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. 

For today’s job seekers, 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. 

Employee retention is harder than it was even 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 talent acquisition across the globe. 

This article will cover the key milestones in the employee journey, highlighting the importance of employer branding and delving into some of the lesser considered areas within each area. With this under your belt, you’ll be confident that you can push your 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, to build a strong employer brand you need to cover all bases.

This is because potential employees might become suitable or interested in the future. If their initial perception of your employer brand is a positive one, they are more likely to consider you the next time they are thinking about career development. 

Here are some must-haves to ensure your advertising and career site attracts top talent:

• Post 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
• Be clear on your employee value proposition – what your company can offer them

Role consideration

When job seekers show 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 your career site includes 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 will still consider you a strong employer brand, 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, often it’s because people in charge of people management have not properly briefed them. 

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 and their hopes for career progression, 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 prospective job seekers. If your talent acquisition efforts don’t involve keeping in touch post-interview, candidates may lose interest, react negatively towards your company or take an offer elsewhere. 

These are our suggestions when trying to keep talent on the hook while you make your final decision:

• Give an estimated timeline of when candidates 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

Your employer branding team needs to be ready to deliver what your company has promised. Onboarding can literally make or break a new employee’s perception of a company. It’s where they discover if your employee value proposition was sincere, or a lot of hot air. 

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. And that’s not to mention what they might say to people in their network or on social media about their experience.

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.
• If applicable, make sure they know about remote work arrangements and expectations
• 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 you put in a lot of effort to build a strong employer brand at the onboarding stage, that doesn’t mean a new 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. From the perspective of people management, this is crucial to understand and plan around. 

Employee retention can be improved 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 and career development – 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 – positive employee engagement matters, and 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 reflect on your employer value proposition, 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.

However difficult it is, it’s important to have processes in place to ensure the transition is smooth and that you learn from their experience. This will improve your ability to understand and attract top talent in future, and might also help with existing employee retention.

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

With a little effort, a simple gesture that happens once a month can become a great way to cement a strong employer brand. A generic or personalised message from the CEO or manager 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 employee engagement is prioritised – 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 and help with their career development.

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? Do you give them options for remote work?

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. Many talented people have ideas about diversity and inclusion, sustainability and employee wellbeing, and it’s important to find ways to listen to and act on what they have to say.

Feedback surveys can also help you gauge answers to exact questions you may have.

Enhance the employee journey with brand management tools

We hope you’re feeling inspired and that we’ve opened your eyes to just how broad the employee journey can be. To assist your talent and acquisition team in all of these areas, see how Papirfly’s brand management platform supports employer branding teams.  

To build a brand that consistently attracts top talent, be reassured that Papirfly’s brand management platform already helps huge brands like Vodafone, Unilever and IBM. Discover the brand stories from these enterprises, including how Papirfly helps deliver infinite employer brand assets every month. Videos, social, emails, print and more – all made possible with on-brand templating tools as part of our platform.

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 an all-in-one brand management platform – get in touch with our team today.