Employer brand

All organisations need to understand what their employees, stakeholders and customers think of them. Marketing professionals have developed techniques to help attract customers, communicate with them effectively and maintain their brand loyalty. Employer brand involves applying a similar approach to people management and describes how an organisation markets what it has to offer to potential and existing employees.

Previous CIPD research defines an employer brand as '...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 policies, and be linked to the company brand. A key part of an organisation’s culture and values are the ethical standards that the employer upholds through the practice of its employees. Employer brand is therefore influenced by corporate social responsibility and how the business impacts wider society.

Many people professionals have embraced the language and techniques of branding to enhance their strategic influence and credibility. Organisations now recognise the value of a branding approach to the whole employee lifecycle as they seek to build an engaged workforce and ensure a positive work experience. According to research by Hosseini et al (2022) a positive employer brand results in better performance against competitors by retaining talent and increasing levels of employee engagement. 

Employer brand becomes even more important when organisations are competing for talent and experiencing recruitment challenges. CIPD’s 2022 resourcing and talent planning report found that 75% of respondents reported taking action to improve employer brand within their organisation in the last year, and this rose to 84% for larger organisations. According to respondents, beyond pay and benefits, perception of employer and career development opportunities are the most important aspects of employer brand for attracting candidates, with some variation between sectors.

Organisations have an employer brand based on how they are perceived as a ‘place to work’, for example by potential candidates, current employees and those leaving the organisation. A strong employer brand helps businesses to compete for talent and drive employee loyalty through effective recruitment, engagement and retention practices. Organisations should also consider inclusion and diversity as part of their employer brand to ensure they are attracting a diverse range of candidates (for more on inclusion and fair recruitment practices, see our guide for employers).

To be effective, the brand should be evident throughout the employee lifecycle and across the organisation’s approach to people management. For example, it can affect the approach to:

• induction
• performance management and reward
• managing internal communications
• promoting effective management behaviours
• people leaving the organisation

To deliver benefits, it’s important that the employer brand is not merely rhetoric restating the organisation’s values, but reflects the actual experience of employees. This approach involves research with employees to understand their attitudes and behaviour, for example, through a staff attitude survey or focus groups. This employee insight can inform metrics on ‘people performance’ in the organisation, giving an opportunity to demonstrate links to organisation performance.
 
Organisations could choose to monitor their employee brand through quantitative data such as number of applications for roles, acceptance of offers, employee engagement scores, reduction in costs or more qualitative feedback. Organisations should be able to answer questions on ‘what sets them apart from their competitors’.

The use of social media only increases the importance of continued attention to the employer brand and reputation. Organisations need to be particularly aware of both the positive and negative feedback that can be given by past or present employees on social media. Cyber attacks, hackers and fake news are another modern threat to organisations and their online content. Organisations should plan for this, address negative feedback and breaches quickly and monitor where necessary.

HR teams need to play their part by working collaboratively with colleagues in marketing, public relations, internal communications and corporate responsibility, to share expertise and get maximum benefits from developing a strong employer brand.

Our guide, Employer branding: a no-nonsense approach, (available to CIPD members in our HR and L&D archive database), gives detailed advice and suggestions for developing an employer brand. It identifies four stages of development:

• Discovery. Understanding how the employer brand is perceived by various stakeholders. This could include:
  
  • holding workshops with senior management
  • running internal and external focus groups
  • carrying out employee surveys
  • ensuring senior leader buy-in
  • auditing the candidate journey.
    
    
• Analysis, interpretation and creation. Building a clear picture of what the organisation stands for, offers and requires as an employer – its distinctive ‘value proposition’. This could include:
  
  • defining brand attributes
  • defining the overall employment value proposition
  • developing an overall creative brief
  • behaviour and attribute mapping.

• Implementation and communication. The brand is applied for the first time in the organisation. This could include:
  
  • applying the brand to induction, applicant information, briefings for recruiters and the interview and assessment process
  • launching the brand internally
  • applying the brand to the organisation’s website and social media communications.
    
    
• Measurement, maintenance and optimisation. Checking progress and maintaining momentum. This could include:
  
  • probing internal and external response and perception of the new brand
  • measuring improvements in the recruitment and retention metrics
  • measuring uptake in terms of actions that demonstrate the business is ‘living the brand’.

CIPD research suggests that only 12% of respondents surveyed in 2022 took steps to measure the impact of their employer brand and even fewer monitored or actioned feedback. This suggests that only a small minority of people professionals are effectively measuring the impact of their employer brand and implementing changes of the back of this feedback. 

Finally, developing an employer brand requires careful consideration of ethical practice. Find out more in our factsheet on ethical practice and the role of HR.

The ‘employee value proposition’ describes what an organisation stands for, requires and offers as an employer. The psychological contract between employers and workers addresses and sets the expectations, beliefs and obligations of the employment relationship.

Rather than focussing on a single value proposition, organisations are beginning to take a more segmented approach. Employee segmentation is driven by the idea that employees, like customers, are not a homogenous group. It can be beneficial to personalise the employment relationship for the needs of a diverse workforce – and this can mean emphasising different elements of the value proposition to different groups of employees or creating subsets of the overall value proposition. Our guide on creating an employee resource group for black and ethnic minority employees is one example of a focused approach to ensuring the representation and voice of different groups of employees is considered within the organisation.

International organisations need to decide whether to promote one single employer brand and value proposition or different ones for different areas. For example, global brand values will need local interpretation to cater for cultural diversity and differences within those markets. 

In addition, mergers and acquisitions have a particularly significant impact on the brand and shake the ‘deal’ which exists between the individual and their employer. Many employees feel disempowered and may feel they are working in a job they did not pick, for an organisation they did not choose to work for, so reviewing employer brand and employee value proposition may be required after such large-scale changes.

Books and reports

Burt, E. (2017) Menzies: ‘Your employees are your best ambassadors’. People Management (online). 28 June.

Farrand, L. (2018) What are candidates saying about you online? People Management (online). 23 August.

Keohane, K. (2014) Brand and talent. London: Kogan Page

Mosley, R. (2014) Employer brand management: practical lessons from the world's leading employers. Chichester: Wiley.

Visit the CIPD and Kogan Page Bookshop to see all our priced publications currently in print.

Journal articles

Hosseini, S.A., Moghaddam, A., Damganian, H. et al. (2022). The Effect of Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Human Resources on Employee Engagement with the Moderating Role of the Employer Brand. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal. Vol 34, pp101–12.

Samoliuk, N., Bilan, Y., Mishchuk, H., and Mishchuk, V. (2022). Employer brand: key values influencing the intention to join a company. Management & Marketing. Challenges for the Knowledge Society. Vol 17, No 1, pp61-72.

CIPD members can use our online journals to find articles from over 300 journal titles relevant to HR.

Members and People Management subscribers can see articles on the People Management website.