To build a strong employer brand, you need to involve every employee you can. They must have the opportunity to understand what’s happening and why.
It’s important to remember that the brand is not the story of the company, it is the story of everyone within the company. The benefits of this approach include:
- Greater involvement building a greater sense of ownership of what’s produced: The proposition belongs to employees.
- Making it more natural for them to advocate for the brand across their professional and social networks which are (or should be) fundamental to your talent acquisiion and brand-building strategies.
- Delivering heightened engagement from employees and stronger hiring metrics as you recruit more from a smaller, better informed pool of candidates.
Be it in research (e.g. surveys, focus groups), development (e.g. concept testing, communications) or ongoing execution (e.g. referrals, social advocacy, on campus), the role you ask people to take, whether it be an active or passive one, is not the most important factor. What’s important is that they are engaged enough in the purpose of the program to involve themselves in contributing to its success.
There’s a lot of debate about where the EVP really belongs – to HR, communications, marketing or to the executive. At Randstadt, we believe that for it to be representative and successful, it has to belong to everyone.
This article was first published in the World Employer Branding Day community.