(Photo credit: Nynne Schroder - Unsplash)
A week ago, I participated to my first Employer Branding Conference. It was
interesting, especially since a few months ago I had no idea about the Employer
Branding (EB) concept.
I listened to diverse opinions
and watched presentations. I especially liked the speakers that insisted on the
fact that the employees are a company’s best promoters, for they are the ones
that spread the word about how well or not a company is structured, about the
benefits, stability, growing perspectives and, yes, the level of salaries. This
‘yes’ is to underline the fact that, lately, some of us (candidates) feel like
we must excuse ourselves for wanting a decent salary.
I am far from being mercantile…
but since people do not expect those with a vast experience to stay in a job
that does not offer growing perspectives, it’s exactly the same with those that
are well-trained, but poorly paid, who will always try to find better paid jobs.
The discussion on salaries is
complicated, and I am surely not the person to say more. Like always, I write
only from my own or my friends’ experience. What strikes me the most is that
the following should be understood by both parties (candidate and company) – a
salary must support a decent livelihood (meaning that not the entire salary is
spent on rent/ installments, and there would be enough money left for cultural
activities, clothes/ shoes, that one per year holiday and, yes, medicine and
medical treatments).
I loathe unfairness and
using double standards, and I am also aware that bad seeds are
everywhere – candidates and companies – but I reckon it is important to stop
guiding ourselves by prejudice. Reasons vary according to circumstances, and
when it comes to low salaries, both parties may come with explanations.
I have already told you about
my experience as assistant. I was earning a salary so small that I had
to take another job. But I was one of the lucky ones, I had graduated from a
good faculty and I managed. If it hadn’t been so, I could not have afforded
paying rent, maintenance, food, metro pass, medicine and to save some money for
that one trip per year (yeah, I have always saved some money for trips). I will
never forget the expression on my boss’ face when he asked me one night, when I
was leaving the office, if I had another job and the reply was yes. It was then when it dawned on me
that certain things cannot be explained, but one has to live them in order to
understand. How can one understand hunger if one does not hear it growling
inside one’s stomach?! How can one understand poverty if one does not share the
same boots with one’s child?!
Coming back to the conference I
was telling you about, I enjoyed the indications regarding the ways to find out
people’s opinion on a company, ways one can transform an unknown brand into a
trusted and adaptive to the changes around it one. Inevitable, one of the
presentations got me thinking about reasons people leave a company. It reminded
me of ‘people do not leave companies, they leave managers’. It was not me who
said it. You can read all about it here.
No matter the number of meetings
to stay connected and team events, employees should feel supported when they
realize that their efforts lead to nothing at all. The idea stroke me while I
was listening to one of the EB experts.
Here’s an idea! Maybe than
seeing a benefits and ATL & BTL campaigns presentation, the potential
candidates could find out more about how well is the company organized, how
much support do the ideas receive and how many of the proposed ideas are
actually put into practice (and thus become deliverables), how much flexibility, accountability and empowerment is permitted to an executor, how many validations an
executor needs in order to progress with a project …
One of the speakers said
something like this – we should treat candidates and relate to them as people,
for they are people and respond to needs and wants. That’s a great idea for
Employer Branding, I guess. Maybe we could build from there.
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