In the fifth part of this exclusive series for Ambition, Jane Sunley explores the importance of a strong employer brand in attracting and retaining the best people in any organisation
To deliver and strengthen a world-class brand and great reputation through your people (and let’s face it, who doesn’t want to do this?), it’s vital to attract the best people for your organisation.
These are people who ‘get’ what you do as a business, and understand and believe in what you stand for. These people are already sold (at least in part) on contributing to your success.
Most businesses are highly adept at creating their consumer brand; what it is that distinguishes them from others in their market, their brand promise to their customer, articulating what gives them a competitive edge. And they invest heavily in this.
The employer brand is just as important, yet many organisations do little more than pay it lip service. The vast majority of organisations will fully understand (and invest in) their consumer/product brand in terms of what is stands for; why people should buy it; what the consumer experience will be; what messages they want them to take on board; the emotional connection (for Coca-Cola, for example, this is about ‘having a good time’; for Nike it’s about ‘winning’ and so on).
However, many of the same organisations fail to define and communicate why people would want to work there, who will excel there, why they’d be attracted to the company and how this is communicated. You could say that the employer brand is the marketing strategy as applied to the people stuff. It goes beyond having attractive recruitment advertising oran appealing careers section on the website, although both of those will be part of it. And once you link it to your consumer brand, well, now we’re talking…
A good, yet simple, example of this is Southwest Airlines, which recruits fun people in order to give the customer a fun experience.
If you want to see this in action, put ‘Southwest Airlines rapping safety information’ into any search engine. By thinking of your employees and prospective employees as ‘consumers’, it’s possible to craft an employer brand which allows you to:
- build your reputation as an organisation for which people want to work
- attract the best, most appropriate, talent
- strengthen relationships with existing and potential employees
- enhance your consumer brand
- ensure people view your company the way you want them to.
Whoever is responsible for the people stuff must therefore become a capable marketer (or work with their marketing department effectively). This applies as much to a multi-corporation as it does to a single- site local shop.
The employer brand stuff only works if it’s aligned to your culture and you actually deliver on what you say you will do. Business is transparent and information flow is easy and fierce. Websites such as Glassdoor quite rightly ensure that organisations can no longer get away with selling ‘the dream’ to would-be recruits and then delivering something quite different.
In the same way that you wouldn’t buy a mobile phone or a laptop without reading the reviews and asking your network, job seekers do their research too. If you’re not a great company to work for, and fail to deliver on your brand promise, people will know.
As much thought should therefore go into managing your market reputation as an employer as it does into your marketing of products and services. When marketing a new product, organisations spend shed- loads of time and money making sure consumers know about it and understand what it can do for them. This, in turn, creates a desire to buy.
THE EMPLOYER BRAND STUFF ONLY WORKS IF IT’S ALIGNED TO YOUR CULTURE AND YOU ACTUALLY DELIVER ON WHAT YOU SAY YOU WILL DO.
But relatively few businesses are putting even 10% of that resource into positioning themselves as a great place to work. Yet for those who place the same amount of importance on creating and managing employer reputation as managing their consumer brands, the results are powerful.
Just take a look at Virgin, John Lewis, Innocent and even McDonalds.
The people promise
The employer brand starts with the EVP ‘the employee value proposition’. I like to call this your people promise: a statement of everything to do with each employee’s experience throughout their life-cycle within the organisation.
In short, it’s the answer to “what can I expect here?” and encapsulates things such as your mission, values, leadership, culture, benefits, progression and development opportunities. This isn’t about investing in lots of great employee benefits or thousands of learning courses (you don’t want to over-promise). Start simply by writing down what you offer now. Then find out what you might want/be able to add later. What would your people value?
Once you understand the importance of a well-defined people promise, and are able to articulate it to the organisation and deliver on it, you will have created significant competitive advantage. What’s not to love?
You need to make your organisation a great place to work and shout about it. Only then will your promise shine out and the best talent come flocking. Well, actually, your people will do it for you.
Again, this reflects the importance of buy-in from the top. It has to feed through the entire organisation, starting from the owner, board, the CEO or MD. It is not just an ‘HR initiative’. It’s a way of life to be built upon, refined, updated, cosseted, loved and cherished.
Always keep it simple, of course… Things you could include:
- how things are done around here (see STEP 2, culture and values)
- the way people are led and managed
- how communication works
- commitment to development and employee progression
- reward and recognition
- corporate social responsibility (CSR) opportunities.
And so on. A well-crafted people promise will take the heat off pay and benefits as the main motivators.
Put some simple measures in place so you can do a ‘before and after’ comparison; a simple survey is an obvious method. When you can clearly see the value you are adding, it will keep you motivated (and persuade any doubters) to carry on.
Always bear in mind that if the way you, or anyone else within your organisation, leads and deals with your people couldn’t be comfortably reported on the front page of a major newspaper, or as part of a ‘back to the floor’ TV reality show, you need to make
some changes.
Remember, your people promise may well be a work in progress that evolves as you go along. Just be careful to enhance it instead of taking elements away unless they no longer work for you and your people. And once you know what your ‘offer’ is, you can set about communicating it, in the same way you would your product offer. So put a marketing plan in place, which is likely to include:
- living up to the promise
- leaders reinforcing key messages
- updating your website: make the ‘join us’ section interesting and engaging (so many aren’t) and make applying online simple and easy
- using social media – get your message out there
- cascading your message through internal and external networks and brand ambassadors.
Call in the marketers – they know how to do this
stuff…
A 10-point plan to shape your people promise
- Write down everything you offer now.
- Consult your people about what they think and how well you deliver; ask them what could make it better.
- Work out what’s feasible now, later, never.
- Craft your people promise.
- Write it down, simply.
- Market test it.
- Communicate your promise very clearly, referencing point three.
- Deliver on your promise.
- Review and refine it.
- Keep communicating it
Case study: Innocent
Drinks manufacturer Innocent is passionate about keeping alive a strong people-centric culture and linking this to its people promise.
- It has a specific team in place to look after culture.
- It recruits strictly in accordance with its values.
- As well as being a great place to work, Innocent prides itself on a strong core of operational excellence.
- It encourages consumers to come into its offices (or ‘Fruit Towers’), where employees show people around.
Innocent proudly says: ‘You can’t underestimate the power of working for a company you are genuinely proud of…’
Its people promise is: ‘Part pay/benefits + part culture/development.’
Jane Sunley is a CEO, celebrated author, lecturer, speaker and mentor as well as an established and renowned authority on ‘all things people’.
She is a non-executive director and a visiting fellow at two UK universities as well as speaking and writing extensively on the subject of people and HR.
