Employer communications for the City of Helsinki

OBJECTIVE: The City of Helsinki is Finland’s largest employer, and its employees hold more than 1,700 different job titles. It is crucial that the city attracts and retains a wide range of experts and the right kind of professionals when communicating about the city as an employer and place of work. Miltton was approached to help in researching, planning, and creating a communications concept.

INSIGHT: The City of Helsinki has a vision of being the most functional city in the world and sets the bar high for its employees as well. The city needed an employer brand concept that works for all parts of the city’s organisation and harmonises employer branding communication. We analysed existing background material and collected additional qualitative data from employees in both the strategic and creative parts of the process. One common theme among the answers emerged: respondents emphasised the concrete impact of their daily work.

SOLUTION: After the research phase and a joint story workshop, Miltton drafted key messages related to the city’s brand for different internal stakeholders to comment on. After several reiteration rounds, a new employer value proposition (EVP) was formulated.The EVP was crystallised in the slogan “Helsinki. Make a difference.” The slogan is explained more concretely in the employer story and in the main messages tailored to different recruitment target groups. Based on the city’s brand guidelines, Miltton designed a new way of highlighting the impact of city employees in a visual manner.

RESULTS: The employer brand updating work was finalised in October 2020. The work resulted in an internal employer branding manual for HR and communications professionals, as well as an action plan for the strategic level of employer branding. Experts working on employer branding in different parts of the organisation received several concrete tools, such as job post and social media ad templates, as well as new automated messages for candidate communications. The new concept was launched internally with a video and virtual event produced by Miltton. Externally, the new strategy and creative concept were introduced with a brand video and a city-wide outdoor marketing campaign. The launch was widely considered a success among the city’s internal stakeholders.