What’s With Your Employer Brand?

A brand faces three directions: your customers, your culture and the capital markets. Culture is crucial because it influences your ability to recruit and retain the best and the brightest. In his article for the Harvard Business Review, author and CEO Bryan Adams writes that lately employers have “gained a heightened awareness of the importance of organizational purpose, team cohesion and employee experience” in the wake of the pandemic and the Great Resignation.

These elements are essential to strong employer branding, which TalentLyft says “is used to introduce the company as a great place to work. It’s used for communicating with current employees as well as attracting a new, generally passive, workforce.” In her recent Medium article digital marketing specialist Treasa Anderson explains Firstbase founder Chris Herd’s list of emerging workplace trends that will shape your employer brand; here’s a look at a few of Anderson and Herd’s salient observations.

First among them are the benefits of “hobby renaissance,” a phenomenon that can help your company develop an invigorated and attentive team. Anderson explains that the present workplace and social landscapes, which COVID-19 has forever changed, “will lead to a rise in people participating in hobbies and activities, which link them to people in their local community. This will lead to deeper, more meaningful relationships which overcome societal issues of loneliness and isolation.”

While this may seem unrelated to what happens in the office, it behooves you to support your employees’ off-hour pastimes. Last year, Psychology Today featured a study on the relationship between leisure activities and workplace success. The researchers found that hobbies give workers “an opportunity to build up useful resources like self-efficacy that can translate to maintaining a sustainable career.” But how can you encourage your employees to pursue leisure activities that aid them at work? Under30CEO co-founder Matt Wilson recommends that employers offer workers incentives and opportunities to spend their time outside the office participating in enjoyable and beneficial activities. In an Under30CEO article, he writes that “some employers or their insurance providers offer health credits that employees can use toward gym memberships or fitness classes. You can also budget money for creative pursuits, such as pottery classes or cooking lessons.”

Hobbies like these can give your employees a sense of community and confidence, which will improve their job performance, but it is also important for them to have a deep interest in and connection to their jobs. As such, Anderson discusses how managers should be more interested in what their staffs accomplish at work as opposed to whether they appear focused. She writes, “disengaged employees can often ‘look busy’ or ‘act busy’ in office life. Employers must shift their observation to output and outcomes. As an added bonus it creates a stronger culture.”

Mondayblog contributor Brittany Berger goes a step further and sees the amount of work your employees finish, which she calls “output,” as less important than their ability to achieve company goals, which she calls “outcomes.” She writes, “Outcomes will encompass the greater impact your team has on your company, customers and mission. The results tied to why your company or department exists. In other words, outcomes are a pretty big deal.”

The methods for emphasizing outcomes vary. But Fast Company journalist Carolyn Moore writes that “the focus should be on how an employee matches up to the clear expectations set by a manager at the onset.” To actualize a results-driven approach, more meaningful discussions between managers and staff are pivotal. “Having regular one-on-ones is key to ensuring that employees have an opportunity to give and get feedback. Creating a designated space for open two-way communication can help to build trust and support greater innovation,” Moore writes. “The feedback itself needs to be actionable and based on performance metrics that were set forth at the onset.” Not only will these exchanges help produce better outcomes, but they will also make your employees feel valued and fulfilled at work.

In addition to one-on-ones and conversations about outcomes between employers and their staffs, low-pressure company get-togethers where co-workers and executives can build a rapport and feel more comfortable around one another are ideal opportunities for cultivating positive office dynamics. And while the pandemic limits in-person company retreats, the need for these real-time interactions remains high. Herd writes that “purpose-built destinations that allow for entire companies to fly into a campus for a synchronous week” are of growing importance to businesses. And they can take place in-person or remotely.

Journalist Lora Kelley writes in The New York Times that due to COVID-19, off-site retreats “have taken a turn for the tamer: remote trivia and virtual escape room,” but as the curve flattens, “many companies have plans to rebook those hotel blocks and try to meet up in person again this year.” This January, Charter contributor S. Mitra Kalita came out with recommendations for making an off-site retreat successful. For bonding remotely, Kalita says that it is important to “create breakout rooms. To get participation from more people on Zoom, ask questions that people answer in the chat versus making them hit the unmute button.” And she says that if you are planning one of these events, you should “ask people what they want from the retreat, whether it’s in person, virtual or hybrid. Think big picture and connect their role to the overall mission or purpose of your company.”

When employees are part of a larger company culture that appreciates their input, contributions and wellbeing, it reverberates throughout the work world. As writer Sarah A. Lybrand writes in LinkedIn’s Talent Blog, “as with all branding, crafting a strong employer brand is about good storytelling. It’s about how you want your organization to be perceived in the marketplace, using specific messaging to help attract the kind of prospects you’re looking for. But also, it’s about living out that story. Satisfied employees are your loudest speakerbox, particularly in an age of social media and user-generated feedback where employers aren’t always completely in control of their own reputation.”