Most studies show that we are entering a longer period of lack of
competence, and more people are showing interest in the matter. The demand
for qualified working capacity is increasing faster than the offering, both
in Sweden and internationally. As competition in the labour market has
intensified, companies have shown an ever-increasing interest in strategies
to different themselves. Strong demand for specific skills, in addition to
ever tighter labour markets generally, is making it much more difficult
both to retain current employees and to recruit new employees.
Employer Branding is called the 'hottest strategy in employment'. It is an
international concept referring to the work with making the identity clear
as employer. The result is the companies' images as employer, both
internally and externally.
Strategic work with a company's employer brand should be focused at the
common images found externally and internally. In order to develop a strong
employer brand, it is necessary to demonstrate what is specific about your
organisation and its culture. However, awareness of possibly existing
differences and likenesses in attitudes within certain groups will make a
strategic work more efficient. The objective with this research was to
examine the existence of similarities and differences between external and
internal employer brand images.
Universum Communication is an international research and management
consulting firm, working with understanding the career expectations of
today's students and young professionals. Young professionals, i.e.
individuals between the age of 25-35, with an academic background and up to
eight years of working experience, will probably be the markets most wanted
work force. The other group of interest concerning competence on the future
labour market are the students of today. Communicating with these groups is
a critical success factor for companies/organisations today.
The research by Universum Communication conducts quantitative surveys about
the opinions of students and young professionals regarding recruitment and
lifestyle issues. In this research information collected from their surveys
concerning students and young professionals was serving as reflection of
the external employer brand images. For obtaining comparable data of
internal employer brand images among employees, a survey was designed for
this research. Three companies were investigated, in this study referred to
as company A, B and C, due to requirements for being anonymous. The
students and young professionals included were the ones seeing these three
companies as ideal employers.
Found in this research as common for all three companies was that among all
respondent groups, varying work and exiting products are frequent expected
offers and associations. Three associations were over all neither common,
nor uncommon, coincidently for all three companies. These were good
leadership/ management, innovative solutions and strong clear company
culture. Among the least frequent associations for any of the companies,
for any of the respondent groups, was a too competitive working
environment.
For this research the objective was also to examine whether there are
coincidence concerning differences. Overall the employees at the three
companies are appreciating possibilities for advancement/ promotion offer
very little, while the external groups tend to expect it more, especially
the young professionals. A good reference for future carrier, project based
work, competitive compensation and tasks that mean bigger challenges are
for all three companies something that people on the outside are expecting
more than the employees are appreciating it.
Flexible working hours are for all employees a highly appreciated offer.
Good reputation & and highly thought of is also more frequently associated
with the companies among their employees, then among the external groups.
The size of the gap to the external groups varies between the companies.
How...
