Six in 10 HR professionals plan to increase investment in employer branding over the next year, according to research from TMP Worldwide.

The research also shows that for more than 90% of HR professionals, as the economy picks up, the impact of their employer brand on their ability to increase recruitment will grow in importance.

Seven in 10 expect to have a major focus over the next year in ensuring that their employer brand is best in class in their sector, while 60% are already monitoring the employer brands of key competitors.

The top four challenges identified in defining and the expressing an employer brand are: freeing up sufficient project time (27%), senior level buy-in (18%), securing sufficient budget (16%) and delivering branding messages consistently (14%).