Employer brand with purpose CMA webinar: 5 key takeaways

Rowan and I recently hosted another webinar in our Purpose Series with the CMA. We talked about employer branding - something this year we have seen becoming increasingly important. Organisations large and small have responded to the challenges the world has thrown at them over the last 12 months by being mindful of how they market themselves to prospective and existing talent. In a volatile world - and marketplace - bringing in and retaining the right talent can be your competitive advantage.

Throughout the webinar we share our insights and methodologies for establishing and embedding an employer brand with purpose - you can watch the full webinar here. But in the meantime, here are my five key takeaways:

1. Be authentic and be relevant 

Authenticity and relevance should be the pillar stones of your employer brand. Yes, I know - authenticity is a big buzzword at the moment but with good reason. Authenticity is important. When articulating your employer brand, you need to say something about your business that you can actually back up, and that actually means something to your stakeholders. As marketers, we need to make sure what we are saying is true. Otherwise, any statements you make, regardless of good intentions, will have the opposite effect. 

2. Uncover your employer brand ‘sweet spot 

When we work with clients on an employer brand exercise - we aren’t creating an employer brand from scratch but rather uncovering what is already there. We identify your employer brand's sweet spot - the complement between what your employees want and what you as an employer wants to say, and then position and package this up in a way that speaks to your audiences. As an agency, we don’t invent an employer brand for you, you already have one - we work to help you surface, discover and articulate what already exists to make sure it resonates with both internal audiences as well as prospective talent. 

3. Perception matters 

The talent marketplace has changed and continues to change. People are increasingly motivated to work for companies with a good reputation. Perception is important for three reasons:

1) A good reputation is key to attracting the right talent

2) It will also help to retain the valuable talent you already have

3) Your reputation - when articulated authentically and effectively - will dissuade talent that doesn’t align with what you do as a business or with your values from applying. This will save you time and money in talent acquisition, management, and attrition. 

4. Think about what new generations of talent want 

New generations of talent disrupt employment norms. In the current marketplace, flexibility, fun, entrepreneurship, innovation and forward thinkingness are genuinely important to talent. To attract these young folks to your company you have to make sure you are striving to uphold a good reputation and that your employer brand truly responds to their expectations. Your employer brand has to go beyond just being articulated, it has to be embedded and lived throughout your entire organisation. 

5. Construct your employer story 

Storytelling from an employer brand point of view is incredibly powerful. We use our Rationale methodology to uncover our clients’ employer stories. Our unique, proprietary Define - Articulate - Amplify methodology is how we discover brand relevance and create compelling creative content. We also work with you to examine your internal audiences and consider how you would tell your employer story to them in a way that resonates. Lastly, we identify three pillars you can build your employer story and messaging around. This process allows us to give you the tools you need to embed and bring your employer brand to life.

We can help you

Rationale is working with a varied roster of clients to do exactly this. To help them define and articulate their reason for being in a way that compliments their external customer marketing speaks to their internal, talent audiences, and gets everyone pointing in the same direction. We support our clients to create an employer brand with the power to galvanise their team - as always, in a way that has purpose at its core. 

Get in touch to find out how we can help your company define, articulate, and amplify a meaningful employer brand at [email protected] 

Watch the full webinar here. 

For more on our methodologies, insights, and approaches to employer branding check out our latest manifesto - ‘Employer branding with purpose’