How do you find an employer branding consultant that will get you results? Many people call themselves employer branding consultants, but a good one will have expertise in several areas – each of them critical. Make sure that whoever you work with has the required expertise – the success of your employer brand depends on it.

Employer branding is core to your entire culture. The consultant or agency you decide to work with must really understand the power of a true Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and how to get there. An EVP is the reason talented people join, and stay at your company, and it bridges the gap between what your employees feel about their workplace, and the dedication they approach their work with.

There are five key areas that your employer branding consultant or agency should have expertise in:

• • Research

• • Strategy

• • Creative and Communications

• • Employee Experience

• • Analytics

As we go through the list, it’s clear that this wide range of knowledge can be difficult to develop, and to find. Recruitment and research firms will miss the creative and digital aspects of branding; a creative agency, on the other hand, will not have the required expertise in talent attraction and recruitment. Make sure your consultant has knowledge across the range of topics, and isn’t just an expert in one area.

Research

What do your employees value most? What does the talent demographic you want to attract value most? Through quantitative and qualitative research you can uncover what makes you special, what’s happening in the environment around you, employer brand threats, and strategies to attract talent and enhance the candidate and employee experience.

Strategy

Whether it is your digital footprint, your candidate experience or even an acquisition, you need a customized strategy in place that aligns with your unique culture and employer brand. A strong strategy that plays to your strengths and addresses areas of weakness will differentiate your organization from competitors so you stand out with your own unique positioning.

Digital Marketing Strategy

• Is your web presence working? Measuring your career website usability, search engine optimization and social media footprint, while analyzing competitors to give you powerful benchmarking data will give you a roadmap to move forward.

• Your people should be your biggest fans. A social strategy that incorporates your team and ladders up to your employer brand empowers you to lead the social conversation and share your message. Your social engagement strategy, weaves in training and powerful content.

Staffing & Recruitment Strategy

• What do your employees value most? Through quantitative and qualitative research uncover what makes you special, employer brand threats, and strategies to attract the talent you need and enhance the candidate and employee experience.

• Not attracting the right talent impacts your brand awareness and positioning as a top employer. The right strategy will ensure that you’re getting the right people for the right jobs, at the right time – all while improving employee engagement by 40%, and reducing turnover and cost-per-hire.

Mergers & Acquisitions Strategy

• If your organization is considering joining or acquiring another company, your Merger and Acquisition integration plan must factor in culture, brand, and employee engagement every step of the way.

• If your EVP is not addressed, engagement and productivity both decrease at an alarming rate. Mistrust in the workforce increases and productivity declines. Without putting the right merger and integration plan into place for your culture, we’ve seen the success of a merger or acquisition become delayed by two to four years.

Creative & Communications

• With human-centered creative campaigns, we develop your employer brand messaging through authentic, research-backed creative imagery and video in a variety of activations.

• Photoshoots engaging your employees and imagery from the office all help people visualize what it’s like to work with you, after all your people are your best asset, incorporating them into your creative is key.

Employee Experience

• Ensure that your EVP addresses all touchpoints throughout your organization, ensuring sustainability and authenticity of your employer brand.

• Engaging the right stakeholders at the right time is both science and art, ensure you are proactively engaging your audiences.

Analytics

• Make sure you know how you are measuring success before you even begin. There are key performance indicators and dollar values that can be attributed to your employer branding ROI.

• Blu Ivy’s holistic employer brand dashboard measures five key areas that you should be tracking on a quarterly basis including your Employer Brand Awareness, Experience, Loyalty, Preference, and Associations. We set KPIs from both internal and external data points and will keep a pulse on how your employer brand is seen by your key stakeholders. Call 647-308-2352 to book a demo today.

Blu Ivy has expertise in all these areas – make sure that the same is true of whichever employer branding consultant you decide to work with. Without this required expertise, you run the risk of spending time and money on research that results in an EVP, strategy or creative that isn’t meaningful, emotionally compelling, or differentiated. No one can afford wasting effort on an investment that won’t give you the returns you need.  

If your organization is considering working with an employer branding consultant,

Blu Ivy can help you find the right professional for your needs. Call us today at 647-308-2352 to learn more!