EMPLOYER BRANDING: IMPACT OF EMPLOYER BRANDING ON EMPLOYEE RETENTION

 

INTRODUCTION

The organisation's ability to retain a well-qualified and experienced employee delivers guidance to achieve corporate success for the organisation. While there have been various employee retention strategies in this area, comparatively less work has been done on one of the important strategies in employment - Employer Branding (Tanwar and Prasad, 2013). Employer branding has integrated two significant organisational fields, Branding, and human resource management, and together they provide a rounded view on how to attract and retain suitable employees (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004).

Employer branding enhances the organisation’s reputation among the employee, potential candidates. The experience of the poor candidate definitely affects the recruitment process, and organizations should build the right infrastructure to provide them with proper access. There are three steps involved in developing an employer brand for a business organization, i.e. creation of an employer brand representing a

specific employee value proposition, external marketing of employer brand, and internal marketing of employer brand (Backhaus and Tikoo, 2004).

Developing and maintaining an employee brand is a challenging task. It requires progress through various phases and, most importantly, it requires a collective effort.

MAIN DIMENSION OF EMPLOYER BRANDING IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE RETENTION

Work Environment

The work environment is considered as an important dimension of employer branding by employees regarding their choice of employer (Barrow & Mosley, 2011).

There are several strategies to create/improve the work environment and boost employee retention.

1. Clear communication : the most important part of  creating a positive work environment is listening to employees. It’s important to consider the employee feedback. The transparent communication between employees and manager creates trust and employees feel like their opinions are valued.

2. Recognition and Appreciation: Recognize and appreciate staff for their contributions regularly. This can be done by praising employees or giving small rewards.

3. Understand Employee’s Value: :Understanding your staff's values, goals, and expectations is crucial for creating a positive workplace environment. Know what career goals and personal goals they would like to reach while working for the company. 

4. Create Job Security :One of the most important aspects of employee retention is providing job security. Companies can accomplish this by providing competitive wages, paid holidays, and other perks such as holiday days, healthcare coverage, and retirement plans.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

According to Carroll (1979), corporate social responsibility is “the social responsibility of business encompassing the economic, legal, discretionary and ethical expectations that society has of the organization at a given point of time”. In the present economic environment, every organization is concerned about providing something back to the society instead of just focusing on profit maximization. As claimed by Backhaus and Tikoo (2004), external marketing of employer branding allows it to attract the best talent as well as to establish it as an employer of choice.

(CSR) plays a significant role in employee retention by enhancing employee satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty. By demonstrating a commitment to social responsibility, companies can cultivate stronger relationships with their employees and foster a sense of loyalty that leads to long-term retention.

Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance strategies help an employee coordinate and integrate work and non-work aspects of their lives (Felstead et al., 2002). It includes flexible working conditions for employees, flexible working hours as well as employee engagement activities etc. Literature has suggested that work-life balance strategies can help an organization enhance its employer brand that will, in turn, lead to increased employee retention (Barrow and Mosley, 2011; Hudson, 2005).

Currently, most of the organizations are concerned about increasing the talent attraction and retention through the implementation of a work-life balance for every employee to a certain degree.

Training & Development

Training and development have received much attention in the context of the recruitment of potential employees and the development of current employees (Cable and Graham, 2000; Lievens, Hoye and Schreurs, 2005).

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Source : Based on Tanwar and Prasad (2016)

The conceptual framework was developed based on a review of literature, and it is mainly established based on the study done by Tanwar and Prasad (2016). According to the framework, the employer branding is the independent variable and employee retention is taken as the dependent variable, also employer branding primarily consists of four dimensions which are working environment, corporate social responsibility, work-life balance and training and development. Those four dimensions have a significant impact on employee retention.

CONCLUSION

The employer branding has a positive impact on employee retention. Additionally, the Work environment, CSR, work-life balance and training & development have a crucial impact on employee retention 

REFERENCE

Backhaus, K., & Tikoo, S. (2004). Conceptualizing and researching employer branding. Career Development International, Vol. 9(5), 501-517. Retrieved November 26, 2018, from https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430410550754

Barrow, S., & Mosley, R. (n.d.). The Employer Brand: Bringing the Best of Brand Management to People at Work. Retrieved June 6, 2018, from https://www.wiley.com/enus/The+Employer+Brand%3A+Bringing+the+Best+of+Brand+Mana gement+to+ People+at+Work-p-9780470012734

Cable, D., & Graham, M. (2000). The determinants of job seekers' reputation perceptions. Retrieved July 22, 2018, from Wiley Online Library: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/1099- 21 1379%28200012%2921%3A8%3C929%3A%3AAIDJOB63%3E3.0.CO%3B2O 

Cable, D., & Turban, D. (2003). The Value of Organizational Reputation in the Recruitment Context: A Brand‐Equity Perspective. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol 33(11), 2244-2266. Retrieved March 17, 2015, from https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01883.x 

Carroll, A. (1979). A Three-Dimensional Conceptual Model of Corporate Performance. Academy of Management, Vol 4(4), 497-505. Retrieved August 20, 2018, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/257850

Tanwar, K., & Prasad, A. (2016). The effect of employer brand dimensions on job satisfaction: gender as a moderator. Management Decision, Vol 54(4), 854-886. Retrieved September 12, 2018, from https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-08-2015-0343