Do You Have a Lovemark?

I had the opportunity to talk to a student group on Employer Branding. When I asked them to name their number one choice of an employer, the overwhelming majority voted in favour of Google. Then I ask them for details that one would be expected to know about a potential employer eg the office location, the number of employees they have in India etc. All these queries draw blanks. I ask the group about what specific jobs at Google they wished to apply for. Except for three students, no one really cared and yet they wanted to be a part of an organization they had very limited information on. We proceeded to pick some more possible employers. The group had strong points of view about many organizations – most of which were not necessarily based on information or data. That is what Employer Brand does to your attractiveness as an employer.

The Employer Brand is what people believe is the promise of an organization as an employer. In a competitive talent market, that is the reason why someone chooses to put your organization's name as an employer on their resume - at least for a while. The existing employees' perception of the employment proposition has an equally strong impact on what the employer brand would be seen as. That is the reason why the existing employee decides to hang up when the headhunter calls. It is the reason why a newbie feels good or regrets the decision to join the organization, especially if they had a choice. It is what the employee says about the organization to friends and family when HR people are not listening.

Kevin Roberts (author of Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands) talks about some brands that go beyond and become what he calls "Lovemarks". When you plot brands on a 2x2 matrix of Love and Respect, there are some brands that inspire love AND build respect for themselves. Those in that hallowed zone are called Lovemarks. When a brand achieves Lovemark status, the consumers becomes evangelists for a brand. The relationship between the brand and the individual is beyond the realm of logic. Being a Lovemark does not automatically make it a top choice as an employer but it probably helps. That is because our needs as employees are different from those that we may have as consumers. The sobering thought is that, the No 1 Lovemark in the list of top 200 Lovemarks is not a corporation but Shah Rukh Khan. Apple at number 4 trails Kajol and Google is at number 9 followed by Rani Mukherjee.

Employer Branding is the sweet spot where Human Resources meets Marketing (and feels inferior). Marketing people spend money, time and resources building consumer insights so that they know who buys their brand, when do they buy it, why do they buy it or why not, where do they buy it and how do they consume it. Based on this research they can decide how to communicate with their Target Audience. These are the same questions the HR person needs to answer about existing and potential employees.

The number of vacancies that the organization fills through employee referrals is rough measure of the strength of the Employer Brand - at least as far as the existing employees is concerned. Finding out what potential employees are saying about you as an employer is equally important. Sometimes that information floats in the most unlikely places. The social networking sites such as Orkut, Facebook, MySpace etc have communities that feature organizations. Chances are that your organization has a presence there and you don't know it yet. Doing a search on blogs will sometimes reveal what the buzz is about your employer brand. The quiet little kid in that corner might the most widely read blogger on the internet who is writing stuff about what it feels like to be working in this organization. I hope you read his blogs. Unfortunately in many cases, perceptions about the organization as an employer are being built and most top executives don't even have a web presence.

At a recent gathering, a hundred top HR professionals from around the world were asked if they were members of sites like Orkut or Facebook. Only three embarrassed hands went up. That was stuff for teeny boppers most of them said. Yet if you are fishing in a shrinking talent pool would you rather know what the buzz was about you or would you turn a blind eye (or ear) to it? If you did not know what people were saying about you wouldn't be in a position to impact that opinion. Banning blogging and social networking sites is not a solution. I hope the HR people embrace this change and actually begin to leverage the opportunity to turn their Employer Brand into a Lovemark.