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This is no revelation in itself. Neither is the role an employer brand can play in attracting and retaining good people. It is often forgotten, however, and worth remembering.

Many different elements influence perception 

An employer’s brand incorporates aspects of its business branding, but crucially, it depends upon the way its employees and its industry perceives it as an employer. It is a conceptual representation of the firm’s culture.

Management away days and blue-sky breakout areas aside, the employer brand is all about perception. There are many, many different elements which contribute to and influence the way people perceive your company.

Whether it is your firm’s success in the business world, its “corporate personality” or reward system, people's experience of recruitment and induction, the working environment or even the company's vision and leadership - they all have a bearing on how people feel about a business.

That might sound a little on the fluffy side – but people join and stay with an employer because of how they feel about it.

Whether that is accepting a hard-line, competitive culture in exchange for a large wad of cash, or feeling you have contributed something of value to society, an employer brand must encompass a raison d’etre appropriate to your business and the type of employee you want to attract.

Value intelligence and professional achievement 

One only has to think David Brent, paper merchants, stapling your hand to your head in order to impose some kind of variation on the monotony of the office to realise how crucial company culture is to productivity.

Staff will adopt the existing corporate culture, whether or not it motivates them.

If you want to foster a culture of good people, where intelligence and professional achievement are valued, it is your responsibility as an employer to create and maintain a brand reflecting that. Ignore your employer reputation at your peril.

The key to success is communicating the brand you choose: translating a brand into a controlled reputation with candidates and employees.

To draw new people in and keep good people on board, companies must ensure business messages are put out confidently, consistently and innovatively in the right places.

Be it the trading floor of a merchant bank wanting to attract energetic and competitive employees, or a small legal firm recruiting for their family law department, actively managing a company’s internal and external reputation will pay dividends when it comes to getting the right people in.

Failing to deliver on the promise 

A word of warning though: there is no use in projecting a modern, creative brand to the public and candidates if the internal ethos of a company is dated and staid.

Raising expectations and failing to deliver on the promise is disastrous. Business will suffer because people feel disappointed and demotivated.

Current employees will leave. New employees won’t join. The brand will be exposed as an empty shell. It sounds too simple to be worth mentioning, but in my experience businesses often forget: people maketh the brand.

The old adage is true - people join people. And your people on the inside have the power to motivate one another and to influence which people you attract from the outside.

If handled correctly, employer branding can also reduce the cost of hiring because new employees are easier to find in the first place, and more likely to stay.

They should have understood the company ethos before they walk through the office door.

Motivated and contented workforce 

So how do you construct an employer brand? It’s not exhaustive, but a simple checklist can work wonders on re-evaluating the success of an employer brand.

1. Are the employees excited /engaged with the direction the company is going?
2. Is leadership viewed as positive? Does it inspire loyalty?
3. Do employees feel they are making a recognised contribution?
4. Do employees have a tailored training and development plan?
5. Do employees feel adequately compensated - professionally or financially?
6. Do employees feel pride in working for the organisation?

If the answer is yes to all of the above then you clearly have a motivated and contented workforce. The truth is there are probably areas where you could improve.

Company culture is a very real and tangible thing – and it is the place to start building an employer brand.

Perception is fundamental, but the foundation on which that perception is built is culture. An employer brand will only arise if the way the employees are treated warrants it.

Reality of corporate culture

An employer brand is fundamental to success in any economic environment, but none more so than this. Competition for the best people is always stiff but it becomes exceptionally intense in downturns like this.

With businesses paring down their staff base and even the best candidates reluctant to move, employers must show more mettle to attract high calibre people and retain their best staff.

From a search perspective we are certainly finding a higher percentage of target candidates are choosing to sit tight, taking the ‘better the devil you know approach’ to employment.

They think a new job may be less secure than an old one – last in first out.

For an employer brand to win lasting and universal support, it needs most importantly, to match employee expectations to the reality of its corporate culture.

The success of the company is an important contributor to job satisfaction and to attracting the best people, but the way you feel valued as an employee is crucial.

It does not matter if the value is financial or emotional; the long term health of the organisation depends on it.

John Lacey is managing director of Longbridge Search & Selection.

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• Longbridge Search & Selection