It’s hard to say whether the last year has flown by or inched past.
On the one hand, it’s a struggle to believe that words such as Covid and lockdown meant little or nothing just ten or so months ago. So much appears to have changed in so little time. On the other, one day appears to merge slowly and without trace into the next, which, in turn, blurs quietly into yet another. Without the distraction and the reference points of holidays, trips and breaks, the days grind by glacially and without differentiation.
And yet, the world is changing around us, at a staggering pace.
For Andrew Yang, “We’ve had ten years’ worth of change in the past 12 weeks”.
Steve Hasker, CEO of Thomson Reuters, had a similar take: “I think we’ve seen 3 to 4 years of progress in just 3 to 4 weeks, in terms of acceptance of what the new world needs to look like”.
And Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella expressed it: “As Covid-19 impacts every aspect of work and life globally, Microsoft has seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in just two months”.
We see examples of such rapid change all around us. Change which, pre-Covid, we would have assumed was fanciful and impossible. The furlough and job protection scheme was constructed and rolled out at a staggering pace. The Nightingale Hospitals were operational within ten days. Vaccines, with us less than a year after the virus was identified, would typically take 10-12 years to come to market.
If, through necessity, the virus has super-charged change and progress all around us, what effect has it had on the employer branding landscape?
It’s a big question and one, I think, that employers need to have answers for.
Employee and candidate audiences in early 2021 are not in the same place as they were 10-12 months ago. Their vocabulary, their ambition and their motivations have all changed. They’ve been made redundant, furloughed, they’ve worked from home, they’re doing more work today than ever before, they’re twiddling their thumbs. They work for employers who have supported them, looked out for them, listened to them, protected them. They work for employers which have done none of the above.
Whilst candidate messaging has perhaps not had the focus and attention of previous years in 2020, I suspect that will change as we move into the new year.
The latest job posting reading from WaveTrakr suggests that early December was up 37% on the January to March average. REC suggests that late November saw 1.4m job postings in the UK economy, higher than the 1.35m of pre-Covid early March, and the highest figure registered in 2020. And, according to the most recent ONS figures, published in mid-December, there were 547,000 vacancies in September to November, 251,000 fewer than during the same time in 2019, but up 110,000 on the previous quarter.
Much will depend on the reaction to the Brexit deal and the speed and efficiency in which the vaccine programme is rolled out. However, it feels as though recruitment is going to get brisker in the new year.
But if the world has changed around it – and at pace – how will employer branding respond to and reflect such change? Here are some of my thoughts.
- Employer branding and the EVP that sits behind it, that influences it, that fuels it, will have to give far more consideration to the whole person. We aren’t simply accountants, data analysts, baristas, we are single parents, carers, partners. The importance attached to mental health, physical fitness, nutrition, well-being has never been higher. We’ve spent the last ten months peering through Zoom at colleagues’ lives, flats, partners, children, pets, book choices. We don’t necessarily want to go back behind a mask, ironically, as Covid lifts.
2. Authenticity is over-used currency within employer branding. But it has to be ratcheted up rather than down. People have been at their most vulnerable, open and honest over the last ten months. No one has come through unscathed, we all have our scars. To whitewash this, not to acknowledge it, not to tell the honest, naked stories of how an organisation’s people have come through lockdown feels wrong and out of step.
3.Employer branding will be as much to do with listening to your employees as it is reaching out to your candidates. Those organisations that admit to their Covid engagement failings and commit to learning and providing an improved employee experience will stand out.
“When the first national lockdown began it became clear that listening to colleagues across Nationwide was something we needed to make a priority – to give everyone, no matter where they worked, no matter what their job role, the opportunity to share and be heard equally about any difficulties they were facing and what help they needed.
Our response, our Colleague Sentiment Tracker! A tool that simply asked, ‘how are you today?’ and ‘how supported do you feel?’ each week. It’s been an amazing success with over 40,000 responses, and it’s allowed us to respond quickly and effectively to individual feedback. As part of our Employee Listening Strategy and desire to create a culture of continuous listening, we’ll make it even bigger and better in the future”. Tom Portingale, Senior Employer Brand Manager, Nationwide Building Society.
4. I have a feeling that employer branding messages into 2021 will have to work harder. They will no longer be able to rely on the low-hanging fruit of funky workspaces, office dogs and free breakfasts. Such messaging has now to be based on something more fundamental, something more meaningful. Something more forensic, based around tapping into peoples’ genuine employment emotions and motivations.
5. And if we truly start to see workforces based literally anywhere around the world, rather than within commuting distance of a head-office, because people are now largely working from home, employee messaging again has to work harder. It cannot rely on osmosis, on casual word of mouth, on news travelling through serendipitous encounters in canteens, water coolers or coffee runs. The ability of an organisation to maintain a culture – or indeed for any cohesive culture to exist – is in the balance should the vast majority of employees be operating from home, and those homes be spread around the world.
“Adversity and our initial organisational responses to it have brought home that the old psychological contract between employers and employees is no longer fit for purpose. The best organisational cultures are already thinking about renegotiating this relationship and re-thinking the concept of ‘workplace’. Trust, agility, flexibility and values-based leadership will increasingly be the factors that differentiate employer brands in 2021/22”. Sandy Wilkie, Head of Organisational Effectiveness, Greenhill HR
6. That said, employers should not guess what 2021’s candidate base is looking for. We might assume that people want confidence and direction in a new employer. That they seek psychological safety, honesty and reassurance in a job move. That they are looking to accelerate their career, given that it is likely to have been on hold during the past year. We might assume. Better would be to listen to target audiences. What do they think about your organisation, its efforts during lockdown, how its employer brand and reputation have changed, the extent to which your desirability as an employer might have changed, in the light of your response to Covid?
“I think this point is important. A lot of assumptions will be made by organisations around how people feel and what they want. Without finding out that information first, you may miss out on outstanding talent. Finding the balance between moving quickly, and having effective messaging will be key. Mark Williams, Talent Partner, Arden University.
7. The advances – through forces such as #MeToo and BLM – of gender and ethnic respect, equity and consideration, mean that no employer branding project should take place without the input and contribution of D&I professionals and the full range and involvement of the employee base.
“This is also key, with the ‘new world’ promoting flexible working, and infrastructure, processes and procedures in place to ensure this is done effectively, 2021 could be the year that a drive for equality increases exponentially. So, it is important to keep the changes that have had a positive impact, and be brave in having the open and honest conversations most employers have steered away from to find out how real change can be made. Hiding behind “safe” questions will lead to a missed opportunity”. Mark Williams.
8. Employer branding through 2021 should provide more of the bigger picture. Lives, both personal and professional, have been lived through 13” screens in 2020. We have narrow perspectives, horizons have closed in. Those employers that can paint a convincing picture of where they are going and how great talent can contribute to this journey will differentiate.
9. There is the feeling that employer branding in 2021 should be more nimble and intuitive. Organisations have adapted to changing conditions and regulations. They geared up working from home schemes at break-neck pace. They have toiled to make the workplace as Covid-safe as possible. Businesses have shut for lockdown, then opened up again, then closed once more. They’ve responded to the different tier systems. The best employers spent much of 2020 listening to their people, either through Zooms or through regular pulse surveys. Employer branding should be reflective of the times – and 2021 is likely to be every bit as unpredictable as its predecessor. The stories an employer tells of its people and its direction should not be static. They should look forward and pre-empt, not gaze in the rear-view mirror.
“The importance of looking forward is key, I get the sense that people want 2021 to be the positive that 2020 was not. The ability to tell the story of either redemption, or moving on, but in a sensitive and sensible way will be key”. Mark Williams.
10. Employer branding messaging should be much more front and central about internal moves. In many organisations, such moves either do not exist or they happen through nods and winks, without full transparency and openness. As organisations pivot to reflect different trading realities and customer interactions, their people will be required in different roles. As much focus should be made on such internal movement as bringing people in from the outside.
11. I’d love to see a more compassionate side to employer branding, with organisations demonstrating their commitment to employee kindness – we have seen a clear upsurge in initiatives such as #BeKind and World Kindness Day: it needs to exist as much in the workplace as it does in the community. Employers, too, should be looking at engaging with the significant number of young people left outside employment due to Covid, providing additional mentoring and work placements. We underestimate the impact of going into and coming out of lockdowns on a regular basis at our peril, as far as the workforce is concerned.
“This is particularly key for young people as they start their career: currently they feel let down – by fractured learning and remote social engagements, the financial cost of university education, the restrictions on their freedom of movement brought about by the double-edged sword that is Covid and Brexit. For any employer brand to resonate with them, it needs to be about creating a safe, stable and secure future – for everyone”. Laura Price, Employer Brand Lead – BT Security.
“The key to this will be for employers to be selfless, helping people with no thought about the immediate benefit – TA teams working with the local community who have found themselves without employment, and helping them construct good CVs or cover letters, helping local foodbanks, supporting local initiatives. Not because there is a perceived return, but because it is the right thing to do”. Mark Williams.
12. It’s time to re-calibrate relationships with marketing. The last five or so years have seen employer branding and marketing teams working more cohesively than in the past. However, so many organisation’s marketing initiatives are going to be shaped by how they worked through Covid and the lockdowns, supporting their own people. According to CareerArc, 62% of consumers have stopped buying from an organisation which treats its employees poorly. It might be stretching a point to suggest that your employer brand is your brand moving forward, but how consumers believe you acted during Covid, and particularly with regards to your employee base, will define your overall brand for years. Bringing your people stories to life will not only enhance your recruitment marketing but it will be important to your organisational narrative.
13. Finally (well, as far as this blog is concerned), I hope that employer branding becomes both more intuitive and more empowered. It would be great for employees to be able to tell their authentic, personal stories and to do so with as much spontaneity as possible. And within an organisation that trusts them to tell such stories. We’ve quickly become used to fast and furious TikTok videos – we should be thinking about enabling employees to make their own video content that demonstrates working culture and experience. As they see it. When they see it.
“Don’t underestimate the power of story-telling through video in connecting with your audiences. But you can’t just tell people; words can be cheap! You need to show them through actions and behaviours. So, empower your colleagues to ‘pick up a phone’ to capture your company culture, values and who you are. Get it right, and your video content will inspire, not just inform”. Tom Portingale.
“Stories are so powerful, not so much those of functional leaders, but those from the frontline & shop floor. We need to listen to these ordinary tales of service, dedication, pride and meaning found through work. True engagement comes from the subtle nuances of organisational life. Culture and employee experiences are not homogeneous; we need to understand and celebrate individual stories and identities”. Sandy Wilkie.
Employer branding does not exist in a vacuum. The world around it has changed and so must people messaging.
Employees and candidates do not want to return to normal, they want to return to better. And that includes the way organisations brand and articulate the employment experience they offer.
As the world accelerates, standing still means falling back.
Your employer brand needs to define and articulate your employee experience now and in the future, rather than that of 12 months ago.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 