How a Values-based Employer Brand Can Position Your Organization to Win the Talent Wars

Your Brand is Your Promise

A strong employer brand (or employment brand) can separate good employers from great employers. They are the organizations people dream of working for. They are the companies on “best places to work” lists and with raving Glass Door reviews. But what exactly is an employer brand? At its core, a brand is a promise. Think of it this way: your company’s brand identity for its products or services is essentially your promise to customers. FedEx, for example, has cemented strong brand loyalty and a repeat customer base by consistently living up to its promises of fast, trackable delivery service. For most, the FedEx product brand is reliability.

Similarly, your organization’s employer brand is your promise to a separate but equally important constituency: your employees. An organization’s success, growth and, ultimately, its profitability, is inextricably linked to employees’ level of commitment and dedication to their work. Your organization’s promise to these very important people is a combination of elements that collectively comprise your employer brand. And because of rapidly shifting dynamics shaping modern workplaces, your employer brand is more important than ever before.

An Employer Brand Defined

Some people mistakenly equate a company’s “culture” with its employer brand. Culture is important, as we’ll discuss, but it’s only a single aspect of an organization’s employer brand.

Let’s look at the individual elements of an employer brand (CLC, Kotler/Porter/Schnarrs), along with some context:

• Culture: “Company culture” is a catch-all term that can mean a lot -- or very little. It can be used to describe the general personality of a company: “XYZ Corp. is a very entrepreneurial culture.” (What does that even mean, exactly?!) Others might attempt to define a company’s culture by its outward trappings: open floor plans, amenities, casual dress. In reality, and where the culture “rubber hits the road” is in more substantive manifestations: (genuine) inclusiveness, quality of teams, caliber of management, scalable technology, and active enablement of career development. (We’ll circle back to some of these in a bit.) Keep in mind that a culture a company advertises or espouses and the reality on the ground can be very different things – a disconnect that will diminish an employer brand very quickly.

• Compensation: This element of the employer brand is selfexplanatory, but it is quickly evolving beyond concepts of salary, commission, bonuses, benefits, and retirement. Employees are demanding benefits that facilitate a better work/life balance – such as childcare and eldercare benefits – and progressive employers are listening. In fact, 57% of senior leaders responded that “their organizations are assigning higher priority to care benefits to better support their employees in both work and life” (Care.com’s “Future of Benefits” Report, 2021). • Environment: This element can encompass many things but let’s use just one example: the physical work environment, e.g. office/ remote/white-collar v. warehouse/blue-collar. One trend we’re seeing in the current Great Reshuffle is blue collar workers – exhausted, underpaid and overexposed to COVID-19 – applying for white collar jobs with better pay and more flexibility regarding hours and work locations. When you read that service workers are “lazy” or

“don’t want to work,” please don’t believe this simplistic myth. After all, these critical, front-line workers largely kept society going during the worst of the pandemic. They still want to work, but many want to change their work environments. • Product Brand: Remember the aforementioned promise between and company and its customers? Well, this is crucial to its spillover in the employer brand. The overall reputation of a company’s products or services can be a clear differentiator if other elements are equal or close. • Work/life balance: Perhaps the most dynamic element of the employer brand, this is a concept that is getting its place in the sun. (PerformancePoint’s CEO, Brad Federman, has written that it doesn’t even exist, and advocates for work/life “sway” instead.)

Regardless, a variety of factors influence this element, and it can be hard to read before accepting a job offer. Some things to look out for here include travel, remote work capability, vacation/PTO policy, etc.

By MICHAEL BRUNO

The Problem with Pulling Levers

Perhaps understanding that they couldn’t be “all things to all people,” some organizations have tried to stand out among competitors by making one or two elements of their employer brand particularly strong. Some companies known for high wages, for example, have tough and demanding internal cultures. Likewise, it seemed that some companies that advertised as “fun” places to work – ping-pong tables, free sodas – could get by with workplaces that blurred the work/life demarcation line. Still, other companies with just so-so compensation attracted scores of eager applicants because of their mission or vibrant, inclusive cultures.

This calculus of levers still exists, but the current talent exodus we’re facing reflects a different reality and employers who want to win long-term will need to rethink this strategy in the context of a valuesbased employer brand. Things that used to be differentiators – salary, a strong benefits package – are now table stakes. And scores of employees, quickly seeing through cynical schemes designed to keep them at their desks longer, are tired of making trade-offs and voting with their resignations. Post-pandemic, your employees – the ones you have and the ones you want – are demanding more. They don’t want everything, as the “perfect” organization doesn’t exist. But what they do want is alignment. They want to work for a company that aligns with their values.

The good news is that employers have an opportunity to create sustainable and attractive employer brands by going all-in with an authentic, values-based approach that strives to meet employees at the intersection of professional development and personal fulfillment. Don’t offer them the moon, empty promises or meaningless “eye candy.” Instead, offer them a company and workplace they can feel good about being present for every day. The following are 3 visible but meaningful action steps employers can adopt to take their employer brand from humdrum to premier status: 1. Prioritize your employees’ mental health. There’s a saying that

“people remember what happens in the bad times,” and boy, are your employees paying attention to how your organization responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Did you prioritize your people’s physical safety and mental health? Did you lean into honest conversations about mental health? Did you create safe spaces for these types of discussions? Or did you create unrealistic expectations as a result of a

“business as usual” or “soldiering through” mentality?

2. Think your organization is diverse and inclusive? Don’t just say

it -- live it. Employees want to work for companies that “walk the walk,” not just “talk the talk” by participating in outwardly visible but hollow proclamations. Are your management and executive teams reflective of the diversity that exists elsewhere in your company? Do your BIPOC and LGTBQ+ team members feel that they can bring their whole, true selves to their jobs? These can be very tough internal questions for an organization, but they are necessary to develop an authentic and welcoming culture for all employees.

3. Help your employees be more marketable -- for your competitors.

Yep, you read that correctly. It’s counterintuitive, but you’ll actually keep your best employees longer and more engaged by facilitating robust career development. Workers in every demographic want essentially the same thing: to be valued, and to grow professionally.

The more actively an employer helps its employees grow, the more loyalty the employees will exhibit in return. We see career development-as-a-benefit growing exponentially in the next decade and a gamechanger for high-performing organizations.

Your Employer Brand in the Age of Empowered Employees

The traditional employer/employee social contract is dead. Long gone are the days when employees work for a single company, retiring in their early- or mid-60s with a gold watch and a fat pension. In the era of the 50-year career and the values-aligned worker mindset, your goal as an organization isn’t to keep employees forever, your goal is to keep them productive longer. And you can do that by delivering on your promise to them: that you’ll provide a culture that aligns with their values, a work environment that is truly inclusive, and a platform for continual professional development to keep them sharper and more marketable. This is your values-based employer brand, and it will determine if your organization is sustainable, profitable, and relevant over the long haul.

Michael Bruno,

Strategy & Growth Leader, PerformancePoint LLC Mbruno@performancepointllc.com PerformancePoint LLC www.performancepointllc.com