lundquist.

employer
branding
online

lundquist.

a w a r d s

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
companys pitch to current and
prospective employees.
It is the companys 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%

Yes
95%

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.

Source: Lundquist Employer Branding Questionnaire 2010

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%).

The fundamental role played by the corporate website is all the more
evident considering that most people dont 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.

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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?*

Training/career progression

40%

Sustainability performance

35%

Compensation

26%

Employees interviews

15%

0%

Very important
Most important

15%

18%

16%

7%
20%

40%

60%

80%

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 dont
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 dont provide this
information.

* 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?*
79%

LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter

30%
35%

8%

XING 6%
MySpace

4%

Other

15%

0%

26%

20%

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.

18%

16%

40%

60%

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.

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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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 dont provide any indication of
how the HR department can be contacted.

Have you applied for a position and never

gotten a response from the HR department?
No
22%

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.

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

11 Hewlett-Packard

2 IBM

12 Mercedes-Benz

3 Microsoft

13 Gillette

4 GE

14 Cisco

5 Nokia

15 BMW

6 McDonalds

16 Louis Vuitton

7 Google

17 Marlboro

8 Toyota

18 Honda

9 Intel

19 Samsung

10 Disney

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

lundquist.

employer
branding
online

lundquist.

a w a r d s

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 bachelors degree or higher.
Six percent were undergraduate university students.

Contacts

Research team

Eric Sylvers
Head of employer branding
eric.sylvers@lundquist.it

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

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

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