The next few weeks will see the release of DSMN8’s Beginner’s Guide to Employer Branding, so this brings a temporary end to our Employer Branding thought leadership series. All of those we’ve shared will be included in the guide with a few additional entries!
We couldn’t be happier to be sharing this insight from Rebecca Foden. Rebecca is the Head of Talent Acquisition & Diversity Hiring at Transport for London, and recently she has been brilliantly vocal about the changes needed for Employer Branding in 2020.
Rebecca has a wealth of knowledge on talent attraction, acquired from nearly 20 years of experience in industries ranging from banking to financial services and now transport.
For many organizations, this year has been a wake-up call for their employer branding and TA teams, as they’ve been put under immense pressure to display what they’re doing to ensure the protection of jobs and to demonstrate their employer values.
Rebecca offers here some fresh insight into the role of employee storytelling and social media in establishing and showcasing your employer brand. Check out what she had to say below.
1. What role can a company's employees play in employer branding?
“A really great question. For me, it’s a core element of TA strategy. TA is both an art and science – with vision you can mould and evolve the science to drive the whole recruiting effort. This also requires the craft of authentic storytelling. When you add Employer Branding to the mix and empower your own talent, their Stories will electrify your brand. Business will flourish, and you’ll attract the very best talent becoming dynamite.
The most successful organizations empower their talent to share real-life stories about their experiences, roles and achievements. They bring their own diversity of thought and a window into the culture of an organization by a real person that provides transparency and trust, rather than a cold logo. The faces behind the brand working tirelessly every day provide a deeper sense of trust in a brand, valuable insight enabling talent to imagine themselves as employees”.
2. What does the future (post-pandemic) hold for employer branding?
“Future talent, employees and customers will undoubtedly evaluate organizations post Covid-19 and question how they treated their employees, customers and supply chain partners. Employees that have been mistreated will not be engaged, and neither will future talent.
Leadership visibility will play an important future role, including organizational values to show how the organizations intend to deliver on any new promises. Many organizations will be forced to review their EVP and Employer Branding to see whether it is authentic and relevant post-COVID-19. Values will become a top priority focus most likely focusing on purposeful, trusting and caring attributes”. Covid-19 has pushed many businesses into the spotlight, and these businesses will need a new type of leadership for the future”.
3. How can brands utilize social media to positively affect their employer brand?
“Social media plays a vital role in employer branding. The best content is organic content brought to life by existing employees through stories, blog and posts. We’re now working across a multi-generational workforce of 5 generations and organizations will need to engage differently to attract and retain the very best talent. Again, those organizations that have a social media strategy or employer branding team have a competitive edge. Mobilizing and engaging with this community through events and wider engagement will develop diverse pipelines of talent that were previously unreachable.”
Those familiar with DSMN8 will know that we help companies empower their employees to create and share company-focused content to social media. So, as you can imagine we are entirely behind Rebecca’s thoughts on best practices for employer branding!
Whether it’s for corporate purposes or company culture content, people are statistically more likely to engage with and trust content that is shared by an employee over content shared by a company’s social media page.
Shout that little bit louder about your company culture by empowering your employees to do the talking for you. When the culture is there, your employees will talk about your company without needing prompting, but it’s no secret that some may still need that extra push!
Your employees are your behind-the-scenes content creators and in-house influencers who, on average, have a collective reach that is over ten times the size of your company pages put together.
If you’re interested to learn more about how you can leverage your employees’ networks to maximize reach, engage a wider audience, and positively influence your employer brand, then check out the Ultimate Guide to Employee Influencers.
For more thought leadership on employer branding, check out our previous interview with the Global Employer Brand Lead of Rolls-Royce.
Lewis Gray
Senior Marketing Manager and Employee Advocacy Program Manager at DSMN8. Lewis specialises in content strategy, growing brand visibility and generating inbound leads. His background in Sales lends itself well to demand generation in the B2B niche.
