Recruitment specialists are becoming extremely interested in the brand that their organisations portray to both potential and current employees. As a positive brand strengthens the overall employer value propositions (EVPs) and builds them as a great place to work, making it easier to attract and retain top quality people. The employer brand is essentially the combination of the organisations beliefs, culture and values that engage an employee helping and organisation succeed. Very similar to that of brand image, the attributes that customers have come to expect from the product or service.

According to the Forrester Research Asia Pacific Technographics survey from Q2 2008, about 75% of all online Australian adults used social technologies at least once a month. This growth is continuing unabated, with now over four million Australians having a Facebook account! Social media has changed the way we interact and view the internet.

These facts have several implications.

There is so much information available online much of which are discussions. A majority of the discussions are about products, services, brands and people, and they are not controlled by the owners or brand managers, they are controlled by the people. Social media technologies have given customers a louder voice in a crowded world to both praise and criticise an organisation.

Job candidates have access to unprecedented information about potential employers, and not just for the geeks out there. A majority of the 75% of adult Australians using social technologies are using it to consume content. Meaning during the research of a potential employer all information online can be found. Tools such as Glassdoor.com provide access to salary and satisfaction information, blogs provide product and customer commentary, LinkedIn and Facebook allow them to contact past and present employees all of which strips away at the nicely presented corporate website.

This means all positive commentary will help endorse your clients as a great place to work and an organisation that cares for their employees and customers. The flip side; negative comments will also be there for all to see.

As marketers you are engaged by organisations to help promote their products, services and brands, now this promotion is an increasing online component. Given the dynamic and conversational nature of todays online world your campaigns need to given thought to the impact they have on an organisations employer brand.

Some tips on enhancing an employer brand:

• A media campaign that pushes the boundary on being deceptive will have employee and candidates asking are they being deceptive to me?
• Be careful with messages designed for the market as while they could be good for the bottom line, it might turn candidates (and current employees) off working for the organisation.
• If the external brand is not aligned with the internal brand how can employees deliver on the external brand promise?
• Dont create an external marketing campaign that promotes innovation and risk tasking, if the internal culture is not that of innovation and risk taking.

Remember today blog posts, tweets, rating, photos and video are controlled by the public. These factors impact not only how customers perceive the organisation but also candidates and employees.