Developing Your Employer Brand: 3 Tips

What does your employer brand say about your organization? What do your employees say about your employer brand? If you haven't given any thought to it, you should. Your employer brand will continue to play more and more of a role in attracting and keeping talent. 

Your organization’s brand and your employer brand are intertwined. Many times, potential employees may also be customers. Your organization has already developed brand attributes (or at least it should have.) You should look to those attributes to create your employer brand. Do you have a marketing department? Involve them in the development. The brands should be consistent with each other and working with marketing will help maintain that consistency. If you don't have a marketing department,here are three points to keep in mind when developing your employer brand:

1)    Be specific. What pain points does your consumer brand solve? How do your employees play a role in solving a client’s pain points? Stick to that. Your organizational mission may be fairly vague or generic but your employer brand needs to be specific, just as your consumer brand is specific. Don’t try to be all things to all people.

2)    Be self-aware. Take a look at what is really happening in your organization. What do your employees say about your organization and brand? Why are people successful within your organization? If your employees don’t understand the organization’s purpose, mission and values—or worse, don’t care—you have to ask yourself, where is the disconnect? And how can that disconnect be reconciled? Do your current employees know why their job is important to the organization’s purpose, mission, values—and ultimately, its success? What message are they sending out to clients, potential clients and also potential talent? It isn’t always fun to take a hard look at what isn’t working within your organization, but those employees are also your brand ambassadors.

3)    Be consistent. Your employer brand should be consistent with the consumer brand. This includes everything from the brand’s promise to its elements. And there must be consistency within the employer brand. For example, let's talk about voice. What is voice? It’s the tone of an organization's communications (i.e. formal vs. informal.) That voice needs to be consistent on all channels of communications: social media, website, email campaigns, and any other consumer/employee touch points. If your organization presents itself as down to earth and informal in social media, it would be inconsistent to take a very formal tone in the company newsletter. An inconsistent voice confuses and potentially alienates potential consumers/employees from your brand and comes across as inauthentic. 

Following these three tips can help make developing your employee brand an easier process. If you're overwhelmed, let me help develop your employer or consumer brand!

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