In today’s competitive marketplace, businesses need to do more than offer a competitive salary and job to attract the best marketing, creative and digital talent. Just like consumers want to buy from companies with strong brand values, increasingly employees want to work for a company that shares their wider ethos, namely a brand with purpose.
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In today’s competitive marketplace, businesses need to do more than offer a competitive salary and job to attract the best marketing, creative and digital talent. Just like consumers want to buy from companies with strong brand values, increasingly employees want to work for a company that shares their wider ethos, namely a brand with purpose.
So let's explore employer branding, brand purpose, how you can utilise it in your wider recruitment strategy and the benefits it can bring to building strong, diverse, creative teams.
Your employer branding is made up of the qualities and values that set you apart as an employer and are linked strongly to your overall company brand. It is your reputation as a positive place to work, how supportive you are of your employees and the healthiness of your work environment.
Your brand purpose should be the central pillar of your employer branding. Most companies know what they do, and how they do it. What matters here is why. It is based on the meaningful actions your company takes to make a difference to its consumers and wider society and should be something that your organisation believes in and is committed to.
Employer branding is critical in the hiring process as it strongly affects your organisation's ability to compete for the best talent. Candidates want to work for a company with a reputation as a good place to work and with a brand purpose that they feel they can support. In fact, 75% of candidates consider an employer's brand before they apply for a job.
Some benefits of a strong employer brand include:
More effective recruitment pipeline
Companies with a positive employer brand are sought-after employers. This means that more high-calibre candidates want to work there. They can increase the talent pool available to them, hire better quality candidates and reduce recruitment time and costs.
Reduced turnover
Companies that have a strong employer brand develop a connection with their employees. Employees feel engaged, listened to, and that they are making a difference leading to better employee retention and reduced staff turnover.
Better business performance
When employees feel nurtured and empowered with a sense of purpose overall performance is improved. A strong employer brand fosters teamwork, satisfaction, loyalty and encourages motivation, meaning employees work harder and strive higher.
When trying to figure out your employee brand purpose it can be tempting to focus on hot-button, popular issues or reach too far and try to save the world! But remember, above all your purpose should be authentic to you.
Here are some questions you can ask to help discover your brand purpose.
Look at your brand’s heritage
How did your brand come into being? What was it founded for and why? Did your brand come into being with a purpose that is still relevant today?
Look at what you do well
What are your brand's strengths? Are you passionate about anything in particular? Do these strengths and passions intersect with any wider needs in society?
Talk to your current employees
Why are they proud to work for you? What principles and topics are important to them? What values do they see in the work they do?
Talk to your customers
What do they see as distinctive about your brand? Why do they choose you over others? You should focus on what is needed but always bear in mind your target audience. Do some research into what is important for your customers and you’ll find that often it is important to your employees as well.
1. Chipotle
The California-based restaurant chain’s brand purpose is focused on providing good food that's also good for the planet. In terms of its employer branding, it positions this purpose to show that it is also good to its employees. It believes in supporting its employees through benefits, promotions and inclusion.
Their social media channels show multiple employees sharing their experiences of working for the company, their commitment to diversity and how that translates throughout the employee experience, how Chipotle has helped them develop their skills and rise within the company and the stats show that it’s doing a great job on following through on its promises with over 70% of its general managers being promoted internally and 70% of its workforce coming from diverse backgrounds.
2. John Lewis
John Lewis is the UK’s largest employee-owned business and is regularly top of the rankings for the best employers in the UK. In 1928 they set out their purpose: ‘the happiness of all its members, through their worthwhile and satisfying employment in a successful business.’ Their website, careers page and social media are full of videos explaining how they are structured, what they do to empower their employees and how their structure enables their employees and customers to share in the responsibilities and rewards of their business success.
3. Innocent Drinks
This UK based smoothie company has five key values that they focus on: natural, entrepreneurial, responsible, commercial and generous. They live up to these values by donating 10% of their profits to charity, raising money for Age UK, and most recently partnering with a project that redistributes fruit and vegetables to charities and schools to reduce food waste and tackle food poverty. Their social media is also full of evidence of how they use their values to support and encourage their employees. They discuss diversity and inclusion, give employees a chance to offer testimonials about working there and many of its posts reference specific employees and their achievements by name.
4. Billie, Inc
Billie is a female-run razor company that was founded to change the way that female body hair is perceived and to provide basic beauty products whose low prices reflect the historic ‘Pink Tax’ on women’s hygiene products. Their 2018 campaign ‘Project Body Hair’ was the first women’s razor advertisement that showed female body hair on screen, they donate 1% of their revenue to causes that support women and girls in diverse communities. Billie also explicitly states on their website that they expect their employees, customers and partners to uphold these same values.
5. Tony’s Chocolonely
Tony’s is a Dutch chocolate brand that emphasises fair production and fair trade chocolate right down to the design of its product which features unequally divided chocolate bars to emphasise that profits in the industry are also unfairly divided. On the inside of the wrapper, they make clear their mission statement with regards to their employees, partners and growers. They state they are ‘Crazy about chocolate. Serious about people’ and set out their plan for achieving 100% slave-free chocolate.
Their website is full of unique employee bios and photographs showing how they value each team member’s individuality and their careers page really sets out their brand as an employer focussing on their originality, outspokenness and position as an industry disruptor.
Successful employer brands start with talented individuals that can collaborate effectively to drive performance and results. Our global talent consultancy at DMCG Global helps to quickly connect marketing agencies, in-house teams and brands with the right individuals anywhere on the planet. If you are looking for marketing professionals and would like a bespoke, high-quality recruitment service, our expert consultants will be happy to help.
Get in touch below to find out more.
