Leveraging the Corporate Brand to Attract and Retain Talent in South Africa and Other Emerging Economies

Abstract

With critical global talent shortages, the compounding effect of socio-economic challenges and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, companies in South Africa and other emerging marketplace economies are struggling to attract and retain the talent required for organisational success. The literature supports the use of employer brand-building practices to attract talent and internal branding to retain talent. The corporate brand plays a central role in both talent attraction and retention as it navigates the employer and internal brand and aligns all stakeholders, including talent. A lack of insight into talent attraction and retention through brand building in South Africa fuelled the need for a qualitative study in companies rated as top South African brands. Interviews with cross-functional strategic leaders provided data for thematic analysis. Notably, the dominant theme, which accounted for more than half of the cumulative content data, indicated the prominence of the corporate brand in talent attraction and retention. In this article, we discuss the significance of this finding in context of the current business landscape in emerging economies such as South Africa, in which widespread disruption continues to change the reality within which talent is attracted and retained. Ten leading practices are presented, along with five related management implications, which provide human resources and talent management with guidance on leveraging the corporate brand to attract and retain talent. Research limitations related to the sample of top South African brands inform recommendations for further research into brand building for talent attraction and retention in other emerging economies.