Successful brands strengthen their corporate brand through the individual

The world of work is changing - one must adapt or be left behind. Organisations nowadays aren’t viewed as emotionless business units. Rather each organisation has a personality and bears a reputation. Successful brands start from the inside, strengthening the collective through the individual.

But why?

There are many positive outcomes from having a stong employer brand. It will reduce your cost per hire by 50% and increase the number of qualified applicants by another 50%. It also increases your turnover by 28% on average.

I was honoured to talk with the branding experts Olesija Saue and Kersti Vannas about employer branding and the role of personal branding in it.

Today, brand integration - personal, employer, and corporate -will increase your value, both to you and your company.

• Personal branding: differentiate individuals;

• Employer branding: attract and retain the best available talent;

• Corporate branding: build and reinforce the value of the company in the minds of customers, stockholders and other stakeholders.

Your most valuable resource

The best employer branding comes from the resources you already have - your employees who are already creating a lot of content.

Personal branding can literally make or break an employer brand. This is because potential employees Google an organisation and its founders and leaders before applying for a job opening. Also, how they connect with the general public makes a large difference. And employees become the public faces of their brands.

Tips and tricks

Overall, supporting employees to develop their strong personal brands helps to support both your corporate and employer brand. Here’s some practical tips on how you do it:

1. Set easy-to-follow, practical guidelines and inspiration

2. Don’t restrict at-work access to social media websites

3. Put your employees at the centre

4. Define your message

5. Know your target audience

6. Make it easy and attractive for employees to tell your brand’s stories

7. Recognise employees who contribute to your corporate brand’s content marketing

8. Help them with interesting content and pictures

9. Find great employee stories and share them

10. Offer learning and development opportunities

11. Make sure your employees understand your strategy

12. Create a culture of authenticity and nurture it

13. Build your own voice

14. Embed your brand into everyday life

15. Tell your story and vision to each of your employee and communicate your unique value proposition

16. Connect the employer, personal and corporate brand

17. Develop a measurement plan

Hopefully you find these tips useful!