Employer branding A no-nonsense approach - CIPD

Defence Internal Audit: from villains to heroes
Within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and in the accountancy profession generally, Defence Internal
Audit (DIA) was seen as those nasty people whose job it is to point accusing fingers, rap overspending
knuckles and find scapegoats. A modest employer brand project based on some simple focus groups and
resulting in a bold, innovative (and highly successful) creative approach to recruitment advertising
revealed a very different picture and effectively repositioned DIA as the team that helps managers
manage financial risk.
When the brand was launched at the DIA’s national management conference, two delegates claimed
that the new representation of their organisation had initially surprised and even shocked them. ‘Our
first reaction was, “that’s just not us”. But a few minutes later we realised the new brand was exactly
us – it’s just that we’d never seen it that way before. It made us feel better about the organisation and
our own jobs.’
that more accurately describes what this corner of the
marketing communications industry does these days.
But this has created problems. For a start, it’s created
the widespread impression that employer brands are
mainly, or even exclusively, about the look and feel of
your recruitment ads. You still hear clients asking for ‘a
really well-branded campaign’, when what they really
mean is little more than a new house style. And with
some honourable exceptions, even some of the entrants
in the ‘best employer brand’ category of the various
award schemes that lighten up the HR calendar are
You still hear clients asking for ‘a really wellbranded
campaign’, when what they really
mean is little more than a new house style.
really better defined as campaigns – sophisticated,
creative campaigns, but campaigns nonetheless.
The other problem is that too many organisations have
rushed to express their shiny new employer brand
externally without having made sure that it accurately
and honestly reflects the internal reality of what it feels
like to work for that organisation.
But having said all that, recruitment advertising (or
rather, employment marketing communications) is one
of the most powerful and important manifestations of
an employer brand. Remember, we said at the start that
an employer brand is a marketing concept or construct.
But why do so many organisations feel that their
recruitment advertising, in whatever medium, is
disappointing and lacking a certain something? Are
they right, or is it just the same human instinct that says
one’s next door neighbour’s picnic or barbecue is always
better than one’s own?
I suspect they are right, and the root of their
disappointment is the fact that, for all its impact and
originality, for all the display of consummate creative
craft skills, there’s little clarity in what the advertising is
actually saying – there’s no clear proposition. And that’s
because they haven’t identified the essence of what
their organisation is and offers as an employer. No
brand, therefore no distinctive identity for the
organisation. And no consistency, either. Your instinctive
disappointment will almost certainly lead you to try
something different next time and ask your agency for
yet another set of creative proposals. And so you’ll miss
the steady build-up of your brand – its distinctive
features, values and personality – in the minds of your
target audience. People relate to the brands in their
lives almost as they relate to other people. They seek
and enjoy a long-term relationship that may spring a
few pleasant surprises as the brand develops and grows
in clarity and confidence. But they don’t want shocks –
the feeling that the person they thought they knew and
liked has somehow changed.
Employer branding