Boost Customer Loyalty and Your Bottom Line: Why You Need Good Employer Branding

It’s safe to say that focusing on customer needs is just plain good business sense. Satisfying the needs of people inside the organization is also a good idea, but certainly not as relevant to your immediate business goals. Right?

Wrong. The truth is that your employer brand—how current and potential employees view your organization as a desirable place to work—is as direct a driver of business outcomes as any other.

And the truth is, public perception of a company can shift (like a high-profile moment involving company leadership or customers getting a peak at how you treat employees). These examples remind us that employer branding and the way employees view your organization extend far beyond the hiring process.

For HR leaders, a strong employer brand isn’t just a tool that helps you attract and retain the qualified talent needed to better serve your customers; it’s also an important element in making your company more attractive to consumers. When employees are engaged and satisfied, they naturally become advocates for your brand, influencing how customers see your company.

Ignoring employer branding can lead to unintended consequences. Whether through social media, word of mouth, or visible public moments, the way employees feel about your company will affect your brand’s reputation. Poor employee experiences can tarnish public perception of your brand, impacting customer loyalty and your bottom line.

Read on to learn why employer branding matters, from recruitment and retention to generating revenue. We’ll dive into the benefits of a strong employer brand and share practical strategies HR leaders can use to strengthen and align their employer brand with company values.

Employer brand extends beyond the office

Simply put, satisfied employees beget satisfied customers. Yet many employers seem unaware of how closely the two are related. What’s more, they often seem to forget just how far-reaching and influential the employee experience can be in the age of social media.

Your customers no longer just interact with your company during business-related interactions. And it’s also easier than ever for customers to engage with your brand online outside of the communication channels your company can control.

Social media platforms and sites like Glassdoor make it easy for customers to read first-hand accounts of employee experiences. You may be surprised to learn that some customers are intentionally seeking these types of reviews before doing business with your organization.

In short, the way your employees feel about their work environment can shape the decision-making process for ‌potential customers.

Recent high-profile incidents, like Boeing’s ongoing efforts to rebuild its corporate culture after years of safety issues and negative media coverage, have shown just how public and scrutinized a company’s internal culture can become.

Companies are under increasing pressure to not only provide good products or services but also demonstrate a commitment to their workforce. As HR leaders, it is important to see how your employer’s brand will impact all aspects of your company’s success.

Employer brand matters to customers

Your customers care about the way you do business, how you treat your employees, and talk with their wallets.

Ccompanies that neglect their employees' wellbeing risk damaging their reputation and losing customers. For instance, Chipotle, once known for its positive work environment, has faced criticism over declining working conditions, leading to high employee turnover and customer dissatisfaction. It’s easy to see how internal culture can directly influence external perceptions and business performance.

Benefits of employer branding

Your employees treat your customers better when they are invested in your brand and corporate vision. Keeping employees happy, well compensated, and engaged means they’ll stay longer and provide your customers with better and more consistent experiences. This is especially critical as consumer changes:

• 90% of survey respondents claim they will support companies that treat their employees well.
• Fair pay and fair treatment tied as the top drivers of employee trust in their employer.
• Recent research indicates consumers increasingly expect brands to make them feel good (68%), give them optimism (62%), and teach or educate them (59%) while trust has become as important as price and quality in consumer purchase decisions.

The tie between your reputation and customer loyalty is likely to only become stronger in the years to come, as technology continues to add scrutiny and younger generations become primary consumers.

Employer brand requires a deliberate approach

Knowing that your employer brand reaches far beyond the job market and clearly matters to customers, you now need to give it room in your business success strategy. Here are a few ways you can start identifying and refining your employer brand:

• Find out what your employees really need: Instead of trying to be bold, fun, or flashy, be thoughtful about delivering benefits that your employees truly value. Consider the unique needs of your employees.
• Focus on a few key aspects: Your employer brand can’t be everything to everyone; it’s not true to who your organization is, and it’s not going to win you any favors with customers or employees. Instead, as with identifying your employees’ needs, you should look at your company’s culture, its mission, vision, and values, and your employer value propositions to help define your employer brand.
• Measure and manage: Employer brand is the story your organization wants to tell about employee experience, but talent brand is the reality of what your employees have experienced. In order to improve your employer brand, you must first benchmark your talent brand to see whether it measures up. For a more in-depth look at what your employees think about your organization, consider using anonymous employee satisfaction surveys.

Employer brand matters to your business

Spending time and resources on improving your employer brand should go hand-in-hand with employee satisfaction, hiring, and company brand initiatives—it’s the best way to take the hard work you’ve already put into crafting great employee experiences and putting it out into the world. And if you haven’t yet made employee and candidate experience a priority, the business value employer brand can deliver is a prime reason why you should. Done right, your employer brand becomes the genuine storyteller of how your organization cares for its people—and now you know everyone is listening.