Post-COVID Employer Branding

By Jonny Westcar, CEO, STORMBRANDS 5-minute read

The COVID pandemic is changing the way we work. It has accelerated the trend towards virtual working, and it may well be the beginning of the end for the office. It has transformed our perceptions of what a key worker is. And as we all gradually return to our workplaces we are finding them very different places with greater social distancing and hygiene.

What does this mean for employer branding? In most sectors, an employer branding strategy is crucial to achieving business growth. This will be increasingly the case in the future. We think 2020 and the COVID pandemic has brought five key changes that all employers ought to consider.

A now-familiar sight for new home workers

01: Purpose can no longer be a marketing issue. It’s first and foremost about driving employee engagement and the action that can deliver the brand experience. The companies that emerge from this most strongly will be those who have the clearest sense of their purpose and who succeed in communicating it to their employees. If only for this reason, we’ll see more awareness of the importance of employer branding than ever before.

02: The nine to five is finished. During the pandemic, people had no option but to fit work around their lives. It’s become entirely normal for people to leave work at three to collect children from school but then to be back on for a videoconference with Sydney at nine in the evening. For us, these new rhythms of connection have meant we’ve never been closer to GHD, a client that’s partly based in Australia and operating globally.

03: Agility is more highly prized than ever before. This is from both a company and an employee point of view. The firms that are best able to adapt to an ever-changing world will be best placed to thrive, and for them to achieve that they will need agile, adaptable employees. As an employer branding agency, we expect to be working with companies helping them deliver this message and so attract that type of workforce.

04: Trust between employer and employee has never been more important. During the lockdown, firms had little option but to trust that their staff were working well. As we emerge from it, we’re seeing a fundamental shift in the basis of trust. A growing number of companies will look for ways they can lead on this, and actively demonstrate that they trust and empower their people.

05: Workforces will become more globalised and more diverse. Employers have realised that they are no longer restricted to hiring people within commuting distance of their workplaces. For a great many roles it is entirely possible to work remotely. This opens up talent recruitment and encourages a far more diverse mindset. Welcome news indeed.

Pride, via GHD's LinkedIn

We saw this reflected brilliantly in the way a client embraced Pride this year. Crucially, it was the employees, not the company pushing the message forward. Rather than centrally create a slick ad, the company just let the diverse elements of its workforce do the talking themselves. It was authentic, passionate, and a glimpse of the future.

Not so long ago people may have wondered what is employer branding. It was a subset of consumer or corporate branding, all too often marginalised or even completely ignored. The COVID pandemic has radically altered the relationship between employer and employees, and this will mean that employer branding grows significantly in importance as a strategic factor in organisations as well as the customer experience delivered by them.

As an employer branding agency, we’ve always known just how powerful it can be when done right. We’re looking forward, in the months and years ahead, to bringing these benefits to many more organisations

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