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Lundquist 2010 Employer Branding Questionnaire

Employer branding moves online
Questionnaire results from more than 400 respondents show that 95% of job seekers use corporate websites before deciding whether to apply for a job. The questionnaire is part of research to rank the online employer branding of the 100 best global brands.
Milan, 4 August 2010 – Attracting and retaining the best talent, the core scope of employer branding, has always been one of the main preoccupations of managers operating in boom times as well as in what has been called the Great Recession. Employer branding used to be exclusively an offline activity practiced in many ways including through job fairs, advertising, marketing and internal newsletters. Companies are still passing on the same type of information to current and prospective employees only now they are increasingly doing it through their website.
Employer branding is a company’s pitch to current and prospective employees. It is the company’s bid to show why it is a desirable place to work.

Good online employer branding is a key step in the drive to getting and keeping top employees, but how should companies confront the process? Job seekers are using the internet, that we know, but how much and what are they looking for? In this age of social networks and job sites that aggregate employment announcements how much does the corporate website matter?
When evaluating whether to apply for a job with a company do you visit the corporate website?
No 5%

A Lundquist survey of more than 400 people in 37 countries sought the answers to these questions and many more. Job seekers use corporate websites not only to apply for jobs and find basic information about a company, but increasingly also as the primary spot where they expect to be informed about details on everything from training programs to job mobility, vacation policy and compensation, according to the survey conducted between April and June 2010. Ninety-five percent of those surveyed said they look at the corporate website of a company before deciding whether to apply for a job. A third of the people ranked the corporate website as the most important source of information for a job seeker; only word of mouth ranked higher (40%).

Yes 95%

Source: Lundquist Employer Branding Questionnaire 2010

The fundamental role played by the corporate website is all the more evident considering that most people don’t have somebody on the inside that they can turn to for information. Only six percent of respondents considered the time-honoured job fair as the best place to find out information about companies where they were considering applying.

Lundquist S.r.l. – Piazza XXV aprile 1, 20121 Milan, Italy – Tel +39 02 4547 7682 – employerbranding@lundquist.it

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employer branding online a w a r d s

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What they want
For those who thought that job seekers are most interested in how much they would get paid at a particular company and how much vacation they would have, the results of the questionnaire will come as a surprise. Respondents said it was more important to find information about what training they will receive on the job and how their career might progress at the company rather than to have information about compensation. As with many types of corporate communications, respondents appeared weary of what might be considered spin. While, as stated previously, word of mouth is considered an excellent way to get information on the company, respondents were not enthusiastic about reading or listening to employee testimonials that most people think are edited by management or the human resources department.
How important is it to find the following information?*
Very important Most important

Training/career progression

40%

15%

More than four out of every five respondents (84%) want to be able to send in an unsolicited application even if there is no job opening that fits their profile. Even in this time of economic crisis people don’t want to spend too much time on their application. Just under half of respondents said the process should take no more than 15 minutes while another 42% said 15-30 minutes was the right amount of time). More than half (57%) want to know if and when they can expect a response back yet the vast majority of corporate sites don’t provide this information.

Sustainability performance

35%

18%

Compensation

26%

16%

Employees’ interviews

15%

7% 20% 40% 60% 80%

0%

* multiple answers were allowed Source: Lundquist Employer Branding Questionnaire 2010

Forty-three percent were keen to know what the steps are in the evaluation process once they have sent in the application and this is also surprisingly hard to find on a corporate site. Given the chance to air their views beyond checking off boxes, respondents were clear about what they are after: simplicity, clarity, real information and interaction with real people.
What job seekers want “Easy navigation, simple search function, easy application process” “Clear description of activities in simple words, not long poetry” “Getting feedback – i.e., knowing my application has not gone down the black hole” “Getting a sense of what the company style and culture is” “I praised the company that sent me a personalised answer, by a real person, with job title & contact details”

Social Media
Have you used the following social networking platforms to look for career information and job opportunities?*
LinkedIn Facebook Twitter 8% 30% 35% 18% 79%

Social media, which have begun to sneak into many aspects of online life, are making headway in job searches though two sites dominate the market. Four in five respondents said they have used LinkedIn to look for career information and job opportunities. Almost one in three has used Facebook for that purpose.

XING 6% MySpace Other 0% 4% 15%

26%

16%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

* multiple answers were allowed Source: Lundquist Employer Branding Questionnaire 2010 Lundquist S.r.l. – Piazza XXV aprile 1, 20121 Milan, Italy – Tel +39 02 4547 7682 – employerbranding@lundquist.it

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employer branding online a w a r d s

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Personal contact
Three-quarters of respondents want to find personal contact information for somebody in the HR department for queries that arise during the application process while the rest would be content to have only a generic email address for HR. The reality at the moment is that the majority of sites don’t provide any indication of how the HR department can be contacted. More than three-quarters of respondents said they have applied for a job and not gotten a response. Hard to think of a better way for a company to alienate a job seeker, who in many cases also happens to be a potential client.
Have you applied for a position and never gotten a response from the HR department?
No 22%

Yes 78%

Source: Lundquist Employer Branding Questionnaire 2010

Employer Branding Awards
The input from the questionnaire has been used as a tool in the creation a 58-criterion protocol that will be used in the Lundquist Employer Branding Awards 2010 to assess how companies are performing in online employer branding. The priorities expressed by the respondents were taken into consideration when deciding how much importance to give to the various criteria. The Employer Branding Awards considers how companies use their corporate website to communicate their values, ethics and culture to current and potential employees. The top 100 brands as ranked by Businessweek will be evaluated (see box for the top 20 of that list) as part of a global survey that will be published in September. Will these same 20 be occupying the top spots for their online employer branding efforts and is there any correlation between a strong brand and effective employer branding? Country rankings will also be done for Italy, Switzerland and Austria. An analysis of the results of each ranking will be available in a report that will also include complete details of responses received in the questionnaire as well as a criterion-by-criterion presentation of international best practice. The research therefore provides a comprehensive guide to successful online employer branding.

Best Global Brands (top 20 of 100)* 1 – Coca-Cola 2 – IBM 3 – Microsoft 4 – GE 5 – Nokia 6 – McDonald’s 7 – Google 8 – Toyota 9 – Intel 10 – Disney 11 – Hewlett-Packard 12 – Mercedes-Benz 13 – Gillette 14 – Cisco 15 – BMW 16 – Louis Vuitton 17 – Marlboro 18 – Honda 19 – Samsung 20 – Apple

* as compiled by Businessweek (17 Sept. 2009)

Lundquist S.r.l. – Piazza XXV aprile 1, 20121 Milan, Italy – Tel +39 02 4547 7682 – employerbranding@lundquist.it

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employer branding online a w a r d s

lundquist.

About the respondents
With an average age of about 33, the 424 people who responded to the Lundquist online employer branding questionnaire represented 37 countries with 80 percent living in mainland Europe. Less than 20% of respondents were unemployed when they responded to the survey yet 62% said they had looked for a job in the past year. This indicates that many people who are employed are contemporaneously looking for a new job, highlighting the importance managers must place on efforts to retain their best workers. Respondents ran the gamut of educational backgrounds with 85 percent having a bachelor’s degree or higher. Six percent were undergraduate university students.

Contacts Eric Sylvers Head of employer branding eric.sylvers@lundquist.it www.lundquist.it www.lundquist.it/blog www.twitter.com/lundquist To order a copy of the full employer branding report, please contact employerbranding@lundquist.it

Research team Vesna Dokic Joakim Lundquist James Osborne Ornella Ponzoni Sara Rusconi Sara Troiano Federico Tronconi Cristina Urban

Lundquist S.r.l. – Piazza XXV aprile 1, 20121 Milan, Italy – Tel +39 02 4547 7682 – employerbranding@lundquist.it