The answer to this will be key to helping local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) attract and retain talent. And being able to achieve good brand awareness will help SMEs improve their capabilities.
With that target in mind, the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and brand strategy consulting firm StrategiCom are undertaking a study to explore issues on employer branding.
SMEs employ about 60 per cent of Singapore's workforce and contribute about 46 per cent of total value-added to the economy. In an SME development survey conducted by DP Information group in 2006, manpower challenges were the next major concern for SMEs after competition.
StrategiCom noted that SMEs find it difficult to retain talent due to a poor perception of SMEs among job seekers and employees, among other reasons. "In fact, talented people usually prefer to work for large multinational companies (MNCs)," said the firm in a joint statement with SNEF.
The Employer Branding Study for SMEs will seek to identify how such firms can attract and retain talent with a strong employer brand.
StrategiCom suggests that employee preference for a firm is based on perceptual reasons rather than first-hand experiences that support their expectations. Fresh graduates with no working experience are frequently able to identify the companies - often MNCs - that they want to work for.
"This power of perception is said to be attributed to a strong brand...thus the idea that strong brands enjoy ease of attracting and retaining talent is supported in numerous existing literature," said StrategiCom.
The new study will aim to find key attributes that give an SME a strong brand image for prospective employees. The role of each attribute in the context of attracting and retaining talent will also be identified.
The study will also look at the extent to which SMEs can benefit from building a strong employer-brand image, while seeking to learn how SMEs can target specific areas to build their strengths as an employer brand.
The study, which will be ready in March, will be presented to employers at the Singapore Brand Conference.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on September 8, 2008.
