I’ve led the creation of employment brands at two multi-billion dollar companies and consulted on several others at companies of all sizes.
What I learned from building them can be boiled down to just 5 strategic actions.
And despite what many people think, none of those actions involve investing in a colorful career site, testimonial videos, or social media pages.
Those are just tactics.
You need them eventually, but not until you’ve done the foundational work described below.
THE 5 ACTIONS YOU NEED TO TAKE TO BUILD A STRONG EMPLOYER BRAND
The following actions are not a playbook or a checklist for building an employment brand, but should serve as a reminder not to skip the strategic work first.
Let me know what I missed or left out in the comments
// ACTION 1: TEACH - Surprisingly, you must educate your senior leaders what an employee value proposition (EVP) is, the current state of yours, and how a stronger EVP would support whatever enterprise initiatives they’re trying to accomplish.
// ACTION 2: PARTNER - You need your internal comms and marketing team’s assistance, agreement, alignment, approval, and involvement. You need it up front at the education phase. If you don’t have it, you’ll constantly be fighting an uphill battle whenever you’re trying to execute any of the tactics.
// ACTION 3: RESEARCH - Once you’ve won over your partners and educated your key stakeholders, the next step is to gather all the internal employee feedback you can get your hands on. It will tell you why your employees come and why they stay. You’ll also need to do external competitive research to help you with Action #4 below.
// ACTION 4: POSITION - Your employment brand is what your employees and prospects say or think about you as an employer. The EVP is what you have to offer employees in exchange for their services. When expressing your EVP (and delivering on it), you can position your company as an employer of choice for the types of people you want to recruit. If your brand is damaged or it’s just not attractive, you’ll need to spend time getting this right. Don’t build an employment brand that sounds like everyone else’s. Leverage your unique data and offerings to craft something exciting and different.
// ACTION 5: ALIGN - Once you’ve developed your EVP, test the messaging (not the creative) internally by asking high performers if what you’re about to communicate to the world is true. If it’s not, make edits until it is.
FOCUS ON STRATEGY…BUT DON’T FORGET EXECUTION
While there could be many, many steps involved with each of the actions described above, hopefully I’ve made it clear that my past experience has led me to believe in one thing:
Building or rebuilding an employment brand must start with the strategic foundation of an employment brand – the Employee Value Proposition.
Now, an EVP will get you the framework for changing your perceived employer brand, but you still need to execute on the tactics – the creative, a campaign, the messaging, the career site, the socials, etc.
How well you execute on the tactics matters and it’s complex enough to fit in a book. In fact, I’ll share a couple of good books down below to help get you started.
For now, if your employment brand is not where you would like it to be – start a project plan based on the five actions above and do the strategic work necessary to build a brand that your employees believe in and your prospects can’t ignore.
// Supporting Resources
Use the following resources to go deeper on the topic of smart tech adoption in an age of rapid innovation.
Podcasts to Listen to..
The Guiding Voice: "Decoding EVP: How to Build a Powerful Employee Value Proposition": This episode is a perfect primer, breaking down what an EVP is and how it impacts business metrics, not just HR. Listen Here
The Podcast Channel (The Talent Cast): Described as an employer brand podcast dedicated to "making you smarter about recruiting and hiring." The goal is to re-invent employer branding, recruiting, and hiring from the ground up, challenging conventional thinking and "sacred best practices" in the war for talent. Listen Here
The Employer Branding Podcast: "How to Make People See Themselves in Your Employer Brand Storytelling" This podcast is about how to successfully "activate" an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) by putting authentic, human stories at the center of employer branding. Listen Here
Sharp Articles..
"Top Employer Branding Mistakes and How to Avoid Them" (Universum Global): An outstanding article that lists the exact problems "Kayla" is facing, including "Lack of a Defined Strategy" and "Failure to Deliver on Promises." Read Here
"What is talent management?" (McKinsey): This article connects the dots between a "distinctive, targeted, and real" EVP and superior business performance—perfect for sharing with your stakeholders. Read Here
"How to build an employer branding framework" (Canva): A simple, visual guide that reinforces the article's steps: Define EVP -> Align with Mission -> Leverage Visuals -> Encourage Advocacy -> Measure. Read Here
Books To Read..
The Employer Brand: Bringing the Best of Brand Management to People at Work by Simon Barrow and Richard Mosley: This is a foundational text, written by the creator of the "Employer Brand" concept, covering the full subject from identifying the core brand to its positioning and communication. Read Here
Employer Branding For Dummies by Richard Mosley and Lars Schmidt: This book offers actionable advice on how to build, scale, and measure a compelling employer brand in an easily digestible format. Read Here
Talent Chooses You: Hire Better with Employer Branding by James Ellis: essentially a philosophy and strategy guide for modernizing recruiting and talent acquisition through the power of employer branding. Read Here
Visual Frameworks..
Gartner's EVP Design Template: A practical, downloadable template that guides you through gathering the research and data needed to design your EVP. See Here
Canva's Employer Brand Framework: A clear infographic showing the flow from EVP definition to internal alignment, external communication, and measurement. See Here
The 4 Pillars of a Modern EVP: A visual framework (based on Gartner/LumApps research) showing the four key areas employees evaluate: 1. Compensation, 2. Career, 3. Culture, 4. Work-Life, and 5. Work Environment. See Here
Video to Watch..
5 Steps to Crafting an Effective Employer Value Proposition (EVP): The video is all about providing a step-by-step framework to build a strong EVP that helps a company attract, retain, and engage top talent. Watch Here