There is no doubt Employment Brand is important.  Professional world has come to terms with it.  Nobody is disputing it – it is like the ‘Social Media is Here to stay’ argument that was a hot topic a few years ago and these days it is unthinkable not to include any form of Social Media as a channel in your marketing and recruitment strategy.

Extensive research has highlighted the benefits of a strong employment brand to the company’s bottom line, productivity, employee engagement and reduced cost of hire and better quality of candidates.

But the one question that still often remains up in the air is:

Who is responsible for it?

Often Marketing departments shy away from anything Employer brand related as they are too busy promoting company's products and are convinced EB sits with the Recruitment function. In the meantime, Recruitment is convinced that it is not their job either – they are not Branding Specialists after all.  

Both have a fair point. However unless you are working for a 100% robotised company with you being the only human employee, the only reason why the company operates is because it has people who work there. Whilst this is common sense companies often forget about the importance of attracting and engaging the best people.

This is not a big surprise at all. Think about human nature. Let’s face it – our quality and longevity of life depend a lot on us taking a good care of our health (both mental and physical). It seems rational to always prioritise it as it gives us better chances of achieving our goals and performing our best in other areas of our life, but how many of us actually do it?

Back to the Employment Brand and the ownership question.

Whilst more companies are now hiring Employer Brand Specialists who are essentially a blend of a Marketer and a Recruiter it is important to realise that every single person within the company is responsible for its Employer Brand.  

You  may not have a dedicated resource to plan and execute the Employment Brand strategy, but your engaged and happy employees will be the most effective employment branding you can think of.

Equally, you can post all you want on every social channel available about how great the company is to work for, but if there are no employees backing that up both online and offline there is hardly any chance your Employment Brand will be worth anything and nor will be your efforts.