Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding’s Relationship, Explained
You know there is a relationship between your recruiters and your employer branding team. In your company, they might be in the same department, and they might even be some of the same people. We won’t draw you an org chart—everyone has a different way of structuring the teams where this work gets done—what’s on our minds is how each discipline influences the other.
The relationship has to be symbiotic. Recruitment and employer branding at odds defeats the purpose of having either. They need each other.
Talent acquisition needs employer branding to guide them
Talent acquisition works most successfully when an employer brand is strong and company reputation is positive. Per LinkedIn:
75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job
72% of recruiting leaders agreed that employer brand has a significant impact on hiring
It’s not unheard of for friction to happen when employer branding starts making suggestions. Employer branding will identify things that should change about the recruiting process— messaging that can be improved, feedback that should be taken from candidates, and ideas for how to limit attrition during hiring.
When TA needs to hire two dozen employees, it’s employer branding that enables them to make the strongest possible pitch to prospective hires. When the company brand gets some ugly PR, employer branding makes it possible to keep attracting new talent. When TA is overwhelmed with empty positions, employer branding can keep current employees around longer. When layoffs happen, employer branding can cool the temperature among the remaining employees.
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Employer branding needs to listen to the people who go face-to-face with candidates
Employer branding is theory, talent acquisition (and talent retention) is application, so employer branding has to know how TA works in practice.
Employer branding may want to promise things your current TA function can’t deliver—yet. Branding may want to depict the company as having a diverse and inclusive environment, but talent acquisition (plus HR and people operations) knows this isn’t accurate, at least it’s not accurate right now. Employer branding may want to tout career growth opportunities, but they can’t do that without proof of promotions.
Branding has to listen to candidate- and employee-facing teams so it doesn’t mislead applicants and write a check your employee experience can’t cash.
Grease the circular relationship
Give talent acquisition and employer branding every opportunity to collaborate. Have employer branding shadow your recruiters, and recruiters learn the basics of employer branding. Work together to develop an EVP. Hire employer branding folks from your recruiting teams. Tap recruiters for anecdotal feedback. If you have a brick-and-mortar office, sit them together. If your team is distributed, give them reasons to keep the loop going.
Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza writes about workplace culture, DEI, and hiring. Her work has appeared in Fast Company, From Day One, and InHerSight, among others.
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