FEBRUARY 2020HR TECH OUTLOOK8In MyOpinionEMPLOYER BRANDING IN THE AGE OF TECHNOLOGYAdele Png, Head of Talent Acquisition, KONE Asia Pacific (HEL: KNEBV)ByWar for TalentAbout 92 percent of people would consider changing jobs if offered a role with a company with an excellent corporate reputation (CR Magazine) and 79 percent of job applicants use social media in their job search (Glassdoor). Almost 87 percent of active and passive candidates are open to new career opportunities (Linkedin).Ask any hiring manager or recruiter and they would share with you on the ongoing a war for talent globally, and nowhere in the world is this more acutely felt than in Asia where there is a scarcity of skilled talent, especially in newly/young industrialized economies.The fast pace of change in technological advancements and in the workplace have also resulted in rapid evolution of jobs and the creation of new jobs with educators and the job market struggling to play catch up. This has contributed to a significant gap between demand and supply of talent.The above reality shows the importance to companies about paying attention to the strength of its Employer Brand, externally and internally. Externally, to better attract talents and internally, as a link to employee engagement, which, in turn, influences retention. Every successful organization understands that one of the keys to success is retention of your best talents.Employer Branding and Employer Value PropositionFirstly, what is Employer Branding? Employer brand describes an employer's reputation as a place to work and their employee value proposition, which is different to the corporate brand reputation and value proposition to customers.A great employer brand is authentic (what our employees experience), aligns with company culture, values, is easily relatable to our employees, and attracts your target audience who identifies closely with what it stands for. It is a myth that an Employer Brand can be created and packaged to attract. An employer brand can be likened to a product. If the purchaser experiences cognitive dissonance upon purchasing it, the disappointment arising from it can create an extremely negative experience with far-reaching consequences.Similarly, candidates accepting a job offer will have the expectations that the company they choose to join delivers on what the employer brand promises. Should bigger than expected deviations from the promise occur, it will inevitably result in disengagement, distrust, and eventually, exit.Imagine how damaging it would be to your company reputation when this former employee decides to take his or her negative experience online and share it with a global audience. For example, writing a scathing and negative review on Glassdoor about his or her experience.With the ubiquity and reach of social media, we have all seen how a simple message gets viewed, commented, and shared almost instantaneously, globally. So you can imagine the amount of damage that can be done by negative word-of-mouth being shared digitally, demolishing all the previous work put in to build up the employer brand. Technology in Employer BrandingAn individual chooses to take the first step into an organization's recruitment process depending on how they perceive the employer brand. This perception can be
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