This document summarizes a conference on employer branding. It discusses whether employer branding is a marketing or HR function, provides the history and definitions of employer branding, and explores how marketing and HR can work together on employer branding. It also addresses attracting, engaging, and retaining employees through a strong employer brand and the importance of having integrity between a company's stated values and actual culture. Presentations provide case studies and tips on implementing employer branding from both marketing and HR perspectives.

1. Growing Gloucestershire Conference
2017
Employer Branding
- Marketing or HR?
Fiona Spencer
Steve Hughes
Tracey Adams

2. In The News
“Why Marketing and HR
should join forces to drive
advocacy among employees”
June 2017
“CEOs Need to Pay Attention
to Employer Branding”
May 2015
“Attracting employees with
your employer brand”
January 2017
“How To Attract Top Talent
With A Strong Employer
Brand”
September 2016

3. History
1990
• Term introduced at CIPD Annual Conference (S
Barrow)
December 1996
• Defined in more detail as “the package of
functional, economic and psychological benefits
provided by employment, and identified with the
employing company” in the Journal of Brand
Management (T Ambler & S Barrow)
2005
• Book published on the subject (S Barrow & R
Mosley)

4. Brand
“Brand is not your logo, or colours, or
product, or even your face.
It is the emotional and mental feeling the
public has when they interact with you
and your business.”
Brand Strategist Marty Neumier

5. Employer Branding
“A set of attributes and qualities, often
intangible, that makes an organisation
distinctive, promises a particular kind of
employment experience, and appeals to
those people who will thrive and perform
best in its culture”
“A strong employer brand should
connect an organisation’s values, people
strategy and HR policies and be linked to
the company brand”
Source: CIPD

6. BRAND
• Reduce customer
acquisition costs
• Create beneficial
relationship between
consumer and
supplier
• Brand loyalty
• Customer retention
• Ability to charge
premium
EMPLOYER BRAND
• Reduce employee
acquisition costs
• Create beneficial
relationship between
employer and
employee
• Ability to attract talent
• Increase retention
• Ability to pay less
Effect of a strong brand

7. Employer Branding
RECRUIT
ENGAGE
RETAIN

8. Recruit Engage Retain
“Companies which don’t invest in their
employer brand may be paying
additional costs
£2,270 per hire - Could add as £4M+ to
annual wage bill for organisation with
10,000 employees”
Winning Talent Survey Report
LinkedIn 2015
“A Bad Reputation Costs a
Company at Least 10% More
Per Hire ”
March 2016
“Respondents said they would be put
off an organisation if it had a reputation
for ‘ripping off’ its customers, received
negative media coverage, or faced
political or legal scrutiny.”
Public Relations Consultants
Association Survey 2015
“Job hunters value company reputation over
pay and benefits.
53% said they would rule out a job offer from
an organisation that was known for its poor
job security, dysfunctional teams or poor
leadership”
Winning Talent Survey Report
LinkedIn 2015

9. Marketing or HR?

10. “Marketing is the management
process responsible for
identifying, anticipating and
satisfying customer
requirements profitably”
Source: CIM
Marketing & HR?
MARKETING
OUTWARD LOOKING
BRAND
COMMUNICATIONS
“Organisations should manage people
within a planned and coherent framework
that reflects the business strategy.
This helps ensure that the various aspects
of people management work together to
develop the performance and behaviours
necessary for the delivery of
organisational value.”
Source: CIPD
HR
INWARD LOOKING
PEOPLE
ORGANISATION

11. Who owns employer branding?
CEOs think they are accountable - whereas HR
say they are in charge
• CEOs say responsibility is 60% CEO and 32% HR
• HR say 58% HR & 26% CEO
• Unsurprisingly, everyone apart from the CEO thinks there is a
need for closer cooperation
Outlook 2020 - The Future of Employer Branding - Universum 2014
BUT
Needs to be connected to the company brand
To do this need HR to partner with Marketing
AND
Measurement needs to be external as well as
internal factors

12. Why it matters
“Highly engaged organisations
have double the rate of success
of lower engaged
organisations”
Gallup USA
“Only 41% of employees
surveyed said they knew what
their company stood for or how
the brand it was different from
competitors”
Gallup USA
“Disengaged employees cause
decreased customer loyalty”
Verde Group and The Wharton School
of Business
“64% of job seekers who have a
poor candidate experience will
never buy products or services
from that company again”
Workopolis

13. Why it matters
All employees have friends and family,
probably use social media and have the
ability to spread the word positively to
improve a company’s image and
reputation.
The flip side is they can help destroy it as
well.

14. “Uber ordered to pay drivers
minimum wage in landmark
case”
28/10/2017
“Uber board member resigns
after sexist remark at meeting
addressing sexism”
14/6/2017
“Uber is facing the biggest
crisis in its short history”
25/3/2017

15. Employee perks
• Dropbox and Pixar offer gourmet-style food to their staff every
working day.
• MillerCoors are understandably passionate about beer, so
really it’s no surprise that they’ve built onsite pubs, offering 13
different varieties of the good stuff (for free) to employees in
Chicago and Milwaukee.
• Each employee at Freeborn & Peters is annually invited to
pack a suitcase and attend a party. At this party, four
suitcases are picked at random, and these lucky workers get
to enjoy an all-expenses paid holiday to Las Vegas.
• SC Johnson offer their entire workforce (12,000 people)
access to a concierge service who fulfil all of those little
chores and annoying hassles, from sending packages to
picking up the dry cleaning.
• A US investment company has offered to cryogenically freeze
their employees’ bodies after death.

16. Not just about the decor

17. 2014
14% female engineering
interns and new
gradate hires
2017
40% of tech hires are
female

18. Steve Hughes
Employer Branding
A marketing perspective

19. Employer Branding
 You need to know the why?
 It assumes you understand the brand
values
 This is not just a few newsletters and
marketing comms

20. Marketing & HR working together:
 Good marketing is intentional
 We create a brand that we want people to
believe in
 Brand value congruence leads to higher
commitment
 Brand belief motivates staff
 Social media takes the internal external
 The issue is Integrity

21. The best of times, the worst of times
Sherwood Computel – Envision & re-brand
 Management credibility
 Cynical workforce – BS detectors
 Big internal campaign seen as a waste of
money
 Looking for a quick boost
 Result unclear

22. The best of times, the worst of times
Trust is the glue of life.
It’s the most essential
ingredient in effective
communication.
It’s the foundational
principle that holds all
relationships.
Stephen Covey

23. Lilian Faithfull Homes
 Caring staff, wanting and waiting to be
appreciated
 Long term approach
 It was all about caring for the staff but
approach was devised with HR
 Staff magazine, long service awards,
fairer pay, excellent staff party
 Emphasis on training & induction,
and transparency

24. Integrity: check your values
Core values
A good product
or service,
good T’s & C’s
Actual values
Comparators
With apologies to Kotler et al, “Principles of Marketing”
Augmented Product
Non-tangible motivators

25. Top tips
 Know what you want to achieve and why
 Understand the customer
 Articulate the proposition
 Get management support
 Make sure you can sustain it
 Measure the results
 Dare to be distinctive

26. Steve Hughes
Employer Branding
A marketing perspective

27. Employer Branding
A HR/Recruitment Perspective
21st June 2017
Tracey Adams, Director – Ten2Two
tracey@ten2two.org

28. “Employer Branding and Recruitment
fall in love”

29. “All organisations have, consciously or otherwise, an
employer brand. It's the way in which organisations
differentiate themselves in the labour market, enabling them
to recruit, retain and engage the right people. A strong
employer brand helps businesses compete for the best talent
and establish credibility”. CIPD
Reality check!
Many businesses will fall under the “otherwise” label.

30. “The alternative to employer branding, that perhaps presents
even a catastrophic scenario, is to be considered as a generic
employer, unspecific in offerings and unnoticeable to
promising career seekers”. Insights / Universum / 2014
RetainRecruitAttract
Positive Employee Experience

31. • Acute shortage of candidates / they are in the driving seat
• It is 2017 not 1980 – technology, lifestyles, expectations have
radically changed
• “Cool” brands, big salaries, big benefits packages
• More visibility of how businesses treat employees
glassdoor.co.uk
What’s going on in today’s recruitment market?

32. Attract
• So how do you attract candidates, in a competitive market and
achieve stand-out?
– Find out what the candidate market wants.
– One benefit now sought after by all 4 generations of applicants.
– 81% of candidates would look for flexibility in a role before any other
benefits1.
– But only 8.7% jobs include it.
1 My Family Care / Hydrogen Report 2016
‘We are seeing a new generation of graduates who
see it as a weakness in our company if we don’t
make work flexible. It’s a way to bring in good
talent and is definitely peer-group led and
influenced.’
Mike Jackson, Hurst Accountant

33. Attract
• Demonstrate your consideration of people and talent over hours and
days.
– ‘We aim to be an employer of choice, and the benefits of flexible
working go a great way to position us as such.’ Sarah Harbour, SHINE
(Charity)
– The rise of “Glassdoor” – (increased visibility)

34. Recruit
• Create a positive experience at every touchpoint.
– Candidates are current or future customers.
– Would you ignore a customer email or phone call?
• Develop recruitment processes that don’t exclude certain
audiences.
– Offer different methods of application (see GCC example)
• Consider your induction process.
– Particularly for younger candidates (apprenticeships) and
returners (returnships)
Case Study – Gloucestershire County Council
• “We aim to provide a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment
process”
• Off and online application process – candidate choice
• Working interviews

35. Retain
• Create a culture of being “people-centric”
– Higher retention levels – 63% of businesses that offered
flexible working noted higher retention levels1.
– Hedgehog lab – Glassdoor score of 4.9/5
– 45% of Generation Y employees at Cisco would accept a
lower-paying role elsewhere if it provided more flexibility2
– 58% of staff disengaged within 6 months of joining as a
result of poor employee engagement3.
| 1 CBI / Family Friendly Working Hours Taskforce | 2 The Future of Work Institute 2012 | 3 The MacLeod Report 2009 |

36. “The alternative to employer branding, that perhaps presents
even a catastrophic scenario, is to be considered as a generic
employer, unspecific in offerings and unnoticeable to
promising career seekers”. Insights / Universum / 2014
Be clear and
specific in what
you offer.
Differentiate.
Be noticeable.

37. Growing Gloucestershire Conference
2017
Employer Branding
- Marketing or HR?
Fiona Spencer
Steve Hughes
Tracey Adams