What is an employer brand?

An employer brand is the way that potential and current employees perceive a company. It encompasses company culture, mission, values, leadership, policies and priorities. A company’s brand is a combination of internal policies and external communication with the public. Our guide to employer branding explains that employers can do well to think like journalists. Look at the story behind the company and the narrative of where things are progressing for it. Instead of hard selling a product, businesses can look for that human communication element.

Employees can spread the company’s reputation through word-of-mouth, but companies with the strongest employer brand also take strategic steps to communicate their employer brand values to their target markets. This can include visual branding, social media interaction, community partnerships, events and awareness campaigns about company procedures. 

Why employer branding is important

Having a positive workplace culture and advertising it to build a well-known employer brand are two of the key elements to building a successful business with growth potential. A company’s employer brand can have an impact on several facets of its workforce, customer relationships and business opportunities. There are several reasons why employers may want to make their employer brand a priority:

Building a customer base

Modern customers often want to do business with companies that share their personal values and reflect those values through company actions. If a business has a well-established brand as a respectful, socially-conscious, positive employer, they can attract customers who value those traits. Customers may also be more loyal to a company’s brand if they know that they treat their employees well and care about the impact a business makes in their community. Employer branding initiatives also create opportunities for the company’s employees to engage directly with customers, creating authentic interactions that build genuine connections with a business’s products.

Attracting talent

When talented candidates look for a new job, they often gravitate towards businesses with a strong company brand, searching for the top companies to work for in their area or the businesses that have the best workplace environment. Jobseekers might be looking for:

• Hybrid work or remote opportunities;
• Organisations that provide career progression opportunities and transparency around what they can achieve in the company;
• A workplace pension;
• Private health insurance as well as income protection in the advent of long-term disability.

Jobseekers frequently utilise employer review websites to learn how current and past employees feel about their employer, including details about compensation, leadership strategies, workplace attitudes and company values. By building positive employer branding tools, employers can make candidates feel more interested in working at their company and being a part of an exciting brand.

Retaining employees

A business’s employer branding efforts also have a direct impact on its current employees. When a business focuses on its employer brand, it builds positive relationships with its staff. Many employees connect their personal identity to their career, which can extend to a specific employer if they have a brand identity that the employee relates to and believes in. Current employees also want opportunities for career development along with:

• A sense of appreciation;
• A company known for prioritising wellbeing (including emotional wellbeing);
• Implementing HR policies to better support employee needs;
• Strengthening your employee value proposition.

Businesses that involve their employees in outreach efforts and prioritise their role as a responsible and involved employer can increase employee commitment to a company and even improve retention rates.

Creating an industry reputation

A strong employer brand can be a great way to differentiate a business from its competitors and show customers, employees and community partners that they have high-level industry expertise and business acumen. Small businesses often hold an important role in their community, so developing a strong employer brand and advertising their excellent company culture can cultivate local partnerships and support based on their reputation. A business’s employer branding efforts can influence how others perceive its brand compared to other businesses in the same industry. By developing a consistent employer brand, companies can attract potential partners who have shared goals.

Tips for growing a company’s employer brand

These strategies can help organisations grow their brand as an employer:

Consider business core values

Before a business can build an employer brand out of company behaviours, they will likely have to understand which values are most important to their mission. Part of employer branding is having a unified identity, so businesses can consider making a list of their behaviours as an employer that mean the most to them and their employees.

Audit the current brand status

Businesses can benefit from performing an audit of their current employer brand’s perception by researching what others think of the company’s actions as an employer. Start by conducting internal surveys of staff opinions and having conversations with department managers about the feedback they have got from their team. Then search social media posts, company review sites and other external methods for monitoring business reputation.

Align policies with the company mission

A company’s policies and actions are some of the best starting points for building an employer brand. Satisfied employees will spread their positive experiences with a company through their professional network. Work to build a diverse and inclusive workplace that has employee-friendly policies and affirms the company mission.

Create a brand ambassador programme

A company’s employees can provide the most authentic, first-hand experiences with the public that demonstrate the employer brand. A business can ask their employees to document their experiences working for them to provide an inside perspective on the company culture and how employee actions can directly impact the overall mission. This helps the internal employer branding within a company and advertises it to customers as a selling point of the products.

Encourage company reviews

A company can provide incentives for employees to give feedback and share their honest opinion of them. Once a business is confident in its workplace culture, asking for anonymous employee reviews both internally and on job websites can create more awareness of its status as a great employer. It can also help a business to stay aware of its internal reputation and how it impacts its professional circle.

Frontload onboarding

When hosting a new employee orientation, employers can benefit from being clear about the values they want to embody as a team. Having effective onboarding that introduces new employees to the existing environment helps them get situated and start to feel like a team. A good onboarding process strengthens the workplace culture and helps new employees form a bond with their employer.

Be a storyteller with multimedia

Share videos, blog posts and podcasts to showcase an employer’s individual expertise as well as tell a story about the company’s growth and goals for future development. A company’s history is a powerful tool for employer branding and showing current and future employees their opportunity to grow with the company and how they can be part of an inspiring or impactful company narrative.

Optimise the company website

Using clear, consistent messaging can help a business to express its values and responsibilities as an employer. Using engaging, interactive web pages with intuitive navigation can provide insight into company culture and various benefits. That way, companies can encourage future employees and members of the public to learn about the steps they are taking to create a positive employer brand that is mutually beneficial for the business and its employees. To become more transparent about company policy on your website, consider including:

• Benefits and perks that employees can benefit from, such as wellbeing, stipends and bonuses;
• Unlimited paid time off;
• A flexible work schedule;
• Employee resource groups;
• Career development access.

Don’t shy away from criticism

When businesses receive criticism from employees or notice bad reviews, it can be important to take time to process the information and seriously address its cause. Being accountable and transparent are positive qualities and can create trust among a business’s staff and the customers who support them.

Frequently asked questions about employer branding

The below are frequently asked questions about employer branding that may help you move forward with your next steps.

What does employee value proposition mean?

An employee value proposition or EVP refers to the positive attributes that a company has to offer their workforce. It specifically refers to what makes a company’s benefits unique from other businesses and why a candidate would choose to work at that business instead of with a competitor. Employers use their EVP when advertising job postings to attract candidates with benefits such as compensation, time off, amenities, overall company culture and professional development opportunities. By defining a specific EVP, companies can explain more concisely what they have to offer to talented candidates.

Who is responsible for employer branding?

A company’s leadership team is responsible for implementing employer branding efforts. The teams which can have the biggest impact on employer branding include:

• Public relations: helps to generate a positive awareness of the brand and generate campaigns that generate interest and trust.
• Human resources: responsible for developing policies that align with employer values.
• Marketing employees: responsible for visual messaging, social media outreach, creating consistent brand messaging.

This is because these teams interact with the public and the company’s staff. However, every employee at a company can contribute to a company’s employer brand by participating in brand ambassadorship or engaging in company culture initiatives. Onboarding, social media management, fundraising, visual messaging and other aspects of employer branding are a team effort that requires collaboration from people of all levels of seniority and all departments at a business.

What is internal employer branding?

Internal employer branding is the part of employer branding that focuses on current employee relationships. It refers to internal communications and expectations for how leadership and staff interact to embody a company’s values and goals for overall branding. Internal employer branding works to educate staff, gather their feedback and apply it to the workplace culture. It includes the employer value proposition and any strategies a company uses to improve its relationships with current employees.