Was Your Employer Brand Damaged During The Recession?

It would seem that not only is the typical modern employee disengaged, but he or she has been left psychologically scarred by the recent financial crisis and recession. This crisis, as you all know, led to layoffs, lack of job security, and pay freezes/pay cuts, (two thirds of employees experienced some kind of cut ). It also exposed a distinct lack of strong leadership, accountability, and transparent communication, (highlighted by Deloitte here ). The result is that today 1 in 4 workers don’t trust their employers and only half believe their employer is open and honest with them, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2014 Well-Being Survey. 

Employers should take these findings seriously as this lack of trust will be negatively impact employee engagement and staff retention, as shown by this Deloitte study, which revealed that nearly 50 percent of employees cited loss of trust and lack of transparent communication as their main reason for looking to leaving their employers at the end of the recession.

With lack of trust being all pervasive, employer brands that ignore this trend and continue with the highly polished, fantasy island style employer branding risk portraying themselves as being out of touch, and perhaps a little untrustworthy. It now seems that these more cautious times call for more measured employer branding, played much closer to the bone, in a much more frank and honest communication style. Yes, this very revealing Employer Branding Study from Randstad US   revealed that 78 percent of workers look for an employer that is first and foremost honest. Seventy-one percent said that a company being reliable is a very significant factor when deciding to apply, along with secure (62%). Surprisingly, the sexier brand messages, such as having the latest technologies (9%); social corporate responsibility (9%); and international travel/career opportunities (7%) were not seen as very important factors when evaluating employment options. These have, for whatever reason, become weary brand messages.

It seems to me that the time is right for employers to return to more basic, wholesome, simple values in their branding messing like honesty/transparency, job security and reliability, if they want to appear attractive to the bulk of modern talent. You can also set about repairing your employer brand, (which may have been damaged by the actions of your own company or of others in the industry), by carrying out some trust restoration initiatives such as: publishing a new mission statement and set of guiding values; conducting an employee opinion survey; cross training employees; sponsoring a quality improvement initiative, etc. According to this white paper by Kenexa, all four of these interventions have been shown to build trust.

Such was the severity in the decline of trust during the great recession, most employer brands have experienced some form of brand damage, be that from their own actions or that of the wider industry. Of course, as the business environment improves your employer brand will benefit from the positive, industry-wide employee outlook. But if you want to get ahead of the curve you’ll be taking steps to restore trust in your own employer brand today.