The Best Employer Branding Examples to Learn From

The Meaning of Employer Branding

Employer branding is the practice of using the power of your company's brand to showcase what it's like to work there.

This can include anything from employee testimonials and social media posts to perks and work-life balance policies.

In this guide, we'll give you an overview of why employer branding is important (and how it benefits both companies and employees) plus provide you with some examples of successful employer branding from some of the world’s leading companies so that you can start to develop your own employer branding strategy.

What Makes an Employer Brand?

A strong employer brand is about more than a bowl of fruit in the staff kitchen or beer and pizza Fridays. Sure, these things are nice, but they’re not what motivates someone to really want to come to work every day.  

Things like your core values as a company, the overall team culture, and a true sense that employees matter are what help you build a solid reputation as an employer of choice where everyone wants to work.

This means that when people are looking for job opportunities, they will be applying to your company based on the fact that they feel their values are in alignment with yours.

Employer Branding Examples

Employer branding is not just about creating a positive impression of your company as an employer in the minds of potential candidates, but it's important to have a clear employer brand because it will help you attract the right talent. 

Companies that have a strong employer brand are more likely to attract the best candidates and keep them around longer.

Though it can be quite challenging and overwhelming for employers to think about their branding in relation to employees, especially in larger companies where the culture is already established, and there are a lot of people with different values and personalities working there.

So, to give you some ideas for the different steps you could take to start developing your own employer branding strategy and decide what things you want to be known for as an employer, here are some of our favorite examples of great employer branding in action.

Zappos

Zappos’ unique culture is built around three pillars: the customer, employees, and community. The company places a high value on its customers—they call them “guests”—and has become known for its excellent customer service. 

In terms of employee culture, Zappos offers many benefits that are uncommon in other businesses. 

For example, they offer their employees a $4,000 per year “fulfillment bonus” to use for anything they want (shoe shopping included). 

They also offer an additional $2 million dollars worth of free stock options every year to all employees who stay with the company for at least six months.

American Express

American Express has a clear mission, vision, and values. The company's mission is to "help people live better lives by creating financial services that build relationships." 

Their vision statement is: "To be the best company in the world at customer service and loyalty." They also have three values they live by: Serve Others, Care About Customers, Do What Is Right.

American Express' brand promise is "To get its customers what they want when they want it." 

This is made evident in their tagline 'Don't leave home without it', which suggests that you need an American Express card with you at all times.

You might be wondering what any of these values have to do with employer branding, but when it comes to hiring, American Express looks to attract people with these values so that their customers are always looked after. 

This, in turn, has helped create a culture where staff feel cared for and also feel like they’re part of something bigger and are truly making a difference.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a great example of an employer brand that does well at engaging with candidates.

Their website provides a lot of information about what it’s like to work for the company with the goal of attracting talent. 

They also have “Coke Stories,” which are stories from employees who talk about how they got started in their careers at Coca-Cola, what they do now, and why they love working there. 

These provide great insights into life at Coke for people who are considering applying there.

Salesforce

Salesforce refers to its employees and customers as “Ohana” – the Hawaiian word for family.

With the level of care and appreciation they show to their customers and employees, it’s really no surprise that Salesforce has been named the #1 workplace in the world for several years in a row. 

The company places high value on its corporate outings such as Ohana family reunions.

Cisco

A great example of a strong employer branding strategy in action is Cisco.

Cisco does a fantastic job of creating and structuring resources for future employees on its website. 

They make it very easy to share materials across social platforms, making it simple for potential employees to find them.

All job opportunities and career essentials are clearly organized on their landing page, making it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for. 

Visitors to Cisco’s website can find everything they need, from success stories of employees to details on how to work for the company. 

Get Started With Your Employer Branding Journey

If you’re looking to get started with building your own employer branding strategy, it’s important to understand that most companies have an employer brand, whether they’ve intentionally crafted it or not, and so have you. 

The question is, though: are you known for the things you want to be?

If not, then you have some work to do.

This means your first step is to identify what your current employer brand is so that you can build off of it rather than starting from scratch. 

Your next step should be to determine what your ideal employer brand would be and set up a plan for how you can get there. 

Remember: you don’t need grand gestures to have a strong employer brand, but if you’re looking to attract, hire and retain the best and most motivated employees, then you need to get laser clear on your values and build from there.

Those small steps and simple things like showing you truly care about employees are the things that will have the biggest positive impact.