Why your Employer Reputation matters more to your CEO than your EVP or EB

If you have responsibility and accountability for your organisations’ employer brand, when was the last time your CEO asked you how it was performing? My guess would be never. Over the past few weeks, we’ve noticed the word ‘reputation’ creeping into a number of EB related posts on LinkedIn – arguably without any real understanding of what it is, what influences it and how it’s measured. So let’s start this piece with some definitions:

• Employee Value Proposition (EVP): The package of benefits, culture, and opportunities offered to employees in exchange for their skills.
• Employer Brand: How the EVP is communicated and marketed to attract and retain talent. It’s the story the company tells about itself as an employer.
• Employer Reputation: The external perception of the company as a workplace, shaped by leadership behaviour, ethics, financial performance, and societal impact. Unlike brand, reputation is earned — not marketed.

Think of employer brand as the promise, and employer reputation as the proof. Brand is curated; reputation is earned.

Why Reputation Matters More to your CEO

• Strategic Reach Beyond HR. EVP and employer brand are primarily HR tools. Reputation, however, influences investors, regulators, customers, and communities. A CEO’s remit is broader than talent attraction — it’s about safeguarding trust across all stakeholders.
• Risk and Resilience. EVP can be redesigned, and employer brand can be refreshed. Reputation, once damaged, is far harder to rebuild. For a chief executive, reputation is the shield against crises and the foundation for long-term resilience.
• Talent at the Top. EVP and brand may attract entry-level or mid-career talent, but senior leaders and high performers weigh reputation most heavily. They know their own credibility is tied to the organization’s standing.
• Leadership Accountability Employer brand is often owned by HR/TA and marketing. Reputation, however, is inseparable from the CEO’s decisions and visibility. When society judges a company, it judges its leadership first.

Remember, in the words of Warren Buffet – ‘it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently’

For your CEO, your employer reputation is the ultimate currency of trust. Whilst EVP and employer brand are important tools for HR and Talent Acquisition teams, they operate within the shadow of employer reputation. A strong EVP may well attract candidates, and a polished, well-crafted employer brand may generate interest and advocacy, but if your company’s reputation falters, neither can compensate.

The benefits of a strong employer reputation go beyond candidate attraction and employee retention. It drives organisational performance, improves productivity, enhances company culture and unleashes discretionary effort. It delivers competitive advantage, drives business growth, improves customer ratings, earnings and financial performance, mitigates risk and boosts your organisation’s market value.

A CEO’s Perspective

For your CEO, your EVP is the promise, employer brand is the story, but employer reputation is the ultimate reality. And in their eyes, reality always wins.

Trust is the currency of employer reputation — it determines whether candidates join, colleagues stay, customers buy, investors invest, and whether society grants your company its license to operate.

In today’s transparent world, where every decision is scrutinized, CEOs must treat employer reputation as arguably their most valuable asset. EVP and employer brand are important, but they are only as strong as the reputation that underpins them.

Hopefully, you now see why employer reputation matters more. But these questions remain. What factors drive it? And how do you measure it. Because if you don’t have answers to these questions, then how can you manage it?

The Ceriph team has spent the past 2.5years working with the business school at Aston University, conducting research to find answers to these questions. And now, we’re in a position to share. If you’d like to find out get in touch.