I know many companies who have been talking about EVP for months, even years and the same old challenge arises, “we can’t get support for employer branding or we’re too busy with other priorities to work on it right now”.
I understand it can be hard to build a case to prioritise and create urgency to invest in employer branding and to get it on the agenda of leadership.
However the truth is that the business is already paying if you have a weak or ineffective employer brand right now! If you’re losing good talent to competitors – whether that’s in the recruiting process or through attrition – then that is a real cost 💵 to the business
The success of every business comes down to the quality of the people in the business. You can have the world’s best strategy but if you don’t have the right people, the strategy will not work. People execute on the strategy.
Questions to ponder: 🤔
a) where could we be today if we’d started working on our employer brand 12 months ago?
b) where will we be 6, 12 or 24 months from today when we need people critically?
Consider where the business want to go. 12 months from today when you need people critically, if you’ve done nothing about EVP, is it going to bite you on the backside?
Here’s the thing. VideoMyJob conducted a study in 2019 that revealed the #1 thing that Talent leaders plan to invest in during 2020 is employer branding. So if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind competitors who ARE investing!
At some point you just have to bite the bullet and start. While employer branding is not a silver bullet, it’s a key element to any employer’s ability to attract and retain the best talent. But it takes time to build a brand and get traction around it.
I feel really passionately about this because during my time at LinkedIn, I lost count of the number of clients that I spoke to who had recently won a project, or had recently diversified their business strategy to encompass new products or services, or were entering new markets. All of which triggered a need to bring people on board quickly.
At that point, they would look to run urgent campaigns. The problem is that you need a brand and a message to run an effective campaign. It’s so much easier to a campaign together when you already have the EVP foundation in place.
You need to lay the right foundations BEFORE you’re desperate for good people. Smart leaders have this foresight and are getting on the front foot when it comes to their employer brand because the best time to work on your EVP is when you don’t need it.
Don’t put it off for another year. If you have questions or need help building the case or figuring out your approach, please reach out to me.