Employer brand agency

Our employer brand strategy process

A strong employer brand helps employers stand out from the competition and attract the best talent. It can also help create a positive work environment, foster more inclusivity, and drive innovation and productivity. So, the benefits of having a great employer brand are pretty clear.

Bridging HR and marketing, our process helps employers that are serious about investing in improving their organisational culture make informed decisions about how to shape and deliver a strong employer brand.

Over the years, we’ve honed the process to work in person and remotely, to be able to assess organisations with a larger footprint of employees, remote workers, and to overcome other challenges that geography might have previously posed.

Uncover the pieces

We’ll work with you to review all the elements of your current employer brand. This will help to reveal the gaps we need to fill, and make sure we build on your existing equity and goodwill with staff.

Work in harmony

A strong employer brand brings people together around a common vision, so we start aligning people early in the process. This means getting input from a cross section of the business and developing objectives collectively.

Often this looks like workshops, focus groups or 1-to-1 interviews.

Craft the vision

Now it’s time to develop the vision and mission, and the core values the business is guided by. At this stage we should have all the keys to unlock the Employer Value Proposition, as known as an employer brand proposition statement.

Broadcast the message

An employer brand is only as strong as how well it’s communicated.

We find immersion sessions with the organisation can be a fun and useful for employees to understand what the employer,oyer brand is, and how to use it in their working life.

Here, we would also identify the communications strategy, key messages and channels across all the different audiences, including internal and external stakeholders.

Track progress

As they say… what gets measured gets managed.

Regular data gathering helps to see what is working, and what the impact of this work is.

This might be employee sentiment and engagement analysis, or collecting key metrics around the hiring process.

Employer brand agency FAQs

What is employer branding?

Employer branding is in essence the art of promoting a business or organisation to its staff, potential employees, board members and other stakeholders. In a world where the working landscape is increasingly an employee’s market, firms need to gain real stand out by creating a positive and appealing culture and making sure their own teams and future talent know all about it. By hiring an agency like The Lane to delve deep into your business and produce a proactive comms plan to raise your profile as an employer, you’ll be making a strong impact on those who work for you and those you’d like to hire.

Why is employer branding important?

Think of employer branding as another aspect of your brand’s development. Only this time it’s not to entice customers or increase sales enquiries, it’s to reinforce a crucial message to your own people – that they work for a great brand they can be proud of; they are valued and their voices are heard. Obviously, deep cultural shifts and improvements in working practices and conditions are subjects for management consultants, not brand experts like The Lane Agency, but we see too many fantastic companies lose staff and miss out on the best talent simply because they are not presenting themselves as brilliant employers.

That’s because they’re often not communicating effectively with their staff or job candidates. Perhaps the tone of voice for internal comms is ‘off’; maybe the look of job ads is dull and uninviting; or it could be they just don’t have a clear value proposition that people can relate to. Post-pandemic, the work/life balance is more central to career choices than ever before. Hybrid working is the norm in many sectors, while issues like sustainability, parental leave and flexible shift patterns can be the deciding factor for some. Rather than hiding such things on an obscure page lost somewhere on their website, a successful employer brand will deliberately define and differentiate their working culture, making sure their loyalty to the workforce and employee support are elements that saturate their brand in all their internal and recruitment comms.

How can a business improve the recruitment and retention of staff?

Developing a brand to enhance its qualities as a place to work is a relatively recent drive undertaken by businesses both global and local to attract and retain staff in what is currently something of an employees’ market. Hiring an agency like Edinburgh-based The Lane means HR and marketing teams can leave the research, design and implementation of a robust and measurable plan to the experts.

Our approach begins with a forensic internal and external audit. We’ll talk to a cross section of your people to tease out the reasons they joined the business, why they’ve stayed, what they love about working for you (and what they’re not so keen on). Staff surveys can be incredibly insightful in developing your unique employer proposition. Think of it as part and parcel of brand development investment, with the goal being clear and persuasive communication which will convey both the culture and vibe of your organisation along with the nitty gritty nuts and bolts of what’s it’s actually like to work there (the benefits, staff support, career pathways and so on).

A creative communication strategy can include a new punchier style of recruitment ad, or a regular staff eshot that keeps everyone on track and on board. It might mean refreshing the careers section of your website or transforming an employee’s induction pack. By relaying the true personality of an organisation in terms of its role as an employer, the whole brand is strengthened, because its distinct character and values then seep through all its layers: people, products, culture, visual identity, voice. And as brand evangelists, we at The Lane love nothing more than helping a brand say it loud to bring the very best people in (and make them want to stay).

What is an employer brand strategy?

An employer brand strategy is a comprehensive plan that seeks to identify, differentiate, and promote an organisation’s reputation as an employer of choice. It is designed to attract, engage, and retain the best talent in the marketplace. Employer brand strategies encompass company values, mission and vision, culture, recruitment process, employee engagement initiatives, and employer-employee relationships.

Employer brand strategies are essential for companies to create an environment that is attractive to the best talent, in order to remain competitive in the job market. Employer brand strategies should be tailored to each organisation’s needs, and should be regularly assessed and adjusted to ensure that the organisation is staying up to date with the latest trends and best practices. Ultimately, a successful employer brand strategy will help an organisation create a workplace that is attractive to the best and brightest talent, resulting in a successful and productive organisation.

How can you measure the effectiveness of an employer brand?

Employer brand can be measured in a number of ways, including surveys, focus groups and interviews with current or former employees, as well as data gathered from job boards and other recruitment sources. Surveys are a great way to measure employee sentiment and engagement, as well as understanding how current or potential employees perceive the employer brand. We recommend a regular staff survey is a great first port of call.

Focus groups and interviews can be used to gain further insight into how people feel about the employer brand, and to identify any areas of improvements. Data from job boards and other recruitment sources can be used to measure the number of applications received and the response rate, as well as the quality of applicants. Finally, employee retention can be used as a measure of the success of an employer brand.

Want a starter for 10? Use our employer brand calculator in our guide to developing your employer brand proposition statement.

What is an employee value proposition?

An employee value proposition (EVP) is a statement or promise to employees that outlines the value of working for a particular company. It defines what the company stands for and the value it places on its employees. An EVP typically includes elements such as a competitive salary and benefits, job security, career development opportunities, and a satisfying working environment.

An EVP should include a clear statement of the company’s mission, values, and goals, a description of the benefits and rewards available to employees, an outline of the company’s expectations of employees, and a description of the company culture.

It might look something like this:

At [Company Name], our mission is to [Company Mission Statement] and our values are [Company Values]. We strive to provide our employees with [Company Benefits]. We want our employees to feel valued and respected and we expect them to demonstrate [Company Expectations]. We are committed to creating a culture of [Company Culture].

We have a guide on developing your Employer Value Proposition.

How can you promote your employer brand externally?

Capturing and sharing employee stories is a great way to not only demonstrate your company culture, values and employer brand, but build a great sense of pride and appreciation amongst current staff.

It’s important to think about the production value of the assets you develop here, as you really want to show off your colleagues in their best light.

Have a look at this Caledonian MacBrayne employee video, which was created as part of our The People Behind the Journey employer brand campaign.

How can you communicate your employer brand internally?

Organisations can communicate an employer brand to current employees through channels such as newsletters, intranet sites and blogs, employee recognition and reward schemes, internal communications campaigns, and regular meetings and surveys with staff. Employee newsletters and blogs can provide information about the organisation’s values, objectives, and successes, and can help increase employee engagement and loyalty. Employee recognition and reward schemes can help to foster a sense of team spirit and foster a sense of pride in being part of the organisation.

Internal communication campaigns can help to promote the employer brand, while regular meetings and surveys can provide staff with an opportunity to share their opinions and provide feedback on the organisation and its performance.

It is important that the EVP and brand values are reinforced on a regular basis. Think internal branding, sharing employee stories, publicly rewarding behaviours and attitudes that are inline with the employer brand.

Ultimately, communicating an employer brand internally to current employees is essential to ensure that staff are engaged and motivated to contribute to the organisation’s goals and objectives. Doing so can also help to create a positive working environment and foster a sense of pride and loyalty among employees.

How does a brand purpose fit into an employer brand?

Your brand purpose statement is more than just a mission statement – it’s the reason your company exists beyond making a profit. And it can play a vital role in shaping your employer brand, too. By communicating and embodying your brand purpose statement, you can attract and retain employees who share your values and vision.

This creates a sense of meaning and fulfillment for your employees, increasing engagement and motivation. Remember, your brand purpose statement can be a key element of your employer brand, shaping your company culture and attracting those who will help your business grow.

What does an employer brand agency do?

As a branding agency with experience in helping organisations create and maintain a strong and positive reputation as an employer, provide services such as employer branding, recruitment marketing, employer-employee engagement and employer research to ensure that an organisation is seen as a desirable place to work.

This can include creating a brand identity and messaging that reflects the organisation’s values and culture, creating content to market job opportunities, conducting research to understand what makes the organisation attractive to potential employees, and building relationships with existing employees to ensure they are engaged and motivated. Ultimately, an employer brand agency helps organisations to attract and retain the best talent and create a positive and lasting impression.