How leaders can influence and elevate your employer brand

During Ragan’s Internal Communications Conference at Microsoft HQ in Seattle last fall, Ragan Editorial Director Justin Joffe moderated a conversation with Nourisha Wells, senior manager of communications and McKinsey & Co, UCLE Health Executive director of Leadership and Internal Communications Alisha Celestine, and Samantha Grandinetti, internal communications manager at Staffbase to find out.

Here’s what we learned.

Folding in leadership strategically

If events of global unrest over the past year have taught us anything, it’s that there’s no one right answer as to when leadership should be folded in to emphasize the goals of your employer brand.

“You have to balance the business goals with the culture goals and look at how the leader can balance those,” said Wells. “I build my strategy around what kind of leader we have, because they’re going to be evangelists of all of this. What’s the personality of the leader? What kind of channels do they feel comfortable being part of? Thinking about what their methods of communication naturally are, then pushing them beyond that to make sure we’re reaching our goals.”

Aligning their values with corporate values to build a culture that’s a destination organization is always the move, she added.