More than just a pretty face: building an employer brand

Employer branding can be a powerful recruitment and retention tool, but the brand must be embedded in the organisation's people practices to sustain it, our research shows.

Learning points Employer branding has been defined as "the company's image as seen through the eyes of its associates and potential hires". A typical first step in any brand development project is to undertake internal research - via focus groups, email surveys, one-to-one interviews or workshops - to assess employees' perceptions of the organisation. Sustaining the employer brand is the real challenge, and it needs to be firmly incorporated into the organisation's people practices to make it work in the long term.

In a climate of continuing skills shortages, employer branding is increasingly being hailed as the solution to recruiters' resourcing difficulties. The rationale is that, by capturing its unique selling points and actively communicating these to potential and existing employees, an organisation has the potential to gain competitive advantage in the labour market.

Not only can the employer set itself apart from competitor organisations and "win the war for talent" externally, but more-effective promotion of the people brand internally can also help boost employee engagement and enhance performance.

Many organisations have obtained impressive results from their brand-building. However, developing - and, more crucially, sustaining - the employer proposition is a serious undertaking. It is also a task that, if not researched and executed properly, can be counterproductive and exact a heavy price in terms of staff morale and poor public relations.

What's in a brand?

The term "employer branding" came to prominence in the early 1990s. Simon Barrow¹, founder of People in Business and the person credited with first coining the phrase, defined it as "the package of functional, economic and psychological benefits provided by employment and identified with the employing company".

Some years later, Will Ruch² defined it as "the company's image as seen through the eyes of its associates and potential hires". This relates to "what it is like to work at a company, including tangibles such as salary and intangibles such as company culture and values".

From its inception, employer branding has been closely associated with an organisation's aim to be an employer of choice. In today's increasingly complex business environment and diverse labour market, this concept has even greater resonance. Appealing to employees - and potential recruits - as an employer of choice can help meet people's rising aspirations towards the psychological and financial rewards of their work.

Competitive edge

In 2005, a survey of nearly 1,900 of its readers by Personnel Today³ revealed that 95% of respondents believe that employer branding is "important". A further 80% said that it will become even more so. Given the high premium that HR professionals appear to place on an organisation's branding activities, it is worth examining why employer branding is being taken so seriously.

The reasons why organisations decide to cultivate a distinctive employer brand can be many and varied, but are usually closely linked to the specific benefits that an employer wishes to realise.

The impetus could be outward-facing if the organisation needs to raise its game in the recruitment market and differentiate itself from other potential employers. For example, fast-food retailer McDonald's has instigated a far-reaching change programme to improve external perceptions of its employer brand and challenge its "undeserved 'McJob' tag"⁴. In the past, the negative associations engendered by the label have served as a barrier to recruitment: employer reputation is also the one element that the McDonald's workforce would like to see change for the better.

Alternatively, the motivation could be internally focused: for instance, to change existing employees' perceptions of the organisation and enhance their engagement and retention levels. A strong employer brand can have a powerful impact in both individual and organisational terms, for example, by contributing to improved attendance levels or boosting employees' performance.

Talent acquisition and recruitment process outsourcing company Capital Consulting has worked with a number of organisations to help them develop and implement an employer brand. According to Marisa Kacary, head of marketing, most employers view employer branding as the starting point to attract talent, but it should not be seen from this perspective alone.

As she comments: "Many organizations would - quite understandably - like to increase the number of direct hires and avoid using expensive recruitment agencies and, in this context, hope that employer branding will enhance their external image. But any organisation worth its salt will appreciate that it is not just about getting people through the door, but about using the people brand to keep employees motivated and engaged."

Employer branding can also have a role to play in specific economic or organisational circumstances - such as in fostering a uniform culture across a company following a merger or acquisition.

For example, when BACS split into two organisations in 2004, one was assigned the temporary name of BACS Ltd and was given a year to develop a new name and employer brand. This led to the creation of Voca (see case study 1).

Internal research

It is established practice for an organisation to consult as many internal stakeholders as possible before attempting to articulate its employer brand. Just as consumers are polled for their opinions towards a new product, so it is essential to canvas employees' attitudes on how they view the employment experience. Only then will it be possible to determine how the organisation wishes to position itself as a place to work.

"The best employer proposition is developed from the inside out," advises Neil Griffiths, creative director at recruitment marketing consultancy Bernard Hodes Group. "When we work with client organisations to develop the brand, we start by identifying the rational and emotional parts of the business, such as culture and career progression, to ensure that they are expressed in a clear and consistent way."

There are various methods through which to gather feedback. Staff satisfaction surveys can provide a broad snapshot of views, while focus groups⁵ offer the opportunity to probe for more in-depth information. Typically, an organisation will employ more than one approach to help "triangulate" the data. For example, real-estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle used several methods to gain feedback for its rebranding exercise, including: one-to-one interviews; group exercises; focus groups with a cross-section of staff; and an email survey of specific employee groups (see case study 2).

Joint venture

Typically, the development of an employer brand starts with the formation of a cross-functional project team that draws together relevant expertise from HR, marketing and communications.

The Personnel Today survey, mentioned above, found that HR is responsible for employer branding in only a quarter of organisations. In the majority of cases (41%), it is the preserve of the marketing function, while a further quarter said that the responsibility falls to corporate communications. Arguably, all three departments have a major role to play in building and communicating the employer brand.

"This is an interesting area," Kacary comments. "Over the past year or so I have noticed an increasing number of large companies advertising for senior employer branding positions. This is a new development and reflects the increasing importance that employers are placing on their reputation. Job ads like these ask for the rare skills mix of both marketing and HR experience."

She says that there is often confusion within organisations about which function is responsible for the people brand, so employer branding may not be given priority by either HR or marketing. "There needs to be a clear owner and it is a mistake to view the employer proposition as the poor relation of the corporate brand. It is important that HR and marketing work in partnership to develop and maintain the brand," she adds.

As well as undertaking internal research, many organisations call on expert external advice to help build the brand. There is no shortage of employer branding, recruitment communications and HR consultancies that specialise in distinct parts of the brand development and communication process, and the nature and level of the support required will vary from organisation to organisation.

In Kacary's view, if different specialist providers are used for distinct parts of the process - for example, a strategy consultancy to work on research and another consultancy to design a recruitment advertising campaign - then, ideally, all parties should work collaboratively from the outset. Alternatively, it is possible to select a consultancy that can offer expertise "from the concept stage through to execution".

A key piece of advice when selecting a "brand guardian" is to ensure that the third-party provider is prepared to follow through and apply the same high standards to the detail of the brand - for example, ongoing internal communications - as it is to the high-profile, external part of the process.

Brand identity

Developing an employer brand involves creating a compelling employment image or reputation and convincing employees and prospective employees of its worth. The latter step will not be successful unless the brand is effectively communicated internally and externally, and is supported by the appropriate HR processes and practices. For example, from the outset, the rebranding process at Jones Lang LaSalle has been concerned with embedding the brand in the workplace, and is not limited to the way in which the new employer proposition will be marketed externally.

The relationship between the consumer brand and the employer brand needs to be considered as part of the development process. While a consumer brand is about selling a product or service, an employer brand is about reaching the right target audience of potential job applicants, and appealing to existing employees in the most appropriate way.

As Kacary comments: "Employer branding must be seen as a central part of a successful corporate branding strategy. It is the vision that an organisation aspires to, which its employees can understand and which will inspire them. Good employer branding - communicated downwards, upwards and laterally - will create an employee force committed by choice. The result is an engaged audience with a positive impact on employee retention and satisfaction."

In Griffiths's view, there should be only "one overarching brand but several distinct audiences - such as consumers, shareholders and potential candidates - so the brand should be adaptable in order to reflect those different perspectives".

However, he adds that it is essential that the employer brand is consistent in all its representations. As he explains: "The employer proposition needs to be authentic and consistent in all media channels and at every touch-point for the organisation, be it an online banner advert or internally via the employer's induction programme or career progression framework."

Appropriate behaviour

It is standard practice to produce a set of brand statements, values or behaviours to articulate the desired employer brand.

Bernard Hodes Group works with a number of organisations to develop brand identity, one of which is global electronics company Philips. Its employer proposition is encapsulated in the statement "Touch lives every day", and the consultancy has worked with the company to develop people values to support the concept. As Griffiths explains: "From the minute you wake up and turn off the alarm clock, put on a light, or use a toothbrush, you are relying on Philips' products. This is a sentiment that employees are proud to be associated with but it is not enough to have a strapline: the vision needs to be founded in the organisation's values and people's behaviour."

Another example is the Nationwide Building Society⁶. Employer brand, cultural values and business success form the bedrock of the organisation's employer proposition. "PRIDE" is the acronym that embodies Nationwide's employer brand values and stands for:

• "P" - putting members first;
• "R" - rising to the challenge;
• "I" - inspiring confidence;
• "D" - delivering best value; and
• "E" - exceeding expectations.

Living the brand

Developing an employer brand is, arguably, the easy part. It is maintaining and reinforcing the brand reputation that is the most difficult part of the process. It is futile for an organisation to "sell" the positive aspects of the employment experience if the reality does not live up to the promise.

By promoting the brand internally and making commitments to employees, the organisation will have raised people's expectations. The best way of sustaining a successful employer proposition is by putting it into practice on a day-to-day basis through the relevant HR policies and practices. For instance, the Voca employer brand is incorporated into the organisation's recruitment processes and its performance management system.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's report on employer branding (see footnote 2) points out that brand performance is strongly influenced by people management and development strategies, through the consistent pursuit of "employer of choice" policies and the successful communication of an employment proposition to the workforce. However, this relationship is "adversely affected by any incongruence between brand identity and employees' perception of the reality of the brand and the brand's reputation".

"An employer brand has to be more than just pretty pictures or a catchy strapline, and must reflect the real personality of the business," Kacary advises. "The biggest mistake an employer can make is to think that the brand is only the external face of the organisation. There is no point in an employer making a significant investment in developing a people brand if new recruits or existing staff find it does not live up to its promise. The brand needs to encompass everything to do with an organisation's people and be reflected in the employer's people processes, from induction onwards."

Griffiths concurs with this view. As he comments: "The employer proposition is not just a logo or image. A powerful recruitment advertising campaign can meet a short-term need, but the brand has to have longevity. This means that it must have resonance inside and outside the organisation. For example, even if a candidate is unsuccessful, the employer should want that individual - who is also a potential consumer - to have a positive experience and move on as a 'brand ambassador'."

¹"The employer brand", T Amber and S Barrow, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 4 no.3, 1996, pp. 24-26.

²Will Ruch, quoted in Employer branding: what's in a name? by Graeme Martin and Philip Beaumont, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2003, www.cipd.co.uk .

³"Employer branding is key in fight for talent", Personnel Today, 17 May 2005.

⁴Building a McReputation to aid recruitment and retention , IRS Employment Review 853.

⁵A recent article in our sister journal Competency & Emotional Intelligence ("Using focus groups in the development and review of competency frameworks", vol. 13 no.1) provides general information about the use and facilitation of focus groups.

⁶Choice rewards at Nationwide , IRS Employment Review 802; and "Raw emotion", Personnel Today, 10 January 2006.

Case study 1: Voca champions the employer brand Voca is at the heart of the UK economy. It is probably best known in the UK as the organisation that processes more than 90% of salaries. The company that became Voca was formed in 2004, when BACS split into two organisations. One of these was assigned the temporary name of BACS Ltd and given a year to develop a new name and employer brand - a process that led to the creation of Voca. "We had nearly 40 years' history and a great reputation to build on but wanted to reflect our new commercial focus," Richard Cooper, head of marketing and communications, explains. "Our new people brand needed to carry forward the best of the old but introduce the best of the new." Although the director of HR and organisational development was given overall responsibility for creating the new internal employer brand, it was essentially a joint approach on the part of HR and marketing. A cross-functional team was established at the outset, ensuring buy-in from key sections of the business. Specialist consultancies were also engaged to support specific parts of the project, such as developing the visual identity of the new brand. Employee involvement Employer brand development was based on the premise that the only way to gain internal commitment for the new brand was to involve employees in the process from the start. The 400-strong workforce was consulted during the design of the brand and its values, starting with brainstorming sessions and workshops to find possible names for the new organisation. "The reason that the rebranding exercise has been so successful is because we felt involved in developing the new concept," Cooper says. "Employees have to live the employer brand or it does not exist, so it has to be a process that is done with people rather than to them." The project team worked hard to gain buy-in for the rebranding work at all levels of the business, including senior managers and directors, who played a key leadership role in promoting the new brand. The internal consultation process culminated in a two-day conference - "Bringing the brand to life" - held a month before the launch of the new employer brand. Eighty managers and team leaders attended the event. As well as discussing the rationale for the rebranding, this key group developed strategies for cascading it throughout their own business areas. Prior to the launch of Voca and the new employer brand in October 2004, there was a "teaser campaign" to help build anticipation among the workforce. "We did our best to create an atmosphere of excitement and brought everyone together for a launch party in a London venue on the Friday," Cooper recalls. "By the time everyone came back to work on the Monday, the whole office had been given a 'Voca' makeover, with screensavers, name plates and the whole organisation rebranded. This had a huge impact with people and created a real buzz." There were 16 subsequent "brand experience events", where employees had the opportunity to explore the values and behaviours associated with the new brand. Value added The new Voca brand is underpinned by six core values: trusted; robust; knowledgeable; agile; progressive; and passionate. According to Cooper, the first three values reflect Voca's traditional strengths, while the latter three reinforce the fresh opportunities and commercial profile of the new organisation. "But the values work well as a package and help us to build identification with our core business aims across the organisation," he adds. He acknowledges that creating and rolling out a new people brand is the more straightforward element of a rebranding process: it is maintaining the momentum and embedding the brand that presents the greater challenge. As he says: "We can't ever stop working at it and are always trying to find new ways of promoting the brand internally and externally." The launch of the brand within the organisation was accompanied by a multi-channel communications strategy, including an internal email campaign, posters, an employer brand microsite on the organisation's intranet and face-to-face briefings. Although, nearly two years on, there is strong evidence of loyalty to the brand on the part of employees, Voca continues to reinforce it at every opportunity. For instance, the employer brand is incorporated into the organisation's recruitment processes and its performance management system - every employee is measured on how they achieve their objectives in line with the brand values. Voca is about to launch a new advertising campaign and corporate website based on the brand, and has just developed a "brand champions" scheme. Under this scheme, every two months the intranet will feature one of Voca's six values as a central theme. Staff will be encouraged to nominate colleagues who they think espouse that value and, at the end of the year, six brand champions will be presented with an award.

Case study 2: Building brand loyalty at Jones Lang LaSalle Jones Lang LaSalle is a global company providing a range of real-estate services and has a UK workforce of more than 1,000. Following a merger nine years ago, the organisation has intentionally moved away from a partnership environment and has been developing a more corporate culture. Its current rebranding exercise builds on this change programme. A central aim of the rebranding project is to create a consistent image in the marketplace as both an employer and a business. As Theresa Salter, UK HR director, explains: "The feedback we received from prospective employees and recruitment and search consultancies was that the company was sending out inconsistent branding messages. It is vital in this highly competitive recruitment market that our corporate and people brands are linked. Another issue was that we haven't always been good at promoting what we do well, and it was clear that we needed to raise our game in this area to help attract and retain people." The internal rebranding project at Jones Lang LaSalle therefore runs parallel with a wider rebranding of the business. Total reward The Jones Lang LaSalle rebranding initiative is firmly focused on its internal, as well as its external, audience. "As well as attracting people in to the organisation, this process is very much about reminding employees why they joined in the first place and the benefits of having a long-term career with us," Salter explains. "We focus on emphasising our 'total reward' offering, so what we offer not only in terms of basic salary, bonus and very good benefits, but also the extensive training and development opportunities, the social environment and even the daily fruit provided! Once an employee has been integrated into the organisation, it is easy for them to lose sight of what attracted them in the first place. It then becomes too easy for an employee to be tempted by the bright lights of other companies, so reinforcing the benefits of working for us is very important." So, from the outset, the rebranding process has been concerned with delivery of the brand in the workplace, as opposed to being limited to what the new brand will look like and how it will be marketed externally. The concept of total reward embraces most of the elements that affect an employee's employment experience. It is therefore closely linked to the concept of appealing to employees - and potential employees - as an employer of choice. By fine-tuning the reward offering and gearing it as much as possible to personal need, an employer maximises its perceived value to employees. It also means that the various elements that make up that organisation's unique remuneration portfolio are tailored to fit its culture, values and business goals. Such a strategy fits perfectly with Jones Lang LaSalle's aim of embedding its people brand across the business. Collaborative working HR has taken the overall lead in employer brand development and engaged the support of Capital Consulting to help the company develop its new brand identity. "We have an ongoing partnership with Capital Consulting because we have outsourced recruitment to the consultancy, and it was a natural progression to work with the consultancy on the rebranding project," Salter says. HR is working closely with marketing and PR within Jones Lang LaSalle to bring the project to fruition, and a cross-functional project team from the business has also been set up to monitor its progress and to ensure there is engagement with the new employer brand across the business. Seeking input from existing staff to capture "the definitive personality of the organisation" was one of the first stages of the project. Jones Lang LaSalle and Capital Consulting used several methods to gain feedback: one-to-one interviews; group exercises; focus groups with a cross-section of staff, and an email survey of specific employee groups. Salter says the results were "very encouraging", with even small elements of the employment experience - such as the free fruit - making a strong impression on employees. Other comments that characterise the employer brand for people include "experts in our field", "truly collaborative" and "very friendly". All these and other qualities associated with the brand are reflected in the strapline, values and behaviour that have been created. The launch of the new employer brand is imminent, so these cannot yet be disclosed. According to Salter, internally the roll-out will be "more subliminal" as befits the predominantly professional workforce, with a benefits and training fair planned to market the organisation's total reward strategy. Externally, there will be a high-profile rebranding of the company's recruitment marketing material.