Employer branding – your key to a successful corporate culture

As a subset of the core brand, employer branding is the information you put out there to attract potential new employees. It is also representative of the conditions and culture you live in-house. A powerful employer brand ensures you attract staff who believe what you believe and that you keep the staff who are loyal to your values. This generates a more motivated workforce, lower absenteeism, and reduced staff turnover. In these days of employee scarcity, this is quite a bonus.

“For me – it’s a great place to work!”

So, your employer brand describes your reputation as an employer, and as a place to work. Minchington: “[your employer brand is] the image of your organization as a ‘great place to work’ in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other key stakeholders).

Often based on an employee value proposition, the key is to ensure seamless alignment with your core brand and so to deliver transparency and a genuine reflection of who you are and what you offer your (potential) staff. When staff feel their own values are aligned with that of their employer, they are more loyal and willing to go that extra mile. It’s the only way to generate true loyalty and employee engagement and retention, as shown by the highly influential ‘Built to last: successful habits of visionary companies’ study published in the mid-1990s.

Developing an employer brand

Employer brand management therefore expands the scope beyond communication to incorporate every aspect of the employment experience. It includes the people management processes and practices (touchpoints) that shape the perceptions of existing and prospective employees. By reiterating what you stand for, we need to look at whether those values are also reflected in employees’ practical experience of working with you, and not just in the presentation.

By looking at all employee touchpoints, we reflect on whether they add to or detract from the employer brand. Next, we need to find ways to further enhance the embedding of your values in employee behaviour and their experience of working with you.

It is an exciting, significant process that brings the way you and your employees behave back to the core of your brand.

Let’s talk about how you can enhance your employee engagement, retention, and how you can attract employees that love what you do.