An employer brand is one of the strongest tools available for attracting and retaining talent. And in the professional services business where your product is your people, your brand is reputation and where reputation is really all about behavior, your employer and consumer brands are inextricably linked (more on that below). So the question isn’t whether you need to articulate and express your employer brand. It’s how.

The place to start is with the right definition of an employer brand.

In an Economist survey of senior management and heads of departments, 60 percent defined it as an “expression of a company’s distinctive employee experience,” as opposed to the 7 percent who suggested that it has to do with the look and tone of recruitment ads and material, for instance. It’s apparent, then, that the majority of senior managers tend to get it. And that’s a good thing; they just may not be sure what to do about it. That’s where you can make a difference.

Speaking of definitions, employer branding clearly involves strong, consistent and compelling (read: hard to ignore) communications, which is critical in a world where we are on the receiving end of more than 3,000 messages—from ads to email— every day. But the process is more involved than having HR and a Cracker Jack agency combine to wow and engage the troops. Yes, communications about the employment experience need to break through the clutter. But a true employer brand is deeper than a campaign: it includes every aspect of how your people are handled—from the moment they make contact with you as recruits to how you handle their retirement party.

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