Employer Branding: How to develop your employer brand and why it’s so important

In today’s highly competitive job market, developing and maintaining a strong employer brand is more important than ever. Employer brand encompasses a businesses reputation as an employer. Internally, this could cover recruitment, hiring, onboarding, training, and employee support – all the things that attract top talent, enhance staff engagement and retention, and ultimately drive business success!

That’s why it’s essential to invest time (and often money) in your employer brand.

Having spent a lot of time and effort creating a strong employer brand (and having it pay off with regards to landing on the Sunday Times and Best Companies Best Places to Work lists), we have outlined a few key steps to developing a robust and attractive employer brand:

Values!?

Values are so important to an employer brand and are the basis of the entire company culture and ethos. Defining the core values of your business is essential in becoming an appealing employer and it’s often the fine line between individuals submitting that job application or looking elsewhere. It’s also important to showcase the attitudes and behaviours expected of your employees – including what is and what is not tolerated. Luckily, our values spell out ‘Purple’. Years ago, the employees of LCG started calling themselves Purple People based on our purple logo and it just stuck! This has helped create a strong community feel here at LCG and a sense of belonging.

Internal and external communication

It’s fantastic creating a strong set of values and culture – but it is just as important to communicate this internally as well as externally. We have a tight-knit community culture for such a large business, and we pride this on our communication. We also ensure consistency across all materials used whether this be our brand guidelines that are used in every visual material and recruitment job descriptions, or our tone of voice which conveys our commitment to our employees alongside the values and culture of LCG.?

Attracting top talent

To attract the top and the most diverse talent-pool, we ensure that our awards and accolades, alongside any pledges and policies, are showcased in our recruitment advertising – whether this be our promotion of being one of The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work for or our pledge as a Gold Armed Forces Covenant employer! We make it clear that we are strong advocates of equal opportunities in our recruitment process and ensure our candidate pool for interviews and consideration is diverse. We strive to create a positive initial experience, whether this be for our candidates who interview and are invited to our modern Head Office, or those who are successful in becoming Purple People, who are welcomed with a starter pack and a friendly induction where we outline what it means to work at LCG!

Employee engagement

Attracting top talent is one thing, but nurturing this and your employee engagement is also super important. We heavily invest in keeping an engaged and content workforce, whether this be our provision of ongoing CPD and learning and development opportunities (we practice what we preach!), creating a positive work environment with engagement activities and initiatives or recognising and rewarding our Purple People. We also meet up annually, gathering the whole company to engage and make new work friends at our Staff Conference – we’ve found this instrumental in maintaining our tight-knit culture and company ethos.?

Being an employer who gives back

Giving back to the community is a fantastic way to grow your employer brand, whether this be through charity partnerships, fundraising initiatives or going green. At LCG we strive to implement giving back to the community in everything we do. We have Smart Works baskets in our Head Office and Academies, where employees can donate their old formal clothing to women in the North East who are trying to get back into employment – aligning our charity initiatives with our overarching vision and values is also a fantastic way to boost engagement. We support our local foodbanks by encouraging donations and dropping them directly to their door and we have a Charity Foundation where our fundraising proceeds support charities and individuals across the country. We have an Annual Charity Ball every year and have raised over ￡80k so far! This is both great for staff engagement and being a responsible employer. We encourage participation in environmental initiatives, like No Mileage March, to do our bit for the planet too!?

These steps are key in helping LCG stand out in a crowded job market and support our ambitious growth plans enormously. Developing a strong employer brand is essential to attracting and retaining top talent, improving employee engagement and productivity, and driving business success.

By defining your values and culture, communicating, engaging employees, attracting the top talent through the employee and candidate experience, and giving back to the local community, you can create a strong employer brand and set your organisation apart from the rest!