The elements that make an organization attractive to potential new hires are often the same ones that keep current employees engaged, challenged and satisfied. To accomplish both goals to a burnished employment brand, try the following steps:
Step 1: Play up your sense of purpose.
People want to work for an organization that makes a difference in the world.
- Tie your organization’s philanthropic work to its mission, vision and corporate culture.
Step 2: Develop your organizational culture through leadership. Leaders must deliver on cultural expectations of inclusivity, integrity, trust, flexibility and support for their employees.
- Make a plan to ensure that your leadership encourages these values throughout all levels of the organization.
Step 3: Articulate professional development and growth opportunities. A top reason people leave an organization is a lack of opportunities for advancement. In some cases, employees may have upward mobility prospects within the company. Still, they are not aware of those opportunities because they are difficult to find, or leadership has not adequately articulated them.
- Make sure opportunities are widely known through broad and targeted internal communication, as well as external messaging.
One of our clients, a payroll organization in a niche industry, was located directly across the street from a larger competitor. Talent would go back and forth between the two organizations, depending on which offered better compensation. We focused on talent development as a differentiator and built a comprehensive training program for all levels of employees, mapping out career paths within the organization. We also drew attention to the fun company culture.
Ultimately, even though the organization was smaller and didn’t pay as well as its competitor, it achieved much better retention data and overall employee experience scores. Its revamped employer brand did a better job of retaining and satisfying talent.
Step: 4: Communicate your total rewards benefits internally. Having the right compensation, work structure and performance evaluation systems is crucial for getting candidates in the door. But it is also important for current employees to understand the relationships between those factors across various departments.
- Share information about which skills could transfer to other roles, and help employees look for bridge jobs to transition to other positions.
- Have richer conversations with supervisors to target specific development opportunities for employees’ career mobility. More than simply offering training courses, provide resources for employees to navigate their path within the organization so you can lengthen their tenure.
- Use tools like role profile matrices to assess transferable skills and competencies, and help employees understand what is required to be successful in any job, both within your organization and in other companies. Keeping employees fully engaged and prepared for the next opportunity will go a long way to maintaining a positive employment brand – and resulting in healthy turnover for your team.
Step 5: Communicate your external employment brand. Think strategically about building your brand in the marketplace, and be creative about broadcasting that brand to the world.
One client in Poland was opening a new location in a competitive environment. We focused on who the organization wanted to be as an employer, spending time on local media and publicity to create a welcoming experience for prospective employees. Our outreach mirrored the company’s forward-thinking and “cool” customer brand, which enticed people to work there. After fantastic initial recruiting, the company has retained great talent.
- Audit competitors. To attract the best talent, first complete an audit of your competition, paying close attention to how they portray themselves in their social media, websites and other outward-facing materials.
- Align your external image. From the most basic of messaging, like the Careers section of your website, to more nuanced imagery, like social media posts, ensure that the vision of your organization aligns with what you claim to be and do for your employees.
- Tell your employment story. News articles on your website and in the media that feature employees’ successes can help communicate the value of working for your organization.
- Creatively publicize your value. The more innovative and forward-thinking your organization can be in its publicity programs, the more those efforts will enhance your employee value proposition. Alumni programs, for example, can keep former employees connected and keep the door open for them to come back. They also show that your organization creates and maintains a positive experience for employees in the future.
- Deliver consistent and targeted messaging. Create a messaging map to tailor communications to the right stakeholder groups. Tell the same story about your organization, but use different soundbites for distinct audiences.
- Prioritize critical talent. Spend time and money on tailoring messaging to the segments of talent that are critical to your workforce, and remember that not every personality might be successful in your organization.
Organizations must strategically identify the best areas to make changes and invest in those. Rather than broad sweeps, targeted moves can make incremental differences in the efficacy of your employment brand.
Communicate and Cultivate Your Brand
At the end of the day, talent acquisition and retention involve much more than just communication. Incentive programs, favorable policies, reward strategies and the daily delivery of a good employee experience are all critical to avoid hollow branding.
Managers may have a solid communications strategy, but understanding how these pieces work together is difficult. It takes an outsider to fully analyze an organization’s needs and create and implement a strategic plan for improving an employment brand.
How you portray your organization to the world is fundamental to surviving – and thriving – through these challenging times. Coreflection understands the best ways to manage your employer brand, from repairing a damaged reputation to planning new strategies for putting your best face forward.
Contact us today to build an employment brand that attracts and retains the best talent in your market.
