8) So, what has all of this got to do with Employer Brand?

Research can define both your EVP and your HR action plan. I’d go further, they should define it. And they are both vital to your employer brand.

 

As I alluded to last time, I think that too often an organisation’s EVP (what you get for working here) and its employer brand (how it feels to work here) are treated as the same. Your EVP is a snapshot of the great things about working in your organisation right now. Take it fresh out of the box, and use it today.

On the other hand, your employer brand is a couple of things:

1)     Hypothesis #11: It’s a constant process of building your reputation. And there’s a strong parallel with consumer branding. It’s about understanding, even anticipating, what your audience wants, and creating the product to match that need. It’s not claiming that you make the best widgets; it’s making the best widgets.

2)     Hypothesis #12: It’s a permanent process of cementing your reputation. And there’s another strong parallel with consumer branding, it’s about understanding what your audience already associates with you, values about you and what they wish you to represent in the future. It’s continually building a body of evidence for why yours are the best widgets.

Your employer brand should be actions and communications, always about what drives employees or future employees, building in the purpose, told in a culturally appropriate way – experienced and evidenced consistently in and out of the organisation. And the more you do inside, on defining culture, on building engagement through communications, managers and leaders – the easier to attract from outside.

You’ll get benefits from using it as a communication tool. But to get the real benefits, it must be long-term, it must involve culture, management, engagement – and it’ll take commitment from outside of HR. Then it all leads back to greater performance, and should be one of your key tools to improve your organisation.

Here ends the lecture.

There’s a few topics that I’ve skimmed over in the last 8 posts. I’ll return to them soon.