Employer reputation is the perception of a company as an employer, based on the experiences of current and former employees and the opinions of candidates and other stakeholders. It is essential because it can significantly impact a company’s ability to attract and retain top talent, as well as its overall business performance.
A strong employer reputation can attract top talent by making it a more attractive place to work. When candidates are considering job offers, they often research the company’s reputation before deciding. A positive reputation can give you an edge over your competitors.
What makes your campaigns instantly recognizable as belonging to your brand? When your employees talk about your reputation online (and they do), do you know how and where? Your answers to these questions paint a picture of your brand consistency, a crucial element of a unified employer reputation.
These are also the questions Kirsten Bethmann has been asking as Global Employer Reputation Lead for Mars, Incorporated. Mars has set an inspiring goal for itself: to become one of the most attractive employers in the world by 2025. Achieving this goal, Bethmann believes, requires a renewed focus on brand consistency.
Why Brand Consistency Is So Important to Growth
The journey toward greater employer reputation consistency supports greater brand awareness—often the biggest ongoing talent challenge organizations face. Unless you’re a beloved consumer brand with widespread name recognition, your employer brand team is likely all too familiar with this struggle.
Establishing a Shared Vision
A clear employee value proposition is the cornerstone of a consistent employer reputation. For Mars, that EVP is built on three pillars: people, purpose, and development. The employer brand team took this EVP development a step further by adapting the Mars statement of purpose (“The world we want tomorrow starts with how you do business today”) into a tagline: “Your tomorrow starts today,” which personalizes and transforms the Mars mission into a call to action for its employees.
Standardizing Brand Guidelines
Companies that operate in multiple markets must walk a fine line between enforcing brand guidelines and empowering markets to represent themselves authentically. Mars began this work by creating a central platform for its guidelines, a “one-stop-shop” for learning how to use color, messaging, and more.
Leaving Room for Personalization
Within these brand guidelines, employer reputation teams in each of Mars’ markets have the flexibility to make campaigns their own. Brand guidelines dictate certain standards for social media messaging, but Mars’ employer brand leaders recognize that messaging from sales employees may sound different from engineering’s messaging. Bethmann and her team welcome those differences.
To follow Kirsten Bethmann’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help building your EVP, the foundation of your employer brand, get in touch with us.
