Understanding how to promote employee engagement starts with a simple question…what does employee engagement really mean? 

At its most basic level, it is a set of strategies that creates a working environment and atmosphere where employees feel they are empowered to do their jobs effectively, work towards personal and common goals, and have a general sense of satisfaction and happiness. 

There is never a one-size-fits-all approach to employee engagement, as each organisation and their employer branding stands for very different things. However, these strategies do tend to achieve many of the same objectives.

These objectives can be broadly categorised as follows:

• Unification – Creating a ‘one team’ spirit, ensuring teams are aligned and making employees feel part of something bigger 
• Embracing purpose – Instilling the same values, standards and expectations in employees across every level of seniority 
• Driving the brand vision – Ensure that teams are motivated to work towards long-term goals, growing professionally and personally in the process 
• Promoting a positive culture – A working environment that is enjoyable, inspiring and encourages development, trust and autonomy 
• Creating strong leadership – Respectful, knowledgeable and supportive leadership encourages feedback and channels of open communication 
• Building the ideal workforce – Engaged employees are happier and more productive, likely to form an emotional connection with your brand/their workplace and are less likely to leave 

The importance of employee engagement 

While employee engagement can be hard to measure, the short and long-term benefits are very tangible. If an individual feels nurtured and supported, while being surrounded by a like-minded team, they are likely to thrive in their working environment. 

When they feel trusted, they are more likely to bring ideas to the table, and this is where innovation within the business can stem from. 

It’s no longer enough for employees to just feel satisfied in their workplace – they want to excel. When people are proud of the work they do, they will shout about it. When they are proud of the brand they work for and the way they are treated, they will become advocates. This creates a positive cycle within the business, as this encourages and drives successful recruitment. 

While high employee retention is sometimes a result of high employee engagement, just because an employee has been retained a long time doesn’t always mean they are actively engaged. There are plenty of businesses and brands out there who have had employees with them since their inception, but they have become stagnant or comfortable in their positions. 

All of these benefits will have a direct impact on the day-to-day of your business. Here are the topline benefits of employee engagement, and how they can be loosely categorised when putting together your business case…

• Increase the productivity of your employees
• Higher quality of output
• A positive workplace atmosphere
• Greater client satisfaction
• Increased profitability

The list goes on. No matter how intangible employee engagement may feel at the beginning, investing the time and effort will positively affect your bottom line.

4 employee engagement strategy examples 

In Daniel H. Pink’s book ‘Drive’, he combines research from MIT and other universities to lay out what really motivates us as humans and professionals. While we will explore 4 proven employee engagement strategies in more detail, we wanted to touch upon some of his core findings as they really help to give the strategies context. 

The conclusion that the book reaches is that employees need 3 things outside of pay progression and benefits to be fulfilled in their roles: purpose, mastery and autonomy. 

These 3 short words hold a lot of power in the workplace – if you can enable every employee to feel as though these have been achieved, you will be in a good position. 

Now you understand some of the underlying desires of the individual, let’s discuss how we can make these a reality…

#1 Open communication and feedback

While the benefits of open communication and feedback are far-reaching, one of the main benefits is that psychologically employees feel they can speak openly and feel comfortable enough to offer input without fear or dread of ridicule. 

There are a number of great ways to foster this level of communication:

• Encourage questions, feedback and insight from employees at all levels of seniority
• Provide feedback in a constructive way and avoid overly critical language
• When negative feedback is given, ensure there is clear support to help the individual address the issue
• Give employees a platform for anonymous commentary, such as through a suggestion box or employee engagement survey
• When a decision about the company is made, or there is big news to announce, make sure an effective communication strategy is put in place to avoid hearsay, gossip and confusion 

#2 Professional development

Part of nurturing good employees means bringing them into your brand’s growth mindset. If you want an individual to invest their time and effort into making your brand more successful, you need to invest in them, and the skills they will need in order to make this possible.

Here are some of the different ways you can promote CPD within your organisation…

• Create a training bursary so that employees can ‘apply’ for course funding that will help them in their job role
• Create an in-office library space or set an annual personal book/kindle allowance 
• Find industry-relevant webinars (paid for or free) and create an employee newsletter to inform them of upcoming courses and lectures 
• Introduce a ‘lunch and learn’ or give employees a shot at a ‘Whiteboard Friday’ style CPD session. Encourage different individuals to come forward and share their skills and what they do with other team members or departments.
• Bring in industry experts a couple of times a year to give tailored sessions on subjects employees are keen to learn about. You could put together a list of desired individuals and put it out to a vote on who comes in. 

#3 Set out clear expectations and progression

There’s not much worse than the first day at a job and not understanding what you’re supposed to be doing. Too often people are left to their own devices, so having proper training and support in place is crucial to getting off on the right foot. 

At the very minimum, each recruit should have:

• A job description of their expected duties
• A handbook or welcome pack that tells them everything they need to know about the company 
• Who they should go to if they have a problem related to the work they are delivering
• Goals they should work towards in the next quarter or within another specified timeframe
• Regular one-to-ones and conversations about progression

#4 Social events

Many companies plan lots of wonderful days and nights out, without implementing the 3 prior strategies first. While social events and team bonding is very important, communication, development and clarity are the critical foundations for strong employee engagement.

Social events play their part too, but only work to support everything else. Here are some ideas to ensure your team gets to enjoy some fun outside of the office:

• Introduce Friday drinks with a weekly debrief and chat 
• Plan summer and Christmas socials well in advance 
• See if any willing employees are up for creating their own initiatives, such as a book club or team lunches 
• While not a social event, having social areas within an office for breaks can provide a welcome space to unwind and mingle with colleagues during lunch 

Barriers to employee engagement

While budget, time and lack of know-how will affect the level of commitment you can provide, there really is no just reason to avoid implementing some kind of employee engagement strategy. 

Lack of budget? 

Look for free courses online. Encourage a book sharing club internally. Get employees to skillshare on dedicated days. Instead of fancy nights out, have a takeaway and boardgames night in the office. Likewise, communication doesn’t need to cost the earth. A quick weekly standup on a Friday to share what’s going on is a great starting point. 

Lack of time? 

First you need to identify what you need to do and see if there are people already in the business who would have the skill-sets to drive initiative forward. This in itself could act as motivation. Alternatively, if what you need to do is an administrative nightmare, it could be worth exploring digital employee engagement tools that take care of a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff, keep you updated and send out calendar reminders on your behalf. 

Lack of know-how?

If you haven’t gleaned enough from this article, there are lots of useful resources online. Or why not consider a brainstorming session with some of your team members? Conduct a survey and see how people are feeling, and hear their ideas first-hand. 

Is an employee engagement strategy worth it? 

While measuring employee engagement can be difficult, the results will speak from themselves in terms of employee satisfaction, happiness, retention and the new and improved way your business operates. 

If you have highly-skilled employees and you want them to stay put, your team will need to put in the effort to keep them engaged. It’s not about providing ‘fluffy’ benefits, it’s giving individuals and teams the tools and support they need to grow. As a result, your business and brand will benefit.

Discover more about our employer branding marketing solution and how it can support your employee engagement strategies. 

For today’s job seekers, there’s no such thing as ‘just a job’ anymore. The average person spends over a third of their life at work and people are now demanding more from their employers than ever – and many would argue rightly so. 

Employee retention is harder than it was even 5 or 10 years ago. What were once seen as ‘solid’ benefits – competitive salary and holiday allowance – are now seen as the bare minimum. And big brands are increasingly competitive when it comes to talent acquisition across the globe. 

This article will cover the key milestones in the employee journey, highlighting the importance of employer branding and delving into some of the lesser considered areas within each area. With this under your belt, you’ll be confident that you can push your employee experience to the next level.

The hiring stage

Role advertising 

An employee’s experience starts far before they get through the door – it begins as a candidate. And even if they are unsuitable for a role, or aren’t going to apply for your vacancy, to build a strong employer brand you need to cover all bases.

This is because potential employees might become suitable or interested in the future. If their initial perception of your employer brand is a positive one, they are more likely to consider you the next time they are thinking about career development. 

Here are some must-haves to ensure your advertising and career site attracts top talent:

• Post clear information on what the role is and how to apply
• Don’t be coy about the wage – people deserve to know what their prospective salary could be
• Use honest and diverse imagery in your campaign
• Be clear on your employee value proposition – what your company can offer them

Role consideration

When job seekers show interest in a role, a lack of time or resources in your office could leave them feeling a little unloved. While having too many tasks to complete may have an impact on candidate communication, it is important to ensure consistency is as smooth as possible. 

Here are some easy ways to make that happen:

• If you don’t have time to respond to all applications, make this clear on the job role itself 
• Ensure your career site includes additional details about the role put together in a nicely presented yet simple PDF – that way if a candidate calls to speak to someone about the role, but the team are all busy, the PDF will make them feel like their questions have been answered
• When candidates enquire why their application was unsuccessful, it’s best to give as tailored feedback as possible – if you’re too short on time, compose a generic response as the bare minimum (this means the candidate will still consider you a strong employer brand, should they be more suitable for another role in the future)

Pre-interview and interview

When a candidate is invited for an interview, there are lots of ways it could go wrong if they are not properly prepared. While some bad employers might see this as the candidate’s fault, often it’s because people in charge of people management have not properly briefed them. 

We’ve put together our tips to keep everyone on the same page:

• Determine whether an in-person or virtual interview would be better
• Ensure the candidate is aware of all the stages in the interview process
• Provide an agenda for the interview beforehand 
• If the interview is being carried out via video conferencing, ask the candidate which tool they prefer to use 
• During the interview, ensure the candidate is welcomed properly and full introductions are made 
• Give them plenty of time to talk about their experience and their hopes for career progression, but also include some time to talk about themselves as a person – get to know them and put them at ease
• Be open and honest when giving responses to candidate questions (for example, if they ask for a higher salary and you know this isn’t possible, don’t set false expectations)

Post-interview

The period after an interview can be one of the most nerve-wracking times for prospective job seekers. If your talent acquisition efforts don’t involve keeping in touch post-interview, candidates may lose interest, react negatively towards your company or take an offer elsewhere. 

These are our suggestions when trying to keep talent on the hook while you make your final decision:

• Give an estimated timeline of when candidates can expect to hear from you – it will put them at ease and prevent them from chasing you
• If the candidate is unsuccessful, detail why this was the case in an email
• Offer a follow-up call to chat through the feedback 
• If a job offer is made, give the candidate time to read through their contract and to ask questions to relevant people
• If any benefits are subject to specific circumstances (such as years of service), make sure this is outlined before the candidate takes the job offer, or they could end up feeling misled
• Once contracts are signed and a start date agreed, give your new employee a timetable or agenda of what their first few weeks will look like – they will feel much more confident on their first day when they know what they’re walking into

The onboarding stage

Your employer branding team needs to be ready to deliver what your company has promised. Onboarding can literally make or break a new employee’s perception of a company. It’s where they discover if your employee value proposition was sincere, or a lot of hot air. 

If they aren’t made to feel welcome, they feel abandoned or they are overwhelmed with tasks that haven’t been properly explained, they will be out of the door before they have had a chance to shut it on their way in. And that’s not to mention what they might say to people in their network or on social media about their experience.

Going the extra mile at this stage will give your new employee the welcome they crave and set them off on the right path. These are our tips for making it as smooth as possible:

• Put together a welcome pack for the new employee – stationery, water bottles, notepad, sweets – anything that will make them feel appreciated
• Give them information on their colleagues, such as names and job titles – you may want to include a welcome card with messages from their team and their photos (to help them get to know people better)
• Buddy them up with a colleague for lunch so they don’t have to sit alone (ask them if they would like this before committing to it as some people may prefer to spend lunch on their own)
• Set out their training schedule and what kind of tasks they will be expected to complete week-by-week – this will help them understand how long they have to get up-to-speed
• Give them a company handbook that instils your core values, mission, etc.
• If applicable, make sure they know about remote work arrangements and expectations
• Ensure they know who they should go to if they have any concerns

The progression stage

There’s little worse than being in a role and feeling like you’re not going anywhere. Just because you put in a lot of effort to build a strong employer brand at the onboarding stage, that doesn’t mean a new employee should be left to just get on with it. 

The Employee Retention Report from the Work Institute found lack of career development was the number one reason for employees leaving a company – and this has been so for over 9 years. From the perspective of people management, this is crucial to understand and plan around. 

Employee retention can be improved by following some simple but vital steps:

• Set out clear KPIs for your employee and if these KPIs are linked to pay rises or bonuses, ensure that these KPIs are achievable – you can do this by presenting the goals to your employee and giving them the opportunity to provide feedback
• A dedicated learning and training allowance will show you care about your employee’s growth and career development – you could let them choose which course they want to take, ask them to select them based on a predefined list or link the courses with KPI improvements that are needed 
• Even if an employee is working exceptionally well and hard, performance reviews are still just as important – positive employee engagement matters, and people need to know that they’re appreciated on a regular basis 
• Consider introducing a dedicated career management conversation, this provides a chance for employees to reflect on your employer value proposition, feedback on THEIR goals and gives you a chance to shape their KPIs accordingly

The ‘moving on’ stage

It can be devastating when an employee leaves a company – whether they’ve been there for 10 years or 10 months. The time and commitment invested will always leave a hole in their department until you can get someone else in and up-to-speed.

However difficult it is, it’s important to have processes in place to ensure the transition is smooth and that you learn from their experience. This will improve your ability to understand and attract top talent in future, and might also help with existing employee retention.

When someone quits…

• Conduct an exit interview and give the employee time to vent their issues
• Ensure you let them know how much you value them and their time at the company
• Ask them if they would like to make an announcement along with management about them leaving, or if they would prefer just a member of management to communicate this
• Give them a ‘phase out’ agenda of when they can hand things over to other colleagues
• Throw them a leaving event or provide a card and gift

When someone retires…

• Give everyone the opportunity to show their appreciation for the colleague – this could be at a social event or through a gift
• Ensure they are involved in training the next generation to take on their role
• Ask them if they would like to make a speech before they leave

Day-to-day extras to consider

Receiving a payslip

With a little effort, a simple gesture that happens once a month can become a great way to cement a strong employer brand. A generic or personalised message from the CEO or manager to show appreciation for all the hard work completed in the month will help employees associate their pay with being valued, beyond just financial remuneration.

Calling in sick 

People get sick, and it can’t always be helped. If an employee is nervous about calling in sick, reassure them about their performance, and advise them you hope they get better soon. If their sickness is particularly low, you could specifically mention this to help put them at ease.

Birthdays

Companies with hundreds of employees may struggle to keep on top of birthdays, so if you’re in the position to do so, an extra day off on your birthday can serve as a powerful reminder to your employees that their work is appreciated. If an extra day off isn’t on the cards, you could make sure they get a cake, card and small present to make their day at work feel special.

Company updates

When meetings take place behind closed doors, speculation can run rife in an office and even virtually. Where important company updates are available, ensure that employee engagement is prioritised – this could be in the form of a quarterly newsletter or quick announcement on Friday afternoons.

Show off their expertise 

Give employees the chance to share their knowledge with colleagues and the world. If there are events they can be guest speakers on, podcasts they can get involved in, or even internal CPD sessions they can hold, asking them to take part will give them a confidence boost in their abilities and help with their career development.

Working environment

Consider the physical environment your team operates in. Are the chairs comfortable enough? Are there enough breakout areas? Do they have a quiet space to go to when they need to concentrate? Is there enough fresh air? Do you give them options for remote work?

Not only will a properly considered environment make working a more pleasurable experience for employees, but it will also help them be more productive and deliver their best work.

Raising issues/improvements 

Introduce both an open-forum style meeting to do this and an anonymous route, as this will help cater for every type of employee. Many talented people have ideas about diversity and inclusion, sustainability and employee wellbeing, and it’s important to find ways to listen to and act on what they have to say.

Feedback surveys can also help you gauge answers to exact questions you may have.

Enhance the employee journey with brand management tools

We hope you’re feeling inspired and that we’ve opened your eyes to just how broad the employee journey can be. To assist your talent and acquisition team in all of these areas, see how Papirfly’s brand management platform supports employer branding teams.  

To build a brand that consistently attracts top talent, be reassured that Papirfly’s brand management platform already helps huge brands like Vodafone, Unilever and IBM. Discover the brand stories from these enterprises, including how Papirfly helps deliver infinite employer brand assets every month. Videos, social, emails, print and more – all made possible with on-brand templating tools as part of our platform.

When you’re scouring the globe for the world’s best talent, you may be looking for similar combinations of skill sets and attributes that make up the perfect candidates for your company. However, it’s important to remember that every one of them is an individual and will very likely respond differently to your employer branding depending on where they are in the world.

In this article, we’ll be exploring the trends, challenges and opportunities for employer branding in six of the most prominent talent hotspots across the globe:

• The U.S.
• Australia
• Europe
• Canada
• UAE
• Hong Kong/Singapore

Why global brands need to be local

To reach the best candidates in your chosen pocket of the world, your employer brand marketing needs to adapt and change in accordance with the recruitment processes, cultures and priorities that are unique to specific locations. 

At the same time, your employer brand value proposition must shine through consistently. No matter where your employees are based, it’s crucial that they feel aligned with the core values and goals of your business as a whole.

An increasing number of companies are seeing the benefits of looking for the skills their businesses need in different countries. With the recent and widespread uptake in remote or hybrid working, candidates are able to expand their search for opportunities, with location less of a constraint.

Every culture has its own way of doing things and that extends into their recruitment and hiring practices. Without being tactful in your hiring approach, you run the risk of missing out on so much of the amazing talent the world has to offer. This may mean a complete change in approach, or simply dialing certain aspects of your company culture up or down to suit expectations in different countries. In all cases, thorough research into the local employer brand landscape is key.

Local employer brand insights

Below, we’ve compiled some of the location-specific trends, insights, cultural nuances and potential challenges that will come into play when localising your employer brand in six standout markets:

The U.S.

Top insights and trends

A millennial workforce
Across America, millennials make up 35% of the workforce at 56 million, with that number projected to grow rapidly over the next few years.

Candidates live online
Hiring is more online-dependent in The U.S. than in Europe. Candidates are social media savvy and are used to communicating with potential employers via LinkedIn which now has 194 million users in the country.

Potential challenges

Companies in the U.S. are under less pressure from governing bodies to provide benefits like fully paid parental leave (something that many employees in Europe have long been used to). In fact, The U.S. is the only advanced economy that does not have mandated paid leave for employees. This makes perks and benefits of greater value to potential candidates who will be looking more closely at what your company can offer aside from a salary.

Australia

Top insights and trends

A shortage of recruitment consultants
According to the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association of Australia and New Zealand (RCSA), recruitment consultants have become one of the country’s most difficult positions to fill.

Remote staffing was already well underway pre-pandemic
The recruitment industry has become used to using remote consultants from abroad to fill Australian positions and train Australian consultants.

Potential challenges

Work-life balance has long been one of the top priorities for employees across Australia. According to research by Randstad, the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced this position with more focus on working for an employer that makes them feel valued. In their survey of more than 10,000 Australians, 76% said they want an employer who puts their health and safety first.

Making employees feel valued should be one of the key elements of any employer brand proposition, but in a post-pandemic world, candidates will expect to see tangible evidence of this from potential employers.

Europe

Top insights and trends

LinkedIn
LinkedIn usage is widespread across The U.S. and Australia. While it continues to pick up momentum in Europe, many countries still favour platforms such as Xing (in Germany and Austria) and Viadeo (in France).

CV or résumé?
Made a little confusing by its French pronunciation, a ‘résumé‘ is something that candidates and recruiters will be more familiar with in America or Australia. The CV, meaning ‘curriculum vitae’, is the European equivalent. The documents are both very similar in style and purpose, with the key difference being that many countries in Europe expect an accompanying photo.

Perks and benefits
In most of Europe, candidates have come to expect a longer list of benefits such as; better-paid maternity/paternity leave, more paid time off, and better unemployment perks compared to the average American job seeker.

Cultural nuances 
Europe has a plethora of different cultures, languages and dialects to be found — especially when compared to Australia and the U.S. The starkest differences tend to be in the attitudes to work between North, South, East and West.

For example, almost 50% of people in southern European countries, such as Italy and Portugal, consider the loyalty of their colleagues more important than their personal goals. Whereas in Northern Europe, only 22% of people in Norway and just 16% in Lithuania feel this to be the case, stating personal goals to be of greater importance.

Attitudes to work differ between Western European countries including Austria and Germany where work-life balance is far more important compared to employees in eastern European countries such as Greece, Romania and Croatia.

Even so, European countries tend to work less hours than the U.S. on average. Although French employees generally end up going over their traditional 35 hour week, they are still well under the American average where, in many industries and regions, a 60 hour week has become the norm.

Further evidence of this can be found in the length of lunch breaks, the number of national holidays and working overtime. European countries including parts of Spain, France and Greece have become famous for their traditional extended lunches, which can be between 2 – 3 hours long. In comparison, the average worker in the U.S. takes just 36 minutes. 

Similarly, workers celebrate 13 public holidays in Austria, whereas Australians have only 7. As well as affecting the expectations of employers and employees, this makes keeping track of contactable times a challenge, even without the timezone.

Potential challenges

While states in the U.S. and Australia have their differences, potential candidates in these locations tend to be more closely linked. Covering more than 40 countries with different cultures, customs, laws and working practices, Europe is an incredibly diverse place to look for talent. This is undoubtedly a good thing for business, but it means that your employer brand needs to have the flexibility to change as it crosses from country to country.

Canada

Top insights and trends

They want to know why they were chosen
When you reach out to a potential recruit, a core priority for 75% of these is to find out why you believe they are a good fit for the role.
Cultural nuances 
Similarly to the U.S., there is a firm focus on healthcare and similar insurance policies among employees and candidates. As a result, making sure that these are positioned prominently as part of your EVP and any recruitment campaigns you produce is key to capturing their attention.

Furthermore, Canada both English-speaking and French-speaking inhabitants – around 23% of the population have French as their first language. Therefore, to best engage candidates from across the country, it is beneficial for your employer brand content to be presented in both languages, to ensure you don’t alienate a percentage of your potential workforce.

Potential challenges

Hybrid working has become an increasingly important priority for Canadian workers in recent years. According to Robert Half, 51% of employees prefer a hybrid style of working, splitting their time between home and the office. In fact, only 19% of those surveyed advocated for a full in-office approach.

Consequently, when attracting employees, it is crucial to showcase the flexibility and adaptability of your organisation to suit their needs. Highlighting features such as remote working opportunities, flexible hours, relaxed dress codes and more can help endear you to this evolving talent base. Emphasising this by extending the possibility of remote interviews and onboarding can demonstrate that you practice what you preach.

Another potential challenge for employer brand specialists is the shifting attitudes of younger recruits and where their motivations lie. While mature professionals value salary and benefits above everything, 18-to-24-year-olds are more interested in work-life balance.

So, it is therefore imperative that your employer brand, while consistent at its core, is malleable in what benefits it immediately presents to recruits depending on their age profile.

UAE

Top insights and trends

Diversity is a growing priority
57% of employees in the UAE say that diversity is a major initiative in their workplace, with 74% of women aspiring for senior leadership roles.

Companies are switching to flatter structures
There is a growing preference among the UAE workforce for closer collaboration and interaction across the various layers of companies, rather than a rigid, traditional hierarchy.

Cultural nuances
It is hard to nail down any standout cultural trends in the UAE as the population is so incredibly diverse. Close to 90% of the population are non-nationals, with up to 200 different nationalities represented, with different cultures and backgrounds. Recruits from Asia and MENA are primarily employed in low-skilled and semi-skilled jobs, while an increasing number of people from Europe and North America are sought out for high-skilled roles.

This makes it difficult to nail down a consistent cultural message for candidates, so it is important your branding can be quickly adapted to meet the unique needs, motivations and nuances of those living in the country. At a bare minimum, materials should be translated into both English and Arabic.

Additionally, this focus on international recruitment means that there is a big window of opportunity to prioritise Emirati talent. It is estimated that only 28% of UAE companies actively work to attract Emirati recruits – creating campaigns strictly built around their values and ambitions could help you stand out to these home-grown nationals.

Potential challenges

Alongside the cultural variation across the UAE, the biggest challenge facing employers in relation to talent acquisition is actually staff retention. Around 57% of working professionals in the region intend to switch employers at some point during a year, making it challenging for companies to maintain a steady, consistent workforce, and to present that image to candidates who are seeking a stable environment.

Consequently, to both encourage employees to stick around and to attract recruits with true staying power, it is beneficial for your EVP to contain initiatives such as:

• Training and development opportunities
• Employee mentorship programmes
• Potential for employment progression
• Performance and time-based incentives

Furthermore, showcasing signs of strong company culture on social media platforms – a channel that is widely underutilised in the region despite an increasingly tech-savvy population – can also help you stand out to candidates seeking long-term opportunities.

Hong Kong/Singapore

Top insights and trends

Flexible working is becoming the norm
While many organisations in the region have resumed office-based working, 20% have adopted hybrid models, while 50% have adapted to flexible hours so employees can avoid peak traffic and take care of their families.

Cultural nuances

Working hours in Hong Kong and Singapore are notoriously long and demanding. In the UBS 2016 survey, Hong Kong employees averaged 50.1 hours a week – the longest in the world and 38% more than the worldwide average.

However, this has helped contribute to Hong Kong being the fifth-most stressed population on the planet. As Western influence has helped encourage a greater appreciation of work-life balance in the region, companies that are able to offer a better balance will gain a stronger foothold with younger candidates.

The region is also fiercely family-orientated. As a result, presenting financial incentives and benefits in your EVP that relate not only to the candidate themselves but their wider family, such as healthcare or life insurance, will also give you considerable drawing power.

Potential challenges

There is a growing demand for flexibility in how people work across Hong Kong and Singapore – employees want to have a greater say in their workplace experience and more freedom of choice than in decades past.

Companies based in the area can support this trend in several ways, including:

• Placing a firmer priority on good culture and associated perks, such as paying for taxis after overtime or providing meals
• Presenting flexible hours and hybrid working opportunities, which are more sought-after than ever before
• Being flexible over how candidates are paid (base salary, stock options, commissions), as this can especially appeal to older, more experienced candidates
• Offering chances to work in other global locations or instituting international rotations, with more professionals in the region looking further afield for opportunities

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, finding ways to streamline and accelerate the recruitment and hiring process will help you stay in employees’ good graces. This could involve offering a mix of in-person and Zoom interviews to make these more available, or making onboarding material digital so potential recruits can be sent this immediately after your reach out.

Adapt your employer brand to local trends

With the subtle, and not so subtle, differences listed above, how do you keep your employer brand marketing in line with your value proposition, while making sure that it ticks all the right boxes to roll out in a particular country?

Know your candidates 
Before you expand your recruitment efforts into a new location, it’s vital that you find out what potential candidates value most and refresh your employer brand accordingly. Use your knowledge of the local market to tailor your strategy, approach and messaging.

Localise your marketing materials
Even the smallest things, like switching UK spellings for American, can make a big difference in showing candidates that your brand understands the needs and requirements of their local market. The key to getting this right is to create country or region-specific marketing materials that feel like they have come from a local team.

Use BAM by Papirfly™ to take your global brand local

With its seamless language and localisation features, BAM by Papirfly™ can make global employer brand governance a reality for your company. Your teams will have everything they need to create on-brand, market-ready assets with no outside help needed.

You predefine the templates to ensure consistency with your brand guidelines, and our software instantly tailors your campaigns to countries across the world.

Capture local nuance
Ensure that your assets only contain culturally relevant imagery, colours and logos.

Speak any language
Translate your marketing materials into multiple languages and dialects.

React to recruitment demands
Bring fast asset creation in-house and be ready to snap up top talent before the competition.

Learn more about these localisation features and the benefits of BAM for employer branding by booking your live demo today. 

The pandemic has been a bumpy ride for employer brand teams. Long-standing employer value propositions suddenly needed a rethink. Candidates turned their priorities upside down. In some countries, remote working became mandatory overnight. 

Alongside the personal worries of COVID-19, there were unexpected challenges for employer brand teams. Making it through unscathed meant devising new strategies to take on a different and highly unstable recruitment landscape.

Such a monumental cultural shift has changed employer branding and our attitudes towards work in general. The first responses from industries, sectors and individual companies have already become permanent fixtures.

Recruitment then and now

There have been countless world-changing events and employment crises that came before COVID-19. Lockdown was not the first time that employment took a sudden and unexpected turn. Recruitment has been around since some of the earliest human civilisations. It has changed and evolved with the world and played a significant role in shaping society.

Despite its very early beginnings, the world of recruitment that we know today only really began to take shape after The Second World War. There had been a huge employment gap as people left their regular jobs to contribute to the war effort. This created an urgent need for recruiters to help fill empty roles during the war, and after it to find jobs for the returning soldiers.

Events that shaped recruitment as we know it

Recruitment in wartime

• Recruitment agencies began taking out newspaper adverts to fill jobs left by those serving in the war.

Post-war employment

• To help those returning from the battlefields, businesses began working more closely with recruitment companies to advertise their open positions.

The resume

• As recruitment companies became more focused on efficiency, they began using resumes to match candidate’s unique skillsets with the most suitable roles. By the 50s, resumes had become essential for applying for most jobs.

Recruitment on the rise 

• Recruitment agencies continued to thrive throughout the 1960s, and got even busier in the 70s. In a time of economic growth, more businesses than ever were outsourcing their recruitment.

Read all about it!

• Previously, community bulletin boards had been the main space for promoting jobs. In the 80s however, this shifted towards newspapers which – by then – had dedicated sections for job seekers.

Recruitment gets connected

• In the 1990s, processing large numbers of applicants went up a gear. The invention of email meant that recruiters no longer had to sift through applications sent by post, fax or delivered by hand.

The digital revolution

• As computer software and social media improved throughout the 2000s, searching for jobs and processing applicants changed forever. This transformed the way recruitment worked and opened the doors to new tools and online hiring processes that made matching candidates and jobs much faster and much more accurate.

How did 2019/20 transform employer branding and recruitment?

Employees gradually return to offices. Lockdown restrictions are easing. We can cautiously say that we’re seeing the tailend of the pandemic. However, the world of employer branding is never at a standstill. Here are four trends that have emerged as a result of the pandemic:

#1

Whether it’s having time to think while on furlough or seeing their work-life balance from a new perspective, the pandemic gave employees the chance to reconsider their current roles. Hiring managers need to understand the needs and wants of their ideal candidates. Time to get your recruitment campaigns ready before the best talent is snapped-up.

#2

Flexibility will be a must-have for the post-pandemic candidate. If they haven’t already, companies need a way to align remote and on-site staff with their EVP. This might include remote on-boarding, flexible working hours or new employee benefits schemes focused on work-life balance.

#3

Work-life balance. Employee wellbeing. Preventing burnout. These were already hot topics in marketing pre-pandemic. Skip forward a year, and lockdown restrictions have only made things worse. Employees in improvised home offices have been juggling childcare, higher workloads and concerns about their own health. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that candidates and employees want to see the wellbeing initiatives your company has to offer.

#4

With hybrid working here to stay for many, creating a unified sense of belonging has become even harder. At the same time, a tough 2020 for everyone has made it an even higher priority for employer brand teams.

The first place to start is with your EVP. Does it resonate with staff across the globe? Does it take remote working into account? Are there advocacy programmes that all employees can get involved with? If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’, then you may have some work to do.

Brands that embraced opportunities from the pandemic

A strong brand purpose and globally recognised EVP makes it easier for entire corporations to react to new challenges. With a single company-wide goal, the world’s largest global brands have been able to steer their employer brand in a positive direction through the pandemic.

In fact, many had already been working towards better work-life balance, more staff flexibility and hybrid working models long before the pandemic hit:

IBM embraces flexibility

• Most corporate organisations still have their hesitations about the hybrid working model. IBM has it set in place for the long-term.

TikTok tries its hand at recruitment

• Funny clips and fast-paced dance routines couldn’t be further from the corporate formality of traditional job sites. Nevertheless, TikTok is working on a recruitment feature aimed at young adults. Could videos replace resumes in the not-so-distant?

Chipotle acts on its words

• California-based Mexican restaurant chain Chipotle had made some big claims on employee benefits, promotions, and inclusion. Even when lockdown restrictions hit the hospitality sector especially hard, it kept its promises. After adding mental health programs to its benefits in 2019, Chipotle went on to bolster its parental leave program smack bang in the middle of the pandemic.

Prepare your employer brand for the future with BAM

It’s clear that the employer brand landscape is still undergoing some important changes. To help you stay relevant in the post-pandemic workplace and be ready for whatever is around the next corner, BAM by Papirfly™ has everything you need to: 

• React fast to shifting priorities 
• Achieve global EVP consistency 
• Empower your teams to create the assets they need for specific campaigns

See everything BAM can do for your employer branding by booking your demo today.