Employment branding isn’t just the latest HR buzzword. Properly implemented, it becomes a comprehensive strategy that speaks to your internal audience – your employees – just as your external branding speaks to customers and the outside world in general. And, yes, it can also do wonders to boost the quality of your hiring, retention and overall productivity.
All branding is about reputation. Whether your industry is able to attract plenty of highly-qualified applicants or your competition is fierce, job-seekers are now actively looking for a great place to work, not just a job. Employment branding helps them decide if you’re The One for them. An effective strategy must incorporate all five of these elements:
- Clear value proposition
What does your company stand for? Do you have a mission statement, stated values, a vision of the future? Are these ideals communicated to your entire workforce? And do they embrace and follow them? Does your company differentiate itself as a particularly strong community neighbor, or an entity that offers creative benefits or working conditions? The bottom line: why would someone want to work for you instead of another company?
And on your side of the equation, what kind of talent are you most interested in hiring? How does (or could) your employment brand attract their interest?
- Authenticity
Just because you say it, doesn’t mean it’s real. Employment branding must accurately reflect who your company really is when it comes to your workforce. Maybe you aren’t quite where you want to be yet, but every company is a work in progress.
The best way to ensure authenticity is to involve employees in the development of your employment branding strategy. After all, they’re the ones that have to live up to the brand as they go about their daily business. If the brand doesn’t work for them, they’re not going to work for it.
- Culture
Employment branding must permeate your entire company in order to be effective. This isn’t about your HR department, it’s about the way your management team thinks and the way your policies and systems work. Remember that “work in progress” cannot happen unless you foster a culture of continuous improvement and encourage sharing that supports that. Experts suggest that cross-functional leadership training is one way to both improve collaboration and further employee branding efforts.
- Loyalty
Loyalty comes from trust. When your employees have a hand in brand-building and your corporate culture facilitates living the brand, you’ll find loyalty is a natural outcome. Happier employees who feel valued as individuals and as an integral part of the big picture work harder, are more creative and stay longer.
- Alignment of customer and employment brands
Perhaps you have your marketing brand well in hand. But if your employment branding doesn’t reflect the same values you’re projecting externally, you’re working against yourself. You’ll have friction instead of cohesiveness and a strong sense of purpose.
Like all other aspects of managing your business, alignment of internal and external messaging and actions requires constant effort. The world is a changing environment, in terms of marketplace expectations and in terms of hiring and retention practices. A brand that doesn’t also evolve will soon become stagnant and outdated.
Branding is perception-building, based on truth. Many huge companies such as Google and Starbucks have made news because of their employment branding efforts. But every company can – and should – contemplate these five components to develop a comprehensive employment branding strategy. Your future productivity and growth depend on it.
