Is employer branding a marketing or HR function?

Employer branding has become a buzzword within most organisations over the last year. Businesses have started to realise that the external values and ethics they advertise on behalf of the company need to be believed and resonated by their employees.

What is employer branding?

Employer branding is the internal culture a company creates based on their brand story, and how employees live out the brand values both internally and externally.

The importance of employer branding in organisations

As competition increases, organisations need to realise the importance of a strong employer brand and the benefits it creates. Some benefits of an employer brand include: 

Employer branding is not a duty of marketing or HR, it is an institutional and on-going task.

• Attracting and retaining top talent
• Increased financial performance
• Increased motivation and engagement of employees
• Becoming an 'employer of choice' - job-seekers are increasingly looking for companies that offer more than salary increases
   

Role of marketing in building the employer brand

It is the role of a company’s marketing department to deliver consistent brand messages to all external stakeholders. Marketing should have a thorough understanding of a company’s brand, what it means and how it should be communicated. A brand needs to start from the inside out and it is for this reason many marketers believe that the employee brand needs to sit under the marketing umbrella.

Role of HR in building the employer brand

HR is the face of a company’s recruitment process and is often the first impression new employees have with your company. HR also sets company policies that are closely aligned to the organisation’s values. These give some HR professionals reason to believe employer branding should sit under the responsibility of the HR function.

There are various elements to an employer brand and understanding these means that it doesn’t belong to a single function. Employer branding is not a duty of marketing or HR.

Both functions have the skills and capabilities to deliver certain elements of the employerbrand and they should work together to create a unified strategy. Marketing and HR also need to work together to get a third integral element in place - a company’s CEO/MD. Having leadership visibility strengthens a company’s employer brand.