Most cos spend minimal budget on employer branding: Survey

There seems to be a level of unwillingness among Indian corporates to take serious steps towards building an employer brand, as over 70 per cent of organisations spend less than 10 per cent of their overall brand budget for this purpose.
While branding is always a top agenda for marketing teams in companies, most of their efforts seem to center on product branding and though CEOs realise how important employer branding is for their organisations, not many plan to spend substantially.
According to Monster.Com and People Matters' Employer Branding Survey 2014, that covered 85 CEOs in Indian organisations, 72 per cent of organisations plan to spend less than 10 per cent of their brand budget on employer branding.

"There is an increasing interest among CEOs for driving the employer brand, although Indian corporations are still looking for the right formula for budget participation and executions," the report said.
The survey said Indian organisations continue to rely heavily on traditional channels for their employer branding and a majority of 78 per cent depend on their career site to spread their brand message.
The other ways through which organisations in India promote employer branding include campus outreach programmes and print media. Around 40 per cent of survey respondents said they use print media to advertise employer branding messaging.

"Building an employer brand is like building a brand from its inception stage. A CEO could be an ideal custodian of employer branding," Monster.Com (India/Middle-East/Hong Kong/South East Asia) Managing Director Sanjay Modi said.

"If we look at any established employer brand, we'll find that it is built through a systematic, sustainable effort with active involvement of all stakeholders, driven by the CEO," Modi added.
The survey further said that as many as 46 per cent companies do not seek professional aid for marketing employer branding.
"Despite the undying focus on strengthening this, CEO continues to shy away from aligning business strategies to employer branding," the survey added.