Why employment branding is the key to attracting top talent: a conversation with Dierbergs Markets’ Erica Campbell

For our second Client Corner conversation, we sat down with Erica Campbell, Director of Talent Management at Dierbergs Markets, to discuss the importance of employment branding on talent acquisition, retention and engagement. Dierbergs Markets recently implemented Be Dierbergs, a new employment brand strategy focused on their unique value propositions to attract and retain the best talent.

Jennifer: How would you describe the employment branding process and its benefits on prospective candidates, current employees and the market?

Erica: Dierbergs is fortunate to have a reputable company brand. We’ve been in business since 1854, and our roots in the St. Louis area are deep and strong. At the beginning of 2021 in partnership with NAS, we embraced our legacy and bright future to create the Be Dierbergs employment brand. NAS worked with our company owners, executives, managers and Associates to understand who Dierbergs really is—to get to know a company, you get to know the people.

The benefits of having a defined employment brand are abundant, and I believe we’ll see even more benefits over time.

Jennifer: According to Sophie Haynes, Senior Global Employer Brand Manager at Unilever, creating a consistent employer brand has never been more valuable. How does an employment brand initiative allow organizations to better position themselves to attract the best talent?

Erica: Attracting great talent doesn’t just happen through strategically optimized recruitment plans with well-placed job advertisements. It happens through the fruition of a company’s culture—a company’s purpose, values and how you share that message is what wins talent.

Be Dierbergs is at the foundation of who we are and who we aspire to be, and we want to celebrate everyone being their authentic self in all we do. When you have a strong employment brand that defines your unique employment value proposition and you share that through a strategically optimized recruitment plan, you are firing on all cylinders. That’s the magical sauce.

Jennifer: How has a dedicated strategy, creating both awareness and action made an impact at Dierbergs?

Erica: Two words come to mind: continuity and differentiation.

Starting with differentiation, Be Dierbergs is us. It’s unique to any other campaign we have ever done or seen. No one can Be Dierbergs besides us. As for continuity, having a dedicated strategy that represents who you are both internally and externally ensures you are delivering, upon hire, on what you are messaging in the talent attraction process.

Our intention is to ensure that the talent we hire sees the Dierbergs culture they saw during the hiring process and beyond. We want to ensure our values come across in orientation and through onboarding, so that those first few critical months set positive expectations for the entire life cycle of their career with Dierbergs.

The foundation of all this is to Be Dierbergs, but we also want to represent our employees being themselves, and NAS helped us bring that to life. From a design and messaging standpoint, your team really got to know us. We’re proud to embrace our legacy and our bright future, and we’re happy to partner with an organization like yours that takes the time to understand us and our goals.

careers.dierbergs.com

Jennifer: What have you found to be the most realistic plan and timeline to promote your brand?

Erica: As soon as we landed on the brand and message that best represented us, we began work to bring it to life. It was important for us that our marketed employment brand, our identity, connected both internally and externally. A flashy recruitment marketing campaign with no substance is just that, a flash. Here and gone. Be Dierbergs is foundational. We want to ensure that the talk we talk matches the walk. We started internally, simplifying our competencies to focus in on eight critical behaviors we expect from all Dierbergs associates. These behaviors demonstrate what it means to Be Dierbergs.

We’re weaving the eight behaviors into everyday life at Dierbergs through awareness marketing, communication, learning and development. The work has just begun, and the timeline is infinite. We believe the work should never stop to keep your identity and brand top of mind.

Jennifer: How do you engage employees with your employment brand?

Erica: Our goal is to breathe life into how the Be Dierbergs behaviors connect to our “Grow Every Day” purpose. We’ve begun to incorporate Be Dierbergs into many facets of everyday life for our Associates. Starting with meetings and video communication via our Learning Management System, all Associates learned about Be Dierbergs and how it ties into our purpose. We followed that up with installing floor decals that include the Be Dierbergs behaviors and our “Grow Every Day” purpose displayed in high traffic Associate areas. We continue to weave Be Dierbergs into our communications, trainings, new leadership development initiatives and more. Again, the work has just begun, and we are excited to continue engaging our Associates on the Be Dierbergs journey.

Need assistance with creating a winning employment brand – or any other area of recruitment marketing? Contact us and we’ll start a conversation.

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