Attracting Talent with the Employee Brand

Attracting Talent with the Employee Brand

A company’s brand is an important part of the strategy to grow the business and a critical component of the talent strategy. The integrity of the brand reflects internal and external viewpoints.

The brand strategy is typically owned by the Marketing function in most companies. While there is certainly a lot of merit to having Marketing manage the brand strategy, best-in-class organizations understand the importance of integrating the focus on people into the brand strategy to ensure it is sustainable. In order to live the brand, the organization must clearly understand how its employees feel about the brand and how it can reinforce shared values and connect the brand to talent development solutions.

The success of the brand has a direct connection to customer satisfaction and a strong correlation to the culture of the organization, the retention of talent, and the effect of social media to attract future applicants. Marketing, Investor Relations, and People professionals need to proactively partner on the brand strategy. The triangular partnership of these three functions creates key strategists to promote and reinforce the values of the brand. And, a strong brand is also supported by a communication plan to ensure employees and customers understand what it means to really live the brand in your organization.

It is easy to put forth a set of values and define a culture, but the true test comes in the integrity of the brand. Are you who you say you are? Do your employees know and believe in the values? Leaders can and should collaborate across the organization to listen and identify the gaps as it relates to internal positioning of the brand, as well as help manage cultural expectations.

Have your leaders been trained to consistently articulate the brand and coach and develop talent? Have you recently challenged the shared values and competencies to validate that they not only support the brand but attract and retain the talent you need to achieve the strategic plan.

The integrity of the brand is complex and requires clear messaging to define and model. Linkedin featured an article recently that referenced the fact that “Integrity is a fine line because it means someone is right and someone is wrong”. When it comes to the company brand, it requires defining all the pillars of the brand to support the organization from a cultural perspective, training the organization, and then establishing a ethical compass that is supported starting at the highest levels of the organization.

The role that managers play in branding is often overlooked because the focus is on creating and deploying the brand but missing the people element that is equally as important in terms of an investment to the organization. Ultimately, every employee owns the responsibility of upholding the brand. Senior leaders own supporting and living the brand, integrating the people strategy, predictive analytics to guide business decisions, a technology plan, and the managerial courage to stand up when the brand is challenged. And, this is a great way for the People function to get strategically aligned with the busines

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