What happens when you recruit quality talent using the latest solutions — personalized candidate career portals, social recruiting, gamification, predictive data, video interviewing — more – and then that new hire starts to work and there is no onboarding solution in place, just a desk, and some paperwork to complete? Employment Brand Fracture, of course.
Employment Brand Fracture (EBF) can have a major impact on a new hire’s retention rate, engagement, alignment with the culture, and productivity.
EBF is the disconnect between the candidates’ perception of what it would be like to work for the employer and the reality of actually working for the employer. And it happens — Day One — when new hires are at their weakest, wondering if they accepted the right position. The new hire may even have previous offers made to them from another organization and new inquiries about their job status that keep coming in.
EBF happens more frequently than one thinks. EBF can happen if brand messaging is not based on the organization’s real Employment Value Proposition (EVP), if there is no onboarding solution, and/or if there is no pre-boarding solution.
Onboarding Automation
According to Brandon Hall Group’s 2015 HCM Technology Trends Study, nearly half of the organizations surveyed (47%) manually onboard new hires. While manual processes can be in place to effectively onboard new hires, it is not the most efficient way to manage all the tasks involved in onboarding – including benefit administration. Manual onboarding processes may not be as effective as an automated solution because:
- It may not give a comprehensive, consistent view of the organization.
- The onboarding experience may not reinforce the employment brand conveyed externally.
- There is the possibility for unintentional lapses.
- If the onboarding period is longer than two weeks, the process may be difficult and time-consuming to manage manually.
Another important onboarding metric to consider when choosing between manual and automated onboarding solutions is improving time-to-productivity. If the onboarding solution has a pre-boarding portal, the transition from candidate to employee will be smoother and quicker. Before Day One, administrative paperwork can be completed and candidates can be virtually introduced to their co-workers, leadership, and work environment. Then, training can commence Day One.
A Real Employment Value Proposition
In order to be effective in attracting quality talent it is necessary to convey authentic brand messaging based on the organization’s true EVP. The EVP is the matching of what employees and employers value in each other. Employment brand messaging is the messaging about who your organization is as an employer.
EVP is determined by conducting research among leadership, employees, candidates and other stakeholders in terms of why they want to work for the organization, perceptions about work environment/culture, alignment of values, organizational strengths/opportunities, and more. Finally collaboration and agreement ensues to determine what constitutes that organization’s EVP. From there, employer brand messaging can be determined.
Avoiding Employment Brand Fracture
In order to avoid EBF, messaging and the HCM technology should reflect your organization’s EVP. If the messaging is inaccurate or inconsistent, if the onboarding process/solution is inconsistent with the way the candidates were sourced, recruited, and hired, EBF will occur and it will confuse your new hires, leading to retention issues.
–Daria Friedman, Principal Analyst, Talent Acquisition,
Brandon Hall Group
