How Employer Brand Shapes Employee Experience and Retention

Employer brand and employee experience shape how people view an organization before they apply, while they are being recruited and throughout their careers. A compelling employer brand gives candidates an authentic understanding of the company’s purpose, culture and expectations. In this episode, Nick Mailey joins Sally Williamson to discuss how research, employee stories and leadership communication can help organizations attract and retain the right talent.

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On today’s podcast, we have the opportunity to speak with Intuit HR executive Nick Mailey. He shares with us his insights on building not only a brand, but a “work brand.” How do work brands influence the types and levels of talent that an organization can attract?

Why is that so important in today’s world of talent deficits? Nick expresses a need for a culture and a mission that’s meaningful to future employees—and a data-driven plan to make these future hires aware of these important facets of a business. Nick’s expertise highlights what new and existing companies can do to facilitate an engaged, loyal workforce with high mobility.

Show Highlights

• 1:00 How do you create an environment that makes workers want not only to join the company but also to stay? How does storytelling play a role in this?
• 6:30 “Powering Prosperity” How has Nick Mailey used research in the workplace to understand how well people recognize Intuit? How is this relevant to the brand and, more relevantly, employment brands? Why is it important to have a purpose and a more mission-driven focus?
• 9:30 How do you expose potential employees to what working for a company would entail? How do you convey the experience and culture? How does the data support the methods Nick shares?
• 17:30 How much are “Follow-Me-Homes” part of Intuit culture? How is this a testament to the power of stories? How does this story build a higher degree of commitment to the cause of powering prospering? What percentage of Intuit employees don’t know that story?
• 27:00 How does Intuit bring a candidate into the company after having exposure to the brand and its mission? What is the interview process like? How was it developed? How does Nick coach candidates through this process to help them get ready?
• 36:00 How does Nick leverage leaders and their stories within Intuit? What is the purpose of a “talent magnet?”
• 40:00 What is the importance of highlighting the challenges in a story, especially for leaders? How do the twists and turns of a story humanize leadership?

Guest Information

Nick Mailey is an HR executive who leads Talent Acquisition at Intuit, a Most Admired Software Company that also ranks among Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. A passionate talent executive with over 20 years of experience leading recruiting teams in Silicon Valley, Nick is enthusiastic about driving business results by attracting awesome talent.

Nick’s expertise is in developing creative recruiting strategies, assessment methodologies and innovating recruiting solutions. He focuses on cultivating highly engaged teams.  He encourages his team to develop creative and innovative solutions to solve problems.

Nick received his Bachelor’s degree from Temple University and his Master’s degree in Organizational Development from the University of San Francisco.  He’s been recognized by HRO magazine as an HR Superstar and one of the Top Talent Acquisition Leaders in Industry today.

You can find more information about Nick on Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/realworkrealimpact/

How Employer Brand Shapes Employee Experience and Retention

Before someone applies for a position, they have already begun forming an opinion about the organization.

They may have visited the company website, read employee reviews, followed its leaders or spoken with someone who works there. Each interaction shapes expectations about the culture, leadership and experience the organization offers.

That makes employer brand far more than a recruiting message. It is the story people hear before they join and the experience they expect once they arrive.

In this episode of What’s Your Story?, Sally speaks with Nick Mailey about attracting talent, communicating an authentic employee experience and using real stories to help candidates understand what working for an organization is actually like.

Employer Brand Is the Promise. Employee Experience Is the Proof.

An employer brand communicates what an organization wants employees and candidates to believe about working there.

Employee experience reveals whether that promise is credible.

When the two align, employees are more likely to understand the culture, connect with the organization’s purpose and trust what its leaders communicate. When they do not align, polished recruiting language can quickly lose credibility.

Organizations strengthen their employer brands when they communicate honestly about:

• The work employees are expected to do
• The organization’s purpose and priorities
• How decisions are made
• What leaders value
• The opportunities employees have to grow
• The challenges people are expected to navigate
• How the organization supports its people

The goal is not to present a flawless company. It is to give candidates and employees a credible understanding of the organization they are considering.

Employer brand creates an expectation. Employee experience determines whether people continue to believe it.

Recruiting Begins Before a Candidate Applies

The candidate experience rarely begins with a recruiter.

It may begin with a social media post, a conversation with a current employee, an executive interview or a story about how the company responded to a difficult situation. These impressions become part of the organization’s reputation as an employer.

This means leaders throughout the company influence talent acquisition, even if recruiting is not formally part of their role.

What leaders say about the organization matters. So does how they say it. Candidates listen for clarity, credibility and consistency. They also notice whether the employee experience described by leaders matches what they hear from employees.

A compelling employer story cannot be created solely by the communications or human resources team. It must reflect the experience people are actually having.

Start by Understanding What People Already Believe

Before shaping an employer-brand message, organizations need to understand their current reputation.

That requires listening.

Leaders can gather insight through employee research, candidate feedback, engagement surveys, interviews and conversations across the organization. The objective is to identify the themes people consistently associate with the workplace.

Useful questions include:

• Why do employees choose to join?
• Why do they stay?
• What experiences make people proud?
• Where does the employee experience fall short?
• How do employees describe the culture in their own words?
• What do candidates find distinctive or valuable?
• Which leadership behaviors reinforce the stated culture?
• Which behaviors undermine it?

This research gives leaders a more accurate foundation for the employer brand. It also helps them distinguish the organization’s true strengths from the messages they merely hope will resonate.

Connect the Employer Brand to a Credible Purpose

Candidates want to understand more than the position they are being offered. They want context for the work.

What does the organization contribute? Who benefits from its work? How will the employee’s role connect with a larger outcome?

In the conversation, Nick discusses how Intuit connected its employer story to the company’s purpose of “powering prosperity.” Rather than treating purpose as a tagline, the organization sought ways to demonstrate how employees contributed to customers and communities.

A purpose becomes meaningful when leaders can connect it to actual decisions and experiences.

That connection should answer three questions:

1. What does the organization stand for?
2. How does that purpose influence the work?
3. What part will the employee play?

If leaders cannot answer those questions clearly, candidates may struggle to see how the organization’s purpose extends beyond corporate language.

Use Employee Stories to Make the Experience Real

Facts can describe an organization. Stories help people imagine themselves inside it.

Employee stories can show candidates how the culture operates, how teams collaborate and how individuals contribute to meaningful work. They provide examples of the employee experience rather than relying only on broad claims.

Effective employee stories are:

• Specific enough to feel real
• Connected to a meaningful outcome
• Representative of the organization
• Shared with the employee’s knowledge and consent
• Honest about challenges as well as successes
• Relevant to the candidate or employee audience

A useful story might explain how an employee solved a customer problem, grew into a new role, navigated organizational change or received support during a difficult moment.

These stories do not need to be dramatic. Their value comes from helping people understand what the organization looks like in practice.

Candidates do not need a perfect story. They need a believable one.

Leaders Can Become Talent Magnets

Some leaders attract people to an organization because others want to learn from them, work with them and be part of what they are building.

Nick describes these leaders as “talent magnets.”

A talent magnet does more than maintain a visible professional profile. These leaders give people a clear sense of their priorities, expectations and approach. They help employees understand where the organization is going and why the work matters.

They also make the culture more tangible.

Leaders can strengthen their impact on recruiting and retention when they communicate:

• A clear direction for the business
• The value of the team’s work
• Honest expectations
• Stories about employees and customers
• Lessons learned from setbacks
• Opportunities for people to contribute and grow

The leader’s message should remain consistent across recruiting conversations, team meetings, company events and day-to-day interactions. If the external message promises one experience and internal communication creates another, employees will notice the gap.

Leadership Stories Should Include Challenges

Leaders often assume that stories about the organization should focus only on success.

But stories that omit every obstacle can feel manufactured. Challenges provide the tension that helps an audience understand what mattered, what changed and what people learned.

A credible leadership story can acknowledge:

• A decision that was difficult to make
• A problem the organization had to solve
• An approach that did not work initially
• A moment when a team had to adapt
• A lesson that changed the leader’s thinking

Including a challenge does not weaken the message. When handled thoughtfully, it makes the leader and the organization more relatable.

The key is to connect the challenge to a relevant outcome. What did the organization learn? What changed? How did the experience reinforce or reshape the culture?

Align the Candidate and Employee Experience

Recruiting communication sets expectations. Onboarding and daily leadership behavior determine whether those expectations are fulfilled.

Organizations should review the entire experience, including:

• Careers-page messaging
• Recruiter conversations
• Interview preparation
• Interviewer behavior
• Offer communication
• Onboarding
• Manager communication
• Development opportunities
• Recognition and feedback
• Internal mobility
• Leadership visibility

Each moment either reinforces or weakens the employer brand.

For example, an organization may describe itself as collaborative but conduct an impersonal and disconnected interview process. It may promote employee development but fail to give managers the time or tools to support growth.

Consistency does not mean every employee will have an identical experience. It means the organization’s stated values should be recognizable in the moments that matter.

Retention Depends on the Lived Experience

Attracting strong candidates is only part of the challenge. Organizations must also create an experience that encourages people to remain engaged and continue growing.

Retention is influenced by compensation and career opportunity, but communication is part of the experience as well.

Employees want leaders who can explain decisions, provide context, set clear expectations and acknowledge uncertainty. They want to understand how their work connects with organizational priorities. They also need feedback that helps them improve.

When communication is inconsistent, employees are left to fill in the gaps. That can weaken trust and create a very different employee experience from the one the employer brand promises.

Like what you hear? Hear more episodes like this on the What’s Your Story podcast page!