What’s it all about?

Introduction

Let’s start with a quiz. Match these statements with any brands you are familiar with:

A soft drink company that is recognised throughout the world.

A UK retailer that is ‘never knowingly undersold’.

A hardware provider, associated with good-looking IT products, that are easy to use, simple, and high quality.

Your answers do not matter. If the companies have done their job, you will not only have remembered their logos but you will have views about their organisational character and what they promise to deliver. Successful brands deliver on their promises, to win customers and keep them coming back.

Every organisation also has an employer brand, whether they realise it or not. Employees and potential recruits will have views on ‘what it’s like to work here’. In this book, we aim to show how an employer brand impacts on, and is impacted by, an organisation’s ability to recruit and retain staff as well as influencing its culture and ultimately its people’s behaviour. Establishing a positive employer brand makes good business sense, whether you are part of a large corporation or a start-up business. But this needs to be handled with care. If reality does not live up to brand promises, valued employees, like customers, can move elsewhere. In the chapters that follow, we will take you step by step through employer brand development, its management and finally its monitoring, so that it can be your secret weapon in the competitive war for talent.

1.1 Corporate and Employer Brands

1.1 The practice of applying a brand to a product can be traced back through history; potters’ marks and forms of labelling can be found on Roman artefacts. Brands not only displayed ownership but also distinguished an article so that customers could make choices beyond price; based on reputation and quality. The modern brands, as we know them, gained their place as a marketing tool in the 19th century; particularly with packaged goods. Some of these brands are still familiar today: Kellogg, Quaker Oats, Pears soap. But it was not until the end of the 20th century/beginning of the 21st century that the concept of an employer brand was discussed by academics, as distinct from a corporate brand, and the benefits of managing the brand were explored.

1.2 There are various definitions of ‘employer brand’. One of the most straightforward from the CIPD, (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development), is:

‘A set of attributes and qualities that make your organisation stand out from the crowd and help you attract and retain people who feel affinity with it and deliver their best performance within it.’ (CIPD Employer branding. Your online companion for the journey).1

1.3 There are phrases which are linked to an employer brand that are also worth touching on:

A psychological contract; this concept was developed by the organisational scholar Denise Rousseau. There is generally a written contract between an employer and employee that lays down mutual duties and obligations on both parties. In addition, there is an unwritten relationship that captures qualities such as respect, trust and loyalty. When managing the employer brand, the organisation aims to identify relevant qualities and to create an environment that engenders them in the workforce.

Employee value proposition; although sometimes described as ‘employer value proposition’; this is an organisation’s employment package in return for the skills and behaviours brought by employees. The employment package goes beyond pay and conditions to the whole employment experience.

Once an organisation has identified its EVP it may use employer branding techniques to promote and create the psychological contract it aims for.

1.4 We can see therefore that the potential target for employer branding is employees largely, or to attract new recruits. As such, its reach is more limited than reasonably could be expected when aiming to sell products to a mass market. Both, however, wish to create a positive emotional response. Corporate brands aim to encourage customers to buy products and keep them coming back for more. Employer brands strive to attract candidates, retain employees and create loyalty that encourages people to do their best for the organisation. In her paper on employer/corporate brands, Sofia Monika notes that:

‘Product brand and employer brand are related and mutually complementary. Strong product brand may play an important role in increasing the strength of employer brand. Employer brand, in turn, plays an important role in attracting and retaining employees who can add value to the company and its products – thereby strengthening product brand.’ (Place and Role of Employer Brand in the Structure of Corporate Brand – Sofia Monika)