What’s Your Brand Telling Your Employees? 

BY Lisa Jaffe | February 17, 2022

Hint: It may be different from your message to consumers, and it definitely should evolve.

When people think of branding, they usually think only of the message they give to external clients. But in a time when employees and potential employees have a lot of options for work, you need to ensure your message to them is enticing and accurate.

At From Day One’s January virtual conference on recruiting skilled talent in 2022, Debora Johnson, the EVP and manager of recruitment at The Coca-Cola Company, spoke with Brandon Harden, the leadership editor of Insider, about how her company is evolving its brand to meet rising expectations, and what you can learn from her experience.

Coca-Cola has been present in our society so long that the external perception can be hard to move, she explained. However, what it’s like to work with the company is something more changeable, particularly among different types of workers.

Coca-Cola has developed a persona for every type of employee, and each of those personae is based on real employees. Johnson says she is especially proud that every company picture you see that purports to show a Coca-Cola employee at work is actually one of those employees, actively engaging in their job.

Johnson sees a clear link between employer branding and recruitment. “You employer brand is what sets your company apart from the competition,” she says. “Coca-Cola didn’t have to do a lot in the past. We didn’t have to explain who Coca-Cola is, and we played off of the consumer brand.” But now, with competition for employees from hourly to engineering at a peak, “you have to ask what is the value proposition, and why they should come to you.”

The candidate has to see that the company is a good fit for them, and how their personal passions will connect with company passions. “If you do that, you have long-time employees. If your employer brand is not tied to reality, then you have a high turnover rate.”

Fireside chat, from left: Brandon Harden of Insider and Debora Johnson of The Coca-Cola Company (Image by From Day One)

To create a strong employer brand, you have to show a clear path to the company mission and purpose. “Some companies have completely different branding for their employer and consumer channels. We have chosen not to do that. We can modify our messaging, but it is always tied to the mission: to refresh the world and make a difference.”

Each thread of messaging starts there, and is then refined depending on the target. The consumer audience hears about a loved brand that cares about the environment and the communities where they operate. Stakeholders and investors hear about corporate strategy and how they achieve their goals while adhering to the mission. And employees and candidates hear about the skills and behaviors that help the company achieve its mission.

“It's important to have a consistent visual identity and tone,” she says. “It shouldn’t look that different to any audience, but should resonate with each.”

In a time when people can be slow to believe anything they hear or read, or even see, Hardon asked how Johnson goes about making the brand more credible. “A strong mission and vision is a road map on how leaders and employees can achieve goals together,” she answers. “Nothing is worse than having a great employer branding, but employees come in and it’s completely different than your messaging. You have to live the mission.”

This can’t be just about some goal you hope to achieve at some point, but about the reality, she adds. That was really brought home to her at the start of the pandemic. “The level of communication to our employees, about the company and how we would support them and the communities they live in–it seemed we were really articulating our mission, and it really came to life for me.”

She mentions an ad that played in Europe, “Open Like Never Before,” which explained perfectly what the world and the company was experiencing, and how there is no return to the way things were, but rather change is something we need to embrace. “It was great to see our external branding come out so consistently with our internal branding. That commercial makes me cry whenever I watch it.”

One thing that has changed since the pandemic is how Coca-Cola recruits, interviews, and engages with Gen Z. As a DIY research project, Johnson had her own child and their friends go online to apply for various jobs at different companies. “They got irritated. It took too long. And that showed me that especially for hourly workers, we need to shorten our application process.” She also noticed that when the kids got an application in, small companies would contact them for an interview within minutes of completing the application. It made her rethink what was possible.

“We started having virtual career fairs, with a lot of in-market branding and advertising,” she explained. “Because it’s virtual, the company could identify what positions were available and the base qualifications needed. If a candidate had them, they were signed up to participate in a 15-20 minute interview with a recruiter.

“We saw greater engagement with applicants,” she said. The first such fair had 500 people RSVP, and 60% showed up for scheduled interviews, an increase in what occurred previously. If the recruiters liked what they saw and heard, they set up an in-person meeting for the next day. “We went from one to two weeks to two or three days.”

Johnson added that Coca-Cola is also refining how it targets specific talent, creates more personalized recruitment messaging, and informs people that it is “the best company to work for.”

Her main concerns now relate to ensuring that a flexible and partly remote workforce–many of whom were on-boarded virtually–still feel a connection to the company. “The flexibility of a remote workforce is incredible. But how do we make sure they feel engaged and involved and a sense of belonging when they get hired? How do you create the magic of working with a 135-year-old company when someone is sitting at home? When you don’t have an office and people saying ‘welcome,’ you have to be more intentional.” She says Coke is spending a lot of time and messaging to solve that problem. Research is showing that younger employees in particular are having a tougher time making connections and creating a network. “We engage with them right away and get them connected not just with their teams, but with the overall organization.”

New hires spend time learning about the company's history, how it grew, and its mission and purpose. “We talk quite a bit about how every decision needs to be grounded in our mission and purpose, and that is what drives innovation and inspiration.”

In the end, employees and their stories are the best asset for recruiting and employer branding. Said Johnson: “Listen to them. They have the story. You don’t have to create it for them.”

Lisa Jaffe is a freelance writer who lives in Seattle with her son and a very needy rescue dog named Ellie Bee. She enjoys reading, long walks on the beach, and trying to get better at ceramics.

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Where to Start: Making the Workplace Inclusive of Neurodiversity

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Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | March 29, 2024

How to Create and Sustain a Growth Mindset to Nurture Talent

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It became okay to make mistakes, but putting out ideas and taking risks and being open to failure became the norm. And that’s how they got cloud computing. Was the culture change worth it? No doubt about it.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.

Carrie Snider | March 28, 2024