Thirty things you need to remember about employer brands

This is what CIPD summed up about Employer Brand in the report "Employer branding, A no-nonsense approach". Having read this I really think this is the essence she should be aware of:

1 Like all brands, employer brands are essentially marketing concepts and constructs.
2 The tools and methodologies of employer brand development are substantially the same as those for consumer or corporate brand development.
3 Employer brands are at least as much about retention and engagement as they are about recruitment.
4 Never trust anyone who tries to wrap employer brands in a cloak of mystique or jargon.
5 They’re not just for the big, glamorous PLCs with their own high-profile consumer brands. They’re for every local authority, charity, SME, government department, academic organisation that needs to recruit, retain and engage good people.
6 The basic difference between talent attraction the old way and the brand-based way is the introduction of research.
7 Employer brands can support corporate brands, and vice versa.
8 Every employer brand is an investment that should and must demonstrate a return comparable to other forms of business investment.
9 To prove a brand’s effectiveness and demonstrate its ROI, you need to accurately measure your current performance in recruitment and retention.
10 The highest ROI ever recorded by an employer brand was 290%.
11 Starting a brand development project doesn’t commit you to completing it: you can walk away at any stage, and every stage will yield its own value.
12 Developing an employer brand proves that HR can handle big, strategic projects and issues.
13 The shortest realistic time to develop a brand is six to eight weeks: in reality, you should allow a lot longer. Its value will last and grow for as many years, and probably longer.
14 The biggest cost element of an employer brand project will be research.
15 You already have an employer brand, because your organisation has a reputation as an employer. It may not be the brand you want or deserve, but it’s there just the same.
16 One of the first employer brands – and one that still enjoys a strong, well-defined reputation – is Civil Service Fast Stream.
17 Probably the first commercial organisation to take the issue of employer brand seriously was British Airways way back in the late 1980s.
18 You can’t develop a brand on your own – you need to involve marketing, PR, your internal communications team.
19 Your recruitment website is one of the most potent expressions of your brand, enabling potential applicants (and your own people) to see your values in action and experience the reality of working for your organisation.
20 The public sector has done as much to embrace the concept of employer brands as the commercial sector.
21 One of the keys to a successful brand is to ensure that expectation is fully aligned with the reality of working for your organisation.
22 Before you’re tempted to launch your brand externally, make sure it’s fully communicated, understood and embedded internally.
23 Research for the brand may show up weaknesses in your product – the basic features of working for your organisation.
24 Brands breed engagement – the discretionary time and effort that people put into their jobs, and that customers or service users notice.
25 Engagement – and the financial value of engagement – can be accurately measured.
26 A brand toolkit will give recruiters and line managers the flexibility they need, and the brand consistency you want.
27 Without compromising consistency, a brand can be tailored to create the greatest resonance with a number of different audiences and talent market sectors.
28 Your employer brand can give new focus and consistency to your ongoing employee communications.
29 If employer brands are a big HR issue today, they’ll be even bigger tomorrow.
30 Employer brand development is attracting managers from classic marketing backgrounds to move into HR.