Employer branding: winning the battle for the next generation
In the ever-increasing battle for talent, professional services marketers have a vital role to play in ensuring a more integrated approach to employer branding. Sholto Lindsay-Smith considers its role in giving firms a competitive edge, and why it is vital to organisations seeking to build a better service culture.
What is employer branding?
The importance of corporate branding is now largely recognised across professional services. However, it has only gained traction in more recent years with organisations becoming more concerned with attracting and retaining the best employees.
Traditionally in the domain of the HR and recruitment team, a more holistic approach to employer branding is starting to emerge, where teams are collaborating to ensure a more strategic approach to building culture and reputation, centered around a shared understanding of purpose and values. Hosseini et al (2022) report that retaining talent and achieving high levels of employee engagement leads to improved performance against competitors.
The goal of employer branding is to attract talent whose values, skill and knowledge will best help an organisation meet its objectives. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development defines employer branding as ‘a set of attributes and qualities, often intangible, that makes an organisation distinctive, promises a particular kind of employment experience, and appeals to those people who will thrive and perform best in its culture’. Originally focused on attracting employees, organisations relied on brand reputation as a means of reaching potential employees.
However, according to Barrow and Mosley (2007), employer brand image relates to the impression of an organisation’s qualities and attributes not only to prospective employees but also its internal audience - existing employees.
Recent surveys by Brand Finance and Industry have shown that while reputation is important in getting new recruits to join, it is not a sufficient reason for them to stay.
Once at a firm, other factors influence how an employee views the organisation, and whether they will remain within the firm. Carpentier et al (2017) identified characteristics such as remuneration, work environment, work-life balance and advancement as contributing factors. Barrow and Mosely (2007) state people prefer employment with a collaborative and respectful environment.
Industry’s 2024 legal brand survey takes a 360 view of law firm brands, exploring what makes a firm attractive to both clients and potential recruits. It examines the importance of over 18 factors.
An effective employer brand will take all these factors into account and be evidenced throughout the employee life cycle. A fair and transparent recruitment policy followed by an induction process reinforcing company values and expectations, though performance management and advancement should all consciously build the employer brand.
“In the battle for top talent, a strong employer brand is a game-changer. The key to winning the talent war lies in adaptability and innovation. Firms must stay agile, align HR and marketing, and continually refine their strategies to meet evolving employee expectations.”
Why does it matter to professional services?
Professional services firms - more than any other kind of business - are reliant on their people to shape the brand experience, creating a positive service culture to ensure the brand proposition is ever more important.
Professional services organisations are also operating in an increasingly competitive talent market. Levels of employees quitting have been increasing in recent years with a 2022 McKinsey report stating, ‘what we are seeing is a fundamental mismatch between companies’ demand for talent and the number of workers willing to supply it’. This, they suggest, is down to ‘traditional’ approaches to attracting and retaining employees including remuneration and titles.
Changing expectations
This has been exacerbated following the Covid-19 pandemic, with recruits re-evaluating their priorities. As the new Industry survey shows, next generation lawyers’ priorities are different to more established lawyers. Firms therefore need to anticipate these changing priorities and recalibrate their employer brand strategies. (Whilst the survey addresses legal market specifically, it is probably safe to assume these generational priorities will also apply to other professional services organisations.)
The survey shows career progression, work-life balance and friendly working environment are the most important factors when considering a firm to work for and rank higher than traditional drivers of choice such as high salaries. This is perhaps a reaction to the ‘old fashioned’ long hours culture for which City firms are famous and reflects shifting attitudes about what is important.
By contrast, the survey shows a somewhat different profile for employees already working in private practice. Here reputational factors rank highest. Work-life balance is seen as a lower priority, perhaps because there is an acceptance of this being normal for this generation.
Building an employer brand requires involvement from all areas of an organisation starting with the firm’s senior leadership team that sets the strategic vision for the company and the values they want to promote. Managers who train and evaluate team members, human resources departments that manage employee relations and marketing departments that reflect the firm’s brand to external audiences need to work together to build and maintain consistency of message.
Firms must ensure internal and external branding matches, and that all sectors of a business are creating, manifesting and communicating a coherent message. A firm’s employees in effect become a manifestation of the brand promise through the way they act and behave and impact the service experience.
For example, if accessibility of lawyers to clients or speed of response is part of the brand promise, it is critical that this is lived. In other words, the employer brand is not a separate entity, but part of the overall branding strategy developed alongside the corporate brand. The more robust and consistent the branding across all target audiences, the greater the potential to amplify the brand message effectively.
The Industry Legal brand survey showed that among law students and graduates seeking employment in law, the firms with the highest-ranking attractiveness are Allen & Overy (now A&O Shearman), CMS and Clifford Chance.
Of course, whilst size of an organisation has an impact on brand awareness, Industry’s brand survey shows employer branding is also helping build the reputation of firms beyond their size. For example, both Taylor Wessing and Travers Smith were highlighted by the survey to have strong employer brand relative to their size.
So how do you know whether the actual experience of working in an organisation reflects the experience that organisation promises? You should be able to clearly articulate what sets them apart from their competitors.
There are numerous quantitative methods of monitoring employer branding within an organisation. Number of applicants per job, acceptance rates and employee engagement scores will all provide an overview.
Regular use of staff surveys and focus groups will offer opportunities to explore experiences in more depth, offering qualitative information. Creating continuous opportunities to listen to existing and prospective employees through clearly established feedback channels enables an organisation to address areas of concern and share success stories.
External validation of these findings is achieved through the participation of independent surveys such as those from Brand Finance and Industry, as well as monitoring industry specific publications such Roll on Friday, Legal Cheek, and Chambers.
Utilising continuous feedback to ensure alignment of brand message through a coordinated corporate and employer brand will ensure a more robust and consistent communication. Ultimately, this results in a greater opportunity to amplify the brand message effectively to all audiences.
In the battle for top talent, a strong employer brand is a game-changer. The key to winning the talent war lies in adaptability and innovation. Firms must stay agile, align HR and marketing, and continually refine their strategies to meet evolving employee expectations.
The Industry Legal Brand Survey 2024 is the first of the Industry benchmark series of reports. The findings are based on a total sample of 364 people, split across graduates and law students seeking a career in law, in-house lawyers and established professionals working in private practice.
You can download a copy of the survey here.