An employer brand encompasses multiple ideas, beliefs, and actions that influence how current and future employees view the organization. A strong employer brand is linked to the corporate brand. It also seamlessly connects the company’s values, vision, culture, and policies to present a unified and desirable identity as an employer of choice.
Everyone in the company is responsible for building and promoting its employer brand. Senior management set the vision, mission, and values they want to reinforce. Department heads and line managers ensure that their teams align with these stated values. Team members promote the employer brand outside the organization.
And finally, the HR department establishes company policies. Policies act as guiding principles for decisions and actions within the company. They also bring uniformity to corporate operations, empowering the organization to achieve its objectives while reducing the risk of undesirable or harmful events. Equally important, policies that are people-oriented support the employer brand, reinforce its strength, and enhance its value. Here’s how.
Policies Help Create Brand Advocates from the Inside
When the policies are well-structured and communicated to all stakeholders, especially employees, they strengthen the employer’s brand. One reason is that policies are part of the company culture, which itself is the product being sold to both existing and potential employees.
Policies impact the stories employees tell about their experiences with the company. These stories are a crucial part of the culture and an extension of the employer brand. They build up the brand more effectively than expensive social media ads or public relations statements ever can. This is because outsiders are more likely to view employer stories as genuine since they come from employees and are not manufactured by paid media/communications professionals.
Further, fair policies that focus on employee well-being are more likely to elicit positive employee stories. They make people feel valued and heard rather than burdened with a list of dos and don’ts. As a result, they will be more open to sharing their experiences with the outside world. They will talk about the firm’s culture and build up the employer brand with people they know. Through word of mouth, social media, and other means, they will act as loyal brand advocates who talk about the company as a great place to work.
An Open Door Policy Improves Employee Engagement
Highly motivated and engaged employees are at the crux of employer branding. A company that invests millions in promoting its attractiveness as an employer to candidates but fails to keep its own employees happy is unlikely to build a strong employer brand. A genuine open-door policy can boost employee motivation and engagement at work, which will affect the employer’s brand presence and strength.
An open-door policy allows employees to approach senior managers to discuss their workplace concerns. It provides an avenue for honest, open communication to break down the accessibility barriers of traditional chains of command. This avenue enables employees and management to come together at the same table and openly discuss and address workplace issues. It thus creates greater transparency throughout the organization and tells employees that their voice matters. It also shows the workers that the company and its commanders are willing to listen to their work-related worries and take action to alleviate them. Ultimately, such a policy helps to create a culture of openness, sharing, and mutual problem-solving.
The best qualities of this culture will always be talked about outside the organization. Moreover, the open door policy actively encourages engagement and improves workplace relations, which will further enhance the company’s reputation outside its four walls, and thus strengthen its employer brand.
HR Policies Can Enhance Employee Experience
In the old days, HR departments had one sole responsibility: recruitment. Today, increasing competition in the employment marketplace combined with challenges like The Great Resignation have expanded HR’s scope of work.
Now, in addition to finding and recruiting talent, HR personnel are also in charge of employees’ learning and development, workplace engagement, and experience management. Senior managers mandate that HR actively monitor employees’ growth needs, identify their skill development requirements, and understand their long-term career goals. To achieve these objectives, HR teams organize training programs and after-work events for employees. They also create surveys to get the pulse of the company’s employee landscape and assess whether employee experiences are positive.
Additionally, they design and implement various policies around diversity and inclusion (D&I), anti-harassment and anti-discrimination, employee conduct, leave, etc. These policies balance the company’s values and objectives with employees’ need for safe workplaces, fair treatment, purposeful work, and meaningful work experiences. When the HR department can achieve this delicate balance, they help the company earn a reputation as a firm that takes care of its employees. This strengthens its employer brand, which then improves employee retention, reduces turnover, and also attracts the best talent to its ranks.
Conclusion
Successful companies don’t just focus on creating strong corporate brands. They also make an effort to develop authentic and memorable employer brands. They know the value of employer branding in improving the organization’s reputation, attracting the right people, and ensuring that it is perceived in a positive way by the industry, customers, and other stakeholders.
Creating a strong employer brand requires time and effort. Part of this effort should go into developing policies that protect the company’s culture, align with its brand vision and story, and ensure employee safety, engagement, and happiness.
Your firm has probably been creating policies for a number of years. But have you ever assessed your policies from the lens of employer branding? If not, we urge you to start right away! And if you need help in this area, contact us. We have helped many e-commerce companies develop their employer brand so that others could recognize them!
