Employer Brand Management: Practical Lessons from the World's Leading Employers

Chapter 1Introduction

‘The war for talent is over, and the talent won.’

Josh Bersin

You can judge a company by the people that it keeps. Great companies attract and keep great talent. Talented people choose to come and choose to stay because they feel their pay and opportunities are better than any other organization they might consider. But for the best companies, there is also an X factor. In the same way that leading companies strive to deliver uniquely valuable products and services, they also seek to shape a distinctive organizational culture and brand identity. The shared behaviours and beliefs that define this culture can deliver significant competitive advantages. A strongly shared sense of culture and purpose can drive extraordinary levels of motivation, loyalty and performance. A crystal-clear focus on a handful of key qualities, like creativity or simplicity or agility, can likewise provide your organization with capabilities that others will find difficult to match. This powerful combination of differentiating capabilities and distinctive cultural identity helps to attract the ‘right’ kind of talent. It generates employee pride, advocacy and commitment. It also helps you deliver unique products and services. The question is: how do you define the qualities that make your organization special? And, once defined, how do you communicate, shape and measure these qualities? For many of the world's leading employers, the answer to this question is employer brand management. ...