Last week, 106 were invited to Communicate Magazine’s Employer Brand Management Live event for 2024, bringing together the latest and greatest in the employer branding sector. We take any opportunity to see how people are moving the needle in creating vibrant company cultures and this event was no different. Hosted masterfully by Andrew Thomas, we heard from a range of talent across multiple sectors, all working tirelessly to improve the working lives of their colleagues and articulate clear values

The first presentation came from Lyndsay Curry from the NatWest Group and Suzanne Nash from AMS who discussed how using data and technology helped to develop NatWest’s “always-on” recruitment strategy. NatWest Group found that their hiring campaigns were more reactive and too short-lived to be effective. On top of this, they were looking to break into a new hiring market in India, a country that they had no major presence in.

They knew that global consistency came out of one messaging framework applied globally, rather than costly stop-start campaigns. So they built on the impressive persona work they already had in place and identified individuals in existing segmentation groups to understand how they engaged with channels and what those channels should be supplied with.

They also made the distinction to invest in buying audiences rather than ads to ensure their work reached the right people. This made the basis of key content pillars before launching into an “explore and learn” phase where they found space to explore user-generated content that told the peoples perspective of NatWest. This programmatic campaign proved hugely successful as they had a 110% increase in content creation in India and a click-through rate of 71%. NatWest Group crafted an agile programme to reach new talent, built for new markets and easy repurposing. More than this, they should deft ways to operate within budget limitations.

Keeping with the international vision, Nathalie Plavonil and Ben Read from TUI took to the stage, presenting their case study on how they unified and inspired 60,000 colleagues. As many of us did, TUI took stock of their operations after the hardships of COVID. For their communicators, it was a wake-up call to the reality of their colleagues. This led to a meticulous process to build a new EVP, which included one on one stakeholder interviews, internal/external focus groups, and toolkit generation.

What stood them out from their existing processes was that they gave colleagues the options of staying involved in the development as part of their surveys, building authentic engagement and idea generation. They wrote and released the tagline Let’s TUI it, which spoke to the can-do positive attitudes of their people.

This made the bones of their omnichannel strategy, which captured a day in the life of their workforce, made up of over 500 personal submissions. This gained 20k views across 40 countries, giving them the desired impact. It was a great campaign that showcased the real spark and charisma of the TUI workforce, with great results far outside of their initial purview. It was heartening to see how well the people of TUI bought into their EVP for greater fulfilment and job satisfaction.

Next up was a panel discussion on Keeping the employer brand electric, which featured Mark Crampton from Air Bus, Nimai Swaroop from Shell, and Alexandra Bairstow of JLR. It was a far-reaching discussion on why employer brands are important and the unique opportunities to embody them in pragmatic ways. One of the main insights I took from it was the constant recalibration to keep alignment and staying aware of new talent drivers.

Afterwards, in our roundtables we discussed how to activate global EVPs with increased localisation. In our group, it became clear that respecting certain channels and operations was crucial in establishing shared trust and ownership.

Following that, it was time for a one-on-one profile on Nina Goswani on aligning your employer brand. She was an incredibly personable and knowledgeable figure, having worked as the BBC Creative Diversity Lead for years, with a background in journalism. Again, the main focus was on how speaking up for greater inclusivity in the workplace was an opportunity not a threat to the status quo. Good discussions around these kinds of topics are a great test of a good employer brand as it created the psychological safety to have real conversations about the business. It also featured an interesting look at how technological biases can be nipped in the bud and harnessed for the organisational brands we want to forge.

As we wrapped up lunch, it was time for Sian Dutton and Caroline Winder from AXA Insurance to walk us through how they build their inclusive and inspiring workplace identity. They began by explaining that they had found only 4% of millennials wanted to work in insurance, due to the ongoing misconceptions around what insurance involves. This meant an entire cultural transformation for the 21^st century, and one that engaged an entrepreneurial spirit.

To do this, AXA’s comms team wanted to shape the potential of their employees and seeing it as a personalised responsibility. They launched internally with a unique interpretation of the AXA logo with the concept “Don’t touch the switch.” Through a four phase execution, they were able to embed their employer brand in the workforce with 30 global ambassadors that captured attention and reintroduced insurance for a modern workforce.

After that, we were lucky enough to be treated to an award-winning case study from Romanian food provider Kaufman and how making their hiring more inclusive became the defining aspect of their employer brand. This was one of the most impressive executions we heard from and proof of how impactful employer brands can be on policy and inclusivity.

By and large, the project was designed to integrate people with disabilities into the workforce, both physical and mental. This was spearheaded by an open communication channel to externals, including 7 hiring events that targeted people in wheelchairs and even a multichannel campaign on TikTok and beyond. This even incorporate sign language with hashtags. In Kaufman stores, trolleys were painted unique colours to show the company commitment.

The results were that there were 1500 interviews conducted so far with 500 jobs available for a range of neurodivergent people in at least 180 stores. There are 450 employees with disabilities and a wider comprehension of the struggles of people with dyslexia and other neurodivergent activation alongside it. For communicators, it was proof of being ambitious in your transformational campaigns and not to push the envelope for real change.

To round out the day, Julia Randall and Sabrina Rossetti walked us through how Mimecast strengthened their employer brand. As a cybersecurity company, they needed to have a brand that could keep up with the fast pace and regular growth and transformation. After structural changes and changes in leaderships, they needed to redefine their EVP and ensure business return.

This began with a reinterpretation of the existing data points that supported their original brand identity. At the time, they identified as a scrappy start-up whereas now, as a private business, they were more of an agile enterprise. The founders believed they should have a humble mindset when they began but with growth they wanted to take more pride in their work now that they had reached some substantial achievements.

This new research was carried out through five one to one interviews with existing leadership, an audit of nine existing research document, and two leadership workshops. This was translated into comms through their Give and Get model, which explored their values through the interplay between the organisation and employees. For example, if you give your expertise you will get meaningful and worthwhile work. The main challenge was in the visual language of their new employer brand, trying to cut through the noise of existing tech narratives. For Julia and Sabrina, keeping momentum and involvement with key stakeholders vital in keeping pressure on these concepts and fostering unity of vision.

One of the throughlines of the day was shaping frameworks around the work you do today. In a time where corporate channels and ways of operating are in total flux, there’s no reason to limit your options in how you spark excitement and elevate the positives in your work.