Employer Branding: The Hottest Business Management Skill You Can Learn in 2020

Employer branding might not be among the top 10 digital skills tech companies are looking for today officially, but I’m pretty sure it will be in the next few years.

Like Social Media, Employer Branding Isn’t a Single Position

There’s a trend in the industry to hire employer branding specialists and why you definitely need dedicated people that understand employer branding in your company – it’s not a “hire and forget” type of situation.

Back in the 2010s when I was consulting companies like Vichy and training companies such as T-Mobile and HBO in Twitter and Facebook social media marketing, there was a perception that you just needed to hire this one position: a community manager.

Even worse, different departments in companies started to wage all-out turf wars on who was (or wasn’t) responsible for social media.

Customer support wanted it because the company got questions about products there, while PR wanted to control it because they used it to communicate with customers. But wait, then marketing chimed in because you could also buy ads that were very effective for the time.

However, what most companies forgot was that social media was a channel that had to include all departments: not only customer support, PR or marketing but also other departments.

Everyone in the company, including the CEO, in time had to understand how to include social media in not only marketing strategies, but also product development and – in time – employer branding.

Great Employers Get Ahead (And So Do Employer Branding Leaders)

During Covid-19 we learnt how the perception of employees who treated their employees well in a crisis improved their brand among Millenials and older generations.

Unfortunately, while a lot of companies might treat their employees well or work on great projects, few managers understand how to communicate this externally.

And no, it’s not just the marketing or PR department’s job.

A team leader or manager needs to understand what could make great employer branding content in order to make it easier for those in communications.

Thus, team leaders and managers versed in employer branding are able to:

• Help position their company as a great employer;
• Position their team as a key a part of the company as part of the employer branding content;
• Work with multiple departments, including HR, marketing and PR, on employer branding, thus improving their own standing within the company;
• Become employer branding ambassadors for their company in order to position their own personal brand.

You might learn how to use Google Analytics and agile methods, but everyone else is working on these skills as well. To stay ahead – it’s employer branding that you might consider focusing on.