New research from Weber Shandwick indicates that just 19% employees strongly agree that “what my employer portrays about itself publicly matches what it’s like to work there”, while 7% strongly disagree and 74% are either not sure or do not feel strongly either way. The article is excellent from employer brand and employee engagement perspective.
What they haven’t highlighted is that ‘what my employer portrays about itself publicly’ also includes the customer and corporate brands, because its impossible for respondents to separate the two. They have images in their mind about what the brand stands for, what it means and how its different to others. In today’s transparent and fluid world, it is critical that these brands are aligned.
If you can’t deliver to your employees (who are also your customers and possibly shareholders) what you are promising to your customers (who are also your employees and possibly shareholders), then you need to allow for the lack of alignment in your employer brand strategy or work with Marketing/Corporate to evolve both/all brands to more closely align.
For example, if Ford was not helping their employees to ‘go further’ through education and training, career opportunities, balancing work and life, volunteering opportunities etc, I would expect those employees to be sitting in the 19%.
Engage employees, customers and key stakeholders in building aligned employer, customer and corporate brands to ensure your organisation and its employees deliver against its promise.
