1. EMPLOYER BRANDING:
USING IT TO INCREASE
EMPLOYEE LOYALTY
HCI EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2. INTRODUCTION an employment brand in the context of your true
organizational culture will make it a much more
Employer Branding campaigns that catch headlines authentic and congruent experience”, says Pellet.
often have hot slogans to attract young talent, and People like authenticity, so that when they enter the
emphasize a “cool” culture, but employer workplace, the employment brand that was sold to
branding goes much deeper than the ink on the them actually bears true after they step in the door.
page. It should be built to last, and not only attract
new employees, but help retain the precious Defining your company culture increases your ROI by
resources you already have in place. It’s about the drawing in the right employees and repelling those
people in your organization and creating the kind who are a mismatch. Many hiring managers dislike
of authentic relationship with your employees that using the word “repel”, but considering the cost of
spawns loyalty to propel your business forward in a one bad hire, “repelling” workers who don’t fit at
tough recruiting and retention environment. your organization can be very cost effective. The
current war for top talent presents many challenges
During an April 2, 2008 webcast with the Human for organizations, in a variety of industries. This
Capital Institute, Lizz Pellet, CEO of EMERGE struggle to find the best fit is propelling many
International discussed how companies can utilize organizations to build a branding message that is
their employer brand to increase loyalty and return congruent with their organizational culture.
on investment. This paper will reveal results of some Companies are feeling increased pressure to produce
recent studies on employer branding, discuss the more with less, manage cultural integrations during
connection between company culture and brand, mergers, manage the Baby Boomer exodus, and
how to create an authentic employer value attract and retain Gen Y workers and knowledge
proposition, and outline the costs involved with workers. These challenges can be dissipated by
branding campaign, as well as how to justify the clearly defining your company culture and
spend to company leaders. automatically drawing in the right talent. Your
employment brand might be your best recruitment tool.
THE CONNECTION
BETWEEN EMPLOYMENT
CULTURE AND
COMPANY BRAND BRANDING STUDIES
WHY ATTRACT, RETAIN, REPEL? EMERGE International surveyed director-level
When companies take the time to understand and marketing, recruitment and HR professionals at 100
clearly communicate their culture, they have the companies regarding their views of employment
ability to attract and retain the right employees, and branding; the results were somewhat surprising.
repel the ones that just won’t fit. Some companies
try to replicate their consumer brand when creating “They know employment branding is important,
an employer brand, while the two are aligned, they they say it affects and gives them a competitive
are not the same. The employer brand is a statement edge in recruiting, they know it helps retain and
about what your company represents, the types of attract top talent, and yet it’s not a strategic
people you want on your team and the kind of work initiative and they don’t have budgeted dollars for
atmosphere you provide, while your consumer brand it”, says Pellet (see Figure 1).
speaks primarily to your customers. Pellet has found
that when companies take the time to get crystal Eighty nine percent of respondents agreed that
clear about their culture, the employees that work employment branding provides a competitive
there enjoy an authentic and congruent work advantage in recruiting efforts and 85% agree that
experience, they’ll stick around longer and they’ll employment branding is important. However, less
also talk to others about their positive experiences than half said it was one of their five strategic
working for the company. “We find that creating initiatives for the upcoming year and only 36% of the
2 EMPLOYER BRANDING:
USING IT TO INCREASE EMPLOYEE LOYALTY

3. respondents said they have FIGURE 1
budgeted dollars to work on DOES EMPLOYMENT BRANDING PROVIDE A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?
their employment brand. Statement Agree Neutral Disagree
Eighty-one percent also Employment branding efforts provides a
agreed that a cultural 89% 9% 3%
competitive edge in our recruiting efforts.
assessment would help them Our company’s employment brand helps attract
to understand the gaps in 67% 30% 4%
top talent.
their company culture and its
Our comapny’s employement brand helps retain
impact to retention and 60% 33% 6%
top talent.
recruitment. Another data
point of interest is that over IS IT IMPORTANT TO HAVE AN EMPLOYER BRAND?
30% of the respondents
Statement Agree Neutral Disagree
answered Neutral (don’t know,
not sure) to the fact that their Employment branding is important to my company. 85% 13% 3%
employment brand helps them Employment branding is one of the top five
attract and retain top talent. strategic initiatives for my company in the upcom- 49% 30% 22%
ing year.
On the flip side, the cost of We have budgeted dollars for 2007 to work on our
not attaching dollars to your 36% 19% 45%
employment brand.
employer branding efforts can
be very high. Emerge found
Here are some alarming statistics on their use of
that the average company was losing two hours of
social networking sites:
productivity per day with each disengaged worker.
Based on an average hourly wage of $15 and a normal
• MySpace, YouTube and pod casting are the new
Monday through Friday work schedule, a company
norms in communication between Gen Y’rs
with 1,000 disengaged employees could lose $15,000
• There are 208+ million users on Myspace today —
a day in productivity, or $7.2 million per year. This
that’s as big as some countries and the numbers
number emphasizes the impact that employee loyalty,
climb every day
or lack thereof, can have on your company.
• More candidates are utilizing Google to obtain
information about companies before they apply
or accept a job offer. There are 2.7 billion
GENERATIONAL requests for information on Google every day
CHALLENGES Much to the surprise of some thought leaders, studies
are showing that Gen Y workers can actually be very
THE BOOMERS loyal, as long as they are engaged. They are looking
The first Boomer retired on January 1st of this year for a “authentic and congruent” experience at the
and according to the US Bureau of Labor, an workplace. If a Gen Y worker is in engaged and
estimated 30,000 boomers are retiring each day included, they will perform well, they can be
within the US. In 2010, we’re expected to feel the outstanding internal recruiters for your company, they
full impact of this exodus. As a result, companies are will spread positive messages about the company, and
using their employment brand to specifically attract they will tend stay longer, hence be “retained”.
and retain the Boomer generation.
GEN Y
Gen Y workers rely heavily on social networking.
“You’re going to have to get out of your comfort
zone to attract, retain and repel this population”,
says Pellet to companies trying to tap Gen Y.
3 EMPLOYER BRANDING:
USING IT TO INCREASE EMPLOYEE LOYALTY

4. “Serving the brand in the context of who you really
CREATING A are is extremely, extremely important”, says
CONGRUENT AND Pellet. Your campaign should include advertising any
AUTHENTIC awards, or social responsibility causes (going green)
relevant to your company on your career website.
EMPLOYMENT HR should work closely with marketing to develop
BRAND the employment brand, since consumer brand and
employment brand are closely tied. “This is not
How does a company create a congruent, authentic something that should be done in a Human Resources
employment brand? Leaders must create and sustain vacuum”, says Pellet.
the company culture by communicating the vision,
the mission and the values of the company. Then FIGURE 2
they will easily draw in employees who are aligned RECOGNIZABLE CONSUMER BRANDS
with the value system. If the company has a
“silent code of conduct” that is inconsistent with the
stated culture, employees will sense that as well.
Employees feel how they fit in. For example,
employees with very high morals and values might
find it difficult to work for a large organization that
has recently been involved in a public scandal. This
type of disconnect between value systems affects
employees on a very deep, personal level and it is
difficult to overcome. The solution is to create an
authentic brand that accurately communicates the EMPLOYMENT
company’s value system.
BRAND ASSESSMENT
“CULT-LIKE” CULTURES
“Organizations with a cult-like culture have a very
AND THE EVP
strong sense of who they are and who they are not”, Do you know how your company identity is currently
says Pellet. Based on seven years of organizational perceived? Conducting a quantitative cultural and
culture research, the 1999 book, Built to Last — employment brand assessment can help you
Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, stated determine that. Deploy a metric that you can go
that companies with a “cult-like” culture actually back and measure against to help you track progress
last longer. Examples of these types of companies and ROI of new programs. Pellet suggests a review
include Southwest Airlines, Starbucks and UPS. They these key areas:
stand out by creating a very tight sense of belonging
amongst their workers, they often have employee • The company’s current identity
slogans, and they have easily recognizable brand • Leadership style
images that evoke an emotional response • The types of relationships people have at the
reminding us of their company culture (see Figure company
2). After the Fortune 100 was announced in 2007 • How they communicate
they did a follow up piece on some of the • Company infrastructure
companies featured. Once such interview was with • Employee engagement
a Nike representative, when asked if he could talk • Finance
about the company culture he was quoted as saying
“how many companies do you know that 30% of their
THE EMPLOYMENT BRAND PROMISE (or EVP)
employees have the company logo tattooed Creating an employment brand promise helps you
somewhere on their body.” That seems like quite a define and communicate your Employment Value
branding statement. Proposition, which ultimately is your brand.
Companies need to speak to the value system they
have in place. The Employment Brand Promise will
4 EMPLOYER BRANDING:
USING IT TO INCREASE EMPLOYEE LOYALTY

5. help to reinforce external positioning, create a FIGURE 3: Employment Brand Promise Aligned to and EVP —
Employee Value Proposition
competitive hiring advantage, communicate what
the company stands for, create brand loyalty and
communicate the Employment Value Proposition CONSUMERS AND SHAREHOLDERS
to its employees (see Figure 3).
It’s important to not only identify organizational
values, but to also define them in behavioral terms
within the company. For example, each employee EMPLOYEES
may define and exhibit “trust” in the workplace
differently. Pellet recommends conducting a
values assessment to see if there is consistency and
awareness of these cultural values and how they are
played out in employee behavior and belief system.
Positioning an Employee Value Proposition is really
about transferring what the company is going to
“give” to what the employee is going to “get”.
Figure 4 illustrates how a list of amenities such as on
site, basketball court, game
room and athletic club can
FIGURE 4:
be repositioned to the
employee as “so that you can Example of positioning your EVP — Start each top line with “we offer”
take a break and have fun at
work”. Another example is
listing statements to create
a more competitive salary
and promotional
opportunities “so that you
can grow with us and create
the career and experience
you want”. Changing these
meaningful visual for the
employee and creating an
emotional response speaks to
the “wants” of the
consumer your employee.
The recommended timeline for delivering an WEB SITE AND JOB BOARD ASSESSMENT
Employment Brand Promise is:
Conducting a simple assessment of your current
• 1 to 3 Months — Diagnostic, data collection, website and your presence on various job boards can
analysis tell you a lot about where your company stacks up in
• 3 to 6 Months — Establish Value Proposition, communicating your employer brand. Pellet uses the
develop brand message, roll out initiatives “Three clicks and your out” rule. She says, “If a
• 12 Months — Redeploy diagnostic to measure potential candidate can not find what they are
progress and track ROI looking for within three clicks of getting to your
• 1 to 3 Years — Full alignment, significantly website, the candidate may be gone and on to your
better business results, increased ROI of competition”. Your website should clearly
recruitment and retention programs communicate your company’s vision, mission and
values as well as reflect your company culture in some
5 EMPLOYER BRANDING:
USING IT TO INCREASE EMPLOYEE LOYALTY

6. way. When conducting a website assessment, consider company) might cost $2,500 — $5,000. Producing
if you would be attracted to work there yourself. recruitment videos may cost $2,800 for a very basic
Pellet notes that many websites use stock photos of video using stock photos or can cost up to $22,000
employees, and it can be much more effective to use for a live shoot lasting three minutes. Some new
photos of real employees who actually work there. companies are jumping into career video shooting
Also consider if you’re using the right domain name, because it is the hottest new thing, but Pellet
or if there is another domain your company should suggests sticking with companies that have been
own to catch more jobs seekers in your target around a while and have a good reputation. View
audience. For example, adding “.jobs” to your their work and talk to other professionals before
domain name will enable job seekers to find your signing up.
career website with fewer clicks, and you’ll hold their
attention longer.
Your company should stand out on job boards. Health
CONCLUSION
“An employment brand isn’t necessarily just a
Care is one example of organizations that are not
marketing tool to get a Gen Y or a Boomer or an X-er
differentiating themselves when they place ads for
in the door, an employment brand is to express your
nursing positions; they simply emphasize a caring
employee value proposition”, says Pellet. You don’t
environment and they miss the opportunity to truly
have to try to create an employment brand
stand out. A review of the most popular job boards
message that speaks to four generations, but you
will help you assess how you’re competing with other
should think about who your company is and what
employers. According to Pellet, Careerbuilder and
your company is offering as a value proposition.
Monster are a bit passé, as local job boards are taking
Creating an authentic brand and increasing
over. She suggests looking at your niche market or
employee loyalty starts by having an understanding
local job boards, and reviewing recruitment job
of what your culture really is and what it is not. In
boards that are stand outs, such as www.jobing.com.
a complex recruiting and retention environment,
You can easily find companies that will shoot video for
employer branding can be a very effective tool to
you, like www.vcruit.com and www.careervideo.com,
attract and retain the right people to your company
check them out first as you begin to generate ideas
and repel the ones that just don’t “fit”.
for your own recruitment videos. Some of these new
career video companies will actually come to your
worksite to shoot video for you. Above all, your career
video must truly reflect who your company is so that
it will attract the right people to work for you.
PUTTING DOLLARS
BEHIND BRANDING
EFFORTS
To justify spending dollars on employer branding,
consider the cost of replacing one executive in your
company. Pellet suggests to her clients that they
take the cost of one recent “bad” executive hire and
multiply it by three; the ending number could
easily justify a budget that can be used to develop
your brand. Conducting a brand assessment through
an Internet-based employee survey can cost between
$2,500 and $18,000 depending on the number of
employees, while a non-invasive scan of your
environment (i.e. job postings, job boards, a website
review, or mystery employee report of your
6 EMPLOYER BRANDING:
USING IT TO INCREASE EMPLOYEE LOYALTY

7. Based on the Human Capital Institute webcast, Employer Branding: Using It to Increase Employee Loyalty, April 2, 2008.
PRESENTER
Lizz Pellet, CEO
EMERGE International
Fellow Johns Hopkins University
Lizz Pellet is the author of Getting Your Shift Together: Making Sense of Organizational Culture and Change —
Introducing Cultural Due Diligence. Lizz is a recognized national conference speaker and has presented over 40
professional learning sessions in the past three years. EMERGE International is a California based consultancy firm
dedicated to improving the ROI of organizational culture, employment branding and transformational change efforts. In
1998, Lizz pioneered the development of the Cultural Health Indicator (CHI), a validated organizational culture
diagnostic instrument. In 2007, she introduced the Brand Enhancer, a comprehensive solution that combines culture
and employment branding. Clients include Abbott Laboratories, Mayo Clinic, American Express, Phoenix’s Children’s
Hospital, Physicians Mutual Insurance, Yahoo! and many others.
MODERATOR
Christine Abbatiello
Director, Talent Strategy Community
Human Capital Institute
Christine Abbatiello serves as the Director of the Talent Strategy Community at Human Capital Institute, bringing to the
organization nearly fifteen years of industry experience in human capital. She is committed to the concept of providing
the most in-depth research and knowledge content to this broad and diverse community. An honors graduate of Colby
College with a degree in English Literature, Christine was one of the original employees of Answerthink/The Hackett
Group. In her five years there as the Director of Executive Recruitment, she helped grow the organization to over
2000 associates and developed a full integrated talent management program. Additionally, she has worked in corporate
strategy, corporate and agency recruitment and industry consulting before joining HCI in 2008. Christine is committed
to the concept of giving back to the community, and served as a volunteer employment transition advisor after the
9/11 Terrorist Attacks and Hurricane Katrina.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This White Paper is made possible by JWT Inside, sponsor of HCI’s Attracting, Qualifying, and Selecting Top Sales Talent
Learning Track.
ABOUT JWT INSIDE
JWT INSIDE helps organizations advance employee engagement through comprehensive advertising, marketing and
employee communications services. Measurement tools, consulting resources and strategic approaches are employed
to put the right people in the right jobs and keep the workforce engaged. The agency has 12 offices and 9 satellite
locations across North America and internationally. It is a subsidiary of JWT, the largest advertising agency in the United
States and the third full-service network in the world. Its parent company is WPP (NASDAQ:WPPGY). Visit
www.jwtinside.com for more information.
ABOUT THE HUMAN CAPITAL INSTITUTE
The Human Capital Institute is a catalyst for innovative new thinking in talent acquisition, development and
deployment. Through research and collaboration, our programs collect original, creative ideas from a field of top
executives and the brightest thought leaders in strategic HR and talent management. Those ideas are then transformed
into measurable, real-world strategies that help our members attract and retain the best talent, build a diverse,
inclusive workplace, and leverage individual and team performance throughout the enterprise.
7 EMPLOYER BRANDING:
USING IT TO INCREASE EMPLOYEE LOYALTY