Employer Branding For Dummies
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Your employer brand needs to make tangible claims. Developing a pie-in-the-sky employer value proposition (EVP) to attract talent without paying due care and attention to your organization’s ability to deliver on your promises is seldom a good idea. False promises destroy credibility and trust and undermine your employer brand. Prior to finalizing your EVP, clarify your claims and put some facts and figures behind them. Try these two steps:
  1. Translate your draft pillar description into a series of more specific claims.
  2. Test whether the evidence/facts support these claims.
For example, if one of your potential pillars focuses on “a strong sense of community” within your organization, break it down, as follows, into specific claims and then subject each claim to a series of proof-point test questions:

When we say we offer a “strong sense of community” we mean:

  • Claim 1: We are a closely interconnected global company where you’re likely to work alongside people from many different parts of the world.
  • Proof-point test questions:
    • What’s the average diversity by country of origin across our business units?
    • What proportion of our employee population have worked in, visited, or communicated with business units outside their home country?
  • Claim 2: We encourage people to develop a wide personal network within the organization.
  • Proof-point test questions:
    • What’s the average number of LinkedIn and Facebook connections people have with other employees in the company?
    • What proportion of these connections is outside the employees’ immediate business unit?
  • Claim 3: We are a relatively informal company with an open and accessible approach to management.
  • Proof-point test questions:
    • What proportion of managers sit in an open office environment?
    • How often do front-line employees get an opportunity to ask questions directly to members of the leadership team?

You can find the answers to some of these questions by analyzing existing data, but you may need to conduct additional research to answer others. What’s important is that the answers are based on tangible evidence and not wishful thinking, policy statements (which may or may not reflect reality), or isolated examples (which may or may not reflect common experience).

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

Richard Mosley, Universum's Global Head of Strategy, is widely recognized as a leading global authority on the subject of employer branding. He regularly chairs or delivers keynote presentations at many of the world's leading employer brand events.
Lars Schmidt, Founder of Amplify Talent and Cofounder of HR Open Source, is a leading strategy consultant, speaker, and writer in the fields of employer branding and recruiting.

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