In light of Universum’s recent World’s Most Attractive Employer report, do strong consumer brands translate to strong employer brands? Does the value translate both ways? If your organisation values consumer branding over employer branding, here’s how to reframe the conversation.
Universum recently released its 10th annual World’s Most Attractive Employers report. The survey engaged participants from the world’s 12 largest economies, obtaining their insights into which company characteristics they find most attractive in a potential employer as well as who they perceive to be their ideal employer.
Many of the usual suspects (Google, Apple, Amazon) topped the list. And according to ERE, many of these top-40 brands also sit atop Kantar’s 2019 list of the most valuable consumer brands.
So, do strong consumer brands translate to strong employer brand? Does the “value translate both ways?
“Historically, the world’s most profitable companies have understood their consumer brands to be ‘intangible’ assets — entities that don’t necessarily fit neatly on balance sheets, but nonetheless offer significant value to shareholders. More recently, organisations have attempted to quantify the value of their brands, particularly in the context of a sale or liquidation.
Approaches to quantifying a consumer brand’s value vary, but the message this exercise sends throughout an organisation is the same: not only do brands have real monetary value, but brand building (and, more generally, marketing) is an activity everyone in an organisation should pay attention to and value.”
There’s no question that employer branding needs to be given similar consideration and stature for an organisation’s success. But how can recruitment leaders convey its significance?
Martin Predd reporting for ERE explains how to go about this.
“Contrary to how they are often managed within an organisation, employer brands and consumer brands are symbiotic entities that (ideally) work together to support a business’s overarching vision and goals. Put more simply: A strong consumer brand should make it easier to attract and retain great talent, and a strong employer brand should make it easier to attract and retain great customers.”
Consumer brands are easier for us to understand than employer brand, as we’ve formed relationships with consumer brands before we consider them as employers. However, as such, organisations that provide products and services we value, we perceive as being great places to work.
“It’s no coincidence that a company like Apple, which has produced some of the most wildly popular and iconic tech gadgets in recent history, is also seen as a highly desirable employer.”
Predd refers to this as the “consumer→employer brand value exchange”. For some organisations, this value is intuitive, and for larger organisations, they have numbers on their side. Large organisations have a magnitude more customers than employees and an exponentially greater number of touch points and interactions through which to communicate and nurture its consumer brand message.
“Moreover, because consumer brands feel more naturally connected to sales, it’s relatively easy for non-marketers to connect the dots between a strong consumer brand, increased profitability, and a financially stable company that can afford to attract the best talent.
In these ways, the consumer→employer brand value exchange may be easier for organisations to recognise, but the employer→consumer brand value exchange is equally significant, if more subtle.”
Employer branding translates not only to improving talent acquisition and retention, but also adds value to your consumer brand. It is therefore a powerful investment in your organisation, and should be treated as such! It demands investment as much as your consumer marketing budget.
If you’re trying to convince your executive team of this, here’s how to frame the conversation.
Employees are your most important customers
Many organisations spend money and resources investigating decisions that drive brand preferences, failing to look beyond traditional considerations such as salary, benefits, and work-life balance in their recruitment marketing endeavours.
“This isn’t just a missed opportunity for talent acquisition. It’s also a missed opportunity to understand the personal values that motivate your most important customers: your employees.
By working for your company, your employees haven’t merely expressed a consumer preference for the products and services you provide. They have expressed an even more profound preference for spending their lives bringing the products and services you provide to the world. This strong preference cuts to the core of why people find meaning and value in your products and services.”
A strong employer brand will understand and articulate these core values, ensuring that the talent you attract share your commitment and that their work feeds into nurturing your consumer brand.
The way you treat customers defines your consumer brand
Many of us can agree that organisations value customer relations, and go to lengths to ensure customer-centric policies.
Some organisations will even accept losses to maintain a relationship, placing a customer’s short-term needs and satisfaction to maintain long-term profit.
“In much the same way, the way an organisation treats its talent, from initial awareness, through the application and interview process, through employment, and even retirement, is an opportunity to take the long view. Top organisations are rightly concerned with “the candidate experience” because, while prospective employees may not always be “right” for the job, treating them with respect by valuing their time and interest anyway is likely to leave a lasting positive impression that could sustain (or grow) their affinity for your consumer brand(s).”
“More importantly, as evidenced by the meteoric rise of employer review sites like Glassdoor, how you treat your employees is likely to reverberate well beyond the halls of your corporate campus. The popularity of these sites is due in large part to the “insider’s” look they attempt to provide — an opportunity to see how your company performs when it’s not on the consumer stage (and when it’s presumably on its best behaviour).”
But your employer brand extends to how you treat your people even when no one is necessarily looking.
Consumer purchases are an expression of personal values; there’s no better way to understand an organisation’s values than by understanding how it treats its people who work there.
In the same way organisations place “customers first” to prioritise customer relationships, they must also treat employees in the same way.
“[Ones] that do so are likely to reap the long-term rewards of demonstrating that their organisation’s “character” runs deeper than the copy of their consumer ad campaigns.”
Employees as brand ambassadors and “super promoters”
Ask your executive team to consider how satisfied employees are super promoters for your consumer brand!
If you’re familiar with, Net Promoter Score, you may understand it’s quick adoption by talent acquisition. Cultivating promoters is important for any organisation and is strongly correlated with brand health and success.
“We’ve all been to (bad) cocktail parties when the “What do you do for a living?” question inevitably gets asked and felt the stark contrast between someone who loves and hates their employer. Truly satisfied and fulfilled employees generally can’t keep quiet about how much they love their jobs. They will go to great lengths to extol the virtues of their company and its products.
“That they are willing to do this with so little prompting comes as no surprise to us. As a company’s best “customers,” truly satisfied employees are those whose personal values strongly align with the values of the organisation itself. And because they spend 40+ hours per week living and breathing this alignment, their enthusiasm for “promoting” their organisation’s brands (both consumer and employer) is not subject to the same ebbs and flows of a consumer product purchase cycle.”
A strong promoter score underpins any strong consumer brand.
Employees deliver your products and services
Don’t forget this basic truth: your products and services don’t create your employees; your employees create your products and services.
“Fast-growing companies, in particular, are often in such a hurry to add headcount to support their expanding customer bases that talent acquisition is often seen as a necessary “expense” that is justified by their growing book of business.
And while on some level this rings true, organisations large and small would do well to remember that just as early employees literally created the products and services that now define their consumer brand(s), future employees are not mere “expenses” but in fact important investments that are crucial to sustaining them.”
Elevating the status of employer branding as equal to consumer branding in your organisation may not happen overnight, but it’s crucial to start having these conversations. By reminding your team of the above truths and framing conversations through this framework, you will set yourself up for long-term success.
Source
Why Organizations Value Consumer Brands More Than Employer Brands and How to Change the Conversation
Martin Predd
ERE