In the private sector where silence is golden, how can you make your voice heard? Government contracting is an employment relationship filled with high stakes, intense competition, and global impacts. Yet, for many employers in this industry, differentiating their employer brand is a challenge of its own.

Over the years, exaqueo has partnered with several government contractors, both large and mid-size. Through this work, our team has gained deep insights into the industry, the work environments, job functions, and the sector’s unique challenges and opportunities. ‍

Let’s take a look at what we’ve learned about employer branding in this field (top-secret clearance not required).
‍

The Challenge of Differentiation

Standing out in a sea of sameness. This is one of the greatest hurdles for many employer brand professionals to overcome. In the world of government contracting, it’s even more so.

Government contractors often use similar language to describe their employment experience: join the mission, make the world safer, protect the nation, and engage in transformative, innovative work. While these phrases are powerful, they are ubiquitous—making it difficult for individual organizations to truly differentiate themselves.

Differentiation is crucial in talent attraction and acquisition. Companies with a strong employer brand experience 50% more qualified applicants and a 28% reduction in turnover. For lesser-known organizations, the challenge is even more pronounced. They must start from scratch, building awareness as an organization and as an employer, and making would-be candidates aware of their opportunities. This is no small feat in a talent market already filled with large, well-known players.
‍

Navigating Perceptions and Realities

Some government contractors we’ve worked with at exaqueo face perception challenges, such as the belief that their work is slow, bureaucratic, or lacks transparency due to security clearances. The nature of their work often involves aerospace, defense, homeland security, or warfare, as well as a need for security clearances and top secret confidentiality. This limits the amount and type of information they can share externally, creating a potential discrepancy between external perceptions and internal realities. For some potential candidates, the very nature of this work brings negative reactions. For others, it’s a key motivator.
‍

Geographic Competition and Brand Alignment

The concentration of government contractors in the greater Washington, D.C. area intensifies local competition for talent. Moreover, employees often feel a greater connection to the specific contracts they work on rather than their employer. When contracts are won or lost, they directly impact employment.

Aligning the employer brand with the consumer brand—or across locations— is another common challenge. We’ve witnessed firsthand, the work experience can vary greatly between locations (and regions if it’s a global company), so “government contractor” could mean anything from defense, health services, IT, jail staff, etc. This can make it a little trickier to have a cohesive employer brand. 

In addition, employees working on customer sites may experience work cultures that mirror those of their customers versus truly experiencing their employer’s culture, leading to even more varied work environments within the same organization.
‍

Crafting Your Employer Brand Strategy

In a crowded space, authentic differentiation isn’t just beneficial—it’s essential. An employer brand helps attract the best candidates who will thrive inside the world of government contracting. Employees who feel connected to the organization are more likely to be committed to the employment relationship. A strong employer brand builds a positive reputation, which can lead to better business, project, and contract outcomes overall. So, how can government contractors build a differentiated employer brand? 

• Talk to Your Employees to Find the Common Threads: Every organization has, what we refer to at exaqueo as, “core truths” that set it apart and become the “connective tissue” across regions, locations, functions, and projects. By interviewing your employees, you can uncover these insights that might not be readily apparent or clearly defined. Employees can provide firsthand accounts of what makes your organization a great place to work, from the company culture to the coworkers to the opportunities.‍
• Highlight Key Aspects of Your Work and Culture: Emphasize what sets your company and projects apart. Whether it’s core values, cutting-edge technology, significant societal impacts, or innovative solutions, make these elements central to your employer brand strategy.
• Audit the Competition: Companies should use competitive intelligence to gain advantage; this is true in business and talent strategies. This includes understanding how they are communicating and marketing the employment experience. A key way to stand out in the sea of sameness is to know how the competition is showing up, and ensure you do not look and sound like everyone else.
• ‍Leverage Employee Stories: According to LinkedIn, 83% of job seekers consider company reviews and employee insights important when making job decisions. Source, identify, and share stories from your employees that do not require top-secret clearance. Coach employees to share the highlights without divulging sensitive information. Highlight their experiences and the particular projects and aspects of working with your company. At exaqueo, we’ve observed government contractors successfully shift brand perceptions by showcasing employee testimonials and behind-the-scenes content that demystifies their work environment.
• ‍Refresh and Adapt: Regularly revisit and adapt your employer value proposition to reflect the current environment and the evolving needs of your workforce. Post-COVID, we’ve observed shifts in employer brand perceptions. Organizations with pre-COVID employer value propositions may find these no longer resonate. Now is the time to revisit and refresh these propositions to align with the current landscape.

In an industry that can sometimes seem impersonal due to its bureaucratic nature, humanizing your brand is crucial. As we’ve seen through our work at exaqueo, the organizations that succeed in differentiating their employer brand are those that embrace their authentic strengths and employment realities, and adapt to changing perceptions.

Developing a distinctive, authentic employer brand isn’t just about attracting talent; it’s about creating a lasting impression that resonates with both current and future employees. In a space where silence often prevails, how will you let your employees’ voices be heard? 

‍Struggling to articulate your organization’s unique employment experience? This is the problem we’ve been helping clients solve for more than a decade.  Let’s see how we can tackle this together. Contact us.