As per the latest Employer Brand Study by Randstad, covering over 190,000 employees across 34 markets, 58% of people are looking for Work-life balance as one of their top-rated motivators to join an organization

The Future of Work as its transforming today is getting reflected in evolving workforce structures, reinvention of working methods and workspaces, flexibility and fluid careers and leveraging technology to deliver on elevated employee experience. In a disruptive environment such as this, building for a seamless Talent Brand and delivering on it consistently is a unique opportunity.

As per the latest Employer Brand Study by Randstad, covering over 190,000 employees across 34 markets, 58% of people are looking for Work-life balance as one of their top-rated motivators to join an organization. 69% of employees also felt loyalty towards an organization that expressed care during the Covid crisis and are working only remotely. At the same time, 31% of those affected by Covid are intenders to look for new employment in the next six months.

From organizational perspectives, talent transformation remains one of top priorities for Leaders and being future ready is the key behind companies’ digital transformation journeys.

Here are some of the key considerations, from my point of view, towards keeping any organization’s Talent Brand relevant and promising while building a Workplace of the new age:

Agility in Goal setting:

It may appear unconventional to the Brand principles but given the overdrawn health crisis and consequential impact on economic activity would mean the ‘Talent Story’ needs to adapt and remain agile like any other methodology or people practices that are meant to affect the eco system of an organization. It would become more essential for marketeers to re look at their campaigns and related success measures or avenues to advertise in the light of new technology available. Depending on means of people engagement, whether external or internal, Brand messages will need to be altered and relevant information be shared that people can relate to. For example, showcasing the Innovation practice within the organization could become a factor of talent attraction along with aspects like balance sheet resilience and reskilling programs. In the case, redesigning such communication as part of candidate engagement may be a better investment than running a vanilla Brand campaign.

Leveraging emerging platforms & communities:

As employees engage more and deeply with newer forums and communities across the web, the sources of collecting information about an organization are widening. Along with this comes competitiveness and a race to attract similar talent from the same job sites or platforms. Although employees seek authentic experience sharing and real-life case studies to help determine their future career paths. As a Brand custodian, it’s advisable to bring employees as close as possible to the reality behind organizations doors to help them make informed decisions. Leveraging tools for contextual targeting or deep diving into profile analytics will help in making smarter choices of such communities, in accordance with the talent segments curated for an individual companies’ needs.

Digital Candidate & Employee experience:

It may appear that delivering on EX is largely an HR agenda or towards the Managers in building an Inclusive culture, yet EX is permeating across the journey of an employee life cycle. Hence Talent brand professionals are now finding themselves getting involved in contributing towards co-creating a digital and delightful candidate/employee experience. Technologies like AI and predictive analytics help the Leaders ascertain candidate and employee sentiments and information being used for driving targeted campaigns. For example, the automation of communication campaigns during the Interview process can go a long way in driving a seamless experience yet focusing on using data to custom respond to interview related queries could be Talent Acquisition’s team’s tact response. The Branding and Communication teams can support both. Similarly, delivering on a wow intranet experience may rest with Branding teams, but it cannot achieve success without integration with Culture team’s purpose.

Purpose & Wellness:

As per 2021 Mercer Global Talent report, Organizations that help prepare employees for sustainable futures by addressing their health, wealth and career needs will have a competitive advantage and will be better positioned to win the talent war as the economy emerges from the crisis. Employees are increasingly looking to work for companies that present a higher purpose than profitability.

In response, the same report says that One in four Indian companies is investing in creating a culture of caring and well-being, 68% are offering more access to remote health and benefits, and 37% are re-segmenting the workforce to better tailor benefits to new needs and realities.

As part of Talent brand strategy, alignment with Purpose and Wellness positioning are becoming key pillars to keep the focus. While each organization may unique design the same and communicate it accordingly, it will remain a mainstay for the future of work and develop into governance agenda akin to Sustainability and Citizenship.

Conclusion: In order to achieve transformation for business and talent, organizations are stepping up their preparation for the future. Digital is at the centre of this transformation whether it’s for employees and their experience internally or externally and definitely so, for consumer journeys. A responsive and modern Talent Brand strategy could serve as a magnet in attracting the desired talent and a Culture integrated communication practice could help deliver on that brand promise from within.

(The given article is attributed to NANDINI BHATNAGAR, HEAD-MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS SUNLIFE ASC INDIA  and solely created for BW People)