Why Culture is Key to Building a Strong Employer Brand

Last Updated: December 16, 2021

As the war for talent intensifies, building a strong employer brand is key to standing out as an employer of choice. We speak to Robert Glazer, CEO at Acceleration Partners and winner of a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award about the role of culture in building a winning employer brand.

In an increasingly competitive talent marketplace today, the need to actively align and engage employees with the overarching business strategy is now more important than ever. As high-performing organizations know, engaged employees are more productive, more customer-centric, more loyal, and ultimately more committed to business success.

Peter Drucker’s celebrated quote “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” doesn’t undermine the power of a well-crafted business strategy, but rather implies that the successful execution of any strategy is closely linked to an accepting organizational culture. In short, you need your people to back you up.

We spoke to Bob Glazer, Founder and CEO at Acceleration PartnersOpens a new window , winner of a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award recognizing the highest rated CEOs for 2018 in the U.S. SMB category, about the importance of culture in building an employer brand. So, what does it take for employees to play their best and want to win all year-long? Bob says giving employees the time and space to follow their passion at work is a great way to kindle their intrinsic spark to do more.

He says,

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We’ve designed Acceleration Partners’ culture to offer employees the freedom and autonomy to achieve results for our clients, reach their personal goals and take care of ongoing life commitments. We support our employees in helping them achieve work-life integration where they can attend to different combinations of things in their work or personal life and be present in the process. For example, we’ve had several team members who have had to take time away from work to deal with family illnesses.  We also have employees that take time during the workday to train for a marathon or take a class to improve their skills.

**The truth is that most people do not dream about being in an office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., they aspire to be better versions of themselves, spend more time with family, and do meaningful work that excites them**.  Here’s where culture comes into play. Workplace culture is instrumental in driving the attitudes and behaviors that make your workforce effective or otherwise. And a company’s culture is determined by its leadership.

Bob opines, “Culture exists in every company either by default or design. Cultural change can be difficult, and it starts at the top. **A company culture can more easily shift when leadership is authentic, and the CEO develops a clear vision and core values and then hires people who are aligned with and are excited by the vision and values**. It’s important to carefully screen for your core values in your interview process and make sure that your leaders are true to them. If you’re clear and consistent, intentionally drive changes as you evolve and don’t hold yourself from making hard decisions – it will position you well for growth and success. The worst thing a company can do is just have their core values painted on the wall and never discuss or reinforce them or consistently demonstrate behavior that goes against the stated values.”

Speaking about leadership’s role in shaping culture, Bob shares an anecdote on how he inspired his people to ‘excel and improve’, which is one of the core values at Acceleration Partners, “A few years ago, I started writing about positive and uplifting stories and sending a weekly email, FridayFwd Opens a new window to the entire company.  Its purpose is to inspire our team members to achieve more, get outside of their comfort zone and encourage self-improvement.  These emails had a positive impact on both our organization and people outside of our company.  FridayFwd is now read by more than 35,000 people in fifty countries on six continents.”

In order to keep your values and culture in the forefront of employees’ minds, you need to go beyond motivational posters and coffee mugs to communicate your values through your actions, by talking about them in meetings, training sessions, feedback sessions or maybe even a FridayFwd. After all, it’s your values and culture that ultimately define your employer brand. Platforms like Glassdoor that project internal culture transparently for everyone to see, are becoming powerful channels for employer brand-building. **Empowering employees to talk about their organization externally can help add credibility, authenticity and validity to brand conversations**.

Becoming the employer of choice requires a strong brand presence on employer rating platforms like Glassdoor, says Bob. “In the olden days, prospective employees didn’t actually know what it was like to work at a company unless they knew somebody working there already.  With Glassdoor, aspects of the company’s culture and values are shared with prospective employees through honest anonymous employee reviews which can be a huge asset or a major drain for a company’s recruiting effort. We’ve found success on Glassdoor by driving strong employee engagement, being authentic in our communications with candidates and by leveraging photos and videos that bring our brand to life. By having a strong employer brand on Glassdoor, you have a better opportunity to attract ideal job candidates and you’ll see a lot of applications from candidates who’re applying to the company as much as the role” he adds.

Remember, competition for talent is at an all-time high. Are you stepping up your game to become an employer of choice? You need to look inward at your culture and values to reinforce your employer brand organically and offer compelling insights into your brand to show potential employees why they should work for you.

Sushman Biswas
Sushman Biswas

Former Editor, HR Technologist

Sushman serves up bleeding-edge ways for organizations to harness HR technology to drive growth at HR Technologist. He comes from a B2B content marketing background where he worked closely with global thought leaders across industries including Finance, Marketing, Human Resources and Cyber Security. When not writing, Sushman loves his motorcycling holidays.
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