We define why someone would choose to work for a particular employer. Currently, we want to seduce you, and you must leave everything you know to go to another employer. To make the leap, there has to be a payoff, something that makes you say, “Ah, it’s worth it for me to leave what I know. » The employer brand allows us to define the reasons why we would make this decision. The factors of job dissatisfaction are multiple. In Quebec, it is very often the relationship with the manager that causes dissatisfaction, the lack of promotion or the lack of stability if the company is in bad financial shape.
We were aliens! In the 1990s, the big guys like IBM started, and then slowly it gained popularity. Today, we see positions posted for employer brand specialist or employer brand manager. But beyond the employer brand, what becomes even more important is to activate it. Let’s imagine Nike’s “Just Do It” without the marketing campaign. The idea would have been good, but would still be sitting somewhere in the bottom of a drawer. It’s the same for an employer brand. It must be accompanied by a campaign, and it must be disseminated internally and externally for it to work.
As we are located in Sherbrooke, we collaborated with the University of Sherbrooke to define an innovative methodology. Unlike traditional marketing, in HR marketing, you cannot “overpromise”. We can’t say: “Come work for us and you will have an extraordinary quality of life. » It’s not like selling a product that might break after two weeks. You can’t ruin someone’s life on false promises. We had to create a methodology that would make the brand as authentic as possible. This is where we decided to define a brand based on employees. Based on what they find attractive, relevant and satisfying. We are also innovative because every year, our methodology will evolve to follow what is happening on the market. An employer brand means rethinking the world of work for the better, breaking it down into small pieces. What has changed, what am I going to integrate into the employer brand so that the people who come to work with us work better, feel good and make a profit?
Artificial intelligence. Hybrid mode. Ambassador programs. For example, many big companies like Amazon use their employees on social networks, but in a structured way, to attract others. Lego and Siemens have personalized employer branding. Rather than having one that encompasses the entire company, there is one for each department: the employer brand experienced by engineers, by customer service, by sales, etc. Also, for 2024, employers will have to give a purpose to the workplace. Make you want to go to the office. Let it not be an obligation, but a destination. And a destination to do what? That’s up to us to define. And employees shouldn’t think they’re going there just to justify the rent.
The return of the pendulum between the responsibilities of the employee and the employer. We are currently out of balance, we lack people. Employers have therefore had to offer a lot until now. They had to be innovative with the coffee, the fruit bowl, the paid parking. But if I do all this, I expect a return. I expect the employee to come to the office in a positive manner, to provide good customer service. We were so desperate to fill positions that we had forgotten about that. The employer has his responsibilities, but so does the employee.
