Reviewing your employer brand

REVIEWING YOUR EMPLOYER BRAND IS IT STILL FIT-FOR-PURPOSE?

2 Reviewing Your Employer Brand - Is It Still Fit-For-Purpose?

1.0 Introduction Many organisations have long had their employer brand - the composite attributes and values offering enriching employment experiences that appeal to employees.

A good brand is distinctive and diverse. It differentiates an organisation among competitors, stakeholders, labour markets and in the mind’s eye of future talent.

It can be a crucial recruitment/ attraction/retention tool - and a lever for better business performance.

3 Reviewing Your Employer Brand - Is It Still Fit-For-Purpose?

2.0 Brand issues But, brands can easily lose their appeal, becoming dated and less valuable than before. A better, competing offer or promise may be available. Or, worse, the brand just doesn’t deliver what it used to, or is supposed to stand for. Some employer brands have encountered these issues. And, complacency, generational issues, changing value systems, diversity issues, digitisation, financial cuts and leadership shortcomings all have their effects.

Is your employer brand still fit for purpose? Is it up-to-date? Use these 20 questions – either in total or in each section provided - to review its status. Include people in your area and elsewhere in your review. in your organisation?

FIRST THOUGHTS 1. How well is your employer brand understood across the organisation - is it clear what it stands for?

2. What aspects have grown stronger or weakened over the last two years? Or are things about the same?

3. What sources/evidence tell you that the brand is perceived the way you intended, and delivers what it promises?

4. Considering your work, area and work relationships, is the brand actually practised as well as it could be?

MANAGING THE BRAND 1. Does your organisation have an operating template for structuring work on the employer brand which covers roles, responsibilities and key activities?

2. How are managers encouraged/supported to live in their areas the values, expectations and practices the brand requires?

3. In what ways do you actively communicate your employer brand profile across the organisation and seek feedback on it?

4. Is the brand intention flexible enough to be interpreted and practised differently at division, function, location and national levels?

BRAND COMPONENTS 1. Is your employee value proposition clearlystated, competitive, appealing - and fully representative of the entire organisation’s people?

2. Is your organisation generally regarded as an employer of choice? For what principles and practices?

3. What do talent markets, service providers, networks and recruitment agencies, understand to be your employer brand profile? What do you think it is?

4. Are there clear links between the brand, your organisation’s raison d’être, people strategy and how you approach engagement?

4 Reviewing Your Employer Brand - Is It Still Fit-For-Purpose?

2.0 Brand issues MEASURING THE BRAND 1. What has your organisation done over the last two years to evaluate the brand promise and direction, along with its business benefits?

2. What measures do you use to give a ROI on your employer brand investment and operational costs?

3. What measurement cycle - or specific measures - do you use to ascertain that the branding process and its components work as intended?

4. What do you do to measure retention, motivation and engagement levels - and relate the findings to the employer brand?

IMPROVING THE BRAND 1. The last time your employer brand was discussed at senior executive or senior HR levels, what were the agendas - and the outcomes?

2. How does your brand, or EVP, compare with those of competitors, peers and sector leaders?

What aspects of theirs impress you or others?

3. What do you do to discover on a segmented basis what employee experiences and perceptions actually are?

4. Are you fully satisfied that your corporate and recruitment websites convey memorable expressions or images of the employer brand and the reality of work in your organisation?

5 Reviewing Your Employer Brand - Is It Still Fit-For-Purpose?

3.0 Brand dimensions to guide you CRF has researched this area and engagement issues for many years.

One project described how 12 dimensions made up a good employer brand.

Do all these dimensions feature at some point in how you define and practise your own brand?

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Direction/leadership Recruitment and induction Values, behaviour and policies Performance management Job interest and opportunity Development and support Quality of people Reward and recognition External corporate reputation Resources and work environment Communication Post-employment activity

6 Reviewing Your Employer Brand - Is It Still Fit-For-Purpose?

4.0 References See on this website:

The Employer Brand and Employee Engagement, 2005, Putting Your Employer Brand to Work, 2007, Employee Surveys: Good Practices, Trends and Developments, 2006.

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