A strong employer brand helps organisations attract, engage and retain the people they need to succeed. But effective employer branding stretches far beyond recruitment marketing and benefits for existing employees. It requires a clear employee value proposition, authentic storytelling and alignment with the wider brand strategy.
At Wardour, we believe that the employer brand is inseparable from a company’s overall brand strategy. Julian Thomas, Strategy Director at Wardour, sat down to explore how Wardour approaches employer branding projects, what’s different about our approach, how organisations can develop compelling employee value propositions, and what separates successful employer brands from unsuccessful ones.
What does Wardour’s process for employer brand look like, from start to finish?
Julian Thomas:
“I wish I could answer that quickly; it really does vary. The first thing we have to do is understand with the client whether they’ve got an existing employer brand, what that employer brand says, what their values are, and what the benefits are for employees. Those are the key things to understand at the start, and the process can be slightly different between projects.
So, if a client is looking to completely revolutionise their employer brand strategy, you look to understand where they are right now, what it is they want to change and why, then move on to the process of making those changes.
More often than not, clients have got a good foundational employer brand or employee value proposition, and what they want us to do is to help them sharpen that and take it further.
What we have to understand is:
- what’s working,
- what isn’t working,
- and how they want us to evolve things.
We don’t come in with a set view, and the most important thing is to listen.
Where there’s misalignment, you see those companies failing to attract the talent they want to and also losing good people. When you see that talent leaving within a year, that’s often the result of their employer brand not being an honest reflection of who a company is.
One client, for example, had a very fast-paced, occasionally quite stressful environment. They wanted people who were proactive, go-getting and could both cope with that kind of stress, and found it exciting and rewarding. For them, it was essential that their employer brand was honest about how working there really was.
That’s what we try to do: understand what’s happening in a company now, evaluate if it’s true to the brand, and if not, we have to take some very specific steps to resolve that. Does your employer brand reflect who you are? And does that reflect with your outward-facing brand?
Wardour’s perspective is that employer brand is inseparable from overall brand strategy.”
How do you approach research, and what do you look to learn, at the start of an employer brand project?
Julian Thomas:
“The research phase is absolutely key. That’s where we learn about the employer and what their current employer brand is.
With it, we look at what other employers are saying in the same sphere. It’s really important to understand if they’re saying things that are ‘samey’ or not distinctive. Through an employer brand and employee value proposition, you need to say things that make you stand out from the crowd, and make clear what your differences are.
Those early stages of research allow us to understand:
- who our clients are,
- who they want to be,
- and what can make them exciting to current and prospective employees alike.
It’s essential to do basic desk research and competitor analysis in those early stages, and to make sure that we’re differentiating our clients truthfully and authentically, but also still giving them the language that makes them interesting.
The research and analysis are cornerstones of the Wardour approach to employer brand strategy.”
“Where there’s misalignment, you see those companies failing to attract the talent they want to and also losing good people. When you see that talent leaving within a year, that’s often the result of their employer brand not being an honest reflection of who a company is.”
Mapping from the beginning
“You start with what they currently have.
I’ve worked with clients in the past who have a really strong existing employer brand, and there’s not much that needs to change but they need to make a few things a bit more front-facing, for example. One thing I’ve seen a few times is organisations that have a brand and an employer brand that are consciously a bit different from one another. That’s something we at Wardour feel very strongly about — we don’t agree with it.
I think, with all the information we have available to us in the world now, that there needs to be alignment. As much as employer brand and employee value propositions are built on the very practical things like benefits and values, it all has to match with the things that are being said externally, too.
It’s the stuff that you should feel confidence in putting on your website, on the careers page, that people can come and look at. That stands for employees and prospective employees, but also to a business’ clients and their audience, because it’s an integral part of a business.
The research means going in, talking to people in the business — that means stakeholders and staff at all levels. You can’t talk to everyone, but you’ve got to get a good cross section of people to understand:
- what they love, or don’t, about the company,
- what they really think of where they are,
- and if they feel the employer brand is true to their experience.
Businesses can’t say things they can’t live up to.”
Clarity of meaning
“Many companies talk about collaboration as being key, but what does that actually mean to this company and the people within it? That kind of research and understanding means we can craft language that’s true to them. It’s key to articulate the true benefits and make sure you’re having honest conversations with the people you speak to. Potentially the most important thing in all of this is the employee value proposition.
What is your statement, in a few sentences, that explains who you are, and what your employees can expect from you? That sits at the heart of an employer brand strategy.”
How do you engage existing employees and stakeholders along with potential new hires in one employer brand strategy?
Julian Thomas:
“One way we look to engage people and understand the story on which an employer brand is built is strategic storytelling workshops.
In those workshops we can create, for example, a senior stakeholder group, where you can get under the surface of a brand, and use the workshop as a petri dish to surface all of the things they want to talk about. That way we see the challenges, their differences and we can build a new value proposition from that. You can do that with stakeholders and employees. It’s not always something we do, but it can be a very effective shortcut to getting great material from the relevant people.”
What separates the way Wardour approach employer brand projects?
Julian Thomas:
“Increasingly, it’s that we don’t see it as separate to your brand, we see it as a core part of it.
Recently we were working with a client to evolve their outward-facing brand, and look at how their proposition could be reworded and made more modern, and given a fresh approach. In that process, it became clear that their employer brand would no longer be matching that outward-facing brand, and that needed to be developed as well, because the two things aren’t separate.
At Wardour, we also see it as a story.
You’re giving a story to your current and prospective employees, making them feel proud to be a part of the business, and giving them an attractive proposition through it. We believe that alignment is foundational within a strong overall brand strategy, and helps to frame approach in go-to-market strategy.”
How do you measure the success of an employer branding roll-out? How long does it typically take to see results?
Julian Thomas:
“In many cases, you can start to see results really quickly. We undertake regular employee surveys as part of these projects. We did some work for a leading airline on sharpening their employee value proposition, supported by surveys with clear scoring.
Within six months of the launch of that new value proposition we saw a sharp increase in scores. Staff surveys are a key way of measuring whether the change or evolution of the employer brand has had results, if your people are passionate about what they’re doing and you’re on the right path.
We’ve seen repeatedly that if you get the employer brand right, you will attract the right talent for your business; if you’re honest about who you are and what the experience of working there is, you will attract the right talent and they won’t leave six months later.”
What kind of ROI can organisations expect from investing in employer branding?
Julian Thomas:
“Monetarily, we’ve seen that the ROI is clear in both recruitment and retention. So much of the importance of an aligned employer brand strategy is reducing employee churn.
What you can never really measure scientifically is the value of having talented people in a business who are engaged and passionate about their work, but anyone who has run a business understands the value of that, even if it’s not possible to put strict figures on measuring it.
But it really does show in having to recruit less and getting the right people in for a business. That’s why a strong employer brand and employee value proposition really matter.”
How significant is storytelling in an employer brand strategy project?
Julian Thomas:
“It’s essential. Your brand is your story, and this is a really important part of an overall brand. The only difference is that it’s more employee-facing. But as I said, it should be something you’re really proud to put out, and not something you hide away. Your employer brand strategy is very much a part of your overall brand strategy, and thus your story.”
What’s an employer brand project you particularly enjoyed working on, or that saw the best returns?
Julian Thomas:
“There was one particular project for a global company who have a really distinct Japanese heritage.
They wanted to forge that global presence while making that heritage feel as relevant in their European departments as it was at their HQ. For that, we worked with them to build the idea of understanding their DNA.
What are they built on? What’s important to them in the way they brand themselves? How did they want that to feel for their people, and be a part of the experience of working there? What are their values?
We brought all of that together to create a really distinct employee value proposition. Through that we both re-crafted their employer brand for the people already there, but also for the talent they wanted to bring in.
We built up what they considered to be their ideal components for those working there — rather than needing all of them, it was that prospective talent had a few of them and that indicated they were the right kind of person.
After that exercise, they had a huge improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of their recruitment.”
How do you tailor one employer branding strategy to have impact across different markets or geographies?
Julian Thomas:
“I’d say that comes back to our belief in the employer brand being a core component of the overarching brand.
If a business’ brand strategy is aligned on all levels, that makes their messaging, whether internal or external, significantly more effective. If the brand strategy is well-mapped, that includes the employer brand strategy.
Of course, there are nuances of language, so translation is incredibly important.That itself also comes back to clear messaging, and the values being translatable and understandable in English and beyond.
Sometimes we’ll come up with a nice slogan or catchphrase that doesn’t translate, but if you’re clearly communicating what you’re about and saying that you want to build a diverse community of people who can come together, share differences, share lives and work happily and productively together, that can apply everywhere.
If you understand your own brand and you’re honest about who you are, your employer brand and employee value proposition will carry across geographies.”
How is AI changing the way organisations approach employer branding?
Julian Thomas:
“It’s interesting to observe, as it’s not been a huge factor just yet with most of our clients.
It’s definitely being used to in initial stages, like recruitment, and if anything that makes an employer brand even more important, because you need to be sure what you’re giving the AI for those early phases and that filtration process.
If AI is being used, the value proposition for employees needs to be really clear and integrated into that process.”
Above all else, what do you think of when you think of a strong, successful employer brand?
Julian Thomas:
“At Wardour, we believe a strong employer brand is built on:
- authenticity,
- alignment,
- employee insight,
- storytelling,
- and a compelling employee value proposition.
Whether we’re helping organisations refine an existing employer brand, develop a new employee value proposition, or create a global employer branding programme, our focus remains the same:
Creating employer brands that attract the right talent, engage employees and support long-term business growth.”
