he COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical importance of employer brand during a crisis, but there is no playbook for this unprecedented time. Employer branding—influencing an organization's reputation as an employer—significantly affects the volume and quality of applicants a company attracts, and it makes a difference to employee productivity, job satisfaction and retention. "Regardless of what your EVP [employer value proposition] states on paper, how your company is treating its employees, customers and community during this critical time is defining what your employer brand really represents," said Lori Sylvia, the founder of Rally Recruitment Marketing, an online community with over 24,000 HR and talent acquisition practitioners in recruitment marketing and employer branding. "And what happens now will have a lasting effect on your company's culture, your reputation and your ability to attract, recruit and retain talent today and in the future." Employer brand and consumer brand are more connected than ever right now because people want to know how organizations are taking care of their employees, said Jillian Einck, director of employer brand at New York City-based recruitment marketing agency Recruitics. "Job seekers are going to remember which employers rose to the occasion and how companies managed and led through this crisis," she said. "Doing things that are not seen as people-centric during this time will have a detrimental impact to both consumer and employer brand." Sylvia said that when COVID-19 was first declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, most employer brand teams understandably didn't know how to react or respond. "Hardly anyone had the presence of mind to reframe their recruitment marketing content plan that week, never mind communicate directly with their talent community," she said. "I only started to see COVID-appropriate content in early April, starting with messages from leadership; and then moving to what the company was doing to support their employees, customers and communities; and more recently featuring the stories of employees and what they're doing to help." She added that "it seems strange to get e-mails from retailers promoting flash sales while also receiving messages from their CEOs about how they're handling COVID-19. I understand that companies need to continue selling their products and that keeping our economy going is just as important to our future. However, it raises legitimate questions about what the right approach is to marketing and sales during a crisis, and specifically for our community."
