LEAP Create managing director Sara MacGregor and group creative director Roger Cayless are co-hosts of 'LEAP Listens' podcast, exploring "all things People Communications". Having featured a succession of expert guests, they have summarised some of the LEAP Listens' key insights so-far.

Employer branding is a great place to be working right now as business looks to address talent shortages, increase diversity and inclusion, expand career pathways and figure out the new shape of work, post-pandemic. It’s the reason we started LEAP Listens, a bitesize podcast discussing all things ‘People Communications.’

Unsurprisingly then, our first episode was a discussion about exactly why it is “a great time to be in employer branding.” Since then, we’ve been inviting industry experts to join us for our 15 minute podcast and give their wisdom, insight and advice. 

Every guest has provided interesting viewpoints into the workplace today, so we thought it would be good to summarise some of their best insights.

The employer branding trailblazer and exaqueo CEO, Susan LaMotte, suggests that work is much more than a transaction of time and skills for pay and benefits. Key communal relationships with our organisation, our leadership, our co-workers and our work, shapes any company connection we feel. Developing values that power a brand needs to meaningfully engage with these relationships. Boots CMO, Pete Markey, told us how he sees employees are the living manifestation of his business’s brand, placing a huge importance on “people and culture” as a foundational pillar.

For agency owner Mark Horley, the flexibility of digital comms enables employer branding to create its own space that nurtures the inclusive culture Susan and Pete highlight, while contributing to the overall brand – not as a separate identity, but as a strengthening part. How that flexibility manifests in terms of tone of voice, creative communications and inclusive language is, copywriter Andy Rigden argues, absolutely key to morale, retention and a rewarding work culture.

A key takeaway for us came from Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, founder and CEO of Stemettes, which campaigns to inspire more young women to take up STEM based careers. Her conviction that social norms can be edited, and that doing so is both an illustration and further inspiration for the realisation of creative potential, provides a clarion call for us to embrace the open possibilities of our digital landscapes, in how we communicate, how we create and how we shape the values that support our brands.

Whether talking about data handling, evidence-based brand development, candidate attraction or remote working, our guests were enthusiastic about the possibilities for disrupting traditional narratives, finding fresh approaches and staying alive to the changing needs of employees and candidates. As workers, we are a complex, diverse bunch of talents. Effective employer branding is increasingly shining a light on our unique potential.