Employer Branding – Validate, Align, Communicate
Our previous blogs about Employer Branding have focused on the importance of understanding your current employer brand, how to develop a strategic positioning for your employer brand that is competitive and sustainable in the future, and also identifying how best to develop your Employment Value Proposition (EVP).
Now that you’ve defined your organisation’s unique EVP statements, it’s time to double check. We need to make sure that your employer brand messages are ‘authentic’. We will also discuss how best to align and communicate your employer brand both within your organisation and to the external market.
Validating your EVP
So, how well do your EVP statements resonate within your organisation? If a new employee was to start tomorrow, would the messages you promote to them via your EVP reflect their actual work experience? If your answer is “no” or “I don’t know” then validation of your statements with both managers and a cross section of employees is a critical step.
Obtaining feedback will enable your organisation to understand,
· Your leadership team’s buy-in and support of your EVP statements
· Your employees’ expectations of your EVP statements
· Your current performance on EVP statements across employee groups or regions
· Identification of gaps and priority improvement areas
Your EVP statements represent the most compelling reasons that employees choose your organisation as an employer. This testing phase explores real employee experiences and enables the identification of strengths, gaps and priority improvement areas. Also testing your EVP with senior managers will engage them further in the employer branding process and ensure your EVP statements fit with future strategic business plans.
EVP Alignment within the organisation
Once leadership interviews and employee focus groups are completed, feedback should be collated to identify any areas of refinement required for the EVP statements. In addition, any key strategic threats, organisational performance gaps and priority improvement areas should be included in the review and refinement process.
Once final approval has been given to the EVP statements, the alignment process can begin. Some of your EVP statements will be based on current work reality and others may be aspirational and require further ‘work’ to close the gap between reality and expectation. The key to a truly authentic employer brand is consistent delivery of the messages through every facet of the employee’s working day.
External Communication
If you doubt your organisation’s ability to deliver on a component of your employer brand – don’t promote it to the market! Baiting your candidates with unrealistic expectations will win you no favours and result in increasing your attrition as opposed to reducing it. Align your employer brand within your organisation first.
In addition to your internal communication plan, an external communication plan also needs to be developed to market your employer brand to potential candidates, recruitment agencies, graduate programs etc. All your existing marketing collateral needs to be reviewed to ensure your messages are consistent around your employer brand.
Tips for successful validation, alignment and communication of your employer brand.
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Have you involved senior leadership in your employer brand process and do you have their buy-in to your strategy?
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Have you talked to a cross section of your employees in different functional areas, generational groups, different locations, about your EVP statements and reviewed similarities / differences in their perceptions?
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Is their any ‘big picture’ issues that will impact on your organisation’s ability to deliver on your employer branding claims?
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Have you developed an internal alignment and communications program that spans beyond a one off launch of your employer brand?
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Do your managers understand your employer brand and do they have the knowledge and skills to help deliver your employer brand experience to employees?