The conference kicked off with a focus on leadership led by Jonathan Austin, CEO at Best Companies, as he explained why effective leadership is essential to employee engagement. Employer brand is intrinsically linked to a company’s reputation, “if you look after your employees, they’ll look after your customers and that will deliver cash flow and cash flow will give us profitability and sustainability,” says Austin.

Employees want companies to continue with the transparency and flexibility sparked by Covid-19, and those brands that fail to accommodate these new streams of workflow will struggle for talent, says Austin. Whether this be through hybrid working models or internal communications it is essential to retain and support employees. 

Corporate change impacts employer brand at the very core. A panel of speakers from brands that have undergone significant internal transformations discussed the ways they have supported employees and strengthened employer brand. Emma Tunnicliffe, employer brand manager at Virgin Media talked about the three key work streams being used to manage the employer brand through the merger with O2, “engaging and retaining the brilliant people that we already have and really aiding their continued development, focusing on the future growth of our business and the ambitious strategies and also building an environment where people can thrive.”

The panel also featured Aylin Hall, senior manager and head of employer brand at ARM, the semiconductor and processor giant.  Arm recently worked to combine its corporate purpose with its employee value proposition. “A huge pillar of our corporate purpose and why we exist, is the people around us that enable us to such wonderful things,” says Hall. 

Tonic agency co-founders, Mark Horley and Tom Chesterton gave an overview of the core trends and observations in employer brand development. “There is a closer linking and thinking between brand communications, talent acquisition and human resources,” says Horley. Speaking on the response to Covid-19, organisations are coming to Tonic because they need to recover but some are jumping ahead and wanting to maintain this momentum, says Chesterton. Discussing the challenge of maintaining control over employer brand storytelling in the media, Horley says, “If we as people who have responsibility for employee brand can identify a really good narrative ark that hooks into people emotions, we win.”

To support employer brand through the pandemic and ensure organisations continue to attract the best talent, creative recruitment company Wiser combines networking and reputation in its Academy. Saskia Cochrane and Amelia Birch from Wiser discussed how it supports clients including Knight Frank, L’Oréal and Deutsche Bank. Wiser runs multiple award-winning ambassador programmes, creating events and streams of conversation between students and employers, to encourage upcoming talent to consider alternative sectors. 

After Covid-19 threatened global health, corporate support for employee wellbeing became more important than ever before.  Dr Tracy Leghorn, chief human resources and health and safety officer at SUEZ, talked about the organisation’s commitment to employee wellbeing, from supporting those on the frontline to those shielding at home on furlough. During the pandemic there has been a focus on “recognising that wellness extends beyond the workplace and into peoples private lives” says Leghorn.

Alongside efforts to support wellbeing, the panel discussed the importance of diversity and inclusion. In 2015, Channel 4 created a charter, to specifically champion diversity and inclusion says Nicky Ivory-Chapman, head of talent management at the company. The following years saw several innovative campaigns including the menopause policy. But, like the majority of companies, 2020 saw a seismic shift, “it was focused on wellbeing and helping people get through what was a really tough year and that’s carrying on into 2021,” says Ivory-Chapman.

Catherine Adenle, director of employer brand at Elsevier, says, “Diversity is everyone’s business at Elsevier.” She highlighted the importance of multi-faceted diversity and inclusion, from the front of the business to behind the scenes teams. ‘Health’sevier’ week runs once a year to focus on internal wellbeing and demonstrate a commitment to employee mental and physical health. “To have a high performing and engaged workforce, you have to feel valued, you have to be your authentic self,” adds Adenle.

 To implement an effective employer brand, there needs to be an understanding of the company’s culture. Simon McLoughlin, director of Creed Communications, pointed to the value of understanding the current landscape. Creed helped IT service provider, Fujitsu, build its global employer brand. Speaking on the value of this research, McLoughlin says “we had a logical framework behind the logical connections that we built through the brand.” Beth Rowlands, head of talent and skills UK at Fujitsu, talked of the brand ethos “IT for good” and making sure this resonates with incoming talent. 

The pandemic has seen a rise in the use of technology across sectors. A panel of experts from ThirtyThree, Amazon and L’Oréal talked about innovation in 2020 as brands are using podcasts, AR and VR technology to connect with employees and strengthen employer brand. From VR technology enabling people to attend concerts at ThirtyThree, to using technology data to humanise candidate engagement at Amazon. “We’ve really had an opportunity to bring our business into employer branding in a way that we haven’t been able to do” using video and app technology, says Catherine Hearn, director, talent acquisition EMEA at Amazon.

Reflecting on the past year and looking towards a new normal post-pandemic, a final panel of employee brand managers and directors discussed the ways companies have adapted to support talent and networks in 2020. ”Our employer brand has been essentially written for us this year, the media has had control over our narrative and a lot of that has actually came from employee generated content,” says Eloise Ponting, employer brand and talent attraction manager at University Hospital Southampton. From virtual recruiting and remote onboarding to employee-generated content, the speakers from GSK, Indeed and Phillip Morris International looked at the challenges and opportunities presented by Covid-19. Nimai Swaroop, global director of Phillip Morris International says, “during times of crisis or times like this, it is a really good opportunity for organisations to take a step back, to reflect inwards and really humanise their brand.” 

Watch the recording of the conference here.