This article was first published in 2021.
What if your brand isn’t a single organisation but a family of brands, each with its own priorities, competitors and target candidates? Unifying all of them under one employer value proposition is hard.
That was the challenge LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group (RSG) faced in 2020. Under the leadership of Director for Employer Brand Shelley Jeffcoat, LexisNexis RSG launched an EVP that served each of its eight brands while helping each one stand out as an employer. To do this, Jeffcoat’s team needed a strategy as unique as their organisation.
Get brand-specific as early as possible
As early as the research stage, Jeffcoat’s team was organising data by brand. With help from an external research firm, LexisNexis RSG explored each brand’s target candidates and demographics, its competitors, its functions and more.
Then, when moving from research to analysis, Jeffcoat brought in her colleagues in marketing. Together they created a unique tagline for each brand. Each one echoed the overarching LexisNexis RSG EVP (“Explore more”) while painting a more specific picture of the individual brand (“Explore our passion for discovery”).
Think bigger than promotion
The choice to give each LexisNexis RSG brand its own EVP wasn’t simply clever marketing. Getting specific made the company more competitive as an employer, and it continues to shape the employee journey.
“We’re defining our values and culture in a way that’s much easier for our candidates and employees to articulate,” Jeffcoat says. “This improves our competitive advantage as an employer.”
Empower employees to take part
Before the EVP launch, it was hard for employees to get involved in brand advocacy. They lacked clear ways to share content on social media, leave Glassdoor reviews (LexisNexis RSG had several Glassdoor profiles) or help prospective candidates get in touch (there were several careers web pages).
Invest in your employee advocates
To build internal momentum around brand advocacy, Jeffcoat knew she would need to find employee advocates. She started with the talent acquisition team, a natural choice as they were already skilled at representing the business to the public. But because of the company’s structure, she couldn’t stop there. She needed to bring in stakeholders from every brand and balance each brand’s representation.
In an organisation that houses so many brands and employs thousands, the best strategy is to “consult and empower” rather than try to control everything. In Jeffcoat’s words: “Trust the process!”
To follow Shelley Jeffcoat’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn.
Defining your own values and culture
Whether you run one brand or several, your EVP should reflect the values and culture you want to create. Find out how our consultancy practice can help.
Hiring managers: contact us or register a vacancy.
Candidates: browse current property jobs or register your CV.
