The Next Normal Of Employer Brand
Welcome to this new weekly video series on “The Next Normal” of employer brand, by Bryan Adams and Dave Hazlehurst of employer brand agency, Ph.Creative. We’ll be sharing some cool content that we as an agency are interested in, and also some content that you lot as a community are driving. We hope you find our views and take on the industry just as interesting - and unusual - as we do.
In episode three, Dave and Bryan discuss…
Refreshing Your EVP
There are certain things under consideration when pivoting and moving with agility to refresh your EVP and reflect the current circumstances of the employee experience. It doesn’t always need to be overcomplicated and technical which some organizations get caught up doing.
It also might not necessarily mean refreshing but recalibrating your EVP, try dialling up certain brand personalities to withstand the current state of things and then possibly turning those things back down later down the line.
For your EVP and employer brand, if it's based on the experiences that have been accumulated by your organization and the people, then understand that these are unchartered times and things are different, experiences are different. You need the reality of who you are now but also where are you going as an organization and what does that mean for your people and the culture they work in.
It all starts with reaching out to your people and asking one or two simple questions just to check in and see what kind of signals you get back, gathering those insights will give you an opportunity to see what people cling to and value in times of change.
Refreshing your EVP is just one thing you could be doing right now, for more check out Bryan’s article on, 4 Highly Effective Things Recruiters Should Do When There’s No One Recruiting, here.
The Working Experience
Everyone loves a survey, it’s data and who doesn’t love data?! But sometimes when you cut that data up it’s not a clear split and that mightn’t help you out when you’re wanting to use compassion to engage with employees on various asks, like how they feel; what they think of something; what should change etc.
Right now things do seem to be a mixed bag of results as organizations look to bring their people back to work and back to the office, perhaps there’s a lack of direction and people are genuinely unsure- which is okay and understandable in times of uncertainty. It’s time to think differently about accommodating people’s needs and to consider the idea of agility and how you can start to operate in multiple different ways going forward; supporting your people specific to their own concerns.
The experience of your employees and how they’re currently working and how they will be working in the near future is a temporary thing and a transition, not a permanent thing, it makes a big difference to the decisions you make and gives you more context to that mixed data.
The wellness of your people will forge the working experience, dig deep into the ‘whys’ and then you’ll get into the ‘hows’. How do we support these people in this situation? How do we meet this person’s needs and approach their concerns? People’s habits and routines have changed because of this pandemic, it’s worth acknowledging that employees might need to resocialize and revive their behaviours back into an office environment.
You need to communicate the things that need to change but also the things that don’t, for example, there are plenty of competitive working environments that have hard unmissable deadlines, it’s part of the culture and you’re expected to meet those deadlines. Set those expectations, that’s what you’ve got to get but because you as an organization have integrity, empathy and compassion for your people it might be that you recognize you need to do and give a bit more in order for the demands to be met. Set it in the framework that two-way proposition so people know where they stand.
For more on leveraging your organization’s biggest strengths especially through your people, check out Bryan’s latest article, As The World Becomes More Human, There’s One Key Strategy Every Business Needs To Re-Prioritise, here.
Is The Time for Diversity Now?
There’s a discussion to be had on whether there are more opportunities for organizations to take a chance at improving their diversity numbers. Diversity isn’t necessarily craved but it is a solution to improving inclusion and belonging, which is a need of most people. The world is a smaller place now remote working has become the number one way of working.
Given companies are open to expanding their reach for talent geographically, mindsets of organizations have been disrupted and now is the time to introduce new possibilities.
Is the time for diversity right now because the landscape’s changed?
There’s a lot more trust and freedom given to employees now as organizations have had to adapt, it’s shown it’s possible for a lot of roles and that the job is getting done. This change could alter talent acquisition strategies for many companies going forward. Even in terms of the candidates, considering the likes of work from home mums/dads, who can potentially now compete for those roles and do it working remotely.
If you’re a high-performing parent you might identify those organizations who have visibly cared for and accommodated people in a similar position to you, like longer paid parental leave for example and prioritize them as a prospective employer. In turn, organizations who don’t might need to step-up due to the transparency and the spotlight on these things, this is world news what companies are doing and the war for talent is ever-growing.
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