The Employer Brand: Bringing the Best of Brand Management to People at Work

9

Employer Brand Positioning

The previous chapter should have provided you with the insight tools you need to identify how the employer brand is currently perceived and experienced (the brand reality) and the kind of employer brand that would improve your appeal to potential recruits, and lead to higher levels of engagement, retention and brand advocacy (the brand vision). The purpose of this chapter is to bring all of these elements together into a brand positioning model that will provide the principal navigational tool for developing and managing the brand experience.

BRAND IDENTITY

The first place to start is to establish the internal positioning of the employer brand. There are three principal kinds of employer brand relating to different positions within the brand identity hierarchy of an organisation.

Monolithic

This is where the organisation uses the same brand name and visual identity throughout all its operations. The brand name that people buy as customers is the same brand name that people work for as employees. Examples include: Tesco, Reuters, HSBC, Nokia and Vodafone. The monolithic employer brand needs to clarify its relationship with the customer brand, and the other key facets of the corporate brand, including vision, purpose, values and public affairs.

Parent

This comes in two versions. In the first version there are two levels of organisation brand, a corporate parent brand and an operating company brand. Examples include: WPP, RBS, Compass and Kingfisher. ...