marketing

It’s been extremely gratifying to see employer branding both broadening and deepening its organisational impact over the last decade. It has long emerged from functioning purely as a recruitment communications driver. Today, we can see its influence right across the candidate journey, through on-boarding and induction and, increasingly, into employee and engagement communications. In order to effectively align employer branding and internal communications, the relevant teams are working more and more in lockstep. 

Interestingly and in contrast, the relationship between consumer communications and employee communications feels under-defined and under-exploited. Fifteen years ago, marketing tended to be wary and suspicious of employer branding, fearing such work would dilute or detract from the impact of its consumer communications. Happily, such wariness is largely a thing of the past, down to the growing professionalism of employer branding specialists and the realisation of what the function contributes.  

However, if there is less suspicion, can we truly say that many organisations have created real synergy and alignment between the messaging they deliver to consumers and the one they land with employees and candidates? 

I’ve recently been doing some competitor analysis work across the employer branding space. Part of this has involved the relationship between the messaging delivered to employee and candidate audiences and that directed at consumers. To what extent are organisations speaking with one voice? And do they those messaging sets feel mutually supportive?

Half-hearted might be an accurate summary. Some organisations might use a common strapline, sometimes regardless of its careers’ relevance. Some might simply co-opt consumer-based images for recruitment purposes, again with questionable resourcing aptness. Whilst others would simply echo the design elements of the consumer site. But it felt as though there was a collective lack of enthusiasm and imagination to harness the essence of their organisation’s consumer messaging.

And this should not be viewed as a one-way street or parent-child relationship, rather one with real synergistic potential. Organisations are increasingly judged by consumer audiences on the way they treat their employee base. I suspect that Covid probably brought this into sharp focus as it became painfully clear what sort of priority an organisation’s people truly were or weren’t. Through social media and review sites such as Glassdoor, there are increasingly fewer places for the rogue employer to hide.

Metrics abound testifying to the importance consumers attach to the way an organisation engages with its people. According to CareerArc, 62% of consumers have stopped buying from an organisation which treats its employees poorly. For McKinsey, 25% of consumers believe that a company’s treatment of its employees has increased in importance as a buying criterion since Covid. And Edelman’s research suggests that 29% of consumers feel that how a company treats its employees was the most important factor in deciding whether to become a loyal customer.

Organisations such as Virgin Atlantic regularly feature their people in their consumer-based messaging front and centre, often focusing on their inclusivity and the capacity of their people to be themselves. Interestingly, there is real continuity within their careers pages, which feature similar messages and promote their ‘Red Spirit’. This feels like one joined-up organisation communicating with clarity and alignment.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that Virgin Atlantic projects a tangible sense of confidence, not just about its business, but also about its careers. A virtuous circle is created. Great employees make for a great customer experience, make for more great employment opportunities. Consumers pick up on this confidence and so do candidates – so important at any point, but particularly so when the economy is struggling. Potential candidates will be wary about making a potentially rash career move, fearing the worse about what might be around the corner. Without confidence in a new employer, candidates are likely to remain where they are, particularly with the relative comfort blanket of two years’ tenure. 

And such confidence is needed by employer branding professionals. The confidence to engage with their colleagues in consumer marketing and to better understand how their respective messaging can align and create greater impact and synergy. Sharing a tagline, a typeface and a pantone is one thing, making a feature of the employee experience and its positive impact on the consumer experience opens up wholly different opportunities and possibilities. 

Such confidence builds trust. Edelman maintains that no single action by an organisation is more interconnected with its ability to build trust with consumers than ‘treating employees well’. 

The potential is there for employer brand owners to extract so much more from the employee stories they tell. Compelling stories engage us, inspire us, captivate us – whether we’re buying or applying.