Companies have also placed greater emphasis on their culture, mission, and values, how they articulate them, and, more importantly, how they demonstrate and live them. Now more than ever, employers need to visibly and transparently convey these unique corporate traits. One way to do this is through an employer brand.
Defining the Employer Brand
An employer brand isn't the same as a company's brand, nor is it a marketing campaign – not by a long shot. It is an authentic expression of a company's identity – the core layers of its existence that employees experience and stakeholders perceive.
Defining a company's identity is the first and most crucial step in the employer's brand journey. For example, some companies may conclude that community-giving efforts demonstrate the employer's commitment to societal betterment by improving local residents' lives. Other employers may focus more inwardly, touting the visibility of senior management in their daily interactions with all levels of the organization and the level of transparency and goal alignment across an organization.
At the end of the day, the best way to authentically define an employer brand is by listening to different perspectives, collecting extensive feedback throughout the company, and finding the commonalities that impact the vast majority of employees. This approach isn’t always intuitive – some companies focus too much on what they want their employer brand to be rather than what it truly is to the employees who live and experience it daily. Authenticity is the only answer – anything less isn’t worth the effort.
For Selective, our employee experience revolves around relationships – employee to employee, employee to insurance agent, and employee to customer. And, as we know from our personal relationships outside work, the most genuine relationships are those that allow us to be our true, authentic selves. This reality is the basis for our employer brand.
Expressing the Employer Brand
Employees are savvy. They know what they experience every day at work, and they know when the truth gets exaggerated. Each company must communicate its employer brand consistent with its employees’ experiences. The more honest and real the messaging, the more it resonates and perpetuates.
Because a strong employer brand is important inside and outside a company, it's crucial to communicate that brand inside and outside the company. For example, use words and visuals to tell prospective employees how you do what you do – how employees work together, how your company lives its values, and how you promote social good. Painting a picture through words and visuals about what corporate life looks like inside your company helps potential employees envision themselves working at your company and understand how they will fit in. Your ability to fully express your corporate identity can significantly impact your reputation in an intense battle to attract and retain talent.
Level Up
What's unique about your employer brand? I invite you to embark on an exciting and eye-opening journey with your colleagues to find out what makes your workplace a place where people want to work, then help them see it for themselves!