How to create a successful employer brand

A strong employer brand is an important way to keep an employer ahead in the staffing stakes – to become an ‘employer of choice.’ It is the perceptions, feelings and associations in the minds of employees about their employment experience. It covers the whole employee life cycle from first contact through to departure.

Talented people are most sought after

To attract the best employees, organizations need to be perceived in the employment marketplace as a ‘great place to work.’ It is worth pursuing such positioning because the best employees contribute the most to organizational performance. A 2017 McKinsey report pointed to the importance of recruiting top talent, who are up to 8 times more productive than other recruits, but “many companies do an awful job of finding and recruiting them.” A 2012 study quoted in the paper found high performers are 400% more productive than average ones. Other studies of businesses found similar results, and also reveal that the gap rises with a job’s complexity. In highly complex occupations, high performers are an astounding 800% more productive. These were people in information- and interaction-intensive work such as managers, software developers, and similar.

Image: McKinsey 2017 report ‘Attracting and retaining the right talent.’

Online recruiting

The internet comes into the employer brand and recruitment experience. Jobs can be promoted to potential employees via the corporate website or a special recruitment website, blogs, email subscription lists, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. (Most recruiters use the web and now social media to verify the background of shortlisted job applicants by checking Facebook, LinkedIn and Google in particular.)

In addition, employers use external channels such as industry conferences, online forums, campus recruitment and visible branding in company locations to promote their brand as an employer. Forward-thinking employers are turning to their own employees to help communicate their employer brand internally. They use the company intranet, employee newsletters, internal conferences and events, internal emails, and CEO/senior executive presentations. These channels may be used to encourage existing employees to apply for an available position, or may be used by current staff to mention the opening to their own contacts.

Create a digital employer brand document that employees can download from the intranet. In it, link to employee testimonials and videos on your website. Give this document to new hires to help get them engaged in their new roles. This will help you create a successful employer brand

Big gap between employee experience at work and the organization’s employer brand

Once a person is on board, the employment experience should be reviewed in detail from that point. The important thing is to make the promises match the experience. Unfortunately, employers aren’t delivering on their promises. This can be a major problem because a new employee is likely to become disgruntled and start looking around for another job.

Image: UK’s PR Moment, 2018.

Unfortunately, only 19% of employees worldwide agree strongly that their experience at work matches their organization’s employer brand, according to a global 2017 study by PR firm Weber Shandwick:

“Although the level of employer brand credibility is disappointing at 19%, our study finds that the terrain for improvement is wide open. Only a minority of employees (7%) resolutely disagrees that there is an alignment between what employers say about themselves and what they experience. The largest segment – 74% – falls in between. These are “marginally aligned” employees, and their employers have the opportunity to change perceptions by better defining and living an employer brand that employees recognize, believe and promote.”

The research affirms a strong business case for creating stronger alignment between employer brand and the employee experience. Closing the gap provides an opportunity for employers to more successfully drive recruitment, employee engagement and advocacy, and retention. An authentic employer brand is particularly critical in an age of extreme transparency where job candidates make reputational assessments with ease based on what an organization’s employees say online or through word of mouth.

Image: UK’s PR Moment, 2018.

Survey findings show the need to be authentic and consistent

When you want to create a successful employer brand by developing and communicating an employer brand to potential employees, certain building blocks are important to success. Survey respondents believe an employer brand has to be authentic (55%) and consistent with company practices (52%). It is also fairly important that the employer brand and customer brand are consistent with each other (36%). Other factors to consider when developing a brand include making it clear, believable, compelling and relevant.

Strong employee engagement leads to a strong employer brand

Gallup research in 2019 found that engaged employees are 23 times more likely than disengaged employees to strongly agree they would recommend their organization as a great place to work, as shown in the image below. Engagement is about meeting employees’ needs in a way that sets them up for high performance.

Image: Gallup – What engaged employees say about your brand, 2019.

Workplace culture and the engagement of employees convey your organization’s identity to the general public, potential customers and future job candidates. The Gallup research revealed that engaged cultures actually talk differently too. More than 9,000 US employees were asked to describe their workplace culture. The results were then compared between those who were engaged and those who were actively disengaged, as below:

Image source: Gallup – What engaged employees say about your brand, 2019.

Support from the top

It is essential for your CEO or top executive to formally sponsor/support the employer brand internally and externally. ‘Top Brand’ companies are significantly more likely to have the CEO or President as the most senior sponsor of employer branding activity (44%), compared with ‘Other Brand’ companies (25%). Top Brands also have a more well-defined internal employer brand compared to Other Brands, as shown in this diagram:

Image: from Hudson report, “How to launch a successful employer brand, 2014.

However, the CEO or other top executive may try to impose their own views on what the employer brand should be, so ensure your branding work involves getting feedback from representative employees, and use this as the most important lead for the resulting brand. If your work doesn’t strike a chord with employees by involving them, you will struggle to create a successful employer brand.

Nevertheless, you need to appoint a person with clear responsibility for the employer brand. If not, the full value of the brand is not fulfilled, and problems may arise:

• Employer branding responsibilities are often given to an HR generalist or individual who has little to no experience delivering a complex employer branding project. This person doesn’t understand how to create an employer brand strategy, or how to align programs to support the messaging or get sponsorship from top management to drive initiatives effectively through the organization. This then creates the widespread perception that employer branding is not effective, which curtails continuing investments in employer brand initiatives.

If your organization lacks an experienced strategist or influencer who can bring teams together to craft an effective employer brand, then it is advisable to engage someone who can bring these messages to fruition.

A formal employer brand strategy can make a real difference: twice as many companies that have a defined and documented strategy for their employer brand succeed in having it well understood by employees.

Employee value proposition

Actions speak louder than words – an employee’s experience of your organization’s actions influences them much more than communication, but communication creates the linkages and can play a central role in many of those experiences to promote the employee value proposition (EVP). An EVP is about defining the essence of your organization – how it is unique and what it stands for. The EVP is the unique set of benefits an employee receives in return for the skills, capabilities and experience they bring to an employer. Your organization’s EVP should always answer the question: ““What does my organization offer as an employer, and how is that different from other employers who are attracting the same type of people?”, according to Smarp in 2021.

Smarp consultants say the best way to define the EVP is by interviewing your employees to find out what they value about your organization and why do they decide to stay. These 3 simple questions can really help you understand your employees’ state of mind:

• Why is your company a great workplace?
• What do you value the most?
• Why do you choose to work here instead of somewhere else?

Excellent 8-question framework

Brand strategist Morgan Norman wrote an excellent 2019 article, “The 8-question framework for successful rebrands,” which provides a series of 8 practical, open-ended questions that lead to a successful rebranding outcome. He advises getting a good cross-section of employees into representative groups of 10-12 people at a time, and:

1. ask them the open-ended questions to get them talking. They are unlikely to know what to think until they start talking, and
2. don’t start with top management. Instead “focus on the impassioned people who make your company hum.”

Get it all recorded and transcribed so you can look for patterns and interesting side comments in the answers.

Plenty of ground to make up

There is plenty to do to develop your organization’s EVP. Research reported in a 2020 Leftronic article found that only 61% of companies have well-developed EVPs, and 44% of all CEOs don’t even know that their company utilizes EVPs.

Perhaps the easiest and most cost effective way to educate employees about the firm’s employee value proposition is to put the actual EVP statement on the screen savers of all employees’ computers. The screen saver is something they see every day and with that type of repetition, the message is more likely to stay top of mind.

Communication comes into play

Organizations must be serious about developing and conveying an employer brand that captures their value to potential hires. This is more than just an explanation of the company’s strategy, markets and products, although these are important. It is a valid, thoughtful expression of the corporate culture and work environment—why the candidate will want to engage with like-minded individuals in shared pursuits toward specific outcomes. Effective communication is essential to create a successful employer brand.

Communication function should be represented from the start with employer branding

Informal employer branding already exists whether you attempt to shape it or not. It is every contact the employee has with the organization – every ‘moment of truth.’ And communicators can shape many of those experiences.

Communication is involved in most of the recruitment stages. The first part of the experience is likely to be when a person first sees a job advertisement in a newspaper or in a career website. Just as likely these days is a referral from a friend or family member about a potential job. Job referrals are the most trusted source of recruitment.

The presentation and content of the job advertisement create an impression in the mind of a candidate. Communication staff should play a central role in creating the visual material and information content in the job advertisement. Your organization’s corporate identity should be clearly communicated visually along with a positioning statement in the job ad. Your marketing department may play a role as well with this.

Who will run the rebranding project?

The employer brand is usually considered the province of HR practitioners, but a large part of the employer brand comprises the formal and informal communication that takes place over the employee life cycle. Quite often HR practitioners haven’t taken steps to develop the employer brand, and so you can take the initiative in talking with them about systematically strengthening the brand and actively progressing its implementation. (Or, you might be interested in seeing if you can take responsibility for managing the whole program…)

Can a communication manager run an employer brand program?

If you are a strategic-thinking head of your organization’s corporate communication function, you may be interested in taking on the role of developing a strong employer brand. I took this approach with my organization’s employee recognition program. When the subject of recognition was raised at a meeting of our executive committee, the HR manager implied he had no experience with employee recognition and didn’t want to take this on. The concept of employee recognition has a major communication component, and so even though I had no experience with this myself, I put my hand up and was appointed to run with it. Loved it! I initiated two recognition programs internally in two organizations and two as a consultant. Really enjoyed the  work and the very pleased employees whose workplace contributions had never been recognized before. One recognition focus group participant said it was the first time the organization had ever asked for his opinion in 20 years!

Results measurement

Key lead indicators of success include:

• Your organization’s financial performance – profit per employee (per FTE)
• HR process metrics such as candidate satisfaction, hiring manager satisfaction, offer acceptance rate and time to fill positions
• Employee feedback such as if employees would recommend the employer to others, and satisfaction rates of new employees
• Quality of applicants – evaluating candidates at first résumé screening, first interview, line manager interview, and final interview (if used).
• Employee retention – at 3 months (or completion of probation period), at first performance review, and the retention rate of high performers.

Remember, many new arrivals leave before they have completed six months in the job. This adds significantly to overheads. By astutely using communication to help improve the employee experience and hence your employer brand, you will find it easier to attract candidates, you will become more of an employer of choice, and you will improve your employee retention rates. You will be well on the journey to create a successful employer brand.

Other measurement indicators

Hudson RPO reported in their 2014 paper,”How to launch a successful employer brand: Building on the practices of top employer brands,” that tracking true ROI on employer brand activities is difficult because other variables beyond employer brand programs affect retention and hiring data. For example, if retention rates move from 65% to 75%, the increase could be attributable to enhanced HR programs, increased consumer brand
advertising or new leadership, among other factors. Employer brand success is ultimately gauged by retention rates and how easy it is to put new talent into open positions.
However, measuring certain hiring data before and after an employer brand campaign can provide indicators of success, assuming all other variables remain relatively constant. Common indicators include:

• Time-to-fill
• Cost-per-hire
• Retention rates
• Job application rates
• Changes in advertising spend
• Cost of turnover and associated onboarding programs
• Surveying people about employer brand proposition awareness

Good measures of employer branding project success are increased rates of completed job applications and survey results showing that people are more aware of the EVP. Nevertheless, it is important to keep one’s eye on the end game – the measurements most valuable to the business are higher retention rates and the ease of securing top talent.

Further reading

You can read more on employer branding in these articles, “Why team building is key to your employer branding,” and “6 simple ways to build a better employer brand.” These articles will help you on the road to create a successful employer brand.