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Aligning Employer And Company Model Technique

Alignment of the strategy for employer and corporate brand

Today's organizations – B2B, nonprofit, government, or consumer – live and die by their ability to build and deliver a strong employer brand that deserves the trust and loyalty of their employees. If your external brand is the sum of all the experiences someone has had with your company, so is your employer brand.

Some companies feel that their overall brand is strong enough that they don't have to worry about building an employer brand. However, there are statistics that clearly show the value of a strong employer brand. According to LinkedIn, companies with strong employer brands get 50% more qualified applicants, have 50% lower cost-per-hire, and fill positions twice as fast. Plus, 75% of job seekers say they consider a potential employer's brand first before applying for a job.

Overall, companies that view their employees as customers enjoy similar benefits. A strong employer brand:

  1. Reduces talent acquisition costs in the same way your external brand can reduce customer acquisition costs.
  2. It creates more lasting and resilient relationships between employers and employees in the same way that external brands can help companies retain customers during difficult times.
  3. Improves employee loyalty in the same way that good external brands can improve customer loyalty.
  4. Encourages strong word of mouth from employees, both for the employer brand and the external brand.

To get these benefits, HR departments need to start thinking like marketing departments. In fact, forward-thinking companies are starting to combine HR and marketing in terms of brand strategy and management. These organizations understand the complementary relationship between employees as those who deliver the promised brand, customers as those who experience the promised brand, and the reputation that is building across the ecosystem.

Employer Brand – External brand alignment

Aligning an employer brand with your external brand isn't as difficult as it seems. The important part is realizing what really gets employees out of bed and to work each day. Here are six keys to this:

1. Your organization must have a clear brand purpose. The purpose of your employees is to serve that purpose. Starbucks' Howard Schultz famously stated that people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. It's not about profit or shareholder return. It's about making a difference for customers, no matter how small that difference may be.

2. Have a vision for the future and communicate it with conviction. The type of employee you need wants to be part of something that is growing, evolving, and creating value for yourself, your customers, and your company.

3. Your employee brand must be real. There's no point in promising potential employees growth and learning, for example, and then denying them the education or the ability to advance their skills once you enroll them. Mean what you say, then do what you say.

4. Have values ​​bond to your purpose and then practice them. They are your employees' guides for all decisions. A set of fancy values ​​on your website or on your office walls will make no difference to your business if you don't live them. Values ​​must be consistently demonstrated by management and expected by employees. The truth will come out and hypocrisy will kill an employer brand.

5. The employer brand meets the external brand directly in campaigns. Actions are what your employees experience every day and what your customers experience every day as a result. Actions need to be regular, predictable and consistent.

6. Realize that the hiring process is no longer local and that potential employees are exposed to your brand in many different ways. Your employer brand must be part of all general brand touchpoints, including:

    • Your website, not just your career.
    • Social media, not just social media recruitment.
    • Job boards and recruitment sites.
    • All incoming and outgoing content.
    • Stories that illustrate how employees achieve purpose, move into the future, make a difference, and grow and learn.
    • Relationships with recruiters, colleges and universities, etc.

As good talent is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit, it makes sense for companies to take their employer brand seriously. If you're in marketing, it's time to speak with HR about the challenges facing recruiting and how the brand can help. If you work in HR, it's time to move on to marketing to see how the company's brand can lead to better recruiting and retention success.

A good starting point is to work with your current employees to understand how they see your company as an employer. This can be cumbersome. Using an outside company to put a filter between employer and employee can help generate honest answers and valuable insights.

The Blake Project Can Help: Please email us to learn more about our purpose, mission, vision and values, as well as our brand culture workshops.

Brand Strategy Insider is a service from The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in brand research, brand strategy, brand growth and branding

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