Your Employer Brand Isn't Marketing, It's Your Conscience

I’m sorry it’s been a while since my last confession. I certainly feel guilty about it.

But here’s the thing; I’ve been wrestling with something for a few weeks now that I have been struggling to put into words and it only became a tangible idea around 6am this morning…so here we are.

Some of the ‘EB Greats’ who I admire and follow with interest on this platform have been debating back and forth whether EB should sit with Marketing or HR. It’s also a question that I’ve been asked for my #AskEmily column and I had been avoiding answering to be honest because I wasn’t sure where I stood yet.

Well I had a moment of absolute clarity this morning. While marketing and branding skills are crucial to define, express and promote your employer brand – it shouldn’t sit in marketing. The Corona Virus has clarified that for me.

"Employer Branding shouldn't sit in Marketing. The Corona Virus has clarified that for me."

When I work with clients to develop an EVP, I talk to them about making it true but aspirational. ‘It’s you, on a good day’, I say. What I mean by that is not that it’s you when everything is rosy, rather that it’s you when you are being your best self as an organisation. What does that look like for you?

We net out in some amazing places – we talk about how great it feels when their company are all thinking innovatively, or working as a team, or collaborating across cultural barriers. We speak about equal opportunity, about being comfortable with taking risk and rising from failure, of being able to speak up and be heard. We emphasise being comfortable being your true self and that balance and wellbeing are fundamental.

What these things all have in common is they are as true of our company culture on a good day as they are of society on a good day. Our Employee Value Propositions reflect the workplace and, frankly, the world, as they should be and in doing so they represent a promise – in return for your service and loyalty, I will promise you as an employee that our company will provide this foundation of opportunity, fairness and support.

But here’s the rub. As we connect company culture more closely with commercial success, convincing execs to take employer branding seriously because it will positively impact their bottom line or help them to attract great talent, we move further away from the fundamental point which is – it’s just the right thing to do. Your business doesn’t exist without your people, so for goodness sake, just treat them right.

"Your business doesn't exist without your people, so for goodness sake, just treat them right.'

Yesterday, in the Netherlands where I live, the Prime Minister announced a ban on gatherings over 100 people which has far reaching impacts for companies – gyms, restaurants, gig venues, museums are all closed as of yesterday to try to halt the spread of Corona. Within minutes my inbox was full of emails from brands trying to reassure me that they valued my loyalty in these challenging times and that they would try to do anything in their power to continue a form of business as usual for me. I wondered to myself, whether those companies had all acted equally as quickly to reassure their people.

So now when the commercial chips are truly down and companies scramble to adapt their business model there will be those who are forced to make choices that will be commercially sensible but that will jar with their conscience. Do you provide sick-pay for gig workers who are forced to self-isolate? Do you take a stand against racial discrimination exacerbated by a policy of social distancing? Do you support employees who need to care for elderly relatives who fall ill? Or have to work at odd hours to manage work around childcare when the schools close?

'There will be those who are forced to make choices that are commercially sensible but that will jar with their conscience.'

It is now that your employer brand takes on meaning beyond marketing. It is now that you decide whether that promise you made in return for their loyalty and service was truly for better or for worse, or whether it was just while it made commercial sense or they were in your hiring pipeline.

If it sits in marketing, it becomes marketing. It needs to be more foundational than that – it’s your conscience. It’s actually HR on a good day, if they were truly empowered by leadership to put people over profit. But really I think it’s a new model. One that breaks old silos and instead creates a type of ‘conscience committee’ that provide a checks and balance for leadership and have a true vote in big decisions. Headed by a Chief Purpose Officer or similar, they could have the power to challenge leaders to say, is this decision we are about to make true to what we value and does it do the right thing, for our customers, our people and the world?

'It is now that your Employer Brand takes on meaning beyond marketing.'

Perhaps that sounds crazy but crazier things are happening right now. Employees are striking against employers and ‘unionising’ in a way that feels like a throwback, internal comms has become an external battleground, a 17 year old girl is challenging world leaders on climate change and Harvey Weinstein actually went to jail as a result of the #MeToo movement. We all have the power to work and live in the world we want to see. So why settle for your employer brand just being marketing when companies need an EVP to guide them more than ever right now. 

If you’ve ever watched a single apocalypse movie you will know that the thing causing the chaos – zombies, rising sea levels, a pandemic – is not the scariest or most compelling element of the story, that’s just the context. What is truly disturbing, moving and compelling is how humanity acts when faced with that chaos. Do their values impact their actions or are they too busy putting on their own life vest first? 

Of course I am not advocating that companies protect employees to the extent that their business cannot survive, but I am asking them to consider what they chose to value when times were good and apply that to their decision-making process when it really counts.

It’s time to see what our employer brands are made of. Remember, treating your people well in the tough times, will create loyalty branding cannot buy in the long run.