Aligning your brand and employer brand

Brand and employer brand don’t exist in a vacuum. How you recruit, retain and develop your people, delivers on or undermines your promise to audiences outside your business. And vice versa. What’s the relationship between your brand and employer brand? How do you align them and create cut through? 

First it’s helpful to remember what we mean by brand and employer brand and how they relate to one another. If brand is about what defines and differentiates your organisation (and is for everyone), your employer brand is about what defines life and a career in your organisation (and is for your people, prospective people and recruiters). And they need to be aligned: we see them being two sides of the same coin. But the shape of that alignment can vary.

For example, Hollis has a bold and differentiating positioning, ‘All together different’, that sits both at the heart of its brand and its employer brand The same idea works effectively across both.

Alternatively, if we take a look at Goldman Sachs, their whole brand positioning is about pre-eminence (‘the world’s most exceptional financial institution’) and their employer brand aligns with this (but is not identical) with the message of ‘where the best get better’.

The right shape of alignment will depend on what’s right for your organisation and also your starting point (e.g. if you’re evolving your brand and employer brand from scratch or working with existing messaging on ‘one side of the coin’ that you need to align ‘the other side’ with).

Whatever you do, keep it as simple, straight forward and strong as possible. The more single-minded you are with your message, the easier it will be for your audiences to get a clear sense of who you are and what you stand for.

If we look at Goldman Sachs again, their overall positioning of pre-eminence is consistent everywhere, whether that’s on the ‘Our Firm’ page of their website, across their social posts (with headlines like ‘Perspectives on Excellence’, ‘Performance without limits’ and ‘Most powerful women’) or throughout their careers communications The message of being exceptional is clear, strong and consistent everywhere.

Likewise, with EY, their overall positioning of ‘Shape the future with confidence’ is carried consistently across their brand and messaging about their client offer as well as their employer brand, where they subtly adapt the message to ‘Shape your future with confidence’ They’ve not overcomplicated it and have developed a clear, strong message that’s carefully woven through everything. So it feels cohesive, aligned and therefore credible.

However you align your brand and employer brand, you’ll want to find the tone that’s right for you and that conveys your firm and the experience for your people in the appropriate way.

If we take a look at two FinTech companies, Klarna and Revolut, both are progressive organisations, working within the same industry and with similar offers. But it’s interesting to look at the difference in tone between the two – which gives a sense of what it might be like to work there.

While Klarna are clear they’re here to ‘set the new standard’, they invite their people to ‘step into your stretch zone’ and ‘be part of something incredible’. Although they’re clear that ‘the stretch zone isn’t for everyone… that’s what sets us apart’ the message is delivered with a light touch.

If we look at Revolut, there’s a much stronger tone to their messaging including ‘Get it done… we stopped listening to excuses a long time ago’ and ‘Never settle… for those who want to become the best… for those that would never settle for less’.

It’s about defining the tone that’s right for you and weaving it through both your brand and employer brand. Again, so it’s cohesive and credible.

Purpose has been part of the vernacular for some time. Research shows that on average, upward of 60% of Gen Z want to work with organisations that are purposeful. It’s not the sole preserve of one generation either.

We believe it’s important to consider framing ‘purpose’ beyond meaningful endeavour. It’s not only about activism and it can be about simply standing for something. If you’re going to claim to stand for something, you need to live by it authentically – or you’ll be called out. And it will need to run through both your brand and employer brand.

Northvolt has a powerful ‘green batteries for a blue planet’ brand message and this is supported by an employer brand message that’s a true call-to-action of ‘challenge accepted’ . Life may not be easy but it will be exciting.

Whether you have a proposition that’s a true gift or one that’s challenging, make the most of whatever you have. The British Army may be respected, but it’s not for everyone. The message is delivered simply, sparely and powerfully. And yet a career at NASA, which would be a gift, is presented in a manner that is much less powerful.

So your brand and employer brand need to be intrinsically linked (but not necessarily identical) and there are many ways of doing this. Whether through one strong idea that works across both, through nuanced but aligned messaging that portrays ‘both sides of the coin’, or a distinctive tone that runs through everything. What matters most is that it’s clear and cohesive and authentic to who you are.