Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part III
March 9, 2012 – 8:10 am
Do you ever ask yourself, “Why the hell would anyone want to work at this place?” If not, you should, especially if your job is to recruit or retain employees. What is it that makes your agency a unique and desirable place to work? In marketing lingo, what is your “brand?”
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.”
Make no mistake, if you are trying to attract the best recruits to your agency, you need to “sell” your agency and your community. You do not just want your target audience to choose you over the competition, you want them to see you as the only place to apply.
The objectives that a good brand will achieve include:
- Delivers the message clearly – the “why”
- Confirms your credibility – trust
- Connects your target prospects emotionally – the cool factor
- Motivates the candidate to take action – to apply
- Fosters employee loyalty – makes everyone a recruiter
To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your potential applicants and your co-workers. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your agency at every point of public contact.
Think about the agencies in your area and their reputations within the law enforcement community. You can probably list all the agencies for whom you would not mind working and you can probably name a few for whom you would not even consider working. The bottom line is every department, including yours, has a reputation, be it positive or negative. Some agencies enjoy a reputation for good salaries, professional development programs, having the best equipment or excellent support from the community. Other agencies may suffer from a reputation of having low salaries or poor management. This agency reputation, whether positive or negative, is your employer “brand.”
Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of the people with whom your agency interacts, not on a recruiting brochure. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot.
Obviously, an agency that enjoys a positive employer brand will also enjoy an advantage in a competitive recruiting market. A strong employer brand is invaluable as the battle to attract and retain the best employees intensifies. Just like in college football, recruiting the best candidate is a lot easier if you work for a successful team. As a result, agencies that enjoy a positive brand, tend to attract more high quality applicants from which to select which significantly reduces the cost of recruiting. So, as you might expect, there are definitely some advantages to having a good employer brand or devoting some effort and resources to improving your existing brand.
The Ancient Greek aphorism “Know yourself” was inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. When it comes to establishing a good employer brand, the critical first step is to determine where you currently stand. It’s important to invest time in researching, defining, and building your employer brand. How does the criminal justice community, your employees and potential new applicants view your agency?
After determining where they stand, agencies can work to develop a strategic plan to move from their current brand to their desired brand. This process is not easy and cannot be accomplished overnight. However, agencies that successfully complete this effort will find they have better relations in the community, successfully recruit top quality candidates, and are in a stronger position to retain quality candidates.
Other articles in this series:
Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part I
Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part II