Employer Branding according to a non-HR professional

Today, I'm Not Providing Definitions.

I have a tendency, when discussing branding topics, to begin with language and definitions. Typically, terms are introduced, studies are outlined, and distinctions are drawn between what the employer brand is and what it is not. But today, I'll begin with a simple statement borrowed from my experience with external branding.

An employer brand exists whether it is defined or not.

It takes shape in the minds of people who encounter an organization, consider it, engage with it, and eventually form a judgment about it as a place to work. This judgment is not formed in a single moment, nor is it influenced by a single source. It develops gradually, shaped by signals, experiences, and interpretations that accumulate over time.

What this article proposes is not a new definition, but a clearer structure for understanding how that accumulation occurs.

I start this way because unlike external brand elements that usually get considered during the inception of a brand (at the very least, the name of the company/product/person/service/entity), internal brand elements are sometimes never considered until it is too late—and sometimes, it never gets discussed.

A Negotiation, Not a Statement

At its core, the employer brand can be understood as a system of exchange between an organization and its people.

The organization offers a set of conditions: work, compensation, growth, environment, and meaning. In return, individuals offer their time, effort, and capabilities. Around this exchange sits a layer of perception, shaped by what is seen, heard, and experienced, both directly and indirectly.

This exchange is never static. It is constantly being interpreted and reinterpreted, not only by those within the organization, but also by those observing from the outside. As a result, the employer brand is less a fixed identity and more a dynamic equilibrium between promise and reality. 

HR, Recruitment, Corporate Comms, and PR teams are the ones that are usually tasked to champion the employer brand. Unfortunately, employer brands tend to get managed in rigid frameworks or agreements, shaped through interventions or short-lived campaigns, and are almost never seen from a holistic BRAND lens.

To understand it requires moving away from isolated initiatives and toward a view of the system as a whole.

The Five Stages

In this article, I am proposing five interdependent stages of employer branding. These are not stages in the strict sense, nor are they steps to be completed in sequence. They are better understood as layers that must hold together if the employer brand is to remain coherent.

#1 The first of these is being SEEN.

An organization must exist, in a meaningful way, within the awareness of the people it hopes to employ. This awareness is not merely a function of visibility. It depends on relevance. A company may be widely recognized in one context and entirely absent in another. The question is not whether the organization is known in general, but whether it is known as a plausible and appropriate place of work for a particular group of people and for specific job functions too.

For example, Pak Abu's Nasi Lemak Lobster is the most famous nasi lemak restaurant chain in the whole of Kuala Terengganu (this is fictional, I'm sorry to disappoint 🤣). Everyone knows them for their nasi lemak. Every meal costs RM20. Payment by cash only. Today, they're hiring a Finance Manager.

Everyone in Kuala Terengganu has seen this brand. But as an employer brand, they might be invisible.

This layer of being seen is very much tied to the 'external brand'. It's worth noting that some people would do ANY job just to be associated with a brand i.e. based solely on external brand reputation.

#2 From being seen, we turn to being KNOWN & VALIDATED.

Recognition alone does not produce confidence. Individuals look for signals that reduce uncertainty and help them assess whether an organization is credible. Some of these signals are formal, such as certifications or partnerships. Others are informal, emerging through reputation, peer experience, and the observed behavior of the organization over time. Together, they form a picture that either reinforces or undermines trust.

Once an organization is both known and considered credible, the nature of the exchange comes into focus.

At the very least, the organization has to be a legitimate one. For example, in Malaysia, the organization is an entity registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM).

Another example close to home: If you were involved in food operations, it is compulsory to attend a Food Handler Training Course and get a typhoid jab. But how many actually do?

#3 Then we have the stage of being STRUCTURED & NEGOTIATED.

Here, the organization defines, explicitly or implicitly, what it offers and what it requires in return. This is often described as the employee value proposition (EVP), though the term can obscure as much as it reveals. 

The EVP does not only detail the compensation package or a list of benefits, it is a contract of exchange. Every role is a trade.

• Time for money and equity?

• Effort for personal and professional growth?

• Stress and uncertainty for speed and opportunity?

• Stability for slower but guaranteed progression?

As a potential employee, people tend to look at this from only one standpoint; What can the company give me?

As a hiring manager or recruiter, this flips to; This is what is demanded of the role.

The strongest employer brands are explicit about their trade-offs. They attract the right people by repelling the wrong ones.

SIDE NOTE: This stage is probably the stage where most brands focus on or confine their efforts related to employer branding via HR.

#4 The fourth stage, being EXPERIENCED, is where expectation meets reality.

No articulation, however well constructed, can substitute for lived experience. Individuals encounter the organization through its people, its processes, and its decisions. These encounters reveal the practical workings of the system: how authority is exercised, how work is distributed, how success is recognized, and how difficulty is managed. 

It is here that the implicit becomes explicit, and where consistency, or the lack of it, becomes evident. This is arguably the most important stage when it comes to building an employer brand.

It is natural to ask where responsibility for this stage lies.

Because employer branding and employee experience is often associated with communication, it is frequently positioned within functions such as human resources or corporate comms. While these functions play an important role, the system itself extends beyond any single domain.

The employer brand reflects decisions made across the organization: how work is designed, how leaders behave, how resources are allocated, and how priorities are set. It is shaped as much by operational reality as by articulated intent.

#5 Finally, there is the stage of being CELEBRATED.

This is not celebration in the ceremonial sense, but in the behavioral one. It is reflected in what people choose to do after they have experienced the organization. Some remain and deepen their involvement. Others leave, but continue to speak positively. Still others disengage. These responses are not instructed nor mandated; they emerge from the cumulative effect of the preceding conditions.

I've worked in 6 different companies during my career (excluding Kiniterang) and only 1 of these companies has a formal alumni program that continues to add value to me even more than a decade after I left them. I rag on consulting companies a lot but they do have a lot of things done right. So I continue to celebrate my experience in this company and often encourage others with a chance to work there to take it!

If you think about this stage in digital marketing terms of Paid, Owned, Earned, this stage is almost entirely Earned.

Continuity Rather Than Sequence & Other Final Thoughts.

Although these five stages can be described individually, they do not operate independently. Each influences the others, and each is influenced in return.

Experiences shape reputation, which in turn affects validation. Validation influences whether an organization is considered, which affects its presence within awareness. The structure of the exchange shapes experience, and the outcomes of that experience feed back into how the organization is perceived.

In this sense, the employer brand is not built once and maintained. It is continuously formed through the interaction of these elements.

The purpose of this framework is not to provide a fixed template, but to offer a way of seeing.

By understanding the employer brand as a system of exchange operating across these five stages, it becomes possible to diagnose where misalignment occurs, and to address it at the appropriate level.

In some cases, the issue may lie in awareness, where the organization is simply not present in the right context. In others, it may be a matter of credibility, where signals fail to support the claims being made. Often, the challenge is deeper, rooted in the structure of the exchange or in the experience itself.

Hopefully this framework clarifies where attention is required for your employer brand.

What is employer brand?

Employer branding is an organization's reputation as a place to work. In other word's it the the brand's identity as an employer.