Employee branding is an essential part of crafting a company's overall image, but it might be a term that you've only recently started hearing. That's because the idea is a fairly new one, following in the better-known footsteps of employer branding.
To put it simply, employee branding is a marketing strategy that focuses on encouraging employees to feel good about working for their company.
This, in turn, makes them better brand ambassadors in the business world.
And here's the best part: If your company is filled with employees who are excited to be part of the organization, you're more likely to attract top talent and retain valued employees.
Building an Employee Brand
As we've seen in the last few years, competition within the job market has grown exponentially.
In order to set your company apart from the competition, you'll need to create a strong and cohesive employer brand.
That all-important employer brand will allow your organization to align its values, mission, and culture with that of its employees - creating a sense of unified identity.
From there you can work on your employee brand (we'll look at the difference between employee brand and employer brand a little later).
Making a Strong Start
To develop a successful employee branding strategy, you must first understand its various components. This includes things like company culture, employee value proposition, and the importance of communication.
In the following sections, we'll dive deeper into different aspects of employee branding, and we'll share some practical tips to help you build that strong employee brand.
In this article
Understanding Employee Branding
Strategies for Effective Employee Branding
Cultivating a Positive Workplace Culture
Leveraging Employees as Brand Ambassadors
The Role of Employee Feedback and Communication
Talent Acquisition and Retention
Sharing Employee Stories and Experiences
Measuring the Success of Your Employee Branding
Final Thoughts on Employee Branding
Understanding Employee Branding
Employer branding and employee branding aren't hugely different - it's just that one is from the POV of the company, and the other is from (you guessed it) the employees.
What is Employee Branding?
You want your company to look as strong as possible through the eyes of its current employees. That way, it will also look strong to potential employees.
Employee branding essentially means shaping your employees' perception of their role and value within your organization. Do it well, and it can positively impact your company's overall image and reputation.
Successful employee branding efforts can bring the following rewards:
Improved satisfaction and employee retention
Enhanced company morale and culture
Increased productivity and performance
Attracting high-quality talent
There are many benefits of building a great employee brand. If you get it right, it will also help with some key business goals:
Aligning values and mission: Your employees are more likely to feel connected to your company's purpose and objectives if you clearly communicate your values and mission.
Building trust: If you focus on building a nurturing environment of trust and transparency, where you're open to feedback and staff are encouraged to ask questions, employees will feel heard.
Promoting growth: If you provide opportunities for career progression and skill enhancement, employees and company alike will benefit from that personal and professional development.
Employee Branding vs Employer Branding
As we said above, employer branding and employee branding are close relatives. However, there are some key differences.
Let's look at how to distinguish between the two terms.
Employer Branding refers to the organization's reputation as an employer. When we talk about this, we're thinking more about the broader company reputation, policies, and recruiting strategy.
Employee Branding refers to the image your employees have of themselves in the workplace. It mainly affects internal relationships and interactions, but can spill out of an organization when employees talk about their company to other business associates, or even friends and family members.
Strategies for Effective Employee Branding
Now that we're familiar with the meaning of employee branding and how it differs to employer branding, it's time to look at some effective employee branding strategies.
Developing a Cohesive Employee Branding Strategy
To create an effective employee branding strategy, you'll first need to define your company values and culture.
The first part is quite simple. Just identify the key aspects of your organization’s culture and values that you want to promote.
Next up, you'll want to craft some clear and concise messaging around these values, all the while making sure that this aligns with your overall employer branding strategy.
Some possible methods include:
Surveys and feedback: Try to get an idea of what your employees really think of the company brand. Seek input on your company culture, corporate brand values, and employee experience.
Training and development: Educate employees by making sure everyone is given some brand training, emphasizing the importance of your company’s values and culture in daily work.
Recognition and rewards: Make a habit of highlighting and rewarding great brand advocates among your employees. You could use recognition programs to help with this.
Cultivating a Positive Workplace Culture
A great office culture not only makes for a better day-to-day work-life, but it also makes employees more likely to stick around in the long term.
Promoting Company Values and Culture
Whether thinking about employee brand or employer brand, you need to start by focusing on company values and culture. A strong and consistent company culture is the foundation for both.
Begin by clearly defining your company's mission, vision, and core values.
An effective employee branding program should include sharing these principles with your employees and making sure they understand their significance in shaping the overall workplace culture.
Encouraging Employee Engagement and Satisfaction
When you step into an office, a positive workplace culture is usually easy to spot.
If employees feel connected, there will be more of those good-natured water cooler moments, a sense of comradery in meetings, and lots of positive interactions about upcoming projects.
To boost that sense of employee engagement and increase employee satisfaction and employee happiness, you could try some of these tactics:
Open lines of communication: Foster an environment where employees feel they can provide feedback, voice concerns, and share ideas. Maintain transparent communication channels and actively listen to their opinions.
Employee development: Provide opportunities for employees to learn and grow within the company. Offer mentoring, training, and workshops to help them advance their personal and professional skills.
Work-life balance: Encourage employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance by offering flexible working hours or remote work options. This shows that you care for their well-being and you trust them to keep on top of their workload away from the office when needed.
Employee recognition: Introduce an employee recognition program to acknowledge the hard work, contributions, and successes of your team members. This will help employees feel more valued and motivated to continue performing well.
Using Employees as Your Brand Ambassadors
When we consider ambassadors for a brand, it's easy to jump straight to thoughts about influencers, celebrities, or media figures.
However, your best brand advocates could actually be found much closer to home. Simply look to your best employees to boost your employee brand.
Employee Advocacy and Referrals
Employee advocacy is a powerful strategy to enhance your company's reputation. By encouraging your existing employees to act as brand ambassadors, you tap into their networks and increase the reach of your marketing message.
One effective approach is through employee referrals. This could take the form of a simple program, where your staff recommends potential candidates for job openings.
These employee referrals not only help you find qualified applicants, but also create a sense of ownership among employees as they contribute to the growth of the organization.
You could also start an incentive program to reward those who bring in successful hires.
Engaging Employees on Social Media
Social media plays a significant role in both employer and employee branding.
By guiding your employees on how to represent the company on their personal social media accounts, you can boost your brand image and generate more positive chatter around your organization.
To help your staff feel more comfortable posting about the organization, you could provide some ground rules in this area.
Include things like best practices for sharing company content, interacting with customers, and promoting the organization on various platforms.
The Role of Employee Feedback and Communication
Employees who feel listened to and respected will have a better attitude toward the company and its values.
Using Feedback to Strengthen the Employee Brand
Feedback plays a crucial role in building a positive employee brand. By actively seeking opinions and suggestions from your employees, you not only improve the overall employee experience, but also show that the company values their input.
Regular feedback helps identify areas that need improvement and how you can design effective strategies to strengthen your company's reputation.
Some methods to collect employee feedback include:
Surveys
One-on-one meetings
Suggestion boxes (anonymity often helps people be more candid)
Focus groups
Effective Internal Communications
Clear and consistent communications at a company-level are essential for reinforcing your company's value proposition and nurturing a positive employee experience.
By bridging the gap between employees and company leaders, you will improve the flow of information and create a culture of openness and trust.
Try the following strategies to supercharge your internal communications:
Clear Messaging: Keep your messages concise and focused, ensuring that your employees understand the objectives and expectations.
Multi-Channel Approach: Utilize different communication channels such as emails, group chats, and meetings to cater to different audiences and work styles.
Two-Way Conversations: Encourage employees to share their ideas, concerns, and opinions, fostering a healthy dialogue between different levels of the company.
Regular Updates: Provide updates on company news, team achievements, and progress on initiatives to keep employees informed and engaged.
Talent Acquisition and Retention
When it comes to hiring from a limited talent pool, a strong employee brand is a super helpful tool to have in your back pocket.
And once you've got those new employees on board, you'll want to keep them.
Here's how you can limit too many repeat job postings, and bring in top talent for the roles available.
Enhancing the Hiring Process for a Strong Employee Brand
A great employee brand can be especially appealing to job seekers. It can even bring in candidates who might not have otherwise considered your company.
Include some of the following in your hiring process:
Develop a clear value proposition: Really spell out the benefits you offer to employees. Include growth opportunities, work-life balance, and compensation packages.
Promote your company culture: Show candidates what it’s like to work for your organization.
Share employee testimonials: Encourage current employees to share their experiences, either through written testimonials or video interviews.
Engage on social media: Share updates and interact with candidates and job seekers on various platforms.
Reducing Employee Turnover Through Branding
Hiring the best people for the jobs in your company is one thing, but retaining them is vital too.
Reducing turnover will help with minimizing costs and maintaining productivity.
Here's how you can utilize employee branding to retain employees:
Empowerment: Involve employees in important decisions and ask for their input in shaping your brand.
Consistent communication: Keep your workforce informed about the organization's direction and goals. Make sure they're aware and onboard with the company mission.
Recognition and rewards: Adequately recognize and reward employees for their hard work, aligning your recognition with the core values of your brand.
Sharing Employee Stories and Experiences
While it's brilliant if your staff feel great about their jobs and encouraged to keep doing their best work for you, it's even better if they are willing to tell other people how great it is to work for your company.
Storytelling as a Branding Tool
As your marketing team will tell you, storytelling is a powerful tool.
Employee stories are a brilliant way to showcase your company's culture and values with both internal and external audiences.
Make an effort to gather these stories, and use them to help create a strong employee brand that showcases what your company stands for.
Consider implementing the following strategies to effectively tell your employees' stories:
Interviews and testimonials: Capture employees' experiences through interviews and testimonials, focusing on their achievements, challenges, and growth within the company.
Blog posts and newsletters: Share stories, lessons, and personal anecdotes in written form through blog posts and newsletters to enhance your company's online presence.
Social media: Utilize social media platforms to reach a wider audience and encourage your employees to share their own stories on their profiles.
Measuring the Success of Your Employee Branding
Now that you've done the hard work of creating an employee branding plan and putting it into action, you'll want to make sure it's a success.
In our final section, we'll look at how to keep track of the relevant metrics and KPIs.
Employee Branding Metrics and KPIs
To ensure the effectiveness of your employee branding program and ensure it aligns with your company's core values, it's important to set measurable objectives and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs).
These can include:
Employee satisfaction: Measure this through those employee surveys we mentioned above. Also consider engagement scores and retention rates.
Employer branding examples: Keep an eye on your organization's presence in industry rankings and awards, media coverage, and social media engagement.
Recruitment success: Consider the quality and quantity of applicants, hiring costs, and hiring time.
Feedback Loops and Continuous Improvement
It's also a good idea to combine the metrics we just mentioned with strong feedback loops that can provide valuable insights and reveal opportunities for continuous improvement in your employee branding initiatives.
This could include:
Employee feedback: Collect feedback through surveys, exit interviews, and open forums. Use this to identify areas of improvement and push for necessary changes.
Learning and development opportunities: Promote a culture of continuous learning by offering various training and development programs.
Monitor competition: Stay informed about best practices and successful branding strategies in your industry to ensure your organization remains competitive.
Final Thoughts on Employee Branding
After reading through the guide above, we hope you'll feel energized to create a work environment where your employees feel proud to represent your organization.
You now have the secrets to attract job seekers to your organization ahead of others, and improve your company's culture.
If you measure the success of your employer branding efforts, and make sure that your new-found strong employee brand really sticks, you can bring in even more talented employees in the future.
