6 Times Companies Differentiated Their Employer Brand By Doing the Right Thing
Differentiation is one of the toughest parts of building a successful employer brand. Even if you’re making the right moves—creating a safe and respectful company culture, promoting and protecting DEI, and prioritizing employee growth—there are plenty of other competitors jockeying for talent with the same, or better, offerings.
When your competition is working hard, and even besting you, differentiation of your employer brand may be your solution. Some companies do this by going against the grain and adopting countercultural stances. Here are six times this has happened.
1. When British Airlines cooperated with unionizers
Employers like Starbucks and Amazon are savagely fighting unionization through retaliation. Unionizing workers are being intimidated, fired, and even arrested.
In better news, British Airlines has agreed to raise pay in response to a workers’ strike in July. Reuters reported that the union called the new deal a “‘vastly’ improved pay offer.”
Similarly, the publisher Condé Nast seems to be cooperating with a union forming among Vogue employees.
Fighting unions creates an adversarial relationship between employer and employee, and no one wants to be a part of that. Go against the grain and work with, not against, your staff. (Irony intended.)
2. When employers raise minimum wages
According to Oxfam, in 2022, more than 31.9% of the US labor force make less than $15 per hour, and many earn the federal minimum wage, which is just $7.25 per hour. Tipped employees in the service industry usually make about $2.13 per hour. So, nothing.
Where I live in Richmond, VA, which is not an expensive city, and a small black coffee at the shop on the corner costs $3.25, before tax.
Pay in the United States is pitifully low, but companies that raise their wage floors are leading the way to higher average pay.
Nicholas Stroud, the owner of Belltree Cocktail Club in Carrboro, North Carolina, raised his employees’ minimum wage to $15.85 per hour plus tips, then wrote an op-ed in The Charlotte Observer, calling on other employers to do the same.
“There is a saying that goes: ‘Exorbitant profits are merely underpaid wages,’” Stroud wrote. “I believe this to be the truth, especially as it pertains to small businesses. We have to be the leaders of our communities and forget what the billionaires and corporations are doing.”
In 2021, Ana Kirova, the CEO of the dating app Feeld, announced the company would pay a $80,000 minimum wage to all employees. Alright, we’re biased because we work with Feeld, but one of the reasons we partner with them is because we respect their ethics.
3. When Reddit refused to cut remote worker pay
In 2021, Google told its employees that they could work remotely, but there was a catch: If they left San Francisco or New York City, the company would cut their pay. Other companies issued similar threats, Twitter and Facebook among them.
Going against the grain, some companies rejected location-based pay, a policy that increases wealth inequality and penalizes already marginalized workers.
Reddit made it clear that it would not practice this kind of discriminatory pay. In a blog post, the company said:
“We are eliminating geographic compensation zones in the US. It means that our US compensation will be tied to pay ranges of high-cost areas such as SF and NY, regardless of where employees live. We believe this is the right balance of flexibility and support for employees, recognizing the varied tradeoffs people consider when deciding where to live.”
4. When Virgin Atlantic lifted its tattoo restrictions
As of June 2022, Virgin Atlantic will allow its uniformed employees to display their tattoos on the job. This is the first UK airline to do this.
This announcement comes just after the brand launched a new campaign, See the World Differently, which blends candidate- and consumer-facing messages into a single message: “Everyone’s welcome onboard with Virgin Atlantic, and you can be wonderfully, unapologetically yourself.”
5. When Alaska Airlines introduced gender-neutral uniforms
I swear I don’t have a weird thing for airlines.
Alaska Airlines scrapped its old dress policy in favor of one that is inclusive of gender non-conforming staff. Not only do workers have more choice in the uniforms they wear, the company eliminated gender-based guidelines for nail polish, ear piercings, and hairstyles. Alaska Airlines said it worked with its employees to design the new policies.
In a statement, the company said: “In partnership with our employees, we have updated our uniform guidelines, effective today, to provide more freedom and flexibility in individual and gender expression.”
6. When companies practice fair chance hiring
Tens of millions of people in the United States have a criminal record, and hiring practices that discriminate against this demographic keep millions in poverty and put them at increased risk of recidivism.
Companies that practice fair-chance hiring fight racist, sexist, and classist stereotypes to expand their talent pools and build a more inclusive employer brand.
Lots of companies practice fair chance hiring, but it’s by no means common. Dave’s Killer Bread is one of the more famous examples. This company bakes fair-chance hiring it right into its candidate- and customer-facing brands.
Hiring people with criminal records is the right thing to do, plus it’s an excellent way to solve the talent shortage and fill roles quickly.
Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza writes about workplace culture, DEI, and hiring. Her work has appeared in Fast Company, From Day One, and InHerSight, among others.
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