By the time you retire, it’s estimated that you would’ve spent close to 90,000 hours at work. That’s a third of your lifetime, give or take. That’s why it really matters who you choose to spend your time working for and with, and why the employer brand is increasingly important to job seekers. Quite frankly, right now, it’s not going well for employers, or their reputations. 

We’re a far cry from the highs that employers reached during the Covid-19 pandemic. A time when employees felt their bosses genuinely cared about them. Almost half of workers felt good about how their employers were treating them in April 2020, but in February 2022, this came crashing down to below pre-pandemic levels, at 24%. 

So what can we, as employers and leaders, do about it?

Positive employer brand: a must-have for employers

I once read that your brand is how you make people feel when they see your logo or name. Today, a positive employer brand isn’t a nice to have, it’s a must-have, with 91% of job seekers actively researching an employer’s brand before they’ll work for them. So in these uncertain times and with budgets being tightened across the board, how can you ensure your employer brand gives the best impression?

Creating an authentic employer brand

First and foremost, employees are extremely tuned into inauthenticity. If your brand and workplace culture are at odds with each other, people will realise it pretty quickly and spread the word outside your organisation. However, if your brand and culture are in sync with consistency between what you’re saying and standing for, and the actions of your senior leaders and managers, you’ll experience higher trust and engagement. 

In other words, to have a positive employer brand, you need to offer “good work,” which the CIPD defines as:

• Fair rewards for work
• Work/life balance
• Opportunities to develop and build a fulfilling career
• A supportive environment with constructive relationships
• Employees have a voice and choice in shaping their working lives
• The workplace is physical and mental healthy for people

I want to hone in on a few of the trickier ones in this list. 

Offering the right opportunities to develop

In times of uncertainty, it can be tempting to cut back on areas you don’t see as ‘essential’ but your employees’ development cannot be one of them. Remember, the “bottom line” doesn’t matter if you have no talent to create, sell, develop your products or service. To navigate uncertainty, your business may need to pivot within weeks or even days. To do that, you need to have processes in place to quickly understand the skills of your people, then redeploy and reskill in key areas to meet changing business needs. You also need to have the culture to support this, with employees already in the mindset to consistently learn, grow, and shift roles. 

Even if your business has to slow down for a time, there will likely be a point where productivity needs to ramp up again. You don’t want to be in the tough situation of not having enough people with the right skills ready to get back to full productivity. Finally, if you don’t invest in your people, they may leave to join an employer who does — 46% of employees say that they’ll leave their company if they fail to see a commitment to their career development and learning.

Creating a supportive and constructive environment

Everyone has room to grow and part of your role as an employer is to provide the right support and prompts to help them reach their full career potential. Managers are a key part of this, so equipping them with the skills to coach and mentor their teams, as well as do the day-to-day management, will go a long way in building your employer brand. 

Likewise, using data on someone’s work, learning, manager and peer feedback, and more, can help you constructively find areas to celebrate and improve, in annual or monthly performance meetings. It gives a more solid foundation than simply putting a manager and their direct reports together and hoping for a positive performance outcome. 

Giving employees a voice

More than ever, employees want autonomy over their work. Letting them shape their careers can bring a huge boost to your employer brand, and it’s easier than it sounds. By giving them access to a range of different learning and career opportunities in your organisation, you give them the tools to shape their career in the way they want. 

Start by curating everything in one place, putting all of your learning resources in one area that they know they can access anytime. Then link their learning and skills to internal opportunities like stretch assignments, projects, volunteer opportunities, mentoring, and more. They’ll feel consistently challenged, they’ll know they’re progressing at your organisation, and this will reflect on your brand. 

It’s time to take action

Henry Ford once said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” In no other area is this more true than in employer branding. Your employees are the ears, eyes, hands, and mouths of your organisation. They are always looking at what you’re doing for them as their employer and they are always sharing, whether that’s to other colleagues, while networking, to candidates and recruiters, or to friends and family. Your employees are talking about you and influencing your employer brand. Make sure they only have good things to say.