Employer Branding: Localisation Strategies For Niche Talent

Your organisation’s global employment branding strategy sets the stage for your prospective talent — it gives them a sense of what to expect in terms of your organisational culture, values and employee value proposition (EVP). CareerArc found that 75 percent of job seekers consider an employment brand prior to applying, yet LinkedIn found that only 56 percent of global talent leaders prioritised their talent branding efforts in 2015. If you want to differentiate your company to win over top talent, employment branding should be a primary focus. Global branding initiatives should remain consistent overall, but it’s beneficial to consider localisation in your efforts to cater to specific industries and regions you are serving. For example, tech recruiting strategies that work in the United Kingdom might not be relevant in other countries. Read on for best practices on how your company can effectively localise your global employer branding initiatives for niche talent.

Know Your Audience

What are your candidates looking for? Depending on the country and its culture, candidate needs will differ. For example:

• Talent in the US and Canada is more inclined to be attracted to organisations that heavily consider their work environment
• Talent in Asia, Spain, Poland and Romania are more interested in compensation and benefits
• Talent in Australia, Europe, Scandinavia and the UK seek out leadership, according to Viasto.

The industry you recruit for is also important. For example, Fast Company says tech job seekers aren’t interested in a cold corporate environment; therefore your employer brand should portray a humanised brand showcasing your organisation's culture in a way that is exciting and interesting. So, one strategy for recruiting tech talent in the UK might be promoting your employment brand with additional emphasis on your leadership team and warm, engaging workplace environment. You should be able to begin customising your employment brand once you have a grasp on what your global talent is looking for.

Conquer Cultural Barriers

Culture impacts more than the needs and wants of your talent around the globe. From a macro perspective, your core organisational values remain consistent, but it’s important to consider adding nuances for the local cultural values as a way to regionalize and customize for regional differences. For WilsonHCG, our DNA pillars drive our company culture and are embraced from the C-suite on down, whether we are operating in the UK, Canada, Poland or the US. Communication, collaboration, ownership, integrity and passion fuel our global workplace environment, but there are plenty of differences culturally between our workforces in the UK compared to our headquarters in Tampa, Florida. A simple example of this of course is PTO, which varies quite a bit between our two locations due to our cultural differences. 

Another way to localise your brand is to add local representation – incorporating local faces, locations and stories to your communication strategies. It is often effective to give candidates local context they can relate to as opposed to only showcasing photos and events from a global headquarters on another continent. Additionally, making sure to take the different laws and regulations, holidays and religious beliefs into consideration will aid you in specialising your employer brand for your niche talent.

subtlety is Key

It’s important to remember that localising your global employment brand doesn’t mean creating whole new brands for each market you operate in. Your global brand should still consistently portray your company’s vision, mission and EVP from all touchpoints, because the last thing you want is a loss of identity. Large adjustments may confuse stakeholders about who you truly are as an organisation. Localising your employment brand simply means making small adjustments to specifically target a niche market, creating relevant context for that segment. Generalised brands could give the perception that you don’t value your international markets' needs as much as your domestic markets, so consider the behavioural trends, culture and languages of the market you are targeting for a basis on how your organisation can localise your global employment brand.