Magazine: From the ‘hobby’ of a privileged few to a matter of life and death: employer branding

In just one year the No.1 concern of Hungarian company directors became finding, keeping and motivating workers, this category finishing first in the ranking ahead of market problems and the issue of state regulations. At the moment Hungary’s economy is gaining momentum, but this positive trend can be put on hold by a lack of qualified and motivated labour force. What can be done to solve this problem? Digitalisation and automation can be a solution at certain places. At the same time workers already feel that the tables have turned: by now 70 percent of job seekers have become passive – they need to be activated, that is found and made interested in getting a certain job. This is an ‘art form’ in itself, so the best idea is to ask for help from experts. No wonder that Randstad Hungary’s turnover doubled last year…

Employer branding is basically what present and future workers of a company think about the firm, whether they like to work there or not. Why is this important? Companies with a strong brand equity experience 28 percent lower fluctuation level and spend 46 percent less money on recruitment. What is more, companies with a strong brand identity attract workers with 10 percent lower salaries than others (this isn’t true for Hungary, though). Employer branding is a long-term strategy, in which – in an ideal case – not only the HR department takes part but the whole of the company, e.g. those who work in marketing take care of efficient communication, the IT division makes sure that job seekers find the company ad quickly, etc. It is the director’s task to create harmony between the various organisational units – so that not ad hoc steps are taken but a 2-3 year long strategy is being implemented – and to borrow the company their ‘face’.

Many important conclusions can be drawn from the answers of 4,000 workers. Retail trade is still one of the most unpopular sectors among workers. In spite of the fact that consumption is growing, FMCG companies are less and less attractive to job seekers: only one of them made it onto the list of the top 20 most popular companies – Nestlé, which finished 13th in the ranking. It is needless to say that the number one job choice factor is salary: 43 percent of workers share this view, while 16 percent think long-term job security is more important and only 8 percent named work-life balance as the most important thing. Half of Hungarians would be willing to work more if they got more money at the end of the month. Three quarters of them said that from time to time or on a regular basis they would like to work from home. In Hungary women work 42 hours a week and men do 45 hours. /