The Compounding Interest of Employer Branding

Compound interest is a simple and powerful concept.

A $100 deposit compounded at 10% per month adds up to $110 in month 1. In month 2, compounding doesn’t just give us $10. It also gives us 10% of the $10 we earned in the previous month to the tune of $11. This brings our total to $121.

Compound interest might start off as pocket change but, with incremental increases each week, it becomes significant before long.

Compound interest doesn't just apply to you savings account though.

Almost anything you pursue compounds over time:

Investing in your Employer Brand isn't a quick win. Recruiting is a time poor profession. There are always things that need to "get done", so it's not surprising that branding often falls down the priority list.

One thing is for certain though. Employer Branding compounds.

Once you begin, the results might feel minimal to non-existent at the start, but over time this changes. A stellar brand creates momentum.

Over time, the pieces start to fall into place and things change. Applications increase - the best talent comes looking for you.

In fact, once you get to a certain level, brand acceleration takes on a life of it's own. In sociology, this is known as either the "Matthew effect" or the "accumulation advantage".

In simple parlance it can be reduced to this: the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

Tech giants like Google and Facebook exemplify this. Every year it's _more _applications, _more _awards, more branding kudos. They're certainly still putting in the work, but now the returns are exponentially bigger.

It's a different game.

The early bird catches the worm

The sooner you start saving, the bigger the upside.

In this example from Business Insider, Hypothetical investors Emily and Dave each invest $200 per month. Emily starts at age 25 but Dave waits until age 35. By the time they are 65, Emily has invested $24,000 more, but because she started earlier, she ends up with $199,374 more.

The takeaway is simple. Just start. It doesn't matter where you're starting from, once you get going it becomes easier and you start seeing results.

You might not be a "Google" right now but, if you start moving now, you'll get there a lot faster than your competitors.

If you enjoyed this article then take a look at the Beamery Academy. It’s stuffed full of ebooks, free courses and whitepapers that will help you take your team make talent their competitive advantage.

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