You've finally launched an employment brand. You've got a great strategy to communicate to candidates. You are using the brand to re-recruit your employees. What could go wrong now?

Quite a bit, if you do not keep a close watch over your brand, who is using it and how they are implementing it. The more people within your organization who have a regular need to communicate with candidates and employees, the more chances there are of "rogue" messages that don't fit with your employment brand strategy.

While you don't need to call in the employment brand police just yet, there are a few steps you can take to safeguard your brand and make sure everyone is communicating with one consistent voice.

Select one individual to serve as brand manager and protector. This person will have oversight of all employment communications and will make sure everything is consistent and on target, both visually and verbally.

The brand manager will network within your company and set up a system so that everyone who communicates with candidates and employees understands the brand. You'll also want to set up a process for your team to submit their materials for review. The goal is not to supress communication, but to ensure a consistent and professional approach to the brand.

Another advantage: your brand manager stays in touch with everything that is happening within the organization and is better able to gauge the success of the brand, when things are shifting and what steps (if any) need to be taken to keep your employment brand current and evolving.

When NAS partners with a client, we also make an ongoing commitment to review the work that is being produced. If we see something off target, we're able to check in with suggestions and recommendations to get things back on track. That extra eye can sometimes be invaluable.

Whenever we develop an employment brand, NAS recommends Brand Guidelines. If you have multiple people who create and disseminate employment communications, you can use these guidelines to keep everyone on the same page and ensure a uniform approach across the board.

This formal document includes information on the brand theme, how we arrived at it, how the campaign works and what key messages we are trying to impart. In addition, the guidelines provide detailed information on fonts, colors and layout requirements, to maintain a consistent look across all communications. We'll discuss copy mandatories and tone of voice, as well. If you have a photo library of approved images, these are included.

Samples of various communications can be regularly added, to provide concrete examples of how the brand looks and is being used. No more will you see handouts or e-blasts with strange clip-art and non-approved messages, because you've provided the tools to create something better and more targeted -- and made it easy to comply.

Finally, make sure that everyone who will be communicating your employment brand, both externally and internally, understands it and can speak with the appropriate voice. This includes your HR staff (who communicate with employees), your recruiters (who communicate with candidates) and your key department managers (who may be involved in recruitment activities).

The approach we often take is Brand Ambassador Training, through either on-site presentations or webinars. We'll use this forum to talk about the brand, how it was developed and how we are representing it across all media channels. We'll show examples of the brand and outline procedures. We'll even role play on how to talk to candidates at a recruiting event.

Remember, your employment brand is not just the materials you put out -- it's also the messages that are being communicated to candidates in person or even through social outlets such as Twitter and Facebook. Everyone who speaks to candidates should know the employment brand and be able to articulate your key messages in your organization's own voice.

Ultimately, your employment brand is your greatest asset in attracting and retaining talent. With the right steps, you can stay on brand and avoid winding up in Employer Jail.