Ensure your employer brand message is consistent and authentic

By: Jessica Sheets

What you need to know

Your employer brand should be tangible at every phase of the employee lifecycle, building trust through consistent messaging and action.
Leverage your onboarding process and engage new hires from the start, using your brand values to set the tone.
Don’t overlook tenured employees, as they keep employee engagement high.

The strength of your employer branding campaign depends on more than just big promises, team swag or awards. It’s about creating a real, consistent experience that reflects your company values from the inside out.

Employer branding benefits every part of the organization, from leadership to front-line teams.

HR teams see increased applications, reducing recruitment costs.
Employees are more likely to stay and have high morale high, leading to higher productivity and revenue.
Values-motivated customers are more likely to support brands that have people-first cultures and care about their teams.

A successful brand campaign isn’t just about what you say. It’s about how consistently and authentically your values and culture shows up in the employee experience.

What makes a successful employer branding campaign?

Transformative employer brands align their strategy to tug on an employee’s heart strings at every phase of their journey—from hire to retirement. An emotional connection unifies employees and makes them brand advocates.

Tools like recognition, years of service awards and incentives let your people know that you appreciate their efforts and see their individual contributions. When employees feel seen and understood at work, they’re more engaged and productive, leading to better customer engagement and satisfaction.

Why employer branding is part of the employee experience

Prospective employees want an authentic company culture and check to see if a company aligns with their values. Job seekers do extensive research on sites like Glassdoor or Great Place to Work before applying—in fact, people are 15 times more likely to apply to an organization knowing it was certified by employees as a great workplace.

Potential employees also review your company culture on your careers page, team page and social media channels. Including current team members in photos or testimonials for your employer branding reinforces authenticity and shows how your organization lives out its core values.

How to create an employer branding plan during recruitment

Your employer brand tells people what it’s like to be part of your organization, so your strategy should start before they apply.

Convey your organization’s brand messaging on your about us page, on the job listing and in your questions during the hiring process. Before that new hire’s first day, be a resource about your work culture.

Where to incorporate employer branding during pre-onboarding

Careers page: Display your core values on the job listings and share what makes your team unique.
About us page: Show what it’s like to work for your company with embedded video testimonials from employees.
Social media: Emphasize employee experience through your posts, using photos, videos or even a personalized hashtag team members can use when posting.
Interview questions: Tie questions back to core values to get a sense of how that interviewee’s experience would fit with your brand’s goals.

get the ultimate guide to employee experience

How to host a successful onboarding experience

Even with inspiring messaging in the recruitment phase, first day jitters are inevitable. Luckily for your new hire, the promises made in the interview round came through in their first days.

Ways to create a personalized onboarding experience

Video greeting: Make that first email in their inbox from the CEO or manager, with a welcome video thanking them for choosing to work at your company.
Branded swag: Gift company-branded merchandise, like a branded notebook or volunteer t-shirt, and have it at their desk or sent to their home.
Onboarding buddy: Assign an ambassador or welcome buddy so the new hire has another friendly face on the team.
Manager onboarding: Show manager support and host a coffee chat or onboarding session, and follow up with a branded manager welcome gift, including personalized notes, onboarding checklists, conversation and communication templates.
Environmental signage: Display your employer brand on a new hire’s laptop screensaver, computer backdrop or video call background. Put core values in key areas like the corporate intranet, monitor screens and office environmental signage to serve as daily reminders.

How to improve your employer branding for long-term employees

It’s important to keep up engagement within the employee lifecycle. Tenured team members—especially for employees with 1–2 years of tenure— are a critical crew to keep aligned with corporate culture. Yet, this demographic is frequently forgotten.

Internal employer branding activities like core value recognition or connected culture can sustain engagement—66% employees would leave a role if they didn’t feel appreciated. Meanwhile employees in a strong workplace community are eight times more likely to feel a sense of belonging.

Ways to keep employee engagement fresh for tenured teams

Employee recognition: Encourage employees to celebrate their peers for performance in direct support of the employer brand, values and corporate mission.
Employee referrals: Ask the referring employee to share why that applicant’s experience would be a great addition to your culture.
Pulse surveys: Send out bimonthly questionnaires to check on brand awareness and culture message, value understanding or morale.
Learning and development: Offer training and mentorship opportunities aligned with brand values.
Annual performance reviews: Connect employee’s performance and success to brand values during team member appraisals.
Program “refreshes”: Refresh employer branding initiatives annually using employee feedback to maintain engagement and excitement.

How to use former employees to build trust

Previous hires and alumni have first-hand knowledge of your culture and how your firm works. After their time with your organization, they can speak to your employer brand’s authenticity, refer potential hires or even return. A boomerang employee (a rehired former employee) has the benefits of bringing historic experience, knowledge and existing work relationships when they start.

Like returning workers, employee tenure speaks to the firm’s commitment to its employer branding. Team members today remain with a company for an average of 4 years, so longer lengths of time can signal trust to interested applicants.

Ways to engage alumni and former employees

Brand ambassadors: Build an alumni network for previous employees to stay connected and to show a potential return is always welcome.
Employee and business referrals: Offer incentives or rewards for referral hires or business partnerships to encourage continued collaboration.
Mentorship: Ask former star employees to help guide and develop the next generation of professionals. It’s a great way to network and learn together.
Content experts: Reach out to former team members. They’ll feel like subject matter experts as you ask for quotes or insights on key topics.
Board of directors candidates: Invite alumni to join your board of directors. They professionally benefit with a logo under their belt and your organization can continue with their advice or involvement.

Successful employer branding should create a valuable experience at all stages of the employee journey. Find out how you can strengthen your workplace culture with impactful strategies in our latest ebook: Ultimate guide to aligning employee experience programs.