Hail a new breed of Employer Brand torchbearers

A research report once published by Brett Minchington titled ‘The rise of Employer Brand Leadership’ reveals that the employer brand is presently vested in a diverse set of functions ranging from HR to Marketing, Communications to the Executive team”. The study validates something that we’ve seen increasingly in India; the role of multiple functions in championing the employer brand.

In the Indian environment, it’s not uncommon to see the HR Director lean on his or her marketing counterpart for advice on brand communication and marketing. Equally, there are managers with prior marketing experience transitioning into an HR role to manage the Talent Acquisition function and grow the stature of the brand as a place to work

It’s exciting to see Employer Branding being acknowledged as a multi-disciplinary role! Now that it’s happened, what’s the call to action?

We see the career path exercise in companies formalising job rotations for HR specialists into Marketing roles for exposure and vice versa, en route to taking on senior employer branding responsibilities. For the next decade, corporates will increasingly build this new breed in a semi-structured manner, at which time there will be a formidable bastion of employer brand practitioners. What’s niche will go mainstream! A LinkedIn search with the words ‘Employer or Talent Branding Manager’ with Location = India already throws up considerable search results and one of our alumni is a shining example of this rising breed

Upstream, an MBA with a double major in HR & Marketing will start making more practical sense to students. Courses in corporate communications would do well to dwell on specific HR subjects. Electives in building the employer brand should be on offer for these students

Long term, some of these changes should herald what Brett calls, ‘The rise of Employer Brand Leadership.’