Talent Management and HR Marketing. From Job Advertising to Employer Branding

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

List of Figures

List of Abbreviations

1 Introduction

2 Problem Definition

3 Objectives

4 Methodology

5 Main Part
5.1 Job Advertising vs. Image Advertising
5.2 HR Consultants and Agencies
5.3 Online Marketing in HR
5.4 Contact Management
5.5 Corporate Culture and Leadership Style
5.6 HR Policies and Management
5.7 Applicant Relationship Management
5.8 Vacancies and Job Profiles
5.9 Employer Branding
5.10 Company Culture and Employer Branding at Netflix

6 Results

7 Conclusion

8 ITM
8.1 Economics
8.2 Marketing
8.3 Corporate Finance
8.4 Strategic Corporate Management
8.5 Business Law
8.6 Soft Skills & Leadership Qualities
8.7 Research Methods
8.8 Management Decision Making
8.9 Business Ethics and Sustainability

Bibliography

Executive Summary

This assignment investigates all important steps in talent management as part of HR marketing. The starting point will be advertising a job, and the finish line is set at creating the employer brand. Why the latter is a key fact for a company’s success is explained further on. Job advertising will be compared to more general image advertising and the workings of HR consultants and agencies will be described.

The importance of online marketing and contact management in HR will be pointed out and the effects of corporate culture and leadership style on talent management will be disclosed. The questions what are HR policies? and how do they affect management? will be answered.

Fundamentals like having an applicant relationship management system and the connection between vacancies and job profiles will be clarified. Last but not least the growing relevance of employer branding will be demonstrated.

List of Figures

Figure 1 - The old vs. the new business reality. Michaels, Handfield-Jones and Axelrod, 2001, p. 9

Figure 2 - 344 open positions at Amazon in Munich in November 2016

Figure 3 - Screenshot from the image video "Made By People" by Volvo Cars

Figure 4 - Job section of Netflix' company website

List of Abbreviations

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

1 Introduction

Vacant positions cost businesses money. Finding the right people with the right skills to fill these positions is the job of human resource management. The talent market is “vital to organizational success” (Boudreau and Ramstad, 2007, p. 16), and as the importance of the employer’s image is growing, the workforce has become increasingly aware of the company’s reputation.

Change is an unstoppable global trend and it affects both labour and the labour market or the talent market, respectively. “Like finance and marketing, HR helps the firm operate within a critical market—in this case, the market for talent.” (Boudreau and Ramstad, 2007, p. 17) In order to be in business and, more importantly, to remain in business, an organisation needs “a continuing supply of persons capable of and motivated to exercise leadership” (Sadler, 2003, p. 85).

As competition for talent has risen, finding it has become an increasingly difficult task for HR managers. This “War For Talent”, as the phrase was coined by McKinsey, “jumped into the headlines in the 1990s, and will continue to reshape the workplace in the decades ahead” (Michaels, Handfield-Jones and Axelrod, 2001, p. 2). The authors state that talent is essential for a company’s performance and that finding, fostering and retaining the talent can be considered a decisive advantage for an organization (Ibid.). Companies find themselves in a new and harsh surrounding as the reality of business has changed (Figure 1):

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Figure 1 - The old vs. the new business reality. Michaels, Handfield-Jones and Axelrod, 2001, p. 9.

The existence of a fight for talent has been established and now the question is, what distinctive features of the company make an employee sign a contract with one firm and not the other? Attracting the talent and transforming the business into a brand they can trust, is the main task for human resource marketing in this new reality.

“A strategic approach to employer branding requires a strategic perspective of how the company will attract, engage and retain talent.” (Zsámboki and Polgár, 2015, p. 1) To be successful, this approach has to be implemented fully and may not be carried out half hearted. Only then it will positively influence the reputation of the company (Ibid.). One of the main reasons for this is the growing number of internet portals such as Kununu, where employees can rate their employers and potential talent may be scared away by negative remarks and comments.

2 Problem Definition

Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all approach in HR marketing, as there is no such approach in b2c marketing either. The measures being taken to promote the brand, namely the employer, have to be carefully evaluated and selected for each case. HR marketing has to thoroughly segment its market of talent and decide on the segments for targeting, to draw a parallel to b2c marketing.

Employer Branding is a powerful tool when it is understood in all its details, as in most cases the employer brand will be the first touch point, the first encounter, of potential future employees. There is no second chance for first impressions.

3 Objectives

Discovering the advantages of well-chosen and carried out HR marketing measures is the main objective of this assignment. It will provide the fundamental theory behind the measures and shed some light at the implementation thereof. Occurring difficulties in the process of HR marketing will be discovered and solutions concerning the implementation will be given.

This paper will attempt to improve our current understanding of employer branding and provide an overview of how the employer brand can be built.

4 Methodology

Starting off, common HR marketing tactics will be explained and possibilities of their implementation will be shown. All steps along the way from Job Advertising to Employer Branding will be described and examples will be given, some positive and some negative.

The growing importance of company culture and employer branding will be explored a little bit more in depth with the example of Netflix, the US based video streaming platform.

5 Main Part

5.1 Job Advertising vs. Image Advertising

As mentioned in the Introduction, vacancies burn money and finding the right talent to fill open positions is one of the main jobs of HR management. This process should of course be carried out with minimal delay and in an effective way. In order to make the potential candidates aware of the available positions, they must be advertised as products must be advertised in the b2c market. The action of creating awareness for the open position is job advertising.

Drawing the parallel to b2c marketing and advertising, job advertising can be done on all available platforms, such as TV, radio, print (newspapers, journals) and online (specialised job advertising platforms, social media). In a world of globalisation and a global labour market, the best practice is reaching out for talent online. Of course, buying advertising space in a national or regional newspaper may be more suitable for companies acting within their national or regional limits.

Advertising a job fulfils two purposes:

1. It generates a selection of applications for the open position from talent with different backgrounds and different skill sets.
2. It has a subliminal signalling effect. More open positions in a company may lead to the company’s perception as prosperous and uprising (e.g. Amazon, staffing their new office in Munich had 344 open positions for this office in November 2016, (Amazon, 2016) (Figure 2).

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Figure 2 - 344 open positions at Amazon in Munich in November 2016

Available at https://www.amazon.jobs/de/locations/munich-gemiany

This subliminal signalling effect brings us to Image Advertising, a way of advertising the whole organization by focussing on emotions and image. With this approach a profile is created, which emotionalises all facets of the company including the work place and the products or services being sold. As this approach usually is carried out by creating image videos, it is far more expensive than job advertising. The higher costs can be justified through a global placement. One of recent times’ best examples is the image video Made By Peopl e by Volvo Cars (Volvocars.com, 2016). This video focusses on the people that build the cars, their families and values, their roots, more than on the product itself. We see workers getting up early in the morning, going to work, doing a job they love and working together (Figure 3).

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Figure 3 - Screenshot from the image video "Made By People" by Volvo Cars

Available at http://www.volvocars.com/intl/cars/made-by-people

5.2 HR Consultants and Agencies

HR consulting has its roots in management consulting and helps with processes in HR management. Like a management consultant, an HR consultant provides the company with his or her special knowledge and helps making difficult decision with a view from the outside. Usually, an HR consultant’s range of services can cover all of HR managements activities, such as recruiting, payroll management and performance reviewing.

HR agencies on the other hand are more specialised in generating a large pool of applications for selection by HR management. They act as an aggregator for potential talent.

5.3 Online Marketing in HR

Online marketing in HR offers a high reach and the possibility of immediate engagement at relatively low cost. It mainly takes place on three different platforms:

1. The company website
2. Job portals (e.g. StepStone, Monster)
3. Professional networks and social media (e.g. LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook)

The company website is a good place to aggregate all available vacancies and to present them under the roof of the corporate identity or the employer brand, respectively. The presentation can be combined with the display of image videos, testimonials and a mission statement.

As an example we look at the website of US video streaming giant Netflix (Figure 4). We see two main menu items placed prominently on top of the page, Life at Netflix and Job Openings (Netflix, 2016). Life at Netflix gives an overview of the supposedly good and productive work envrionment. Other topics like the culture deck (aspects of the company culture), an outlook to the longterm view and diversity are addressed as well. The Job Openings section then provides the potential employers with the hard facts of the vacancies.

In this setting the applicant can get in touch with the employer brand and get emotionalised before he or she looks for a suitable position.

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