You likely devote a lot of effort into managing your consumer brand identity and governing the use of brand assets, but what about your Employer Brand identity? Make staff recruitment and onboarding easier—and protect this part of your business—by letting IntelligenceBank’s BrandHub help you manage your Employer Brand assets with the same precision and rigor as your consumer brand assets.  

According to Tessa Court, CEO of IntelligenceBank; “The irony is that brands spend millions honing their messages to attract consumers.  But in tight labor markets, where brands are fighting for the best talent to ensure growth, few companies have refined their brand systems to cater to their brand identity for recruitment, talent education, and induction. The smart brands are doing it using employer brand hubs and it’s paying off.” 

What is ‘employer branding’ and why is it important?

Employer Branding encompasses how your organization’s identity is perceived by employees and potential candidates— as opposed to the general public. Employer Brand is your identity as an employer rather than a consumer entity. Since 75% of candidates research a company’s reputation before applying, managing this facet of your public identity is now vital for success. Your Employer Brand identity emerges from your company culture, brand persona and values, social and corporate responsibility, and many other aspects of your company. Together, they convey a general sense of how your organization approaches employment.

The benefits of consistent employer branding

Creating an Employer Brand Hub (with all of its elements and rich media) allows anyone representing or working with your brand to access, share, and portray a consistent Employer Brand identity not just for prospective talent but for your existing staff as well. 

This is beneficial for the following scenarios:

• Recruiters and prospects will always see approved, optimal messaging that is on-brand, and is consistent with the brand’s tone of voice and brand image 
• Hiring managers know where to look when talking about the job opportunity
• Employees receive organized information about important aspects of work, from procedures to brand values. 
• You can use the BrandHub to request job ads, and approve job ad creative.

Maintaining an Employer Brand hub not only encourages internal standardization, but it may also inspire productive conversations about what makes your organization special and opportunities for improvement.

How is employer branding different from the branding you already have?

Marketing and branding teams spend a lot of time and effort on developing consumer brand guidelines and disseminating them across the organization. But does that hard work get applied to Employer Branding for potential candidates? Employer Branding bridges the gap between branding efforts for a consumer audience and prospective employees—an equally important but distinct audience that should be treated differently

These “cousins” in the world of branding also differ in their essential assets. Let’s look at the elements that are likely to comprise your Employer Brand.

What goes into an employer brand identity?

There are many brand assets you should consider creating when building a solid, consistent Employer Brand Portal. 

Here are our top 11 to consider:

1. Employee value proposition

Similar to your business’s main value proposition, your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is a clear and consistent message about the experience of working at your organization and highlights the unique experiences you offer that attract, engage and retain top talent. An EVP is internally-focused: it is a promise a company makes to its employees, defining what you will give in return for their dedication and talent and is manifested in a combination of statements, tangible benefits, and intangible culture ultimately highlighting what successful employees like best about working for you. Your Employer Brand is external in focus but should align with your EVP. Ensuring that your EVP delivers on the promises that you make in your employer branding mitigates the risk of customers, candidates, and employees losing trust in your organization and damaging your brand reputation.  Having this clearly documented and explained is the critical first step.

2. Brand guidelines

Brand Guidelines such as brand personality, voice, values, and prioritized messaging are not just useful for your designers and copywriters. HR and hiring managers can also reference these when posting jobs—plus, they’re incredibly useful for onboarding new hires and giving them a sense for the climate of their new home.   Many IntelligenceBank clients have special sections on their standard brand guidelines pages for new employee inductions to truly educate new hires on the brand.

3. Job seeker personas or applicant personas

Similar to a customer persona, an applicant persona outlines elements of the ideal candidate’s background, skills, and interests, while also considering their personal goals—allowing you to tailor your job posting accordingly. You may have seen job descriptions that include sections like these, which help applicants know how the organization talks about the role and which requirements are most important in the hiring process. These can be reused across similar job listings, but watch out for copying and pasting without customizing them for each opportunity.  By showcasing these in an employer brand hub you will stay consistent when creating job ads.

4. Company culture as described by employees

Almost like testimonials from your employees, these first-person statements can be used to lend credibility to your other documents and web content. It’s important that, in the process of collecting these, your HR team or leadership teams reflect on the feedback coming in. Don’t just pick out the nicest quotes; use this as a valuable exercise to listen to your employees and discover opportunities for evolving the company culture.

5. Diversity & inclusion information

Does your company have diversity and inclusion goals, benchmarking data, or information on employee demographics? Today’s workforce values these indicators of internal company culture more and more—plus they’re just good practice.  Including these in your online employee brand hub is a great way to showcase your dedication to these metrics along with the progress you have made in achieving your goals.

6. Social & corporate responsibility

Your corporate social responsibility report (or CSR report) belongs in this collection too. Outlining your company’s impact on the environment and community, in addition to profits, is part of what may attract new candidates. Carbon neutrality goals, sustainability information, factory evaluations, and manufacturing conditions are just a few of the details about your business that employee stakeholders are becoming more conscious about.

7. Women in leadership numbers

Did you know that a record high 30% of S&P board directors are women as of 2020? Publishing statistics on your female workforce signals to applicants that yours is an environment that’s not only cognizant of these realities, but also taking active steps to make a positive impact.

8. Internal promotion numbers

Let’s be honest, looking for a job is tough work. Job applicants who are looking for a new position don’t want to be doing it again any time soon. You can reassure potential candidates by publishing internal promotion statistics, showing that your company promotes from within when possible. That way, they can feel more secure about settling in for a long-term tenure with your organization. It is also a great way of reinforcing your broader EVP messaging!

9. Employer Brand videos

Employer Branding doesn’t have to all be on paper. Creating an Employer Brand video can go a long way to showcase your organization’s culture by featuring your work space, locations, and real employees in action at work or speaking to the camera. Some great examples include; Capital One, Fiverr, Lockheed Martin, WeWork

10. Onboarding assets

Coming into a new organization is disorienting at best and overwhelming at worst. Clear, well-documented onboarding information will orient new hires and give them a welcoming first impression.  Some companies create amazing welcome videos or a structured online agenda to learn about the company and ‘click through’ different processes and procedures.

11. LinkedIn creative templates

Help new employees announce their new position to the world. Create a simple LinkedIn creative template that employees can edit themselves by adding their own headshot, name and title. It can also include a sentence about your organization that they can use in an announcement. Going a step further, some employees value a list of options for how to sum up their new role using a few curated phrases. As long as it’s not mandatory, taking the guesswork out of one more thing can help put people at ease and help your organization maintain a consistent employer brand identity.