BANGALORE: "I have 5 pre-placement offers, offering seven figure salaries – Why should I join you?" a final year student at a top tech institute quipped at a job interview. Companies are in a competitive battle not just for sales but also for recruiting high-end talent well.

Employer branding has today become more vital than ever to attract talent. But are the strategies companies employ giving them results? Do employees find their strategies effective and convincing? Or is there a perception gap?

TimesJobs conducted a TJinsite Survey on Employer-Branding Perceptions, which threw up good news as well as bad news in terms of how companies are adopting employer branding as the war for talent continues to heat up.

The good news: 64 percent of surveyed organizations claim to have a clear and well-designed employer-branding strategy in place and 74 percent say they are happy with their strategies.

The bad news: 67 percent of the surveyed employees do not think their employer has a winning employer-branding strategy in place. Most employees find their company's current strategies unconvincing. Only 23 percent rated the strategies as convincing while 10 percent label their company's strategy as poor, reports TimesJobs.

 So, while employers are upbeat about their employer-branding strategies and are even acknowledging success, there is a significant gap between what they think and what employees feel about their employers’ brand.

In fact, only 42 percent of the surveyed employees said they would recommend their company to a friend, reveals the TimesJobs report.

So where are the gaps?

TimesJobs' study shows that while current branding strategies appeal to experienced professionals but entry and mid-level candidates are not quite happy with them.

"The workplace paradigm is changing, the millennial generation thrives in a hyper-connected 24X7 world, where information and opinions blend into a single news stream to create employee perceptions. To build powerful employer-brands requires consistent communication of the Employer Value Proposition. Companies have to work with greater speed and transparency, which is only possible with wide scale adoption of an open culture and a flat hierarchy. " explains Vivek Madhukar, COO, TimesJobs.com

Successful? Or not?

74 percent organizations rate their employer branding as successful while 67 percent of the employees think otherwise

55 percent of startups & SMEs term their employer-branding strategy as successful while only 36 percent employees from such firms feels so.

45 percent large organizations believe they have winning employer-branding strategy in place while 64 percent employees from large organizations feel so.

The media channel

68 per cent organizations use social media to connect with employees but only 56 percent employees think they are effective.

On the other hand, while 32 percent employers focus on career portals and company rating/peer review websites as ways to improve their employer-brand, 44 per cent of the employees find these a direct & effective media.

The money challenge

While 70 per cent organizations state clearly that budget is not a constraint to their employer-branding initiatives, still, 62 per cent employees feel budgets are the challenge their organizations face to put up a successful branding plan in place.

At a time most India Inc. employers are struggling to attract the right talent, having a powerful employer-brand is of critical value and utmost importance. Consequently, there is a greater need to understand and analyze the gap in perception of employer and employees. This TJinsite survey was conducted across 560 organizations and 800 employees in India.
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