Reimagining Your Employer Brand

New Year, New You – we’ve all reimagined ourselves at one time or another, whether it’s a new hairstyle, hobby, or simply rearranging priorities.  Just like we continue to reimagine ourselves, companies need to do the same to attract new talent and keep current employees engaged.  

Research through employee engagement surveys and feedback shows that after the employee's honeymoon stage, their wants and desires of what they expect from an employer can change.  What attracted them may not be enough to make them stay.  Employees need to know that their current company can support their ever-changing needs.  

Unfortunately, we have found that many companies struggle in building a strong foundation for a long-term relationship, resulting in current and potential employees looking to other companies to fulfill their needs.  Building a solid foundation begins with a well-defined Employer Brand. 

Companies with highly engaged employees and lower attrition rates are intentional about developing their Employer Brand.  They purposefully align their business processes with their mission, values, culture, and personality. They further align their people processes and offerings to their employees at each step of their life-cycle from onboarding to offboarding. Employees understand who their employer is and isn’t, minimizing the curiosity to see if the grass is greener on the other side.

Companies achieve a strong employer brand by focusing on these critical areas: 

• Employee Engagement 

• Values, Culture, and Ethics 

• Recognition 

• Career Development 

• Well-Being 

• Total Rewards

Employee Engagement:

Do you know what motivates your employees? What keeps employees interested in your company and their careers? If you don't know, you're not alone! Research shows 40% of executives claim they don't have access to the data they need to figure out what motivates their workers. If you don't already have one, creating a strategic plan is a worthwhile endeavor. If you have one, go read it! And share it! A strategic plan serves as the foundation to begin aligning business decisions to business objectives. This cultivates transparency for employees, and answers the “What”, “Why”, and “How” decisions are made, allowing leaders to support staff more effectively and create higher levels of productivity and engagement. 

Values, Ethics, and Culture

Core values are developed to foster trust and mold a cohesive company culture. Creating and maintaining an ethical environment is impossible without incorporating core values into the workplace daily. Core values underlie all activity and communicate what is significant to the organization. They inform staff, clients, and prospects about how the members of the organization interact with one another, how it will achieve its mission, and help shape successful behavior. All of these items create an organizational culture that guides employee behaviors toward positively contributing to the unique environment of an organization. Company culture answers the question, “How is the company going to execute on their mission?” which provides the workforce with a sense of direction and purpose. It creates an environment of trust so employees know how the company will be run and what is expected of them. It lays the foundation in making them feel connected, involved, and supported in their efforts.

Recognition 

The #1 reason most people leave their jobs is a lack of recognition.  When employees receive recognition for their contributions, they feel pride and ownership and are motivated to work even harder on their next project. How employees are rewarded and recognized displays what their company values.  Respect is also a form of recognition - respect for a person's individuality and respect for a diverse perspective - all these things work together to provide employees with a sense of dignity and psychological safety.  If you want to create positive behaviors, don’t pass up the chance to recognize your staff when their behavior supports the company's values. Try embedding peer and co-worker recognition into your culture as well. It makes employees feel more like a team, perform better, and are more likely to stay due to positive reinforcement and recognition.  

Career Development 

"Career Development" and "Career Growth" are sometimes used synonymously, and we wanted to take a moment to explain the differences between the two. Career development usually refers to tangible steps you take to develop your career. For instance, learning a new skill can improve your performance in your current role. Career development can steer the course of your career growth. Career growth is the big picture, and it’s defined by the different roles and responsibilities. According to LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report, employees at companies with internal mobility stay almost 2x longer.  Plus, employees who move into new jobs internally are 3.5x more likely to be engaged employees than those who stay in their current jobs. Ensuring you have developmental and growth opportunities available to your employees will increase retention, motivation, performance, and productivity. 

Well-Being 

Your staff's overall mental, physical, emotional, and financial health is referred to as employee well-being. According to Alight's recent employee well-being study, less than half of U.S. employees positively perceive their overall well-being. Surprisingly, there has been a significant decline in employee well-being from early 2020 to mid-2021; this decline is credited to an employee's mental resilience.  

Employees now more than ever hold employers to higher standards when it comes to their personal well-being, requiring companies to define and support this intangible yet tangible state. Employers must look for ways to successfully educate, engage, and inspire their employees to be the best versions of themselves. 

Total Rewards

When we talk about Total Rewards, it is really the culmination of the items discussed above, along with benefits, incentives, processes, programs, and other types of rewards a company offers to its employees.  It’s important to understand that employees are unique and therefore need flexibility in Total Reward options as they mature in life and also in their careers. Many companies face the challenge of creating an equitable and inclusive strategy for diverse employee populations.  The best way to do this is by listening to your employees and truly hearing what they value. By listening, you can gain insight into what programs and offerings to invest in during the budgeting season that will optimize retention.

Reimagine

Keep in mind all the items above and then some are what cultivate your Employer Brand; creating and sustaining a positive employer brand takes time and work. It does not come together by accident, it needs to be intentional. It starts with a full review and understanding of an employer's mission, vision, values, strategic plan, and goals; then aligning those with processes, procedures, policies, and attitudes to reinforce a consistent message. An Employer Brand should tell a company's unique story while remembering the employees are the Storytellers. 

Not sure where to start? People415 is here to help you reimagine your Employer Brand.