As the ‘war for talent’ heats up, how are companies in Singapore strengthening their Employer Brand efforts to attract the brightest and the best people to work for them?

A report by HRBoss, Asia’s leading workforce analytics and recruitment software provider, reveals the growing importance of employer branding amongst Singapore’s 30 most prominent companies.

This revelation arrives at a time of increasing pressure for Singaporean companies to align with the government’s vision of hiring from the local talent pool, intensified by the recent Fair Consideration Framework and the National Jobs Bank initiatives. With the Fair Consideration Framework already in full effect, the war for Talent in Singapore is only set to become more intense.

How have things changed in 2015? Read on as we uncover the changing state of Employer Branding in Singapore over the years –the good, the bad and the ugly.

According to Jeff Bezos at Amazon, “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”

The key findings in the Employer Branding report are based on studies conducted across wide range of industries in early 2015, with detailed analysis of the top 30 organisations listed on the Straits Times Index (STI) to explore Singapore’s best employer branding strategies.

1. Preparing for Mobilegeddon: A Non-Mobile Website Can Hurt Your Brand

Candidates are searching on-the-go and poor online visibility puts your company at a disadvantage. Even if candidates get to your site, a poor navigation experience and cumbersome application process puts up more roadblocks than the interview process itself.

2. Upping the ante on Social Media

While social media has seen a steady adoption over the years, it is now the most important digital channel and the main activity being undertaken to communicate Employer Brand. Social media is the preferred enterprise tool for Employment Brand communication.

LinkedIn proves to be the most popular social media platform among the companies studied, with 50% (15 out of 30) of the companies having an active LinkedIn profile where they post jobs, share snippets of the company culture and share articles and posts. More companies have LinkedIn profiles than Facebook profiles (33%).

3. Selling the company as a “great place to work”

More than half of the companies surveyed use company culture to promote their employer brand and 16 out of 30 companies are adding personal touch with employee video testimonials. However, more often companies keep their culture hidden from the outside world, but job seekers today are seeking for benefits more than a salary to determine if they would be happy in their day-to-day workings with an employer. Toot your own horn and let the company culture speak for itself.

4. To Become the Employment Brand Hero

In order for organizations to win the Talent war, more work needs to be done and Singapore is taking small steps towards this direction. Employer Branding is not a new term but it’s definitely one that companies struggle with.

5. Develop a checklist for an Irresistible Employment Brand

It is important for your company to work on a check-list to develop an irresistible employer brand to attract and hire the best talent. The points to be considered in the checklist will include:

• Does your company have an in-depth mobile-optimized career page that gives jobseekers an idea about your company and an accurate glimpse of the company culture?
• Does the company website portray historic infographics, team biographies and detailed benefits that build a clear vision of your company?
• Do you make use of Social Media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google + to promote your company and share vacancies?
• Have you created an atmosphere of constant conversation and communication between HR, existing and new employees to create a company culture that’s harder to complain about?
• Do you use free survey tools to create and automate surveys to get a constant assessment of employee sentiment in the company?

Commenting on the release of the report’s3rd  edition, CEO and founder of HRBoss, Bernie Schiemer said, “Just 5 years ago, less than 10% of Fortune 200 companies had a dedicated role to manage employer brand, yet today every 1 out of 4 have invested headcount and budget into getting employer branding right.”

“Employment Brand matters when it comes to Talent Acquisition, and we all know that Singapore is a magnet for Talent not just from Asia but globally. It makes sense for organisations to boost their Talent attraction and acquisition efforts if they want knock out the competition and hire the best and brightest people out there.”

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