Author: Julie Scardamaglia
Published: 14 March 2025
Why is it that professional services firms work hard on their corporate brand, but often don’t realise their employer brand is just as important? They know the quality of their people is essential to winning clients. But perhaps some don’t realise that, just like their external brand, their employer brand works inside out, and culture is everything.
The employer brand is the reputation you have for what it’s like to work at your firm. And no matter how clever your recruitment slogan, it wins every time. Firms take a lot of care with their recruitment, often without realising they have their own CV, their employer brand, and the candidates are reading it carefully. Most firms talk up their culture in their recruitment advertising, but sometimes they really don’t know how their own people – and the new candidates – experience the culture. Often culture is experienced unequally at different levels of the organisation and the people doing the recruiting may not realise what it’s really like.
So, how do you know if your firm has a bad employer brand? The signs are clear. There’s high turnover in your firm, and you don’t know why. Productivity is low, people are doing the bare minimum, and there’s real evidence of both presenteeism and absenteeism. And when you are recruiting, applications are low or during the process applications are withdrawn and offers declined. Your reputation precedes you.
Another sign is when your leadership can’t clearly define the culture, perhaps they don’t know enough about it. If you ask your people, will you get an honest answer? Your employer brand, a clear message about why your people should work for you, is every bit as important as your external brand because you can’t be a high performing firm unless you have both.
So, what’s the answer? First, we have to ask the question – what is our real culture, and what do our people really feel about their experience of working with us. And, of course, the candidate’s experience of applying for a job. Then we must decide on the experience we want them to have through the firm’s culture. The reason why they would work for us, our employer brand. And then comes the serious work of making it happen. This has three important parts. One is making sure that all parts of the firm are working together to create this. A great employer brand is the work of all leadership including People and Culture and Marketing and is owned by the whole firm. It works when the whole firm is included in its creation and really believes in it.
The second part is about consistency, which is what makes it genuine. The culture is made real by the repeated experience of the people and its alignment with the external brand, not to mention reality. Inconsistency breeds distrust.
The third is walking the talk. If the firm, through its leadership, walks the talk and speaks through genuine action, the culture will be positive and strong. This is what builds belief and trust.
It’s a process, yes, but worth the effort. Because the employer brand is often the thing firms overlook in seeking high performance. It might not seem that way, as it relies on values and perceptions, but it’s tangible and achievable.
Author: Julie Scardamaglia
Published: 14 March 2025
Why is it that professional services firms work hard on their corporate brand, but often don’t realise their employer brand is just as important?
They know the quality of their people is essential to winning clients. But perhaps some don’t realise that, just like their external brand, their employer brand works inside out, and culture is everything.
The employer brand is the reputation you have for what it’s like to work at your firm. And no matter how clever your recruitment slogan, it wins every time. Firms take a lot of care with their recruitment, often without realising they have their own CV, their employer brand, and the candidates are reading it carefully.
Most firms talk up their culture in their recruitment advertising, but sometimes they really don’t know how their own people – and the new candidates – experience the culture. Often culture is experienced unequally at different levels of the organisation and the people doing the recruiting may not realise what it’s really like.
So, how do you know if your firm has a bad employer brand? The signs are clear. There’s high turnover in your firm, and you don’t know why. Productivity is low, people are doing the bare minimum, and there’s real evidence of both presenteeism and absenteeism. And when you are recruiting, applications are low or during the process applications are withdrawn and offers declined. Your reputation precedes you.
Another sign is when your leadership can’t clearly define the culture, perhaps they don’t know enough about it. If you ask your people, will you get an honest answer?
Your employer brand, a clear message about why your people should work for you, is every bit as important as your external brand because you can’t be a high performing firm unless you have both.
So, what’s the answer? First, we have to ask the question – what is our real culture, and what do our people really feel about their experience of working with us. And, of course, the candidate’s experience of applying for a job. Then we must decide on the experience we want them to have through the firm’s culture. The reason why they would work for us, our employer brand.
And then comes the serious work of making it happen. This has three important parts. One is making sure that all parts of the firm are working together to create this. A great employer brand is the work of all leadership including People and Culture and Marketing and is owned by the whole firm. It works when the whole firm is included in its creation and really believes in it.
The second part is about consistency, which is what makes it genuine. The culture is made real by the repeated experience of the people and its alignment with the external brand, not to mention reality. Inconsistency breeds distrust.
The third is walking the talk. If the firm, through its leadership, walks the talk and speaks through genuine action, the culture will be positive and strong. This is what builds belief and trust.
It’s a process, yes, but worth the effort. Because the employer brand is often the thing firms overlook in seeking high performance. It might not seem that way, as it relies on values and perceptions, but it’s tangible and achievable.
