The role of culture in employer brand

In companies where employees are respected for being simply human, there is a specific organizational culture. It is based on universal values ​​such as: trust, recognition, responsibility, openness and conscientiousness, which are valued both by employees and their superiors. These are the organizations where employees want to work.

Does the culture of the organization matter? Of course. It is the subject of research by practitioners and academics who try to discover the mechanism of influencing all people making up the organization. There is no doubt that culture affects all employees and managers - it regulates their standards of behavior and gives tips on how to act in any situation related to the organization / company.

So what is organizational culture? Taking E. Schein, it includes 3 elements:

• Artifacts, patterns of behavior, stories, symbols, ceremonies

• Norms and values, prohibitions, ideologies, behavioral guidelines

• Basic assumptions such as: attitude to the environment, the nature of interpersonal relations, the nature of human activity

By adopting the common opinion that a company is people, which is especially true in the service sector, it's time to realize that all business relationships are relationships not between organizations (non-personal creatures), but between people. And each of us, as a human being, has his own value system. Adhering to it is also a value in itself. People feel good in such organizations where people with similar values ​​work - not all of them (it is not real), but the basic ones. Because values ​​determine the ethical attitudes of employees and their behavior.

In order to change the behavior of employees, the organizational culture of the company should be examined. Check whether they are treated with dignity (subjectively), or maybe they are only nameless executors of official orders (objectively). In the situation of the employer's market, when a given company is the only employer in the region, employees may be treated as such. But even in the situation of the employer market, it is possible, as confirmed by numerous examples, to treat employees with dignity, realizing that work is an important element of life, but also a source of professional satisfaction. The key here is the attitude and behavior of managers and executives.

In companies that are said to be or inspire to be an employer of choice, the issues of respecting other people are fundamental. Human needs such as being respected, being a member of the community are well recognized and necessary to achieve private and professional satisfaction, to be fulfilled.

During the 4th Employer Branding Forum, the relationship between the culture of the organization and the universal trend of employer branding activities, i.e. the pursuit of the greatest possible involvement of employees, and thus building loyalty, will be discussed. Realizing that the president and a group of key managers play a leading role in each organization, it is the representatives of these groups who will be the speakers at the Forum.

Organizational culture of the company as an important factor in the development of the organization

Organizational culture should be created by people and for people, employees should first of all contribute to its creation and they should benefit from its implementation. In this case, we are obviously talking about an aspect of the company's operation, which is closely related to its development, as evidenced by the issue of the company's vision, which I mentioned at the beginning of the discussion of what we are actually dealing with. The organizational culture, on the one hand, outlines a certain direction of development, and on the other hand, it aims to create the right conditions for this direction to be possible. I have already mentioned that the organizational culture is designed to outline a certain framework that defines the norms of behavior and method of operation, and at the same time leaves a certain amount of freedom without limiting the individuality of employees. This is where the aspect of the people's organizational culture must interact with people in the company comes into play. That is why it is so important to make sure that the key assumptions of our organizational culture are clear to everyone at the level of Employer Branding activities. As was the case with internal communication, it is also not about directly emphasizing our values ​​or vision. Everything that is most important should result from the way we communicate and how we present the company's life on social media. Someone who looks at how our brand looks on the web should be able to clearly read between the lines what we convey, what values ​​we follow and what our vision is.

Employer Branding and the culture of the organization

It is not without reason that I mentioned Employer Branding here because it cannot be denied that in the context of organizational culture it plays an important role, giving potential candidates the opportunity to show what we have to offer. Not everything can be described in words at the level of a recruitment advertisement, some things are much better to show because only then can they specifically affect the imagination. It is also important because the recruitment advertisement is addressed mainly to people already interested in changing jobs. However, thanks to the use of Employer Branding in the right way, we can take care of a much greater range, also reaching people who may not yet look for a new job, but it is worth building among them the awareness of our brand and the working conditions it offers. One more advantage can be seen here, namely the fact that already at the stage of the first points of contact with our brand, everyone will be able to assess the organizational culture that prevails in our company meets their needs. Therefore, the organizational culture clearly visible thanks to the activities of EB will, on the one hand, be an additional magnet for candidates who fit it, and on the other hand, it will be a filter to screen out people who are not on the way with the norms and rules that guide our organization. The role played by the conscious building of the employer's brand based on the developed organizational culture is so important that people play a key role in all of this.

Organizational culture in the recruitment process

That is why the entire recruitment process should take into account not only the selection of people with appropriate competences, but also those who will match the culture of the organization. It is no secret that the recruitment of suitable candidates becomes in this case an even greater challenge, but we must be aware of the benefits that we achieve thanks to this. First of all, we have a chance to find an employee whose needs, for example in terms of development or management style, will be able to be met, and thus the chance that he or she will stay in the company relatively longer will increase. So recruitment should be a chance for both us and the candidate to find out if we just fit together. After all, what about a person who, admittedly, will have enormous knowledge and experience, but will not fit into our organizational culture, living based on completely different beliefs and values? Such a person will not use their full potential with us anyway and will also frustrate themselves, so an appropriate adjustment in terms of the organizational culture is important for both parties. It is also important to emphasize on this occasion that this is another example confirming that we should not look at recruitment in an individual way, but from the perspective of the entire process, the origins of which actually date back to the first contact with our brand. In fact, Employer Branding can be considered the beginning of the recruitment process, not so direct yet, but already focused on the interest in our brand and what we can offer as an employer. We should also not forget that at every stage of the recruitment process we should show that in our case the appropriate organizational culture is not just empty.