Universum is known as the leader when it comes to Employer Branding. As an innovator in the industry with over 30 years' experience, many people turn to Universum when seeking information surrounding these, at times confusing, topics. Whether you are completely new to the topic, or needing a refresher on some of the concepts, the following article aims to provide a deeper understanding of some of the fundamentals of Employer Branding.
The Fundamentals: Employer brand, Employer Value Proposition, & Employer Branding
While Employer Branding encapsulates so many different topics and concepts, it is best to begin with the three most important ones to understand the other areas of this complex topic.
What is employer brand?
The term employer brand describes people’s perceptions of you as an employer. These perceptions can be good, bad, or in different. What takes these perceptions from bad or indifferent, to good? That is done through your Employer Value Proposition and Employer Branding.
What is an Employer Value Proposition (EVP)?
An Employer Value Proposition (EVP) defines how you would like to be perceived as an employer. This also refers to the value to provide your employees in exchange for their time and work. The combination of attributes that potential and existing talent perceive as valuable are essential to include in your EVP.
Need help with crafting your EVP? Learn more about how we can assist you here!
What is Employer Branding?
Employer Branding is the activity of creating a distinct place to work and promoting it both internally, and to the rest of the world. Through Employer Branding, you will be able to broadcast your Employer Value Proposition and raise your company’s profile as an attractive employer.
One important thing to note is that every company has an employer brand- whether they like it or not, whether they are working with it or not, or whether they even know it or not. That said, a company can only partly control their employer brand. What they do have full control of is the Employer Value Proposition, which is the tool uses to influence the employer brand in a desired direction.
“The Employer Value Proposition helps to provide a similarly consistent point of reference for everything you say and do to promote a positive brand reputation and experience among the talented people you wish to attract, engage, and retain within your organization.” – Richard Mosley, Global Client Director, Universum.
Now that we have a broad definition of what an EVP is, it is time to dig deeper into it and break down what goes into crafting and developing a strong EVP.
An EVP is your unique set of qualities (referred to as attributes), that makes talent want to work for you or. To make this happen, and to make it right, you must develop an EVP that encompasses not only who you are as an employer but also how you are perceived and everything you want to be. This is crucial and can be quite overwhelming. And although the process can be long and strenuous, it is something that is pivotal to your organization’s ability to attract the right talent as it is the foundation for your sourcing, recruiting, and hiring processes.
So why is it important to create and develop an EVP for your company and why should it be at the top of your priority list? Simply put, the data shows that employers who have developed a solid EVP for their organizations are proven to attract more relevant candidates to their talent pool as well as have proven better employee engagement and retention rates.
At Universum, we continuously gather data and create insights on top employers around the world. With input from over a million students and professionals worldwide, our extensive database collects perceptions on attributes in the following areas: Reputation and Image, Remuneration & Advancement Opportunities, and People and Culture. With this information we aim to help employers make data-driven strategic decisions on how, where and when they should look to hire talent from. Focusing on creating an EVP based on our insights ensures that the EVP process is more effective and accurate which will lead to better hires and higher retention rates.
Employer Value Proposition vs Employee Value Proposition
We often get asked the question if Employer Value Proposition is the same as Employee Value proposition, and the straight answer is yes, they can be the same thing. To learn more about which is technically correct, you can check out our “Employer Value Proposition vs Employee Value Proposition” Article.
Strong employer brands are founded on consistently positive associations, built through consistent brand communication and experience. The only way to achieve this is to be clear about what your brand stands for and the benefits your brand promises to deliver. Therefore, it is essential to create an EVP and promote your employer brand to the world.
If the topics and concepts cited in this article interest you and you want to learn more, be sure to register for The Employer Branding Academy to develop your expertise in the field of employer brand or be sure to check out our all-new FREE courses, EBAx, that provide a deeper dive into the fundamentals.
