Is your employer brand due a health check?

Keeping your employer brand in good shape requires an honest assessment of its current condition. The sooner the better.

Perhaps your employer brand is currently fit and healthy with hires steady, retention high, and perceptions positive. Or maybe it’s not currently in its prime state. Either way, it can be tempting to take your foot off the gas when it comes to employer brand investment – be that of time, effort or budget.

Yet if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that you never know what’s around the corner. Teams need to be agile, processes streamlined and ultimately, your employer brand should be working as hard as possible every day.

Conduct a health-check today and take the essential steps to keep your top, motivated teams together whilst winning the race to persuade new talent to choose your brand over your competitors.

Determining the strength of your employer brand

Measuring the direct impact your employer brand is having on your overall business’s profitability can be difficult as there are so many contributing factors. You can, however, check whether your employer brand is reaching its full potential by:

 

Working out your employee retention rate

The number of employees coming and going is a strong indication of how engaged staff are with your EVP.

To work out your monthly turnover rate, simply divide the number of employees who left your company during the month by the average number of employees at your organisation in the same period. For example, say you had an average of 100 employees in your company and 7 left, that month’s turnover rate would be 7%.

High employee turnover will have significant costs for your business. If you’re struggling to hold onto talent, it’s important to investigate the reasons why they are deciding to leave. This can highlight common patterns that will show you where you could improve as an employer, or whether you need to adjust your recruitment strategy to attract a different kind of candidate.

 

Your employees are active on social media

When your employees are engaging with your company’s content on social media, you have visible proof that your employer brand is working.

Establishing employee advocacy programmes and empowering employees to create their own content is a great way to get them more engaged with your brand.

 

You have a positive giveaway/takeaway ratio

This is the number of people you’ve hired from competitors against those who left your company to join a competitor. 

If you’re losing good talent to the competition, it can be easy to jump to the conclusion that they have been offered a higher salary. This may not be the only reason. Things like work-life balance, flexible working and opportunities for growth have overtaken pay on the list of employee priorities.

 

Build positive brand perception from the inside out

The reason that your EVP, now more than ever, is so closely linked to the financial success of your businesses is because consumers care about employer branding.

As we’ve discussed before, building a positive brand perception is the key to winning the hearts and minds of consumers. It’s no use hiding behind your external messaging when what happens behind closed doors doesn’t match the ideals your brand is pitching to consumers. At best, your messaging will come across as inauthentic. At worst, your hard-earned trust and customer loyalty can all come tumbling down with a single post on social media.

To let your positive company culture shine through, start from the inside out. Your external and internal employer branding should be natural extensions of each other, centred on the same purpose and core values.

 

How Senior Leadership Teams can strengthen their company’s employer brand

As a CEO or senior-level employee, you have the power to make or break the success of your company’s employer brand. If you’re not engaged with your EVP, why should your teams be? 

Here are three relatively simple ways you can instil belief in your employer brand and boost your profitability:

#1 Create an authentic EVP and embody it
Once you’ve established your employer value proposition with your team, it’s vital that the values and aspirations you are promoting to others come through in your own actions and decision-making. Lead by example to bring your staff on board with what your company stands for.

Unsure if your EVP is in the right place? Read up on the crucial components of any employer value proposition.

#2 Communicate regularly
You may not get to work directly with every employee in your business, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get to know them. Opening two-way channels of communication, like intranets and staff portals, will make all teams feel more equally valued and help you better understand their day-to-day impact on the business.

#3 Promote content around your company culture
As part of your company’s senior leadership team, it’s important to have a visible online presence. Showcase your company’s big wins. Celebrate your employees. Let consumers see the human side of your brand.

 

Regular check-ups

It’s never a bad idea to take a look at your employer brand and see what’s working well for you, and what you can or should improve. Maintaining a good overview of the state of your employer brand doesn’t have to take a lot of effort either – an employee happiness survey every 6-12 months, or a comparison of your benefits and what your competitors offer will provide you with a lot of useful information to work with. 

With regular, small efforts like this, you will have an easier time keeping your employer brand growing in a positive direction, and be well on your way to being an employer of choice both for your existing employees, and new applicants.