Putting the employee into employer brand

The following post was contributed by SMRS, one of our UK Partners.

Know it or not, your organisation already has an employer brand. The secret is revealing it, expressing it and empowering your people through it.

What is an employer brand?

At its heart, it’s what people think and feel about an employer as a place to work. And it already exists. Its articulation, however? Well, that’s another matter. And one we love helping all sorts of clients with (successfully, we might add). It needs to be:

• True to who you are and where you’re heading.

• Meaningful to the people you have.

• Attractive to the people you want.

More than benefits, leadership, career opportunities, work/life balance or any other factor, culture and values are what matter most to employees (according to a study by Glassdoor). Culture is the character and personality of your organisation. It’s what makes it unique. It’s the manifestation of your values, traditions and beliefs, combined with your behaviours and attitudes. And, it’s where we start when developing a strong employer brand.

Telling a compelling brand story has to be underpinned by your culture, in order for it to be authentic, bespoke to you and focused on your people. Your employees live and breathe your culture every day. Which is why it rewards everyone to get them involved in sharing the next chapter of your journey:

• People trust other people 90% of the time (official corporate messages trusted just 33%).

• An employee is seen as twice as trustworthy as the CEO.

• Content shared by employees receives 8 times more engagement.

• Brand messages reach 561% further when shared by employees.

Encouraging employees to become ambassadors for your employer brand is a natural, and highly effective, move. Giving people a real taste of your organisation is just the start. They bring character – and a whole host of other benefits.

In December 2019, SMRS Agency Director, Sarah Sturgess, presented a webinar about employer brand ambassadors. During the session, Sarah shares expertise and examples on:

• How to recruit and engage your employees as ambassadors

• How to maintain momentum

• How to use them to measure your employer brand progress

• How to effectively generate content for social sharing

You can access the full webinar by clicking here>