HR Marketing From Job Advertising to Employer Branding

Studienarbeit , 2009 , 23 Seiten , Note: 1.0

Führung und Personal - Employer Branding

The most popular measures in the field of HR Marketing like Job and Image Advertising, HR Consultants, Corporate Culture, Applicant Relationship Management and Employer Branding in particular are evaluated with the four criteria costs, company size, target function and target group. The evaluation with four different parameters results from the fact, that each company has to find out which measures fit best to support the fulfilment of its individual HR targets. As there exists no common HR Marketing strategy which serves all kinds of companies.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations

List of Figures

1 Introduction

2 Problem Definition

3 Objectives

4 Methodology

5 Main Part
5.1 Job Advertising and Image Advertising
5.2 HR Consultants and Agencies
5.3 HR Online Marketing Measures
5.4 Contact Management
5.5 Corporate Culture and Leadership Style
5.6 Applicant Relationship Management
5.7 Employer Branding

6 The key role of Employer Branding
6.1 The defining key issues of Employer Branding
6.2 The role of Employer Branding within the WEBASTO HR Marketing concept
6.3 Comparison of Employer Branding from a practical and theoretical perspective

7 Conclusion

Appendices

ITM Checklist

Bibliography.

Executive Summary

In this assignment the most popular measures in the field of HR Marketing like Job and Image Advertising, HR Consultants, Corporate Culture, Applicant Relationship Management and Employer Branding in particular are evaluated with the four criteria costs, company size, target function and target group. The evaluation with four different parameters results from the fact, that each company has to find out which measures fit best to support the fulfilment of its individual HR targets. As there exists no common HR Marketing strategy which serves all kinds of companies. The deciding role of “Employer Branding” is pointed out in detail as a key factor for a successful management of the human side of organizations in national or international context, as it goes beyond the standard HR Marketing measures. This is supported by the presentation of the Employer Brand Positioning of L´Oréal and a theoretical process scheme, documenting a manual of how to start this HR Marketing trend theme from scratch: The four process steps of how to develop a successful Employer Brand are Planning, Description, Leadership and Control. The author then goes into a short critical discussion with the theory and its missing ability to be adopted in practice. A practical examination on Employer Branding within a company is done by analyzing the German car supplier WEBASTO and its targets in HR Marketing as reference case. In this case the author describes to the company´s HR Marketing concept and the planned improvement measures to increase and strengthen popularity of the Employer Brand and covers up a few missing points of the concept. Additionally several theoretical perspectives of Employer Branding measures are presented and some useful advice for transferring them in the ephemeral business world of today with rapidly changing contact persons and strategies is given. In the end the author makes a general recommendation who is necessary to develop and implement a sustainable HR Marketing Concept in a company, based on the evaluation and comparison results from the main part.

List of Abbreviations

illustration not visible in this excerpt

List of Figures

Figure 1 - Functional classification of HR Marketing target objectives

Figure 2 – Employer brand positioning of L`Oréal

Figure 3 – WEBASTO HR Marketing Concept

1 Introduction

What is the first thing, that comes into your mind when you think of the discounter supermarket chain Lidl? On the one hand, there are of course the cheap prices which make Lidl a good choice for daily food shopping but one the other hand, the continuing unfair practices which were used by the management to control the employees have given the discounter a very negative image of an employer nobody wants to work for anymore. The general challenge resulting from the example of Lidl is, that not only a good price-value relationship is responsible for the success of a company but more important is an effective and prosperous HR Marketing to attract ambitious and motivated employees. In combination with the globalization, the further development of new economical and technical surrounding conditions, the labour itself and the labour market have changed enormously:

“Organizations, if they are to survive need a continuing supply of persons, capable of and motivated to exercise leadership.”^[1] This explains why the competition for talents and top performers on an international and even already on a national level between the companies has increased. In addition to that Petkovic points out, that “ the market of qualified line and leadership managers has clearly developed to become a buyers market. The intensive occupation with innovative concepts for the professionalization of the HR Marketing is therefore inescapable.”^[2]

In the real business world of today companies realized the significant importance of an integrated HR Marketing system. As a consequence the HR department is engaged with the project of developing a sustainable HR Marketing strategy and derive the right operative measures from it. This project is still ongoing in many companies or has not even started yet, if you take Lidl for example.

2 Problem Definition

In the field of HR Marketing a general approach like doing a little bit of everything will not lead to satisfaction. The problem lies in the different content and objectives of all the various HR Marketing measures, which consequently have to be evaluated individually to give a justified recommendation for the implementation in a company or not. Moreover in many companies HR Marketing or Employer Branding is expressed in simply having a logo and a corporate design, and this forms another challenge as a successful Employer Branding implies a lot more aspects, duties and internal tasks to be managed and solved.

3 Objectives

The main objective of this assignment is to discover the individual benefits of different HR Marketing measures and provide theoretical know-how combined with practical advise for companies to create their own Employer Branding. Another objective is to identify the typical difficulities a company faces when trying to establish an optimized HR Marketing concept and to suggest solutions.

4 Methodology

In the first part the most popular HR Marketing measures are described and an evaluation reveals certain differences. For the evaluation criteria target function the functional classification according to Scholz is used^[3]:

Figure 1: Functional classification of HR Marketing target objectives

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
Source: Based on the idea of Scholz (2000): p.420 and own design

In the next chapter a research into the mandatories, objectives and the process steps of Employer Branding is done. This is followed by a practical case examining the role of Employer Branding in the mid-sized company WEBASTO. A short comparison of the theoretical and the practical perspective of Employer Branding is the last research issue within the assginment.

5 Main Part

5.1 Job Advertising and Image Advertising

One of the main targets of the HR department is certainly to fill an open job vacancy in a quick, cost-effective and successful way. Therefore Job Advertising is a very common HR Marketing measure, which can be posted and commmunicated on various media vehicles: daily newspapers, trade journals, radio stations or TV channels. The most options for Job Advertising are presented in the Internet. It is very common especially in terms of international job advertisements to use Online job exchanges for example: www.monster.com or www.jobscout24.de.

The costs for Job Advertising differ depending on the selected media vehicle: low-cost job posting conditions are offered for local Job Advertsing, while job advertisements in strong and highly frequented online vehicles are very cost-intensive. A single job posting for an open job position in the city of New York in the United States of America posted online on www.monster.com available for 30 days costs $ 395.00.^[4]

Regarding the criteria of company size, Job Advertising is a necessary and essential HR Marketing tool, marking the starting point of a classic recruitment process in a company.

The target function of Job Advertising is in the first case an acquisition function, this means to generate applications for the offered vacancy, ideally with several applicants all meeting the job requirements. In the second case Job Advertising also signalizes in some way the current economic situation of the company as the demand of new workforce is a signal that a company is running well or even beyond the expectations. The target group of an external Job Advertising is primarily external.

Image Advertising on the contrary is a kind of advertising which does not focus on a concrete open job vacancy but delivers a corporate message or benefit of the company as an employer. The communication technique which can be used here is to emotionalize the work environment, products or services the company is offering through letting the employees speak about it. A good example can be found in the image clips of ThyssenKrupp AG, a worldwide known technology group, with the core message: “Developing the future”.^[5] Image Advertising is mainly done in above-the-line media for example as a TV commercial . The costs for Image Advertising are significantly higher than for Job Advertising, as the format and the content are not “standardized” but try to be more extraordinary. Nevertheless Image Advertising is a strong HR Marketing measure which is compulsory for big and mid-sized companies, smaller companies could work without Image Advertising activities and use local PR activities instead.

The target function is to make as many people as possible aware of the benefits a company offers to its employees and to other facilities as well. The target group can be described as everyone from external who wants to get a deeper understanding or picture of the company, for example journalists, politicians, potential testamonials or future applicants and it has to be added, that Image Advertising is recognized by the employees as well.

5.2 HR Consultants and Agencies

The capabilities of HR Consultants which are supposed to bring specialized HR Marketing know-how combined with strategic Management skills in a company have become extremely multifaceted in the last years. These consultants of expertise can be appointed nearly everywhere between change management and rewarding systems. In strategic or project orientated cases the HR Management signs a project contract with external consultants, whereas the contract period can last from two months up to a couple of years. HR Agencies on the contrary often have a limited range of services focussing mainly on staffing tasks for example temporary employment or labor leasing.

The costs of cooperating with HR Consultants are expensive and treated as additional HR Project costs which can also be directly attributed to a certain department or cost center. The costs for the services of HR Agencies are normally on a moderate level, if not extreme circumstances for example a foreign merger demand more extra services, and are classified as direct HR costs occuring regularly. As far as company size is the matter, HR Consultants are obviously implemented in bigger companies, while HR Agencies work together with companies of all size ranges.

The target function of HR Consultants depends on the capability, while HR Agencies have a clear acquisition function target. The same applies for the target group which can be external and internal for the HR Marketing goals of an HR Consultant, where as HR Agencies only concentrate on an external applicant pool.

5.3 HR Online Marketing Measures

The different facets of the Internet namely a Company Website, Job Portal or Second Life in particular can be summarized as HR Online Marketing platforms which offer a massive range for measures or services. Moreover all announced HR activities or publications of a company which are communicated via the Internet reach millions of people, providing information about job profiles, research and recruitment events, career possibilities in general or personal experiences of employees. This communication flow contributes to a perfect match of HR Marketing and HR PR. Ritterhoff distinguishes between the two functions in the following way: “HR PR can be described as an instrument of HR Marketing, that implies all communicative and informative means, to create a positive employer image with the selected target groups.”^[6] Regarding the costs for a company website it is obvious that the implementation, content delivery, actualization and maintenance are mandatory costs for every company. The functional targets of a company website are primarily acquisition and differentation concentrated on an external target group. The potential HR Marketing measures offered through Job Portals or Second Life are not very cost-intensive but definitely not basically obliged for small companies but a worthwile platform to be “up to date and informed about company-related contents” for big companies instead. Target function and target group of both platforms are a mixture of acquisition, motivation and differentation for internal and external recipients.

5.4 Contact Management

In the world of international HRM “Contact Management” has become the expression for tracking and recording the people which are important for your business. This global trend goes along with Contact Management IT solutions or tools focusing on time-saving issues or specialized consulting services in general. Contact Mangement is a neccessity for every HR Manager and can be directly linked with the word “impression”, as there is this very famous saying: For the first impression, you never get a second change.” So whenever you contact someone for the first time, be sure not make a wrong impression as consequently your Contact Management will be stopped from the beginning on.

[...]

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^[1] Sadler, P. (2003): p. 85

^[2] Petkovic, M. (2008): p. 26

^[3] Compare: Scholz, C. (2000): p. 420

^[4] Compare: http://hiring.monster.com/products/SingleJobPosting.aspx?mode=prod [Accessed 15 April 2009]

^[5] http://www.thyssenkrupp.com/de/mediaplayer/index.html&v=video:de:102 [Accessed 9 April 2009]

^[6] Ritterhoff, K. (2004): p. 43

• Hochschule: Hochschule München
• Veranstaltung: Human Resource Management
• Note: 1.0
• Autor: Julia Wimmers (Autor:in)
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2009
• Seiten: 23
• Katalognummer: V136499
• ISBN (eBook): 9783640449484
• ISBN (Buch): 9783640449347
• Sprache: Englisch
• Schlagworte: Emplyoer Branding, recruitment, employer brand, campus marketing