How to Brand Your Company as a World-Class Employer

World-class employer—you’ve heard the term, but what does it mean? To start, it is a way employers can set themselves apart from the rest and be a company where anyone would be proud to work.

Many employers brand themselves as world-class, but not all live up to the promise. More than just a branding strategy, it is a set of expectations every employee must follow and a foundation on which a company is built. Companies can’t simply call themselves world-class; it must be a company-wide commitment to excellence.

But how do you truly become a world-class employer? Here are the steps you must have in place.

Know Who Your Company Is

To be world-class, you must first start from within. This means identifying your company by the specific traits that set it apart from the competition. What makes your company unique? Do you offer any exciting or interesting employee benefits? Outlining these perks can help you determine what is important to your company, and can keep your employees happy, too.

This can also impact your company’s culture. You want to create an environment that inspires employees to become rooted in the growth and success of the company. This can be done through unique perks, but also the environment itself and the ways employees are rewarded or disciplined. One way to do this is by supporting a common cause all employees can feel good about. The lifestyle brand Life is Good donates 10 percent of its net profit to children in need. Doing so helps employees feel rewarded that they are doing something to benefit others. The ultimate goal is to have your employees focused on client success, the success of their colleagues and an overall sense that their work positively impacts others.

Initiatives for Attracting Employees

With your company’s culture defined, you will likely attract many candidates who want to work for you. When searching for candidates, you must be certain they align with the brand. Your employees and managers must reflect your brand identity to the client, so make sure all employees know their position’s purpose and that all are consistent from employee to employee, so it appears cohesive to a client. This will create one solid, uniform image to your clients. To do this, it is a good idea to provide adequate training on how employees should project this image to your clients, including speaking about the business, the services you offer and being able to tell clients and prospective clients in a few words who you are and what you do, commonly known as an elevator pitch.

Branding yourself as a thought leader in your industry is another way to attract the right employees. To be viewed as an expert in your field, you want to put out information that can serve as a resource to others on topics familiar to you. Thought leaders typically have a strong online presence, with a robust website and various social media accounts, in particular LinkedIn. Depending on the demographic, Facebook and Twitter may also be appropriate. Maintaining a blog on your website can serve as a vehicle for putting out the information and resources others need.

Initiatives for Retaining Current Employees

Once you find the right employees, you want to do your best to keep them satisfied. In addition to making your employees happy, you want to project this image to others who choose to work with your company. Creating an employer page that outlines who you are, what makes you unique, your company culture, showcases your employees and teams, and images and videos that provide a snapshot of your company’s personality can further compel others to work with you.

For your employees, forming workplace committees can empower them to drive company-wide initiatives to foster long-term growth. This gives them a hand in the direct success of the company and encourages employees to implement change within their organization. To do so, look at different prongs of the business and have committees that focus on each one. Hold monthly meetings for updates and brainstorming based on different challenges seen around the company. Such topics for challenges could include how to increase productivity in the office or how to avoid the 2 p.m. crash. Work together to brainstorm ideas for how to overcome these obstacles and include colleagues on committees that don’t normally get the chance to interact.

Tying It All Together

Being a world-class employer requires effort, time and planning. Developing a strong sense of your company’s culture and being able to exhibit this culture to others is no easy task. Staying committed to employee morale is important, but so is keeping your employees engaged by giving them a say in company culture. Doing so will be a positive reinforcement as to why they took the job in the first place and deepen their loyalty to your company.