During this pandemic your employer brand is critical to staff motivation and customers’ perceptions of your company’s ethics.
We have all seen the ‘bad’ media around how the likes of Wetherspoons have treated their staff during lockdown and the negative effect this is having on them now.
Your staff are your customers too, your organisations’ brand is it’s first clarion call. Your employer brand should certainly not contradict anything your consumer brands portray.
Deciding where to work is a bigger decision than choosing a new car or a new Sofa. Candidates want to be able to get a sense of what the organisation is about deep down, and how its values might be manifested for those on the inside.
Fame will only get you so far.
It takes a whole new strategy when a business doesn’t think this way.
Look at Amazon, they had a lot of negative press around their bad working conditions. However they have taken stock and realised how important their consumer brand and employer brand should work together….
Have you watched their current TV advertising campaign? It’s is about why you should work for them, rather than what they do as a business.
With so many unemployed people out there at the moment, you may think that you don’t need to worry about your employer brand, but you would be wrong, you should be focusing all your efforts on this now, more than ever, and there are three reasons for this:
1. If you are currently going through restructures and redundancies, then you need to stay focused and true to your company values that were used to entice these people to your company in the first place. You need to stay supportive and generous at all times.
2. Look at the employees who now remain in the business across all departments. Many of them will have direct influence on the customer experience. A call centre professional whose mood following weeks of worry and internal chaos is negative, will send customers scurrying to your competitors. But even those in ‘background’ roles will have some kind of indirect consumer influence. You need to remember to reinvigorate your employer brand, let the team know that they are valued, keep them motivated and sharing optimism will help to keep the standards high.
3. The last reason can quite often be the most damaging. Consumers take an ethical interest in how a business treats its employees, and they will shift their buying patterns accordingly. We have all heard people talking about permanent boycott for brands, like Wetherspoons and Boohoo, that have publicly revealed their hardness of heart.
Because of this, the last reason is a reversal of the classic argument that the strength of a companies brands influences its attractiveness as an employer. Now, the strength of a companies reputation as an employer – which includes how it says goodbye to surplus staff – influences the way its consumer brands are perceived.
If your company doesn’t get this right now, you will struggle to attract the top talent in the future when you are in a position to recruit again.
Working with a company that offer a good outplacement support package can really help with your employer brand as they work along side your HR department seamlessly, promoting your brand and showing you as a supportive employer, even during these difficult times.
This will have a knock on effect with your remaining staff, as they will see that you value each and every one of your people as well as preventing any negative press getting out.
For more information on how we can help you with any outplacement support, click here.
If you would like more information and some top tips on how to create a positive Employer Brand, you can request a copy of our White Paper by clicking here.