Since employees make a decisive – or even the most important – contribution to the company's success, it is so important to be able to get people excited about a company. In today's world, which is characterized by a shortage of skilled workers, new work roles, globalization and the VUCA world, it is not easy to attract the right people to the company. It's important to stand out! And this is exactly where employer branding comes in: Employer branding has the task of ensuring that the company is perceived as an attractive employer by the relevant target groups.
Patricia Winterhalter from the Umantis Group dedicates herself to this task on a daily basis. In this interview, she tells us what really makes an employer brand, how important authentic values are and what she thinks the EB trends of the future are.
Patricia, where do employer branding measures start for you?
There are many approaches to placing employer branding measures. However, I believe that you have to start even BEFORE the measures are taken. It makes sense to derive measures from the strategy and start where you see the greatest leverage effect for your own goals. In general, it is not possible to say which is THE employer branding measure with which you should start. Employer branding is an important element of talent acquisition – this includes a number of measures from conventional marketing such as PR, image campaigns, content marketing and events. At the same time, the existing employees are just as important for the success, growth and development of the company as the future ones. That's why it's also a task of employer branding to keep an eye on the company's internal
how you are perceived as an employer brand. After all, a brand is not just what you consciously define – in the form of words or imagery. It is involuntarily shaped by all individual impressions.
An interesting employer brand is not something that can be imposed on a company.
In your opinion, how do you create an interesting employer brand?
The special thing about an employer brand is that it exists regardless of how intensively you take care of it. However, if you don't dedicate yourself to the employer brand, you may end up with a distorted brand image instead of a truthful one. You can't just place an interesting employee brand – it's not something you can impose on a company. It arises from within the company. The brand is interesting when the company is interesting and you manage to convey exactly that. This largely depends on two factors: what does the relevant target group find interesting and what makes the company special? As with any other brand, the same applies to the employer brand: offer unique added value – the employer value proposition.
What are the most important criteria for defining the values?
The most valuable asset of the employer brand is authenticity. It is crucial that the employer value proposition is not just a marketing promise, but is actually lived in the company. When we choose an employer, we make an enormously important decision. Encountering a different reality, as suggested to us by the brand, can, in the worst case, lead to termination. In order to be able to define authentic values, you first have to understand the company as a living system and ask the right questions: What cultures are lived, what norms and values do the employees integrate into their daily work, what visions does the company as a whole pursue and how can all this be summarized in a unique EVP?
In your opinion, how do you create said authenticity and how do you make sure that you also keep an eye on the business and culture?
In my experience, it's important to get to know people. They are the face of the company. They live the culture and shape the daily cooperation both internally and externally. Only the employees themselves are able to reproduce the specifics. In addition, culture is never rigid, it is constantly changing and moving. That's why the exchange and my network in the company are important to me – I can challenge all the impressions again and again with the brand image and incorporate them into the communication. Employer branding is much more than personnel marketing.
It's about listening, recognizing, transferring and empowering.
That's an exciting approach. But isn't it difficult to maintain consistency or stability?
I am in regular contact with the HR business partners, for example when negative feedback is given on kununu. As part of the Talent Acquisition team, my colleague and I are familiar with the overarching, selective needs in recruiting. In addition, my team and I are closely networked with Corporate Communications and are thus aware of events, initiatives and topics on a corporate level and provide support at the appropriate point. Learning and Development deals intensively with the people in the Umantis Group – as mentors and consultants, they are super close to the various teams in the company. Here, too, an exchange takes place. In addition, with the Organizational Innovation Team, we have concentrated cultural expertise on site and work together to develop content that is intended to reflect what our culture is all about, both internally and externally. As I said, personnel marketing is only a small part of where employer branding works and takes place. In my opinion, the most important point to be able to establish consistency is authenticity here as well. If what we want to embody as an employer brand and what is actually lived are congruent, then the management effort in terms of consistency is very low. It's about listening, recognizing, transferring and empowering.
In today's world, many things are transparent: for example, the kununu reviews mentioned above. How do you deal with such "setbacks"?
Negative criticism is not a setback for me. A corporate culture is dynamic and thrives on people. Everyone has a bad day from time to time and acts in familiar patterns that correspond to their personality, but sometimes not to that of others. It is therefore inherent in the system that conflicts occur. That's not to say that we don't take negative criticism seriously – on the contrary. However, it is not possible to deduce from an individual, negative perception that the company as such is bad. If negative impressions accumulate that we can locate – for example, in a certain department, then our HR business partners enter into internal discussions and look for causes. Most of the time, we receive very differentiated feedback that includes constructive criticism. This feedback helps us to develop as a company. And with that, the culture that every individual lives here continues to develop and with which we shape our company anew every day.
Finally, I would like to look into the crystal ball with you: What do you think are THE employer branding trends of the future?
Establish employer branding in the company. I believe that the proportion of companies that are actually already firmly positioned here is relatively low. Apart from that, I see great potential in the fact that employers, employees and candidates meet at eye level and that this is reflected in brand communication, but above all in action. Employer branding will move towards holistic brand management: starting with strategic alignment, through operational marketing and relationship management, to workplace design. The employer of the future has many facets. That's a challenge... and that's exactly what I love about my job.
Julia Herzog
Julia Herzog understands her target group: she has a degree in occupational psychology and worked in the field of HR for several years. Today, she is happy to be able to empower HR managers in the direction of 'New Work'.
