The world of work has been turned on its head several times over in the last couple of years. The roles of HR and recruitment teams have been especially challenging as they’ve worked to navigate the complex nature of the pandemic and other changes taking place across the globe. 

While the basic principles of your EVP won’t have shifted miles from where it was, there will be new considerations and an element of realignment that needs to take place.

Whether you are continuing in a similar vein to pre-pandemic strategies and trying to realign your team, or have completely transformed the way you work over the last couple of years, revisiting your EVP is an important step. 

Why is an EVP 2.0 so integral?

Your EVP’s purpose is to align the company’s offering to your employees’ needs, wants and expectations. Employees and companies have seen some unprecedented events take place, but many have thankfully made it out of the other side. 

Your EVP 2.0 essentials

Take your purpose even further

It’s one thing joining a company because of its values, it’s another taking action to support those values. As people become more personally purpose-driven, it’s important that the brand they work for matches this.

For example, if your brand is known for its green credentials and helping the world become more sustainable, there should be an internal scheme that rewards ‘green’ behaviour. This could be vouchers towards owning a bike to encourage people not to drive to work, an internal recycling scheme or special funding for sustainability projects (with additional holiday allowance to accommodate this). Whatever your purpose, ensure it is reflected in everyday working life as well as your initial promises. 

Benefits that go beyond just the individual

Family and personal goals are a key career driver, but often employees spend so much time at work, these goals can be hard to fulfil. Explore benefits that will build a greater emotional bond with your employees. This could be providing private health insurance for immediate family members or a training allowance to help the employee achieve new skills.

Get more flexible than ever before

If working from home mandates have proved anything, it’s that employees can be trusted to work when and where they want/need to. Many companies are taking this one step further and we’ve seen a range of working options including:

• Working from home permanently
• Hybrid working
• Flexible start and finish times
• Early closures in the summertime 
• Unlimited holidays (providing that work is completed)
• Extended maternity/paternity leave
• Paid sabbaticals after a specified amount of years

Prioritise mental health support

Great company culture will help instil positive mental attitudes, but that alone isn’t enough to ensure your employees remain happy.

Create a forum that encourages open conversations, this could be through the acquisition of a digital mental health platform that employees can engage with as and when needed, regular mental health workshops, the introduction of wellbeing champions and training for existing managers to effectively support someone who is struggling. There are lots of mental health awareness courses that can be taken, including mental health first-aid.

EVP 2.0: Company culture checklist

Ensuring all bases are covered

Our hierarchy of needs as humans is different in employment than it is in everyday life. Your EVP will be unique to your brand – hopefully including many of the initiatives mentioned already – but there are four basic boxes that your EVP 2.0 needs to tick. If lacking in one of any four areas, you could see your brand lose good talent to competitors.

Physical needs

• Health incentives such as gym memberships or on-site classes 
• Partner with apps that can support sleep and wellbeing, such as Calm or Headspace
• Provide access to private healthcare or nutrition services

Emotional needs

• A supportive and open working environment
• Access to therapy tools if needed
• Offer coaching for high-stress positions
• Conduct employee surveys to understand how people are feeling and what improvements could be made
  

Social needs

• Regular meet-ups virtually or in-person to ensure teams feel connected
• Embrace diversity
• Encourage cross-department collaboration
• Encourage giving back and volunteering days in line with your brand purpose

Financial needs

• Offer employees access to financial advisors where possible
• Provide interest-free loans for medium-sized purchases such as annual travel tickets, holidays or cars
• Ensure peace of mind for employees’ families with life assurance
• Conduct regular pay reviews

Communicating your EVP with BAM by Papirfly™

BAM is used by some of the world’s most notable employer brand teams including Unilever, Vodafone and more. Teams are able to own and control their EVP in every aspect of marketing.

BAM gives your teams the freedom to:

• Create an infinite amount of on-brand digital, print, social, video and email assets
• Produce what they need in a matter of minutes – no design skills needed
• Store, edit, find and share every asset created in a centralised DAM system
• Access all educational brand and employer brand documents
• Manage all campaign timelines, briefs and assets from a single portal
• Do all of this and more on-the-go, from anywhere in the world

Discover BAM for employer brand teams, check out our customer stories or book your demo today.

The global talent market has seen one of the most volatile few years in recent history. And while many are busy speculating that AI will mark the advent of job shortages, the reality is much more unexpected.

A recent study found that by 2030 there will be a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people – which equates to around $8.5 trillion (€7.4 trillion) in unrealised revenue.

While it’s highly unlikely that education systems will adapt quickly or dramatically enough to fill this void, not all hope is lost.

The employees already at your company are brimming with potential. Many organisations are turning to the internal talent marketplace solution to develop existing employees and match them to roles and projects that can harness their skill sets.

While this AI-driven tech is becoming the go-to strategy for many big firms, it’s not something that can happen overnight, nor is it a magic pill to cure all your recruitment headaches.

In order for the internal talent marketplace to be a true contender in your quest for great talent, an internal mobility strategy is key.

Planning your internal mobility strategy

The phrase internal mobility has been around for a while now, but its usage has been wildly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the world having changed so quickly and unexpectedly, it’s caused ripples in the supply and demand of talent globally.

This is partly why we’ve seen more organisations than ever move their existing employees to new internal opportunities, roles and projects inside of their company. It could be in the form of a promotion, and taking on a bigger responsibility, or moving to a different role at the same seniority level to develop new understandings of the business, while bringing transferable skills.

Benefits and salary are always going to be one of the key motivators for recruiting candidates in the first place, but retaining them involves upskilling and development throughout their careers. Internal mobility allows employees to take a new step in their role, or a new one, while helping to fill a critical gap for the company.

The challenges of internal mobility strategies 

A traditional company structure is built around hierarchy, and leadership typically trickles down from the top of the pyramid. Other companies work in a more flat structure, while retaining very exact roles and responsibilities.

In order for an employee to climb the career ladder, they typically spend years in the same role, trying as and when they can to get the recognition they need. When this goes unnoticed, they can become discontented and choose to move on.

Internal talent marketplaces and mobility strategies allow for employees to access opportunities more easily, with many firms using AI to match people to the right ones. So whether there’s a remote role in Vancouver perfect for a team member in Beijing, or a new role needed in Amsterdam that an existing team member at that office can fulfil, management can have eyes on the extent of their internal skills, talent and opportunities in one central place.

While not everyone will have this tech in place, it can help management to have more visibility of people or locations they wouldn’t ordinarily be involved in. It sounds like the ideal scenario – and it can be – but it can’t happen overnight. There’s a huge job of skills mapping an entire organisation, but there are tools that can help assist with and automate this through tests and other means. 

The foundations of success

Every organisation and its recruitment needs are different, so your way of working will be unique. What you can do though is think of the 4 Ps as your starting point – no matter how big your company is, the fundamentals always need to happen.

Are internal talent marketplaces the future?

If the last 12 months are anything to go by, the answer is yes. With companies such as Unilever having implemented the technology and infrastructure in 2019, some global brands are already far ahead of the curve. For those playing catch-up from the chaos of the pandemic, it’s going to take time and substantial time investment to get the internal mobility strategy off the ground.

One of the most important things to remember is to stay agile, knowing that the minimum viable product is going to change with the needs of the business. But the sooner you can start, the better.

BAM by Papirfly™ is supporting world-leading employer brand teams across the globe 

Want to know more?
Discover how we’re helping Unilever deliver on their own employer brand strategy

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See BAM in action – book your demo and get access to real-world brand portals

Understanding how to promote employee engagement starts with a simple question…what does employee engagement really mean? 

At its most basic level, it is a set of strategies that creates a working environment and atmosphere where employees feel they are empowered to do their jobs effectively, work towards personal and common goals, and have a general sense of satisfaction and happiness. 

There is never a one-size-fits-all approach to employee engagement, as each organisation and their employer branding stands for very different things. However, these strategies do tend to achieve many of the same objectives.

These objectives can be broadly categorised as follows:

• Unification – Creating a ‘one team’ spirit, ensuring teams are aligned and making employees feel part of something bigger 
• Embracing purpose – Instilling the same values, standards and expectations in employees across every level of seniority 
• Driving the brand vision – Ensure that teams are motivated to work towards long-term goals, growing professionally and personally in the process 
• Promoting a positive culture – A working environment that is enjoyable, inspiring and encourages development, trust and autonomy 
• Creating strong leadership – Respectful, knowledgeable and supportive leadership encourages feedback and channels of open communication 
• Building the ideal workforce – Engaged employees are happier and more productive, likely to form an emotional connection with your brand/their workplace and are less likely to leave 

The importance of employee engagement 

While employee engagement can be hard to measure, the short and long-term benefits are very tangible. If an individual feels nurtured and supported, while being surrounded by a like-minded team, they are likely to thrive in their working environment. 

When they feel trusted, they are more likely to bring ideas to the table, and this is where innovation within the business can stem from. 

It’s no longer enough for employees to just feel satisfied in their workplace – they want to excel. When people are proud of the work they do, they will shout about it. When they are proud of the brand they work for and the way they are treated, they will become advocates. This creates a positive cycle within the business, as this encourages and drives successful recruitment. 

While high employee retention is sometimes a result of high employee engagement, just because an employee has been retained a long time doesn’t always mean they are actively engaged. There are plenty of businesses and brands out there who have had employees with them since their inception, but they have become stagnant or comfortable in their positions. 

All of these benefits will have a direct impact on the day-to-day of your business. Here are the topline benefits of employee engagement, and how they can be loosely categorised when putting together your business case…

• Increase the productivity of your employees
• Higher quality of output
• A positive workplace atmosphere
• Greater client satisfaction
• Increased profitability

The list goes on. No matter how intangible employee engagement may feel at the beginning, investing the time and effort will positively affect your bottom line.

4 employee engagement strategy examples 

In Daniel H. Pink’s book ‘Drive’, he combines research from MIT and other universities to lay out what really motivates us as humans and professionals. While we will explore 4 proven employee engagement strategies in more detail, we wanted to touch upon some of his core findings as they really help to give the strategies context. 

The conclusion that the book reaches is that employees need 3 things outside of pay progression and benefits to be fulfilled in their roles: purpose, mastery and autonomy. 

These 3 short words hold a lot of power in the workplace – if you can enable every employee to feel as though these have been achieved, you will be in a good position. 

Now you understand some of the underlying desires of the individual, let’s discuss how we can make these a reality…

#1 Open communication and feedback

While the benefits of open communication and feedback are far-reaching, one of the main benefits is that psychologically employees feel they can speak openly and feel comfortable enough to offer input without fear or dread of ridicule. 

There are a number of great ways to foster this level of communication:

• Encourage questions, feedback and insight from employees at all levels of seniority
• Provide feedback in a constructive way and avoid overly critical language
• When negative feedback is given, ensure there is clear support to help the individual address the issue
• Give employees a platform for anonymous commentary, such as through a suggestion box or employee engagement survey
• When a decision about the company is made, or there is big news to announce, make sure an effective communication strategy is put in place to avoid hearsay, gossip and confusion 

#2 Professional development

Part of nurturing good employees means bringing them into your brand’s growth mindset. If you want an individual to invest their time and effort into making your brand more successful, you need to invest in them, and the skills they will need in order to make this possible.

Here are some of the different ways you can promote CPD within your organisation…

• Create a training bursary so that employees can ‘apply’ for course funding that will help them in their job role
• Create an in-office library space or set an annual personal book/kindle allowance 
• Find industry-relevant webinars (paid for or free) and create an employee newsletter to inform them of upcoming courses and lectures 
• Introduce a ‘lunch and learn’ or give employees a shot at a ‘Whiteboard Friday’ style CPD session. Encourage different individuals to come forward and share their skills and what they do with other team members or departments.
• Bring in industry experts a couple of times a year to give tailored sessions on subjects employees are keen to learn about. You could put together a list of desired individuals and put it out to a vote on who comes in. 

#3 Set out clear expectations and progression

There’s not much worse than the first day at a job and not understanding what you’re supposed to be doing. Too often people are left to their own devices, so having proper training and support in place is crucial to getting off on the right foot. 

At the very minimum, each recruit should have:

• A job description of their expected duties
• A handbook or welcome pack that tells them everything they need to know about the company 
• Who they should go to if they have a problem related to the work they are delivering
• Goals they should work towards in the next quarter or within another specified timeframe
• Regular one-to-ones and conversations about progression

#4 Social events

Many companies plan lots of wonderful days and nights out, without implementing the 3 prior strategies first. While social events and team bonding is very important, communication, development and clarity are the critical foundations for strong employee engagement.

Social events play their part too, but only work to support everything else. Here are some ideas to ensure your team gets to enjoy some fun outside of the office:

• Introduce Friday drinks with a weekly debrief and chat 
• Plan summer and Christmas socials well in advance 
• See if any willing employees are up for creating their own initiatives, such as a book club or team lunches 
• While not a social event, having social areas within an office for breaks can provide a welcome space to unwind and mingle with colleagues during lunch 

Barriers to employee engagement

While budget, time and lack of know-how will affect the level of commitment you can provide, there really is no just reason to avoid implementing some kind of employee engagement strategy. 

Lack of budget? 

Look for free courses online. Encourage a book sharing club internally. Get employees to skillshare on dedicated days. Instead of fancy nights out, have a takeaway and boardgames night in the office. Likewise, communication doesn’t need to cost the earth. A quick weekly standup on a Friday to share what’s going on is a great starting point. 

Lack of time? 

First you need to identify what you need to do and see if there are people already in the business who would have the skill-sets to drive initiative forward. This in itself could act as motivation. Alternatively, if what you need to do is an administrative nightmare, it could be worth exploring digital employee engagement tools that take care of a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff, keep you updated and send out calendar reminders on your behalf. 

Lack of know-how?

If you haven’t gleaned enough from this article, there are lots of useful resources online. Or why not consider a brainstorming session with some of your team members? Conduct a survey and see how people are feeling, and hear their ideas first-hand. 

Is an employee engagement strategy worth it? 

While measuring employee engagement can be difficult, the results will speak from themselves in terms of employee satisfaction, happiness, retention and the new and improved way your business operates. 

If you have highly-skilled employees and you want them to stay put, your team will need to put in the effort to keep them engaged. It’s not about providing ‘fluffy’ benefits, it’s giving individuals and teams the tools and support they need to grow. As a result, your business and brand will benefit.

Discover more about our employer branding marketing solution and how it can support your employee engagement strategies. 

There’s no such thing as ‘just a job’ anymore. The average person spends over a third of their life at work and people are now demanding more from their employers than ever – and many would argue rightly so. 

Today it takes so much more to keep a good employee in a role than it did 5 or 10 years ago. What were once seen as ‘solid’ benefits – competitive salary and holiday allowance – are now seen as the bare minimum. And big brands are increasingly competitive when it comes to bagging top-tier talent across the globe. 

This article will cover the key milestones in the employee journey, but also delve into some of the lesser considered areas within each to ensure that you can push employee experience to the next level. 

The hiring stage

Role advertising 

An employee’s experience starts far before they get through the door; it begins as a candidate. And even if they are unsuitable for a role, or aren’t going to apply for your vacancy, the way you advertise needs to cover all bases to ensure that – if they become suitable or interested in the future – their initial perception would be a positive one. 

Here are some must-haves for your advertising: 

• Clear information on what the role is and how to apply
• Don’t be coy about the wage – people deserve to know what their prospective salary could be
• Use honest and diverse imagery in your campaign
• Don’t just talk about what they need to be, but what the company can offer them

Role consideration

When a candidate shows interest in a role, a lack of time or resources in your office could leave them feeling a little unloved. While having too many tasks to complete may have an impact on candidate communication, it is important to ensure consistency is as smooth as possible.

Here are some easy ways to make that happen:

• If you don’t have time to respond to all applications, make this clear on the job role itself 
• Ensure you have additional details about the role put together in a nicely presented yet simple PDF – that way if a candidate calls to speak to someone about the role, but the team are all busy, the PDF will make them feel like their questions have been answered
• When candidates enquire why their application was unsuccessful, it’s best to give as tailored feedback as possible – if you’re too short on time, compose a generic response as the bare minimum (this means the candidate won’t discount you should they be more suitable for another role in the future)

Pre-interview and interview

When a candidate is invited for an interview, there are lots of ways it could go wrong if they are not properly prepared. While some bad employers might see this as the candidate’s fault, in reality it’s usually because they have not been sufficiently briefed.

We’ve put together our tips to keep everyone on the same page:

• Determine whether an in-person or virtual interview would be better
• Ensure the candidate is aware of all the stages in the interview process
• Provide an agenda for the interview beforehand 
• If the interview is being carried out via video conferencing, ask the candidate which tool they prefer to use 
• During the interview, ensure the candidate is welcomed properly and full introductions are made 
• Give them plenty of time to talk about their experience, but also include some time to talk about themselves as a person – get to know them and put them at ease
• Be open and honest when giving responses to candidate questions (for example, if they ask for a higher salary and you know this isn’t possible, don’t set false expectations)

Post-interview

The period after an interview can be one of the most nerve-wracking times for the candidate. If you don’t keep communication up with them, they may lose interest, react negatively towards your company or take an offer elsewhere.

This is our advice when trying to keep talent on the hook while you make your final decision…

• Give them an estimated timeline of when they can expect to hear from you – it will put them at ease and prevent them from chasing you
• If the candidate is unsuccessful, detail why this was the case in an email
• Offer a follow-up call to chat through the feedback 
• If a job offer is made, give the candidate time to read through their contract and to ask questions to relevant people
• If any benefits are subject to specific circumstances (such as years of service), make sure this is outlined before the candidate takes the job offer, or they could end up feeling misled
• Once contracts are signed and a start date agreed, give your new employee a timetable or agenda of what their first few weeks will look like – they will feel much more confident on their first day when they know what they’re walking into 

The onboarding stage

Onboarding can literally make or break a new employee’s perception of a company. If they aren’t made to feel welcome, they feel abandoned or they are overwhelmed with tasks that haven’t been properly explained, they will be out of the door before they have had a chance to shut it on their way in.

Going the extra mile at this stage will give your new employee the welcome they crave and set them off on the right path. These are our tips for making it as smooth as possible:

• Put together a welcome pack for the new employee – stationery, water bottles, notepad, sweets – anything that will make them feel appreciated
• Give them information on their colleagues, such as names and job titles – you may want to include a welcome card with messages from their team and their photos (to help them get to know people better)
• Buddy them up with a colleague for lunch so they don’t have to sit alone (ask them if they would like this before committing to it as some people may prefer to spend lunch on their own)
• Set out their training schedule and what kind of tasks they will be expected to complete week-by-week – this will help them understand how long they have to get up-to-speed
• Give them a company handbook that instils your core values, mission, etc. 
• Ensure they know who they should go to if they have any concerns

The progression stage

There’s little worse than being in a role and feeling like you’re not going anywhere. Just because your team put a lot of effort in at the onboarding stage, that doesn’t mean an employee should be left to just get on with it. The Employee Retention Report from the Work Institute found lack of career development was the number one reason for employees leaving a company – and this has been so for over 9 years.

Ensure you don’t make this mistake with your new recruits by following some simple but vital steps: 

• Set out clear KPIs for your employee and if these KPIs are linked to pay rises or bonuses, ensure that these KPIs are achievable – you can do this by presenting the goals to your employee and giving them the opportunity to provide feedback
• A dedicated learning and training allowance will show you care about your employee’s growth – you could let them choose which course they want to take, ask them to select them based on a predefined list or link the courses with KPI improvements that are needed 
• Even if an employee is working exceptionally well and hard, performance reviews are still just as important – people need to know that they’re appreciated on a regular basis 
• Consider introducing a dedicated career management conversation, this provides a chance for employees to feedback on THEIR goals and gives you a chance to shape their KPIs accordingly 

The ‘moving on’ stage

It can be devastating when an employee leaves a company – whether they’ve been there for 10 years or 10 months. The time and commitment invested will always leave a hole in their department until you can get someone else in and up-to-speed.

When someone quits…

• Conduct an exit interview and give the employee time to vent their issues 
• Ensure you let them know how much you value them and their time at the company
• Ask them if they would like to make an announcement along with management about them leaving, or if they would prefer just a member of management to communicate this
• Give them a ‘phase out’ agenda of when they can hand things over to other colleagues
• Throw them a leaving event or provide a card and gift 

When someone retires…

• Give everyone the opportunity to show their appreciation for the colleague – this could be at a social event or through a gift
• Ensure they are involved in training the next generation to take on their role 
• Ask them if they would like to make a speech before they leave 

Day-to-day extras to consider

Receiving a payslip

A simple gesture that happens once a month – but imagine if the accounts team sent them out with a note from the CEO or manager? A generic or personalised message to show appreciation for all the hard work completed in the month will help employees associate their pay with being valued beyond just financial remuneration.

Calling in sick 

People get sick, and it can’t always be helped. If an employee is nervous about calling in sick, reassure them about their performance, and advise them you hope they get better soon. If their sickness is particularly low, you could specifically mention this to help put them at ease.

Birthdays

Companies with hundreds of employees may struggle to keep on top of birthdays, so if you’re in the position to do so, an extra day off on your birthday can serve as a powerful reminder to your employees that their work is appreciated. If an extra day off isn’t on the cards, you could make sure they get a cake, card and small present to make their day at work feel special!

Company updates

When meetings take place behind closed doors, speculation can run rife in an office and even virtually. Where important company updates are available, ensure that employees are kept in the loop – this could be in the form of a quarterly newsletter or quick announcement on Friday afternoons.

Show off their expertise 

Give employees the chance to share their knowledge with colleagues and the world. If there are events they can be guest speakers on, podcasts they can get involved in, or even internal CPD sessions they can hold, asking them to take part will give them a confidence boost in their abilities.

Working environment

Consider the physical environment your team operates in. Are the chairs comfortable enough? Are there enough breakout areas? Do they have a quiet space to go to when they need to concentrate? Is there enough fresh air? Not only will a properly considered environment make working a more pleasurable experience for employees, but it will also help them be more productive and deliver their best work. 

Raising issues/improvements 

Introduce both an open-forum style meeting to do this and an anonymous route, as this will help cater for every type of employee. Feedback surveys can also help you gauge answers to exact questions you may have.

Mapping your employee journey

We hope that you’re feeling inspired and that we’ve opened your eyes to just how broad the employee journey spans.

If you would like to enhance your employee journey with dedicated employer brand communications, take a look at BAM by Papirfly™. We help the likes of Vodafone, Unilever and more deliver infinite employer brand assets every month. Videos, social, emails, print and more – all made possible with BAM.

Read our customer stories or book your demo today.

When you’re scouring the globe for the world’s best talent, you may be looking for similar combinations of skill sets and attributes that make up the perfect candidates for your company. However, it’s important to remember that every one of them is an individual and will very likely respond differently to your employer branding depending on where they are in the world.

In this article, we’ll be exploring the trends, challenges and opportunities for employer branding in six of the most prominent talent hotspots across the globe:

• The U.S.
• Australia
• Europe
• Canada
• UAE
• Hong Kong/Singapore

Why global brands need to be local

To reach the best candidates in your chosen pocket of the world, your employer brand marketing needs to adapt and change in accordance with the recruitment processes, cultures and priorities that are unique to specific locations. 

At the same time, your employer brand value proposition must shine through consistently. No matter where your employees are based, it’s crucial that they feel aligned with the core values and goals of your business as a whole.

An increasing number of companies are seeing the benefits of looking for the skills their businesses need in different countries. With the recent and widespread uptake in remote or hybrid working, candidates are able to expand their search for opportunities, with location less of a constraint.

Every culture has its own way of doing things and that extends into their recruitment and hiring practices. Without being tactful in your hiring approach, you run the risk of missing out on so much of the amazing talent the world has to offer. This may mean a complete change in approach, or simply dialing certain aspects of your company culture up or down to suit expectations in different countries. In all cases, thorough research into the local employer brand landscape is key.

Local employer brand insights

Below, we’ve compiled some of the location-specific trends, insights, cultural nuances and potential challenges that will come into play when localising your employer brand in six standout markets:

The U.S.

Top insights and trends

A millennial workforce
Across America, millennials make up 35% of the workforce at 56 million, with that number projected to grow rapidly over the next few years.

Candidates live online
Hiring is more online-dependent in The U.S. than in Europe. Candidates are social media savvy and are used to communicating with potential employers via LinkedIn which now has 194 million users in the country.

Cultural nuances
With individual ability and leadership skills playing a bigger factor for candidates, managing styles in America are one of its most notable differences from Europe, where emphasis is based on the performance of teams as a whole.

Potential challenges

Companies in the U.S. are under less pressure from governing bodies to provide benefits like fully paid parental leave (something that many employees in Europe have long been used to). In fact, The U.S. is the only advanced economy that does not have mandated paid leave for employees. This makes perks and benefits of greater value to potential candidates who will be looking more closely at what your company can offer aside from a salary.

Australia

Top insights and trends

A shortage of recruitment consultants
According to the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association of Australia and New Zealand (RCSA), recruitment consultants have become one of the country’s most difficult positions to fill.

Remote staffing was already well underway pre-pandemic
The recruitment industry has become used to using remote consultants from abroad to fill Australian positions and train Australian consultants.

Cultural nuances
Word of mouth can play a big role in recruitment in Australia with employee referrals one of the top sources of finding great talent.

Potential challenges

Work-life balance has long been one of the top priorities for employees across Australia. According to research by Randstad, the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced this position with more focus on working for an employer that makes them feel valued. In their survey of more than 10,000 Australians, 76% said they want an employer who puts their health and safety first.

Making employees feel valued should be one of the key elements of any employer brand proposition, but in a post-pandemic world, candidates will expect to see tangible evidence of this from potential employers.

Europe

Top insights and trends

LinkedIn
LinkedIn usage is widespread across The U.S. and Australia. While it continues to pick up momentum in Europe, many countries still favour platforms such as Xing (in Germany and Austria) and Viadeo (in France).

CV or résumé?
Made a little confusing by its French pronunciation, a ‘résumé‘ is something that candidates and recruiters will be more familiar with in America or Australia. The CV, meaning ‘curriculum vitae’, is the European equivalent. The documents are both very similar in style and purpose, with the key difference being that many countries in Europe expect an accompanying photo.

Perks and benefits
In most of Europe, candidates have come to expect a longer list of benefits such as; better-paid maternity/paternity leave, more paid time off, and better unemployment perks compared to the average American job seeker.

Cultural nuances 
Europe has a plethora of different cultures, languages and dialects to be found — especially when compared to Australia and the U.S. The starkest differences tend to be in the attitudes to work between North, South, East and West.

For example, almost 50% of people in southern European countries, such as Italy and Portugal, consider the loyalty of their colleagues more important than their personal goals. Whereas in Northern Europe, only 22% of people in Norway and just 16% in Lithuania feel this to be the case, stating personal goals to be of greater importance.

Attitudes to work differ between Western European countries including Austria and Germany where work-life balance is far more important compared to employees in eastern European countries such as Greece, Romania and Croatia.

Even so, European countries tend to work less hours than the U.S. on average. Although French employees generally end up going over their traditional 35 hour week, they are still well under the American average where, in many industries and regions, a 60 hour week has become the norm.

Further evidence of this can be found in the length of lunch breaks, the number of national holidays and working overtime. European countries including parts of Spain, France and Greece have become famous for their traditional extended lunches, which can be between 2 – 3 hours long. In comparison, the average worker in the U.S. takes just 36 minutes. 

Similarly, workers celebrate 13 public holidays in Austria, whereas Australians have only 7. As well as affecting the expectations of employers and employees, this makes keeping track of contactable times a challenge, even without the timezone.

Potential challenges

While states in the U.S. and Australia have their differences, potential candidates in these locations tend to be more closely linked. Covering more than 40 countries with different cultures, customs, laws and working practices, Europe is an incredibly diverse place to look for talent. This is undoubtedly a good thing for business, but it means that your employer brand needs to have the flexibility to change as it crosses from country to country.

Canada

Top insights and trends

They want to know why they were chosen
When you reach out to a potential recruit, a core priority for 75% of these is to find out why you believe they are a good fit for the role.
Cultural nuances 
Similarly to the U.S., there is a firm focus on healthcare and similar insurance policies among employees and candidates. As a result, making sure that these are positioned prominently as part of your EVP and any recruitment campaigns you produce is key to capturing their attention.

Furthermore, Canada both English-speaking and French-speaking inhabitants – around 23% of the population have French as their first language. Therefore, to best engage candidates from across the country, it is beneficial for your employer brand content to be presented in both languages, to ensure you don’t alienate a percentage of your potential workforce.

Potential challenges

Hybrid working has become an increasingly important priority for Canadian workers in recent years. According to Robert Half, 51% of employees prefer a hybrid style of working, splitting their time between home and the office. In fact, only 19% of those surveyed advocated for a full in-office approach.

Consequently, when attracting employees, it is crucial to showcase the flexibility and adaptability of your organisation to suit their needs. Highlighting features such as remote working opportunities, flexible hours, relaxed dress codes and more can help endear you to this evolving talent base. Emphasising this by extending the possibility of remote interviews and onboarding can demonstrate that you practice what you preach.

Another potential challenge for employer brand specialists is the shifting attitudes of younger recruits and where their motivations lie. While mature professionals value salary and benefits above everything, 18-to-24-year-olds are more interested in work-life balance.

So, it is therefore imperative that your employer brand, while consistent at its core, is malleable in what benefits it immediately presents to recruits depending on their age profile.

UAE

Top insights and trends

Diversity is a growing priority
57% of employees in the UAE say that diversity is a major initiative in their workplace, with 74% of women aspiring for senior leadership roles.

Companies are switching to flatter structures
There is a growing preference among the UAE workforce for closer collaboration and interaction across the various layers of companies, rather than a rigid, traditional hierarchy.

Cultural nuances
It is hard to nail down any standout cultural trends in the UAE as the population is so incredibly diverse. Close to 90% of the population are non-nationals, with up to 200 different nationalities represented, with different cultures and backgrounds. Recruits from Asia and MENA are primarily employed in low-skilled and semi-skilled jobs, while an increasing number of people from Europe and North America are sought out for high-skilled roles.

This makes it difficult to nail down a consistent cultural message for candidates, so it is important your branding can be quickly adapted to meet the unique needs, motivations and nuances of those living in the country. At a bare minimum, materials should be translated into both English and Arabic.

Additionally, this focus on international recruitment means that there is a big window of opportunity to prioritise Emirati talent. It is estimated that only 28% of UAE companies actively work to attract Emirati recruits – creating campaigns strictly built around their values and ambitions could help you stand out to these home-grown nationals.

Potential challenges

Alongside the cultural variation across the UAE, the biggest challenge facing employers in relation to talent acquisition is actually staff retention. Around 57% of working professionals in the region intend to switch employers at some point during a year, making it challenging for companies to maintain a steady, consistent workforce, and to present that image to candidates who are seeking a stable environment.

Consequently, to both encourage employees to stick around and to attract recruits with true staying power, it is beneficial for your EVP to contain initiatives such as:

• Training and development opportunities
• Employee mentorship programmes
• Potential for employment progression
• Performance and time-based incentives

Furthermore, showcasing signs of strong company culture on social media platforms – a channel that is widely underutilised in the region despite an increasingly tech-savvy population – can also help you stand out to candidates seeking long-term opportunities.

Hong Kong/Singapore

Top insights and trends

Flexible working is becoming the norm
While many organisations in the region have resumed office-based working, 20% have adopted hybrid models, while 50% have adapted to flexible hours so employees can avoid peak traffic and take care of their families.

Cultural nuances

Working hours in Hong Kong and Singapore are notoriously long and demanding. In the UBS 2016 survey, Hong Kong employees averaged 50.1 hours a week – the longest in the world and 38% more than the worldwide average.

However, this has helped contribute to Hong Kong being the fifth-most stressed population on the planet. As Western influence has helped encourage a greater appreciation of work-life balance in the region, companies that are able to offer a better balance will gain a stronger foothold with younger candidates.

The region is also fiercely family-orientated. As a result, presenting financial incentives and benefits in your EVP that relate not only to the candidate themselves but their wider family, such as healthcare or life insurance, will also give you considerable drawing power.

Potential challenges

There is a growing demand for flexibility in how people work across Hong Kong and Singapore – employees want to have a greater say in their workplace experience and more freedom of choice than in decades past.

Companies based in the area can support this trend in several ways, including:

• Placing a firmer priority on good culture and associated perks, such as paying for taxis after overtime or providing meals
• Presenting flexible hours and hybrid working opportunities, which are more sought-after than ever before
• Being flexible over how candidates are paid (base salary, stock options, commissions), as this can especially appeal to older, more experienced candidates
• Offering chances to work in other global locations or instituting international rotations, with more professionals in the region looking further afield for opportunities

Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, finding ways to streamline and accelerate the recruitment and hiring process will help you stay in employees’ good graces. This could involve offering a mix of in-person and Zoom interviews to make these more available, or making onboarding material digital so potential recruits can be sent this immediately after your reach out.

Adapt your employer brand to local trends

With the subtle, and not so subtle, differences listed above, how do you keep your employer brand marketing in line with your value proposition, while making sure that it ticks all the right boxes to roll out in a particular country?

Know your candidates 
Before you expand your recruitment efforts into a new location, it’s vital that you find out what potential candidates value most and refresh your employer brand accordingly. Use your knowledge of the local market to tailor your strategy, approach and messaging.

Localise your marketing materials
Even the smallest things, like switching UK spellings for American, can make a big difference in showing candidates that your brand understands the needs and requirements of their local market. The key to getting this right is to create country or region-specific marketing materials that feel like they have come from a local team.

Use BAM by Papirfly™ to take your global brand local

With its seamless language and localisation features, BAM by Papirfly™ can make global employer brand governance a reality for your company. Your teams will have everything they need to create on-brand, market-ready assets with no outside help needed.

You predefine the templates to ensure consistency with your brand guidelines, and our software instantly tailors your campaigns to countries across the world.

Capture local nuance
Ensure that your assets only contain culturally relevant imagery, colours and logos.

Speak any language
Translate your marketing materials into multiple languages and dialects.

React to recruitment demands
Bring fast asset creation in-house and be ready to snap up top talent before the competition.

Learn more about these localisation features and the benefits of BAM for employer branding by booking your live demo today. 

The pandemic has been a bumpy ride for employer brand teams. Long-standing employer value propositions suddenly needed a rethink. Candidates turned their priorities upside down. In some countries, remote working became mandatory overnight. 

Alongside the personal worries of COVID-19, there were unexpected challenges for employer brand teams. Making it through unscathed meant devising new strategies to take on a different and highly unstable recruitment landscape.

Such a monumental cultural shift has changed employer branding and our attitudes towards work in general. The first responses from industries, sectors and individual companies have already become permanent fixtures.

Recruitment then and now

There have been countless world-changing events and employment crises that came before COVID-19. Lockdown was not the first time that employment took a sudden and unexpected turn. Recruitment has been around since some of the earliest human civilisations. It has changed and evolved with the world and played a significant role in shaping society.

Despite its very early beginnings, the world of recruitment that we know today only really began to take shape after The Second World War. There had been a huge employment gap as people left their regular jobs to contribute to the war effort. This created an urgent need for recruiters to help fill empty roles during the war, and after it to find jobs for the returning soldiers.

Events that shaped recruitment as we know it

Recruitment in wartime

• Recruitment agencies began taking out newspaper adverts to fill jobs left by those serving in the war.

Post-war employment

• To help those returning from the battlefields, businesses began working more closely with recruitment companies to advertise their open positions.

The resume

• As recruitment companies became more focused on efficiency, they began using resumes to match candidate’s unique skillsets with the most suitable roles. By the 50s, resumes had become essential for applying for most jobs.

Recruitment on the rise 

• Recruitment agencies continued to thrive throughout the 1960s, and got even busier in the 70s. In a time of economic growth, more businesses than ever were outsourcing their recruitment.

Read all about it!

• Previously, community bulletin boards had been the main space for promoting jobs. In the 80s however, this shifted towards newspapers which – by then – had dedicated sections for job seekers.

Recruitment gets connected

• In the 1990s, processing large numbers of applicants went up a gear. The invention of email meant that recruiters no longer had to sift through applications sent by post, fax or delivered by hand.

The digital revolution

• As computer software and social media improved throughout the 2000s, searching for jobs and processing applicants changed forever. This transformed the way recruitment worked and opened the doors to new tools and online hiring processes that made matching candidates and jobs much faster and much more accurate.

How did 2019/20 transform employer branding and recruitment?

Employees gradually return to offices. Lockdown restrictions are easing. We can cautiously say that we’re seeing the tailend of the pandemic. However, the world of employer branding is never at a standstill. Here are four trends that have emerged as a result of the pandemic:

#1

Whether it’s having time to think while on furlough or seeing their work-life balance from a new perspective, the pandemic gave employees the chance to reconsider their current roles. Hiring managers need to understand the needs and wants of their ideal candidates. Time to get your recruitment campaigns ready before the best talent is snapped-up.

#2

Flexibility will be a must-have for the post-pandemic candidate. If they haven’t already, companies need a way to align remote and on-site staff with their EVP. This might include remote on-boarding, flexible working hours or new employee benefits schemes focused on work-life balance.

#3

Work-life balance. Employee wellbeing. Preventing burnout. These were already hot topics in marketing pre-pandemic. Skip forward a year, and lockdown restrictions have only made things worse. Employees in improvised home offices have been juggling childcare, higher workloads and concerns about their own health. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that candidates and employees want to see the wellbeing initiatives your company has to offer.

#4

With hybrid working here to stay for many, creating a unified sense of belonging has become even harder. At the same time, a tough 2020 for everyone has made it an even higher priority for employer brand teams.

The first place to start is with your EVP. Does it resonate with staff across the globe? Does it take remote working into account? Are there advocacy programmes that all employees can get involved with? If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’, then you may have some work to do.

Brands that embraced opportunities from the pandemic

A strong brand purpose and globally recognised EVP makes it easier for entire corporations to react to new challenges. With a single company-wide goal, the world’s largest global brands have been able to steer their employer brand in a positive direction through the pandemic.

In fact, many had already been working towards better work-life balance, more staff flexibility and hybrid working models long before the pandemic hit:

IBM embraces flexibility

• Most corporate organisations still have their hesitations about the hybrid working model. IBM has it set in place for the long-term.

TikTok tries its hand at recruitment

• Funny clips and fast-paced dance routines couldn’t be further from the corporate formality of traditional job sites. Nevertheless, TikTok is working on a recruitment feature aimed at young adults. Could videos replace resumes in the not-so-distant?

Chipotle acts on its words

• California-based Mexican restaurant chain Chipotle had made some big claims on employee benefits, promotions, and inclusion. Even when lockdown restrictions hit the hospitality sector especially hard, it kept its promises. After adding mental health programs to its benefits in 2019, Chipotle went on to bolster its parental leave program smack bang in the middle of the pandemic.

Prepare your employer brand for the future with BAM

It’s clear that the employer brand landscape is still undergoing some important changes. To help you stay relevant in the post-pandemic workplace and be ready for whatever is around the next corner, BAM by Papirfly™ has everything you need to: 

• React fast to shifting priorities 
• Achieve global EVP consistency 
• Empower your teams to create the assets they need for specific campaigns

See everything BAM can do for your employer branding by booking your demo today.

Whether you’re new to employer branding or a pro that’s been around the block a few times, it’s still sometimes difficult to describe exactly what an employer brand is to those outside the industry.

There’s no single roadmap or strategy to follow. For each company, an employer brand will embody something entirely different, even while working towards many of the same goals, or when looking to attract similar talent. 

So what if we try to humanise an employer brand, and take a step back to really put ourselves in the shoes of the prospective candidate?

Let’s not think of it as a roadmap or strategy and take it right back to basics. As a candidate, what are the key things you would want to see, hear, think and feel about a company?

In this article, we’re going to explore the key candidate ‘senses’ that brands should look to engage, and all the ways it can be done… 

What candidates want to see… 

Employee satisfaction

There’s no greater cheerleader for your brand than those who already work for you. If your candidates can have access to real-world testimonials and trust factors from employees, they are more likely to form a positive opinion about your company. 

While it’s not the be all and end all, more often than not GlassDoor is one of the first destinations for candidates. If you’re putting some great stuff about culture out to the world, but your reviews on GlassDoor are overwhelmingly negative, you’ll need some damage control. 

Active social media

When a company isn’t very active on social media it can imply three things:

1. There’s nobody there to take care of it
2. The team is too overworked to manage it
3. The company is very traditional and will be reluctant to change

Keeping your channels fresh, engaging and populated will help candidates take your brand seriously. And what better way to tell your brand story?

Likewise, it’s not uncommon to have a friendly stalk of a prospective company’s employees’ LinkedIn profiles, so it’s important to encourage employees to be as active as they can. If not on their personal channels, showcasing them on your brand’s main channels can still work wonders.

Team spirit and culture 

Now this is an important one, but one of the trickiest to do. Company culture has been catapulted to the top of many employers’ priority lists, but when the pandemic struck it became difficult to maintain. Now we’re seeing a slow ascend back to some kind of normality, employer brand teams can really start embracing company culture once more. 

A big part of this is retaining the option to work flexibly or in some kind of hybrid capacity.

Benefits in action 

Think bigger than stocked fridges and massage Wednesdays. What are the perks that are going to really pay off for your employees and keep them happy longer term? 

Perhaps a paid sabbatical after a certain amount of years’ service. Or a free gym membership to keep their health in check. Small recurring gestures such as free fruit are a really nice touch, but there needs to be some bigger acts that can actually help your employees reach their goals – both inside and outside of work.

Detailed job descriptions 

Vague job roles are a red flag for anyone, but they’re guaranteed to make your candidate feel uneasy about applying. A job is a huge life commitment. You wouldn’t enquire about a house if there was a lack of detail – it would be suspicious and off-putting.

Provide as much detail as possible, and if the role is set to evolve, make that clear from the outset. Plus, be careful not to omit the salary as that’s a big red flag for most candidates.

What candidates want to hear…

Support and encouragement

When high-level jobs are advertised, the language used can sometimes be complex and intimidating. 

While it’s important to attract the candidate that matches your desired profile, remember to keep an element of friendliness and warmth or you may deter strong candidates from applying. This is a particular danger when allowing external recruiters to write job ads on your behalf, you should ensure you always get the final sight of any job advert or description that goes out.

Additionally, giving candidates the option to interview via video call or in-person will help to widen your talent pool, particularly if a candidate is interviewing for the role and considering relocation.

It’s advised to weigh up whether a virtual interview will help or hinder the process, and assess what’s available on a case-by-case basis.

Inspirational messaging

While the practical and matter-of-fact information takes primary importance in any campaigns you put out, remember you could be against any number of competitors offering a similar role. Whether it’s a Spotify ad, a radio recruitment drive or virtual careers fair, don’t miss any opportunity to inspire and let the world know just how incredible it is to work for your company.

Voices from inside the business as well as the brand

If you’ve got plenty of branded content going out, that’s great news, but it will only take you so far. Candidates want to see real faces and hear the voices of your employees, whether that’s a general insight into working for the company or department-specific information.

What candidates need to think about your company…

“This is a company I want to work for”

How this is achieved…

• Having a strong employer brand
• Creating engaging and exciting recruitment campaigns
• Boasting positive reviews from existing employees
• Offering competitive salary and additional benefits

“They treat their employees so well”

How this is achieved…

• Putting existing employees at the heart of your recruitment assets
• Encouraging individuals to post about their experience on professional social media networks
• Filming and promoting lots of high-quality video content about working life and culture

“I can’t wait to get started”

How this is achieved…

• Keeping open, honest communication throughout the process, from application to hire
• Providing new starters with an agenda of their first week/month
• Putting together a welcome pack to make them feel welcome
• Incorporating virtual or in-person ‘meet the team’ session prior to start date

“I can see a future here”

How this is achieved…

• Promoting stories about employees who have been around a long time
• Speaking about positive retention rates in collateral
• Informing employees of incentivised loyalty benefits such as paid sabbaticals, increasing holiday or other rewards after ‘X’ years of service

How your employer brand should make your candidates feel…

Confident that what they’re seeing is genuine

Everything needs to add up. If the story you’re telling through your campaigns and social media isn’t supported by positive employee reviews or contradictory information online, candidates could disengage before they’ve applied.

Excited about their prospects and the potential of the company

If the company has ambitious plans for the future, ensure this narrative is woven through the recruitment and hiring process. Candidates need to be aware of when they’re starting at a business that’s going in the right direction. The greater the potential success of the brand, the more career growth opportunities they could be presented with. 

At ease asking questions and with the recruitment team

The interview process can be daunting at the best of times. But when your hiring managers are confident, engaging and welcoming, candidates will feel more at home being themselves and more likely to delve into the questions they really want to ask. 

Get every aspect of your employer brand on track with BAM by Papirfly™ 

By now we hope we’ve helped you understand the candidate’s experience from their perspective. Everything we have covered also needs foundations in a powerful employer brand.

With BAM (Brand Activation Management), you can create, access, manage and share every aspect of your campaigns and brand in one place.

• Create infinite digital, print, social, email and video assets without professional support – all delivered on time and on-brand
• Store, share and edit pre-existing assets and files – all perfectly organised with no need to waste time on searching or duplication of effort 
• Manage campaign timelines, the sign off process and more effortlessly in our centralised portal 
• Educate teams with a dedicated selection of assets that help them understand your brand and how to showcase your employer brand

If you would like to see the power of BAM for yourself, a demo is a great place to start. Find out more about our software or book your demo today.

There are few things that leave a more powerful impression on the human mind as a well-told story.

Whether it’s a blockbuster movie or the latest ad for a global brand, strong storytelling captures the imagination of audiences and imparts messages, lessons and emotions that, when conveyed effectively, stay with people for the rest of their lives.

But the art of storytelling is not restricted to Hollywood or publishing houses – it also has a vital role in the persuasive power of employer branding.

The decision to join a company and remain there is largely driven by emotion. Prospective candidates want to feel what it is like to work for that brand, to experience how it will engage and motivate them day-to-day. Meanwhile, existing employees need consistent reinforcement of the purpose behind your brand, and their role in bringing that to fruition.

Good storytelling is essential in getting these points across in a way that standalone facts and statistics simply can’t. 

Stories inspire emotions. They move people. They forge connections.

Here, we advocate the value of storytelling in employer branding and how it can greatly enhance your efforts to recruit and retain top talent, illustrated with real-life examples from top brands.

How storytelling conveys employer brand values

At a fundamental level, employer brand storytelling should be purpose-driven. This means it conveys a message or lesson that the reader/viewer takes away, having recognised the experiences and emotions of the characters within that story.

Take the timeless tale of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. Although you could simply tell someone the moral of this story outright, that if you lie too often then people won’t believe you when you’re actually telling the truth, framing it in its true ‘story’ context leaves a more potent, vivid impression as to why this lesson is so important.

Employer brand storytelling should take the same initiative. Simply presenting candidates and employees with statistics, benefits and perks of being part of your company will not inspire the same emotional response as a well-told story. 

They want to know what it feels like to be part of your team. 

• What skills will they pick up?
• What challenges will they face?
• Who will they interact with?
• What will make them happy? 

This can only be effectively conveyed in a well-constructed story, harnessing the history and values of your brand and the authentic experiences of your existing employees.

67% of employers believe their retention rates would improve if candidates had a clearer picture of their company’s values (Glassdoor)

A compelling story is the most valuable gift that organisations can give their employer brand. To breathe personality and experience into the glossy imagery and polished messages. When done well, employer brand storytelling should:

• Inspire available talent to become part of your organisation
• Plant the seeds in passive candidates’ mind that you would represent a great place to work one day
• Provide the information on-the-fence candidates need to deselect themselves if they don’t feel connected to your company values
• Differentiate yourself from competitors within your industry
• Consistently reinforce your brand values and objectives into your existing workforce, so they always feel connected to your company
• Create internal brand advocates, who will in turn share their own stories that will inform and encourage future candidates

It requires a firm understanding of your target audience’s characteristics and ambitions. Emphatic content writing and creative direction. Knowledge of the most appropriate channels to use and a number of truthful employee experiences to lay the foundations.

Below we’ve identified some top-notch examples of employer brand storytelling and the lessons to take away from these, divided into three overarching categories:

Employer brand storytelling through social media

75% believe companies are more trustworthy if their leadership teams communicate their brand values over social media (Glassdoor).

It’s impossible to escape the pull of social media platforms in today’s landscape, making them essential places for companies to promote their employer brand story.

Microsoft Life

The Microsoft Life Instagram page weaves powerful stories about what it is like to be part of their community through the journeys of their team members across the globe.

This delves into the real-life experiences of their talent, both positive and negative, and how being part of the Microsoft family helped them overcome any challenges and achieve their ambitions. 

By harnessing these authentic stories, from people representing all backgrounds, cultures and personalities, their IG page paints an extraordinary picture of how supportive the brand is to its workforce, which should encourage others to join.

Lesson learnt – by utilising identifiable human stories of triumph and challenge from within your own team, you help forge real emotional connections towards them and, consequently, your brand as a whole.

Salesforce

The #SalesforceOhana Instagram tag is all about emphasising the pride the company has in its employees. Ohana is the Hawaiian word for family, and by using this expression, it immediately creates a narrative that the people working for Salesforce are more than just employees – they are family, connected to each other and the brand as a whole.

This framework is then fleshed out with images, videos and stories of their team members worldwide doing fun and interesting things, often with other employees. This highlights the fantastic company culture within the Salesforce brand, making it appear as a welcoming and enjoyable place to work.

Lesson learnt – create a unifying hashtag or term to bond your employees together across the globe on social media, making your team members always feel part of your community and the values that this represents.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp’s Instagram page often presents behind-the-scenes footage of life at the company alongside the experiences of specific members of their team. These videos and imagery illustrate the culture of the brand and the humour and creativity of those working within it, framing it in a way that is very slick and aspirational.

Especially since the transition to more home-working, Mailchimp has also used their social media platforms to depict how they are bringing their remote workers together with community activities, from yoga and meditation exercises to group cooking classes.

Lesson learnt – tell stories on social media that go behind the curtain of your business, allowing prospective candidates to envision themselves being part of that environment.

Employer brand storytelling through video

Video has quickly become the go-to source of content across the entire Internet, and represents a perfect medium to bring your employer brand story to life.

Zendesk

In one compact, well-structured video, Zendesk presents a clear picture of who their brand is, where they are based, what you will experience when you go there, and the type of people that you will be working with.

It blends the right amount of humour and irreverence to present it as a fun, light-hearted brand where you will enjoy working. But, it doesn’t steer too far away from the actual work, illustrating how they make it exciting. Plus, it signs off by saying they hire interesting people with interesting backgrounds – a category most people would like to find themselves in!

Lessons learnt – inject your employer brand story with personality, and make it abundantly clear what candidates can expect when they join your team.

Etsy

After Etsy announced it would offer employees six-and-a-half months’ parental leave, they produced this video containing interviews with their parent employees about what this support from the brand has meant to them.

This projects a powerful message to both existing employees and potential recruits about how much Etsy cares about its workforce, and how it doesn’t present a barrier to their personal lives. For those with plans for having kids in the future, hearing these stories will provide immense reassurance that this company will continue to have their back.

Lesson learnt – identify specific pain points or concerns that your audiences may have relating to where they work (parental leave, flexible working, overtime, etc.) and create story-driven content that clearly demonstrates your stance.

Heineken

The “Go Places” video by Heineken is incredibly clever and creative, depicting the questions and doubts potential recruits might have about joining their brand (or any other brand for that matter) and providing snappy, encouraging answers.

Through this, Heineken strongly positions itself as a brand where people can join and forge their own path and find their niche. By casting a large number of their employees alongside the main narrator and throwing in selective facts and figures like their 250+ brands and 70+ countries, it illustrates the scale and variety of the company in a way that is neither too corporate nor arrogant.

Lesson learnt – revisit the questions, thoughts, and journeys of your existing employees before joining your brand, and tie these to your company values to demonstrate that you understand what your audience is thinking and what they’re looking for.

Employer brand storytelling through career pages

Charity Water

Quit your day job and come change the world. Right from the opening line of their career page, Charity Water immediately tells the story of how working with them means you are making a difference, and reinforces that spirit throughout.

Weaved into this overarching narrative are distinctly defined perks and benefits, photos and videos of company-wide activities, and copy dedicated to the diversity of their employees. Blended together, Charity Water’s career page emphasises that they are a brand that gives people a purpose in a welcoming, inclusive environment.

Lesson learnt – start your employer brand stroy with a punchy, powerful statement, and then reinforce that with data, testimonials and more that illustrate that you practice what you preach as an organisation.

VTS

The VTS career page effectively utilises video content throughout to showcase the unique experience that they offer for employees. The first element you encounter as you scroll down is a behind-the-scenes video that highlights their employees in action and tells the story of how they are transforming the world of commercial real estate.

Further down the page, VTS’ company values are put in full focus, and then reinforced by interviews with employees explaining how these values work in practice. This is particularly important as while any organisation can say how they are different, the authentic testimonies of their workforce give these a lot more weight, and will signify to potential recruits that you are what you say you are.

Lesson learnt – back each and every one of your company values with a narrative, whether that is a backstory behind each one and what it means to your leadership team, or examples from employees putting these values into action in their everyday lives.

Twitter

At a time when Millennial and Gen Z talent is motivated by the difference they can make to a company, Twitter pivots off of this with their career page. The page focuses on how its workforce drives conversations across the globe and the values that underlie their organisation, from being totally transparent within their team, to helping people maintain healthy work-life balances.

Each of these is backed up by beautifully produced videos spotlighting members of their team in a variety of roles, with each of them advocating the role they and others play in making Twitter the world-renowned platform that it is today.

Lesson learnt – harness the voices, skills and experiences across your team and connect these to your company values to illustrate their authenticity and pinpoint the type of people who would excel in your environment.

Bringing story into your employer branding

We hope that these examples of employer brand pieces that capably tell engaging stories about who their organisations are, what makes them different and why people want to be part of them will give you the inspiration you need to forge the same for your own company moving forward.

Storytelling is the most powerful weapon for employer brand professionals in stirring the right emotions from their audiences. Approaches such as those highlighted above are how you put candidates in the shoes of your existing employees, so they can vividly recognise what it would be like to join your team, and whether that aligns with their own ambitions.

As a final recap of how to maximise the potential of storytelling in your employer branding, we recommend you keep the following in mind:

• Build a thorough, watertight understanding of your target audience, and use this to guide the direction of the stories you craft
• Always remain truthful and authentic – fake stories and broken promises will only lead to low retention rates, and potentially harm your ability to attract talent in future
• Where possible, adapt and adjust your brand story for the specific audiences that you wish to target
• Leverage your existing employees to be the foundation of these authentic, purpose-driven stories, and give them all the support they need to tell them
• Identify the most appropriate channels based on where your target audience can be found and the type of message you are looking to share
• Experiment with different content mediums and make the most of each resource – one employee interview could inspire multiple videos, blog posts, images, infographics and more!

Discover how far your employer brand can go with BAM – get in touch with our team today.

For many businesses, COVID-19 has dramatically altered the way they work now and moving forward. Nowhere is that truer than how it has accelerated how companies embrace and adapt to remote working.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 49.2% of employed adults in the UK were working from home as of April 2020. While the trend towards remote working has been recognised for several years now, this rapid shift has forced organisations to think on their feet about many factors, like:

• Do they have the technology in place to support efficient remote working?
• How do we support the wellbeing of employees that need to work remotely?
• How are we going to maintain communications with our customers and other audiences?
• What will this mean for our company culture?

That final question is what we are focusing this article around. Many organisations are understandably fearful about employees feeling abandoned or disconnected from their employer brand if they aren’t in their traditional workplace.

They may have invested in brilliant workplace bonuses like cafe areas, beanbags, ping pong tables, exercise machines and more to encourage a positive, fun atmosphere and engage their employees. Without these cool perks, how will existing staff and new hires feel part of the team and understand its core values?

Well, in this article we will explain why maintaining company culture is possible while working remotely, and why it might in fact enhance the strength of this over time.

What is company culture and why is it so important?

As great as a table football set or an in-house cinema can be to make work a more interesting place to be, those that think they represent the essence of company culture are going about things all wrong. They may make people happy in the short term and even tie in with your company values, but they are no more than “nice-to-haves”.

In reality, your company culture is the mission, visions and values that underline who your brand is and what it stands for. It represents the attitudes and behaviours that team members demonstrate on a day-to-day basis.

For instance, are you a company that’s rooted in tradition and your local community, or one that’s laser-focused on the future and globalisation? 

Do you promote a formal, hierarchical style of management, or a more free-flowing approach to employee participation?

Do you push a practice of 9-to-5 office hours from Monday to Friday, or do you favour a flexible approach to working times?

The great thing about company culture is that there is no wrong answer to these questions, as it will depend on what values you uphold within your organisation. The key is building this culture and getting employees to buy into it, as this will ensure they’re connected to your brand and that everyone is working towards a shared goal – the continued progression of the company.

You may be thinking “that sounds great, but what impact does a strong company culture actually have in practice?”. We’re glad you asked, as the all-encompassing nature of company culture impacts an organisation in many ways, including:

• Recruitment – 77% of job seekers will assess a company’s culture before applying there
• Retaining staff – 63% of employees say company culture is one of the main reasons for staying in a job
• Productivity – Employees satisfied with their workplace culture are 12% more productive than unhappy employees
• Stronger leadership – Employees are 23% more likely to stay with a company if their manager clearly explains their role and responsibilities
• Revenue growth – Companies with strong cultures can see revenue growth of up to 682% compared to just 166% for those without

Now, establishing and reinforcing company culture is easier said than done, and it definitely takes more than setting up a slide in the middle of your building.

Is remote working actually great for company culture?

We believe this forced transition to remote working, while problematic in the short term for many, could actually inspire more companies to take a well-thought-out approach to developing their company culture.

In a communal office environment, for instance, it is easy to fall into the trap that many have in the past that perks = culture. A pool table, a branded poster down the main corridor and after-work drinks on a Friday and the job’s done, right? Wrong.

By adding the additional challenge of keeping a remote workforce engaged and up-to-speed with the values that the company upholds above all others, particularly if it involves bringing a completely fresh face into the mix, it forces those responsible for company culture to think more clearly.

There’s no assumption that it will develop naturally over time or a few incentives will do the work for them. They enter the process with their eyes wide open. So, if you find yourself in this situation, what steps can you take to keep your culture strong while your team is spread out?

How to inspire company culture across your remote workforce

Define and document your core values

Firstly, it’s important that you take the time to assess the values that make your company what it is. What do you stand for as a brand? What do you aspire towards? How do you look to make life a better place for your customers and the wider world?

Clarity on these is essential – if you’re fuzzy on what your company’s core values truly are, then that confusion will trickle down to your employees, making it likely they feel disconnected or disengaged with your brand. Once you have nailed down your values, these can be communicated internally to help bring the team together under a common goal.

And remember, when you have your values, put them somewhere virtually so your team can access them and understand them. That’s a huge factor in why BAM by Papirfly™ incorporates an “Educate” section, where our clients can house critical documents like their core values to ensure that your team members, even those working remotely, know what your brand stands for and will present that through your marketing collateral.

Plus, your values may change over time as the world around us evolves, so make sure that you review them annually or quarterly.

Make your values central to internal and external communications

Once you have your core values cemented, instilling them throughout your remote team takes more than just slapping it on a poster or a page on your website. They need to become inherent to how you communicate and operate as a team, and be a constant presence within your organisation.

How can this be achieved? Techniques we’d recommend include:

• Institute a company-wide newsletter to share big wins and exciting news within the company
• Establish designated channels in your chat systems like Slack or Google Hangouts to encourage communication among remote workers
• Celebrate achievements through your social media platforms as well as through internal channels
• Ensure all team members utilise the same communication channels when working, rather than being left to their own devices
• Hold frequent performance reviews and one-to-one meetings with team members to discuss their work and reinforce your values
• Host creative learning courses or training sessions with remote workers built around company values
• Guide staff through new processes virtually so they can work autonomously and capably without the need for micromanagement

By instilling each of these communication points with your core values, they become a more constant presence for your employees, connecting them with your overarching culture.

Showcase your company history during onboarding

As part of the onboarding process for new employees, or even as a recurring meeting or session with all members of your team, present a timeline of your company and how your connection to your values and visions has contributed to your progression.

This historical example will not only present tangible examples of why your company believes in its approach, ensuring your employees don’t consider your brand as “all talk, no action”, but it will help new recruits feel like they’ve been part of your organisation for a while by giving them a strong sense of where you’ve come from.

The sooner you can get recruits invested in company culture and motivated by your brand vision, the faster they will be delivering top-quality work for your cause.

Encourage video conferencing for more than meetings

Programs like Zoom, Skype and Google Hangouts have enjoyed a boom during 2020, as more and more businesses begin to rely on them to keep in touch with employees, customers and more in this challenging environment.

But, to support your company culture further, try and find ways to harness this technology for more than meetings and training sessions. Just because remote workers can’t all gather around the water cooler for a chat doesn’t mean the same effect can’t be achieved virtually. In fact, it’s better, because now you can schedule these well in advance!

Dedicate time during your working day or after work to informal discussions and catch-ups among your workforce. This will not only familiarise them with their co-workers, build stronger relationships and ensure people don’t become isolated, but it will also help them let their hair down.

Take these informal chats further by hosting gaming sessions, movie nights and more through your video conferencing technology.

Blend core values into company workflows

As noted earlier, it’s crucial that your core values are integrated into working practices, and recognised when they are upheld among your team members. Discuss these values when interviewing or onboarding new recruits and during team training sessions, and then celebrate it when an employee does something, whether it’s related to work or not, that embodies your core values.

For example, if one of your key values is being environmentally conscious, if somebody does a fun run that raises a lot of money to save the rainforests, then shout it out. By identifying and rewarding people who are engaged with your company culture, it makes them feel more connected with the team and encourages others to follow that example.

Bring the team together from time to time

With lockdown restrictions coming to a halt, take some time to plan out company-wide retreats and get-togethers than bring your remote workers together. 

There is sometimes really no substitute for face-to-face interaction, but if your team typically is spread far apart, it makes these events even more meaningful and effective than if it was just spending time with the people you’re sharing a building with 8 hours a day.

These events can concentrate on team bonding and building that united front without the pressure of work, which will then translate into employees being more connected with their co-workers and more empowered in their own working environment.

5 brands nailing company culture while working remotely

American Express

As part of their commitment to Relationship Care, employees at American Express regularly receive coaching on how to connect with their customers and inspire loyalty. In this new age of remote working, this is now achieved by side-to-side virtual training as opposed to in-person coaching.

Buffer

Buffer, which has a 100% remote workforce, maintains a strong, unified culture by frequently asking for team feedback and suggestions through surveys, and by establishing a People Team that is dedicated to employee engagement and experimenting with new approaches to building company culture.

ICUC Social

ICUC Social’s commitment to developing a capable remote working culture incorporates initiatives like Happy Hour Fridays on Google Hangouts, cluster parties in various cities for their global teams, and a Sherpa Program, where someone is assigned to closely support and guide new recruits for their first month in the role.

SitePen

Activities that have helped boost employee engagement at SitePen include all-hands meetings on Monday mornings, an array of project chatrooms where remote workers can discuss an array of topics, and frequent one-on-one mentoring catch-ups.

Toptal

In order to promote the company’s value of celebrating travel and adventure, Toptal will often encourage team members in meetings to discuss where they’re working from, and this will often lead to discussions about exotic locations and traditions. They also regularly host team meetups in a variety of places worldwide.

Communicating your company culture

We hope that this has been an eye-opening examination of how company culture can thrive in a remote working landscape. While the creature comforts of on-location working have their undoubted benefits for boosting employee engagement, we feel the challenge presented by this reliance on virtual technology will encourage organisations to think more about what they can do to cement and express their values throughout their workforce.

At Papirfly, we are supporting our clients’ efforts to achieve this united front through our all-encompassing BAM portal. Through our software’s dedicated Educate section, we ensure all guidelines, training videos, assets and more are available to team members across the globe, so everybody is conscious of who their brand is and what they stand for.

To learn more about this and the wide-reaching benefits of BAM by Papirfly™, get in touch with our team or arrange your first-hand demo.