Building an Employee-Centric Brand
Authenticity matters now more than ever in building your employer and employee brand. When you create a culture of recognition, employees become your brand ambassadors in the war for talent.
Introduction
Changes in today’s workforce attitudes require a reassessment of strategies for engaging employees and candidates. Traditional employer branding campaigns may need to be updated to address current perceptions, preferences and workplace realities. Employee branding, the practice of sharing real-life stories about life as an employee inside your organization, is playing an increasingly important role in supporting talent acquisition and retention strategies in today’s war for talent. Employee recognition programs provide an ongoing source of input and inspiration for employer and employee branding campaigns.
These topics were discussed at a recent roundtable session with members of the Trendicators Advisory Board, the research division of the Engage2Excel group of companies. At this session, Jeff Gelinas, president of Engage2Excel, and Darren Findley, president of Engage2Excel Recruitment Solutions, shared branding definitions, provided insights and examples of best practices and gathered feedback from board members on their HR branding programs, challenges and opportunities.
In this eBook, Building an Employee-Centric Brand, we present a guide, based on our roundtable discussion, for organizations that are either reevaluating or just getting started on building branding programs to create closer connections with candidates and employees in today’s challenging talent marketplace.
The perceptions of the workplace and workforce have fundamentally changed. The desire for more flexibility, whether working on-site or remotely part- or full-time, along with increased interest in meaningful work and opportunities for career development and advancement, has played a larger part in attracting talent and reducing attrition.
Workers across all age groups desire a greater connection with their work and the organization’s mission, vision and values, as well as recognition of their personal impact and contributions to the organization’s goal. Employer branding—the image an organization conveys to current and prospective employees—plays an increasingly important role in
recruitment and retention. Effective employer branding is based on an employer value proposition (EVP) that enunciates the differentiated value an organization offers its employees. However, a survey by McLean & Company shows that 55% of companies do not have EVPs.*
In this report, we explore the relationship between your organization’s EVP, employer brand and employee branding—a strategy for sharing real-life stories about life as an employee in your organization. Our goal is to offer insights into and inspiration for building an employee-centric brand that authentically differentiates your organization in today’s hypercompetitive talent marketplace.
* HR Trends Report 2023, McLean & Company
The world of branding has changed significantly over the past decade. Ubiquitous access to information, social media and user-generated content has led companies across all industries to shift corporate brand strategies from selling products and services to also promoting values, beliefs, experiences and aspirations.
Today, the most successful companies understand that the value propositions for customers and employees are influenced by the same forces and are inextricably linked. However, while recruiting and employee experience are top priorities for companies of all sizes, the practice of employer and employee branding is not widely understood or adopted. Only 22% of companies have EVPs and 23% report that they are developing one. Of companies with EVPs, 29% view them as generic statements and only 11% consider them adequately differentiated and segmented to appeal to specific employee groups.*
If your organization is behind the curve in developing its EVP and employer and employee brand strategy, prioritizing this is essential to compete more effectively for talent. A fresh approach, aligned with current workforce expectations and motivations, can help differentiate your organization in real and meaningful ways. Sharing real-life stories about life as an employee in your organization can be a powerful, authentic and inexpensive way to differentiate your organization.
* HR Trends Report 2023, McLean & Company
Employer Branding Campaigns
The examples on the following pages are provided for inspiration.
How recognition, acknowledgment & celebration can empower recruiting
Adding an employee branding campaign to your corporate communications mix can create closer connections with candidates and employees through authentic work/life stories that differentiate your company as an employer of choice.
Employee Videos
Employee videos are an effective way to bring your EVP to life. Whether through testimonials from employees who share their personal career stories or vignettes featuring employees and groups along with a voice-over, employee videos highlight the experiences and cultural values that create emotional connections with candidates. To view the following inspiring employee videos on YouTube, please click on the links listed.
https://bit.ly/3RyfDjq https://bit.ly/3GvSQhC
https://bit.ly/4a4JPtB https://bit.ly/3Rx6qb3
Key Takeaways
In our recent roundtable discussion, advisory board members shared what their organizations are doing to build more employee-centric brands and identified challenges and opportunities for advancing their strategies. The following key takeaways include best practices, recommendations and insights for organizations that are either reevaluating or just getting started on building branding strategies to create closer connections with candidates and employees in today’s challenging talent marketplace.
