"Employer Branding" as it really ought to be

I read this kind of boring article yesterday about how employers can improve their image by treating themselves as a "brand." This is all the rage. But it was mostly the usual platitudes and stuff. So I livened things up by making some suggestions on how an employer can really differentiate themselves.

Here's the suggestions in full:

Here are a few more ideas to truly differentiate an employer in a positive way, especially to the newer generations:

- Be among the first to incorporate "ethical behaviour" as part of your annual performance review process. Start at the top and report semi-annually on what senior management has done to ensure that unethical behaviour is not tolerated. Reward employees financially for doing their jobs well while not "doing evil." Punish those who succeed wildly at the expense of honesty, decency, fairness, sustainability, etc. (I know this sounds unreasonable these days - yet how appealing this is to the 'best and brightest' who are fed up with having to compromise their core principles just to make a reasonable living).

- Fire assholes. Seriously. Don't tolerate bullies, liars, thieves, demoralizers, and other insidious performers, even if they do eek out a bit more revenue than others. You want morale to soar through the ceiling? Publicly turf out the worst offenders and watch as your employees burst into choruses of "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead!"

- Trumpet your "sustainability" and community enhancing efforts. Make sustainability part of your internal culture and processes by going green where possible.

- Find ways to creatively retain employees who are positive contributors even when they are going through troubled times. Job sharing, reduced workloads and extended leaves with guaranteed return to employment are ways to start.

- Oh, and maybe even have better compensation packages than your competitors; promote employee development in areas that are actually of interest to each individual (e.g. tuition reimbursement, paid association memberships, sponsored courses and magazine subscriptions, etc.).

- Provide an excellent externally-sourced Employee Assistance Plan and actually boast about it instead of suppressing its existence to save a buck or two.

- Put in policies that promote the taking of full vacation entitlement without penalty (perceived or real). Make senior managers take two week at a time vacations so that others know they can actually do likewise, without being viewed as weak, traitorous, lazy, not a team player, etc.

- Encourage things like flex-time, telecommuting, family leave and other worklife balance programs

Now really, isn't this better than all the smoke and mirror efforts too many supposedly "Top Employers" use to lure in employees? Heck, with all the incremental productivity you'll generate, all the loyalty that will reduce expensive turnover, the healthier employees that will require fewer days off and use less of their health benefits...you might actually increase profits while gaining a genuinely deserved reputation as a "best employer."

Just saying.