Your Employer Brand

Every company has its unique brand. Often, we talk about how the company brand is perceived by our clients and customers. However, your employees play a key role in branding. They are the ones that live it daily and make it true. That means that a company’s brand is directly connected to your employee’s attitudes and behaviors.

Most of us have probably had a bad customer experience or several. Consider how often you may have shared that experience with friends and colleagues, particularly if the issue was never addressed. Some of this may have even been posted on social media. A better understanding of how an employer brand can impact the company can be very beneficial in creating a more productive work environment.

Employer branding is different than branding a product or a service. It is branding that supports recruiting and retaining the best possible talent within a recruiting environment. The term applies to how a company markets its offerings (new positions, training, etc.) to potential and current employees. Employers can also use this type of branding to get employees more engaged on an emotional level to make change more acceptable, improve results, or help with employee retention.  

Like a branding exercise for a product launch, some of the basics can be used to create an employer brand that goes beyond the company’s mission, vision, and values statements.  Here are some questions to consider when developing an effective employer branding message:

• Given the demographics of our workforce, is our internal employee branding and messaging aligned with the people who work for our company?
• Are our company’s values in alignment with our workforce's values, the way they live, their interests, and their beliefs?
• What feedback have we gotten from our workforce on our current message? 
• Do you know how our employer branding is perceived by the vast majority of our employees, our managers, and our leadership team?

It is important to understand that employees are more engaged and more productive when they have a common sense of purpose. That may sound obvious, but we don’t always understand how branding helps create that. Your employer branding, if done right, reflects that sense of purpose and is enhanced by that sense of purpose. When employees care about and believe in the employer brand, they are inspired to do more together, creating more unified teams.

Some factors impact employers' branding. They include organizational culture, organizational commitment, social, educational, and professional aspects, the influence of family and friends, how employees view leadership, transparency, communication, and overall work atmosphere.  Like many needed initiatives, building and maintaining a successful employer brand requires leadership and leadership buy-in. Leaders and managers are often seen by their teams as controlling organizational reputation, being responsible for a healthy or unhealthy working environment, and being key in whether the designed employee brand resonates with everyone in the company. When rolling out a new employer brand, leadership at all levels should be trained and involved in the process.

Do you know if your brand and your values statement are getting the buy-in you want from your workforce? If not, it’s time to reevaluate. Getting a clearer message out can help attract and retain the talent you need. It can potentially help reduce recruitment costs. A compelling brand provides a clear picture of what it's like to work for your organization, making it more likely you will be a top choice for the candidates you want to attract.

Some of the best employer brands highlight the qualities your company wants in all their employees. It gives a clear and inspiring picture of your unique work culture. It also showcases the great benefits and incentives of working for your company. To further enhance your brand, consider the candidate experience and look at ways to make improvements. Consider how you can highlight the reputation of your leadership. Everyone wants to work for a terrific boss and a terrific company.

Here are some of the results from companies that have successful employer brands:

• L’Oreal – 70% of their LinkedIn followers are interested in applying for a job at the company. They have over 1.8 million followers on their networking site.
• Heineken – Their “Go Places” campaign in 2016 produced a 56% increase in applications.
• Starbucks - By inviting current and potential employees to interact with its brand online, Starbucks is creating a team of brand ambassadors that job seekers can trust. That’s why it dubs its 330,000 global employees “partners” rather than “employees.”

Your employer brand should reflect all the actions and principles of your organization. It is what builds your reputation in the marketplace. It’s important to remember that according to Gallup data, less than one-quarter of employees are truly engaged at work. Having a better employer brand can help improve that number.