Is your employer brand working for you? Part 1

But what does it mean, and why is employer brand so important?

Having spent many years hiring as Head of Agency for a recruitment firm, I saw first-hand the impact of employer brand on staff turnover, business growth, talent attraction, and economic resiliency. Whether you intentionally develop one or not, you will have an employer brand made up of aspects that define “who you are” as an employer.

Long gone are the days when office coffee or a ping-pong table was enough to tick the “good employer” or “great culture” boxes. While those soft touches remain important – today, who you are and how you employ to suit your internal brand are business-critical. Employer brand is intrinsically linked to your wider brand story to win new business, build customer loyalty, influence market perception and attract the best talent. What content do you share to reflect your employer brand?

As a recruiter, I was meticulously selective in working with brands I could wholeheartedly vouch for as employers. There is an obvious case for this when “selling” an opportunity to a potential candidate, but the business case goes much deeper and wider than that.

An investment in your people and their working environment pays dividends on the bottom line, helps you stand out from competitors, and reduces expensive staff turnover and hiring costs. Here’s how:

Understand what an employer brand is

Broadly, your employer brand relates to the perception and lived reality of working within your organisation. It’s more than paying people for their time, and is a factor that runs deep into candidates’ decisions when a job offer is made.

Priorities for candidates when considering a role are impacted by both the socio-economic climate and their own personal circumstances. In tough times, financial benefits top the list, and the ability of employers to demonstrate an understanding of cost of living concerns is a real differentiator.

Consider how you communicate salary transparency and where compensation sits against industry benchmarks. How do you approach profit sharing and how do you engage your team with these targets in a positive and motivating way? Are you making employees feel valued as part of a larger collective and want to reward great work?

When the economic climate is favourable, flexibility and purpose can jostle for the top two priority spots – even ahead of competitive salaries. Flexibility and purpose are both stark reflections of your employer brand. If your business model is unable to offer flexible working, think about how this is communicated and weighed up against the wider mission, or goals.

What unique aspects of your brand give candidates and employees a reason to believe? What will be said about your business when somebody leaves, or writes a Glassdoor review?

As a business, being able to weather economic storms takes more than just offering above average pay (if you’re financially able to at all) to retain talent and keep them motivated.

Jobseekers’ priorities are cyclical so it’s mission-critical to stay ahead of the game and have a comprehensive offering that your staff and candidates can feel valued within, buy into, and want to work hard for.

Brand values

Company values – usually found in the onboarding handbook or discussed in week one, and often never talked of again. Introducing new employees to your core values is essential, but what happens after week one?

How your values manifest in day-to-day lived experiences needs to be constantly top of mind. What are you doing to prove you believe in the pillars outlined as the foundation of your organisation? Are you staying true to the brand values being described to newbies during onboarding, and if so, how?

A great example would be our work for Bupa Dental Care. We revamped and developed an employee value proposition from scratch, creating 4 core pillars reinforced through employee-facing content. When employees said they care about career progression and sustainability, we followed up with communications around training programmes and measurable actions that employees can easily access and track. These health-focused pillars help inform their employer brand and day-to-day experiences, giving prospective talent a framework to understand the business’ priorities beyond profit.

At Rationale, our B Corp status and Great Place to Work certification are both interwoven with and informed by our brand values. For us, putting in place the inclusive, environmentally and ethically responsible practices needed for a healthy workplace are as important as the esteem we show for our team, and commitment to their happiness and careers.

Company culture

The big one, company culture! A rabbit hole to nervously prod with a stick from afar, or the biggest source of pride for your organisation? If you’re falling into the first category, it’s likely that something already needs fixing…

Company culture can feel abstract, and to some extent – is. You can’t package a company culture or define it as a benefit, but you can certainly feel it and describe that feeling to people outside of work.

“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room”. I think this is especially true for company culture. How do your employees describe their working lives to family? What do they feel when returning from annual leave? Would they recommend a job vacancy to their friend?

Broadly speaking, company culture is driven by (or at least begins with) the ethos and personality of leadership. Their approach to work/life balance, inclusivity, fairness, respect, trust, reward and recognition is conveyed through a mix of subtle behaviours and tangible company policies.

Though abstract, it can be measured. Look no further than online reviews, staff turnover rates and engagement surveys as snapshots of what it’s like to work for your brand.

Another way to consider company culture is how colleagues behave and who you hire. If something goes wrong, is the default position to blame and punish, or share a team troubleshooting session? In the hiring process, what balance do you strike between professional experience and personality fit? When it comes to employer brand and company culture, picking the right people for your dynamic and mission are non-negotiable, even beyond the initial requirements of the role itself.

One thing remains clear: a negative company culture will cost your business money, market share, and your ability to attract top talent. Happy teams work harder, solve problems quicker and build better relationships, and the culture of any organisation – good or bad – will be ultimately reflected in the customer experience.

Consider the cost of hiring, and re-hiring…

Hiring is expensive, no matter which way you do it. A recruitment consultancy who knows your brand will take a 20-30% fee for the perfect candidate. Or, take the recruitment process in-house and absorb countless hours of CV screening, interviews and background checks.

There’s no two ways about it, if you want the right person for the role and team culture, hiring is resource-heavy to get right. According to Talent Insights the average cost of filling a vacancy is £6,1250, or over £19,000 for a managerial position.

And we’re not just talking about the initial outlay either. Studies show time and again that employers don’t get an immediate commercial return on new hires in permanent positions. A report by Gallup states that, “it takes on average 12 months for employees to become fully productive in their role.”

Hiring also comes with risk. Probationary periods are two-way streets and your new recruit could leave if they’re not experiencing what they were sold in the interview process.

Engaged employees are more productive and return the investment you’ve made in them, produce better creative work and are quicker problem solvers. Investing in a strong employer brand is one of the surest ways to reduce staff turnover and hang onto your team, saving on the bottom line and ensuring a healthy team dynamic along the way.

With a priority on facilitating positive working relationships through social events, ensuring the office is comfortable, safe and convenient, and insisting on an open-door policy for bottom-up feedback, Rationale has impressively achieved a staff turnover rate of 6% – that’s 24% less than the industry average.

That isn’t all. In part 2, I’ll touch on 3 additional elements managers of employer brands need to consider to stay competitive in the job market.

If you’re curious how your employer brand can be optimised to drive business growth, talk to us here.