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Employer branding or just recruiter? Find out why you need to invest in how candidates perceive you.

Part of the employer brand, recruitment actions have always been the preferred method for Romanian companies to attract human resources. However, without sustained integrated efforts, companies have begun to realise that this is no longer enough: the selection process itself is often insufficient, as it tends to be far too transactional. And this quickly translates into increased personnel costs resulting from incompatibility between the employee’s career goals and the company’s vision and the need to repeat the process.

What is employer branding

Employer branding involves sustained efforts over time across internal and external channels to increase your company’s favorability with candidates over the long term, not just when a one-off need arises.
It becomes all the more important as human resources become increasingly inaccessible. Romania has fewer and fewer graduates, with the 2019-2020 academic year reaching the lowest number of students enrolled in 20 years. And globally, 81% of Global Most Wanted Employers expect to find suitable candidates in 2023 even more difficult than in recent years.

Why it is an increasingly discussed topic

Period dominated by crises: One of the reasons you hear more and more about Employer Branding is that we’re going through a series of crises that are putting economic pressure: first the Pandemic and the lockdown, closely followed by the war in Ukraine that has disrupted the normal rhythm in the region, both followed by economic crises and inflation. And all these factors create exceptional situations for companies that can be overcome by employee skill sets different from those suited to periods of stability.

What is the impact of reputation in attracting talent?

Reputation research: The difference between the local and international market is that the latter has realised that developing an employer brand is more sustainable in all respects. According to the Harvard Business Review, a company with a bad reputation has to invest up to 10% more for each person it hires, especially since 69% of job seekers have turned down an offer even if they don’t have a job.
Following, you can find some global data with relevance to the Romanian market, which historically follows the pattern of external trends thanks to the actions of multinational companies:

What is the gap between Romania and foreign markets in employer branding communication and where do they manage to align.

Here versus There: local differences versus global employer brand communication come from cultural specifics. While abroad they focus on communicating the company’s purpose by giving candidates with similar goals the opportunity to build together, in Romania brands choose to communicate in an area closer to Romanians’ sense of belonging.

In Romania: Mostly, the Romanian employer’s promise is that you will be part of a big team, close to a family, that will be there for you when you need it and will help you grow. One valence of this approach is the perspective that working in the company, you have the opportunity to have an impact on members of the communities relevant to you.

Here as There: Where local employer communication is approaching the global trend is in the D&I (diversity and inclusion) area. 2022 saw employer communication platforms introducing the promise of accepting a variety of people, regardless of personal specifics. However, unlike the external market, local communications did not stand out for their addressability to the LGBT community, with the exception of contextual June communications when brands are approaching the topic.

Why keep an eye on employer branding in 2023

While there is clearly a growing effort locally, companies in Romania need to understand that investing in their employer brand is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must. At the same time, generic communication is no longer enough, especially with the GenZ generation entering the workforce more and more actively, a generation that values authentic communication and does its homework well before interacting with brands.