Employment25 Apr 2023
Designing a unique Employer Brand identity: Best practices and trends
A company's reputation as an employer is known as its Employer Brand identity. It is how current and potential employees perceive the company's culture, work environment and values.
With the job market getting more challenging by the day, it's crucial to establish a distinct Employer Brand identity. Your company's reputation as an employer is potent in attracting and retaining the right talent. This article will explore the latest trends and best practices for crafting a unique Employer Brand.
Why Employer Branding matters
Having a compelling Employer Brand can significantly impact an organisation in multiple ways.
Firstly, it can help attract and retain top-notch talent. With the current competitive job market, job seekers are not only looking for a job but also for a company that shares their values, fosters a positive work culture and offers opportunities for career growth. An effective Employer Brand can more easily communicate these aspects to potential candidates, thus increasing the chances of them applying for the job and accepting the offer.
Secondly, Employer Branding can boost employee engagement and retention. Employees working for a company with a magnetic Employer Brand are more likely to feel proud of their association with the organisation, leading to increased commitment and engagement. This, in turn, can reduce employee turnover rates, boost productivity and enhance job satisfaction.
Lastly, a positive Employer Brand can contribute to an organisation's overall reputation, attracting customers and top talent while improving the company's image and standing in the industry.
Best practices for designing a unique Employer Brand identity
Establishing practical guidelines for the development of a distinctive Employer Brand identity is of paramount importance. Such guidelines can facilitate the creation of an Employer Brand that authentically embodies a company's culture, values and mission, resonating with existing and prospective employees.
Some of the best practices for designing a unique brand identity are as follows:
Exploring both the perspective of leaders and employees is crucial when crafting a distinct Employer Brand identity. Here are some practical ways to delve into this research:
1. Engage with leaders: Conversing with a company's leaders can furnish valuable insights into its vision, values, and aspirations. They can also provide valuable insight into the company's culture and the type of employee that would thrive in the organisation now and into the future.
2. Seek employee feedback: Conducting employee surveys can provide valuable feedback on the company's culture, work environment and employee experience. This data can help identify areas for improvement and strengths to showcase in the Employer Brand identity.
3. Analyse employee feedback: Employee reviews on sites such as Glassdoor can provide a window into the employee experience and the company's reputation as an employer. Analysing this information can help identify areas for improvement and strengths to showcase in the Employer brand identity.
4. Conduct focused discussions: Conducting focused discussions with employees can provide additional insights into expectations, challenges, and areas for growth within the Employer Brand identity. Talk with Talent Attraction teams and your Corporate Brand team. Both will have interesting insights into how the Employer Brand identity can be best formulated to address issues and needs.
Market research is crucial in developing a distinctive Employer Brand identity. Here are some effective methods to approach market research:
1. Examine competitors: Conduct thorough research on competitors to gain insights into their Employer Brand identity, company culture, and benefits and perks. This research can help identify areas where the company can differentiate itself and highlight its unique strengths.
2. Identify target talent: Determine the target audience for the Employer Brand identity and research their needs, expectations, and values. This information can help tailor the Employer Brand identity to the target audience and make it more appealing to them.
3. Analyse job postings: Analyse job postings within the industry to understand the language, tone, and messaging utilised in job descriptions. This research can help create a unique and compelling Employer Brand that stands out.
4. Monitor social media: Monitor social media platforms to gauge the sentiment around the company's brand. This research can provide valuable insights into the company's reputation and help improve the Employer Brand.
A strategic Employer Brand Essence is crucial in shaping a distinct Employer Brand identity. To develop an Employer Brand Essence and validate it, follow these steps:
1. Determine Employer Brand Essence: An Employer Brand essence is the fundamental inspiration that embodies your company's employee experience. It must be brief, yet remarkable. It must be single-minded in capturing the distinctive nature of your organisation. Conduct thorough research on the marketplace, employees, and leaders to gather proof-points to help create this essence. Note that this is NOT an external marketing tagline, but a strategic tool to ‘hang your hat on’. It should be authentic, relatable and differentiating.
2. Validate your Employer Brand Essence: To obtain feedback, test your Employer Brand Essence with your stakeholders including the Executive Leadership team. This input can assist in determining whether the essence accurately reflects your company's vision and talent strategy. It’s a great way to get buy-in from senior leadership BEFORE you get creative.
3. Refine and repeat: Utilise the feedback received to improve and refine the Employer Brand Essence. Then use this essence to inspire creative concepts for your Employer Brand. It is at this stage that you can test the Employer Brand concepts (applied to real-world channels like careers website, careers expo stand and social post) with employees and continue with further refinement.
Crafting an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) through strategic pillars is crucial in crafting a unique Employer Brand identity. Below are the necessary steps to create an EVP with strategic pillars:
Identify the company's distinctive selling points: Determine what sets the company’s employee experience apart and distinguishes it from its competition. These unique selling points can provide the foundation for the EVP.
1. Determine the target audience: Narrow down the target audience for the EVP. This might include existing employees, potential candidates and specific demographic groups.
2. Create strategic pillars: Develop pillars that embody the EVP's critical components. These pillars should align with the company's unique selling points and the target audience's needs and expectations. They should be authentic, relatable and differentiating.
3. Gather feedback through focus groups: Test the EVP with focus groups to obtain insight into its effectiveness and appeal. Utilise this feedback to refine and enhance the EVP as needed.
4. Communicate the EVP: Spread the word about the EVP throughout all levels of the organisation to ensure everyone is on the same page.
A brief and striking statement that captures an organisation's unique employee value proposition and brand essence is known as a talent tagline. It helps to provide job seekers with a clear understanding of what distinguishes the company from its competitors and why they should consider working there.
In contrast, a narrative is a more comprehensive and detailed description of an employer’s brand and value proposition. It tells the story of the company's mission, culture, and values and how they create a positive work environment and growth opportunities for employees. It may include corporate values, team statistics, geographic reach, company purpose and the intangibles of culture and quality of relationships with people and the work itself.
When combined, a talent tagline and a narrative create a strong Employer Brand identity and a positive perception among potential employees.
When it comes to building a strong Employer Brand identity, there are several key concepts that companies should consider. These include the Employer Value Proposition (EVP), company culture and Employer Brand look and feel. These concepts must suit key channels like social media, job boards, career fairs, and the corporate website. The aim is to establish a unified and coherent look and messaging across all channels, facilitating the attraction of suitable candidates and the establishment of a coherent Employer Brand.
It is imperative to submit the concepts for the Employer Brand to employee scrutiny once developed. Employee feedback is critical to gauge the resonance with the company's authentic culture and values. The insights gleaned from employees prove invaluable in deciphering the attractiveness or unattractiveness of the concepts and identifying potential areas for refinement. This is the promise that we are making for the Employer Brand - so it must feel real otherwise it could in fact cause attrition and be costly for the business.
Following employee feedback, it is necessary to refine the concepts to ensure they align with the company's core values and cultural identity. This refinement process may involve revising messaging, adjusting tone, or modifying visual elements to resonate better with employees. The ultimate objective is to develop a final concept that reflects the company's Employer Brand identity and appeals to current and prospective employees.
Establishing guidelines to delineate the essential components of your Employer Brand, including but not limited to your Employer Value Proposition (EVP), Talent Tagline, Narrative, intended audience, brand communication templates, is instrumental in developing a coherent and persuasive Employer Brand that effectively resonates with your coveted candidates and employees. Such guidelines are a blueprint to ensure consistency and efficacy in your Employer Branding strategy.
After successfully crafting your Employer Brand, promoting and disseminating it to your intended audience becomes necessary. Employ a diverse range of marketing channels, including social media, job boards, employer review sites, employee referrals, events, and career fairs, to reach your ideal candidates effectively. Ensure that your messaging remains uniform across all platforms and that you specifically emphasise your Employer Brand's critical components in your promotional materials.
Formulating an Employer Brand identity presents numerous advantages for organisations. Some of these benefits comprise:
1. Setting your organisation apart from competitors: An Employer Brand identity enables organisations to differentiate themselves from other employers in the job market. Organisations can appeal to candidates seeking a specific work environment or company culture by expressing their unique EVP, values, culture and benefits. This, in turn, helps organisations stand out amidst a crowded job market and attract the ideal candidates that align with their values and culture.
2. Enhancing candidate attraction: A robust Employer Brand identity can aid organisations in becoming more memorable to the candidates they aim to attract. By maintaining a consistent and cohesive message across all channels, organisations can create a lasting impression on candidates, making them more likely to recall and apply for job opportunities in the future.
3. Fostering employee engagement and retention: Crafting an Employer Brand identity also facilitates organisations in engaging with their current employees. When employees feel connected to the organisation's values and culture, they are more likely to remain motivated and committed, ultimately improving performance.
Trends in crafting an Employer Brand identity
Designing an Employer Brand identity is a fluid and progressive undertaking, subject to the influence of evolving market trends and shifting candidate expectations. As such, organisations must stay abreast of emerging trends in crafting a compelling and enduring Employer Brand identity.
One such trend is the need to create an Employer Brand identity that is uniquely ownable, thereby setting it apart from competitors. Companies increasingly focus on developing an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that is authentic and will resonate with their targeted audience to achieve this goal. A few ways Employer Brands can achieve this is by leveraging the unique journey the business is on, and infusing corporate brand identity elements into their employment marketing content. Making sure you include ‘differentiated value’. This means what you offer that candidates and employees value BUT is different to what other employers offer.
For example; rather than saying a friendly culture (like most businesses do) you may discover (through research) that your employees value supportive teamwork above all else and that this creates a culture that is enabled to use diverse ideas to create exciting customer solutions.
Another emerging trend is the use of user-generated content as a means of showcasing an organisation's Employer Brand identity. By encouraging employees to share their experiences and stories through social media and other channels, companies can offer a genuine and authentic perspective on their organisational culture and values - providing potential candidates with a deeper understanding of what it's like to work for the company.
The third trend is using video to convey authentic narratives of the company culture and its employees. This approach emphasises employee experiences, backgrounds, and motivations, fostering trust and credibility while effectively communicating the organisation's values and ethos in a more human way. Because people trust people over corporations. And video doesn’t lie. It’s the most authentic way to create content and quickly build credibility and trust.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you create an ownable Employer Brand?
Developing a distinctive Employer Brand that embodies an organisation's identity requires a purposeful and strategic approach. To that end, organisations can take several key steps to establish an ownable Employer Brand:
Incorporate the organisation's journey: To establish a connection with potential employees, organisations should include their business journey in their Employer Brand. This means sharing the story of the organisation's planned growth, challenges ahead and milestones along the way. Doing so can help candidates understand the organisation's mission and purpose and also highlight the unique facets of the organisation's culture that are going to be required to get there.
Integrate corporate values: An organisation's corporate values are the guiding principles that shape its business. They are crucial to the Employer Brand, providing potential employees insight into the organisation's culture and behavioural expectations. To establish an ownable Employer Brand, organisations should ensure that their corporate values are clear, pertinent, and aligned with their mission and purpose.
Integrate corporate brand elements: By integrating corporate brand elements into the Employer Brand, organisations can create an Employer Brand that is uniquely their own. This includes incorporating visual identity, tone of voice, and messaging that align with the organisation's values and mission. This approach will help create a seamless and consistent brand experience, reinforcing the organisation's value proposition across all communication channels.
What are the three critical components of Employer Branding?
Employer Branding constitutes a strategic approach aimed at attracting, engaging, and retaining the right talent. Some critical components that make up Employer Branding include:
Thorough research on employees and competitors: Before developing an Employer Branding strategy, organisations ought to conduct extensive research to comprehend the needs, values and perceptions of their employees about the company. This research should also encompass a profound understanding of the competitive landscape in terms of what other companies are doing to attract and retain top talent.
Craft an Employee Value Proposition (EVP): An EVP is a strategic marketing proposition (including pillars and narrative) that outlines the unique benefits and rewards that an employee receives in exchange for their skills, experience, and performance. A well-outlined EVP can assist organisations in distinguishing themselves from competitors and attracting the right talent. An effective EVP should be authentic, compelling, and aligned with the organisation's values and culture.
Authentic employee stories that align with the organisation's overall strategy: These narratives can take the form of testimonials, videos and social media posts, and they are instrumental in showcasing the company's culture, values, and mission. Such stories must be genuine and authentic for maximum efficacy, accurately reflecting the organisation's core principles and values.
Need helping crafting an ownable Employer Brand?
At Belong Creative, we’ve been helping some of Australia’s most desirable employers attract, engage and retain the right talent for their business since 2009. From crafting human-centric EVPs to designing ownable Employer Brand look and feels and bringing them to life through written, photographic and video storytelling we offer an end-to-end solution for people-focussed organisations that want to succeed by creating more belonging.
With a menu of proven creative ideas, including costings, deliverables and live examples you will have everything you need to build a comprehensive budget to activate your Employer Brand.