Human beings look for the ideal in everything. Most importantly we look for the ideal place of work. What is an ideal place? The explanation has never been very specific but always allusive. This is essentially because the “ideal” varies from one person to another. Every prospective employee has this question in mind. To answer this question in a satisfactory manner is an imperative if the employer has to recruit qualified people and retain them. Employment branding is one way to answer this question.

Employment branding is a relatively new term but it sure is an important factor that will help the firm ease out the recruitment difficulties. Employment branding means that the firm is portrayed as a place where people would love to work. This involves identification of the strengths of the company and playing up to them. This of course does not mean that truth is fabricated. Sooner or later the employees would find out whether the company is worth being in or not.

The fundamental benefits of employment branding are:

• Keeping ahead of the talent war
• Attracting and inducing the right kind of people
• Enhancing the ability to acquire people with quality resumes
• Retaining the existing employees

Employment branding is an infrastructure-building activity and is an essential part of career networking. Employment branding is a value proposition that is offered to the prospective employees. The need for this practice is growing in importance because of extremely competitive markets as well as demographic shifts. Some of the employment branding activities are offering new experiences to the employees, growth and mentoring opportunities, pay for performance system, decent work hours, and personal career enhancement.

The steps involved in employment branding are:

• Identifying the audience and getting to know them. The HR must know who their co-employees are. There must be a system whereby the career dreams are and how they hope to achieve it. How would they like to balance their work and personal life?

• A culture of recruiters must be built so that the new employees are exposed to the firm in a steady manner. They should not be overwhelmed by the firm.

• Recruitment ads are not the same as employment branding.

• Corporate Social Responsibility is the new dictum of the corporate world. People are more attracted to companies that participate in building a good community. An ethical company is far alluring than an unethical firm. The Millennium Poll on Corporate Social Responsibility has found that about 25,000 people in 23 countries on 6 continents form their opinions of firms by studying about corporate citizenship. Two out of three individuals want firms to transcend money making and contribute to the broader goals of the society. CSR also plays a crucial role in the sustainability of the company.

One case study involves the fast food giant McDonald. Rich Floersch, executive vice president of worldwide human resources at McDonald’s, worked at a restaurant and interviewed 50 senior managers and 120 human resources staff members. He sat with his team to find out the message that McDonald’s should convey in its recruiting effort. "We wanted to instill pride in our employees and get them to think about the skills they are learning," he says.