By Claire Rowland, Customer Marketing Manager, Top Employers Institute

Discover the Value of the Top Employers Certification

Top Employers Institute’s purpose is to accelerate the impact of people strategies to enrich the world of work. We are always keen to show this purpose in a practical and data-driven way as well as prove the return on investment delivered to organisations through our Certification Programme. Our latest research report, Value of Participation, How Top Employers Institute Delivers Value – does exactly this. It is based on the insights obtained from independent and unbiased survey of Top Employers conducted by an external research organisation.

The Value of Participation Report 2020 unpacks the benefits Top Employers gain from our Certification Programme, based on our four value pillars: Brand, Benchmark, Align and Connect. These pillars are designed to enable Top Employers to:

Strengthen and leverage their brand through the Certification Seal to highlight their Top Employer status.
Benchmark themselves against other Top Employers in the Top Employers Institute global standard and receive feedback on key opportunities for improvement.
Make a country-by-country comparisons to ensure HQ and regional HR policies and practices are aligned and optimised for all employees.
Connect with a global movement of Top Employers to share insights, knowledge and success through online and offline events.

For our new research report, we wanted to show what these pillars mean to our members. So we asked an independent research company to conduct comprehensive interviews and research on our behalf, which they did among organisations all over the world, with a variety of country, regional and global certifications.

We found that the vast majority (85%) of Top Employers agree that certification by Top Employers Institute creates value for their organisation. And we also discovered that while customers value all four pillars of the Certification Programme, the branding potential of the Certification Seal is one the most valued benefits. Why is this?

Why branding is so important

Having a great employer brand is a key imperative in the HR strategy of our Top Employers. It helps them recruit better candidates, reduce hiring and marketing costs, retain top talent and drive productivity upwards. In order to strengthen their employer brand, our report shows 92% of certified Top Employers have made use of their Certification Seal to attract and/or engage talent.

When it comes to recruitment, employer brand is very clearly important to both employer and employee. Indeed, 70% of Top Employers indicate that they have used the Certification Seal to improve their recruitment processes. It’s easy to see why: it gives enhanced brand awareness for employers among external candidates; while the candidates themselves regularly refer to Top Employers certification in their interviews. And so too do recruitment partners with, for example, greater recognition and visibility among university campuses or employment partners because of certification.

Great employer branding in recruitment produces a positive chain reaction among existing employees – other recent research from Top Employers Institute showed that 68% actively involve current employees as talent brand ambassadors and this clearly has a knock-on impact on retention.

Interviews with Top Employers reinforced the importance of this kind of employer branding – one participant pointed to the sense of pride, as well as decreased turnover and increased engagement levels by saying: “I can see how proud they are because they are sharing it on their private social media like Facebook and LinkedIn.” The Value of Participation Report also shows that 74% agree that the usage of the Certification Seal has improved their positioning as an employer of choice.

What the research report shows is that not only is Top Employers Institute bringing value to its members, but that the branding opportunities it creates can spread quickly and positively throughout the organisation.

For more information on how Top Employers Institute can deliver value for your organisation, please use the download form on the left to access the report.