth and nurtures a good culture. This suggests that paying close attention to cultivating a good company culture bodes well for companies’ future employee retention and attraction efforts.
Promoting Good Values
Some companies that have cultivated good company cultures have also done particularly well in being recognised even when they are not recruiting. Examples of these companies are OCBC and Ritz Carlton Singapore.
One of Singapore’s oldest financial institutions, OCBC is recognised for giving back to society through its yearly OCBC Cycle event. This event sees cyclists from all skill levels and walks of life come together to raise funds for causes such as the National Cancer Research Fund. Apart from promoting friendship and a healthy lifestyle, OCBC also brings the young and the old closer together through a healthy activity and allows participants to exemplify its core value of teamwork.
On the other hand, Ritz Calton Singapore places emphasis on community outreach activities. Their Community Footprints initiative serves to champion the well-being of children and encourage environmental responsibility, as well as supports hunger and poverty relief efforts in Singapore. In fact, its corporate social responsibility (CSR) team is made up of volunteers from different divisions in the company who meet regularly to come up with annual campaigns. Through collaborations with educational and charity institutions, the hotel brand makes its organisation’s culture, which thrives on quality service and social responsibility, palpable.
Companies can learn from these organisations and their employee engagement practices. It may be difficult to plan and hold large-scale events especially with limited resources, but a company does not need to hold country-wide cycling events to promote the core values that it embodies. Companies can instead put effort into planning relatively small-scale company-wide activities that promote teamwork and support good causes, and sharing it on their e-newsletter or social media platforms to reach the public eye thereafter.
