Employer branding: How to avoid damage to your reputation

Unpleasant impressions of companies and leadership should disappear from the public eye. Quickly and discreetly. Especially when it comes to potential applicants, who are supposed to form an objective picture of the employer and consult Kununu & Co. for this purpose. Former employees and colleagues then quickly become “perpetrators”. Site operators, Internet search engines and rating portals are declared to be opponents; they threaten to issue cease-and-desist orders and file lawsuits. The result is hardened fronts – and an image of many companies that show little greatness. Effective reputation protection in the labor market starts earlier.

Active communications work is needed to counteract a loss of image. No empty personnel marketing. A credible positioning as a respectful employer must first be made visible internally. This works best as part of an internal employer branding process in which employees are continuously involved across hierarchical levels. Works councils, too. Successful medium-sized companies see their own culture as an identification offer that is filled with life through dialog, information and participation. There are many suitable instruments depending on the size and structure of the company. Conflicts and terminations are thus given a good framework.

Sounds like work, but it is. Anyone who subsequently sues for omission has simply slept through all of this. The discussions about new flexible forms of employment, social business models or “Work 4.0” show that the active examination of one’s own work culture is increasingly becoming a yardstick. Corporate crises are always also employer crises, and in the future they will require close networking with HR communications more than ever before. Social networks are an opportunity, not a risk.

In any case, communicative lethargy is a serious sign of impending reputational damage on the labor market.