Positioning, Branding, and Employer Brand Strategy: How They Shape Your Company’s Identity

In today’s competitive talent market, it’s crucial for companies to clearly define how they are perceived by potential and current employees. This is where positioning, branding, and brand strategy play vital roles. For companies aiming to build high-functioning teams and attract talent in rapidly growing companies, aligning these three elements is key to ensuring that the right message is being sent at every stage of the employee lifecycle.

Let’s dive into each concept and explore why HR professionals must prioritize these aspects to build and maintain a strong employer brand.

Positioning: The True Identity of Your Employer Brand

Positioning is the unique space your company holds in the minds of potential employees—how they perceive your company compared to others in your industry. It's shaped by every interaction, from how you communicate externally (job posts, social media, ads) to how your culture is reflected internally. It’s critical because positioning reflects your true identity as an employer.

But here's the catch: Your positioning may not always align with your employer brand strategy. For instance, you may want to be known as an innovative, fast-growing company, but if your employee reviews suggest a stagnant culture or lack of leadership growth, your positioning doesn't match your strategy. This disconnect can hurt your ability to attract top talent.

To fix this, HR leaders must:

• Regularly assess how candidates and employees perceive the company (through feedback, employee reviews, and surveys).
• Make necessary adjustments to align the perceived identity (positioning) with the company’s desired identity (brand strategy).

Branding: How You Deliver the Look and Feel

While positioning focuses on your reputation and identity, branding is about the look and feel—how you present your company to the outside world. This includes your logos, colors, fonts, the tone of your messaging, and the values you consistently communicate.

But branding isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about how candidates and employees experience your company. Your branding must reflect the employer value proposition (EVP)—the benefits, culture, and opportunities your company offers. For rapidly growing companies seeking to build high-functioning teams, it’s essential that branding showcases what makes your company stand out.

For example:

• If you want to be seen as an innovative company, your branding should highlight employee stories about innovation and how they’ve been empowered to push boundaries.
• If flexibility and work-life balance are part of your strategy, make sure your website, job ads, and social media reflect this through consistent branding and employee testimonials.

Strong branding helps position your company as one where employees can grow and thrive. It creates an emotional connection that resonates with potential candidates, increasing your chances of attracting top talent.

Employer Brand Strategy: Delivering Proven Sales Techniques to Build Teams

I invented a system called the People & Culture Sales System, where we apply proven sales techniques in the HR process to create high-functioning teams. Employer brand strategy is the overarching plan for how you will consistently deliver your brand’s message, using strategic approaches that mirror sales and marketing tactics.

A successful brand strategy should:

• Focus on how you sell your company to potential employees. Just like in sales, your brand strategy needs to highlight what sets your company apart and how you solve the "pain points" of your ideal candidates (whether that's flexibility, career growth, or company culture).
• Utilize storytelling to create an emotional connection. This helps candidates visualize themselves in your company, making the job offer more appealing.
• Incorporate personalization in recruitment, much like how sales teams use personalized outreach. By tailoring your messaging to address the specific needs of high-potential candidates, you create a compelling value proposition.

Brand strategy is not only about attracting candidates but also about retaining employees and turning them into advocates. Your goal is to create a consistent, compelling story that resonates from recruitment, through onboarding, and into employee retention. Employees who feel connected to the brand are more likely to stay, perform well, and advocate for the company externally.

Aligning All Three: Creating a Unified Employer Brand

For rapidly growing companies, the alignment of positioning, branding, and brand strategy is crucial. Here's how to bring it all together:

• Positioning sets the stage by ensuring your reputation reflects your company’s true identity.
• Branding delivers the look, feel, and message that helps you stand out in the marketplace.
• Brand Strategy ensures you communicate your message consistently, using proven sales techniques to attract, retain, and engage top talent.