July 7th, 2022
In the last two years, after lockdowns and issues management, we have become more and more conscious of the EB strategy’s benefits. It brings so much positive impact to the companies in the long term.
As a result, we decided to hold Employer Branding Dialogues with communication managers and experts in employer branding each month!
During our last EBdialogue, we met Ioana Visa, Employer Branding Manager @MassMutual. She talked to Dragos Gheban, Managing Partner @Catalyst Solutions, about building and maintaining an Employer Branding strategy for an unconventional tech start-up, such as MassMutual.
Based on a legacy of mutuality, MassMutual secures people’s financial future. It provides insurance services, retirement support, and investment advice.
How to build an Employer Branding team in your company?
Employer branding is not only targeted to candidates but it’s also targeted internally to colleagues.
It’s essential to make sure you’re in a permanent relationship with colleagues – transparency (communicate to them the processes, the benefits).
That is the reason why they hired an internal communication specialist who supports all of the Employer Branding ideas among the employees.
What other departments might support the Employer Branding team?
Besides open managers to support the EB initiatives for the company, there are some departments that can always give the EB team a helping hand:
- HR Department, especially because all of the Employer Branding initiatives are included in the HR area
- IT Delivery Team that is the most reliable source of advice on the following challenges: What projects can work for the company’s culture? What events match the company’s values? Also, they can identify the best speakers to be part of events.
What benefits brings a yearly plan of Employer Branding for the company?
For gaining a positive reputation on the labor market, it’s essential to understand the importance of brand awareness. Invest in being present and supporting the community. A yearly plan is an amazing tool that helps you build brand awareness in the candidate’s mind!
Based on the strategy, tactics, and activities, the EB team can maintain a mix of online and offline initiatives. Having both indoor and outdoor activations, make sure to keep a steady pace of activities from January to December.
What are the best indicators to measure for noticing the progress in Employer Branding?
Websites visits, clicks, likes, and engagement with posts are the easiest to measure when it comes to seeing the results of any efforts. Although, brand recognition, perception, and awareness are more complex to measure.
Therefore, Ioana Visa comes with a solution: pay attention to the recruitment team’s feedback. Perhaps, the candidates have heard about MassMutual from billboards, events, or LinkedIn posts.
What results can you expect after taking part in events as a company?
Whether attending events online or offline, they can bring brand awareness and recognition to the company. It’s the perfect time to increase contact with potential candidates, to network and get inspired by other people’s perspectives.
Also, before any event, make sure you have:
- A communication plan for the entire campaign (pre-event, during event, and after the event).
- A strategy around the event
- The support of the organizers and the advisory agency
What is the essential resource to invest in for Ioana Visa?
It’s time!
“Time for creative and innovative ideas, to meditate, take care of herself, take more holidays. I think time is the resource that should be most cherished. We can never get back to it. We need to be very careful how we invest in it! “
Final thoughts, challenges and advice
Ioana Visa provided us with a few pieces of advice from her vast experience in communication and employer branding strategies on both local and American labor market:
“Having an open communication policy means providing anonymous engagement surveys for the employees. That means all respondents must be sure that no one can find out their identity behind the answers.”
“The soft skills are actually like skills! We can achieve social media or PPC skills anytime, but it’s more challenging to learn how to speak in public or how to be open-minded.”
