Look, feel & tone

Covering the look, feel and tone, the employer brand is the creative expression of our Employee Value Proposition (EVP). It’s how our proposition is presented across all candidate and employee touchpoints – from posters and exhibition stands, to digital marketing and social media.

It has been developed specifically for talent communications. It adheres to the Umicore Group Brand in all aspects. For all communications there are a number of mandatory elements. They include the logo, the color palette and typography. Please note that we have not included the Radiance Device.

Our employer brand revolves around one aspirational and provocative question:

Imagine what you could do?

It’s a question that acknowledges that pushing the boundaries of what’s known is vital to our ongoing success and growth. And, subsequently, the growth and development of our employees.

As inviting as it is challenging, Imagine what you could do? purposefully attempts to attract those who want to build on what we have started and contribute to an even more exciting future. In essence, employees who want to use their skills, their ideas and their can-do attitude to help create materials for a better life.

What our employer brand looks like

Imagine what you could do? takes a warm, authentic visual approach and combines it with provocative messaging. It adopts a split-device that features the employee/s on the left side of the communication (or top in portrait communications) with the first part of a headline that references Umicore’s specialisms and capabilities. On the right (or bottom) Imagine what you could do? sits on the whitespace – alongside body copy if required and should start at the height of the last line of the headline.

1. The main – and interchangeable – part of our headline always sits on the image.
2. Our logo with ‘materials for a better life’ will always appear on our communications
3. Photography shows real employees at work, and in a recognisable environment. Where possible the subject is positioned on the left side of the image.
4. The ‘pay-off’ part of our headline – which should never change – sits on the whitespace. Imagine what you could do? works with the whitespace to suggest that this is a place where you can truly shape the future.
5. The white space represents the contrast between what Umicore is doing today, and what we may be doing in the future.

More details on the visual and textual elements that form our employer brand can be found in the following sections.

Specifications:

1. Image fills 60% or 70% of the wider side.
2. Gradient bar goes from blue at the bottom to green at the top and placed on the left border. It has 1/4x width.
3. Headline font Dax Medium (24pt). Size should be smaller than the ‘pay off’ – Imagine what you could do? Ratio of font sizes between main headline and the headline pay off is 3:4
4. Headine ‘pay off’ font Dax Extra Bold (32pt). ‘Pay off’ line could be as large as possible while not exceeding the content area.
5. Make sure the last line of the headline is bottom-aligned to one of the three ‘pay off’ line.
6. Body copy sits within this area.

Vertical format:

1. Logo should be readable against the image.
2. Image fills between 60% or 70% of the space depending on how much content space needed. 
3. Headline and ‘pay-off’ line should be left-aligned to the 10x10 grid.
4. Body copy should be left-aligned to one of the word of the ‘pay-off’ line.

Square format

It is a format used in social media as it looks good for both desktop and mobile. Keep it simple with snappy headline and put the body copy/details on the post caption instead.

Photography

Visually, we want our employer brand to show an authentic picture of what life is like working for Umicore. Innovative, collaborative, productive and open. As such, we use photography that shows employees in the real-life, daily scenarios where they naturally find themselves and looking directly at the camera. Employees need to be taken in their own work environment doing their own job. For the majority of audiences, this means showing them looking up from their work or collaborating with a colleague. We would prefer to see a Umicore logo in the background or on uniforms - it’s imperative that all subjects wear the relevant safety equipment for the environment and location they are in. 

We are looking for diversity in all its aspects.

The design of our employer brand means that communications will show photography on the left or top and ‘white space’ on the right or lower half. As a result - where possible - the subject should be positioned on the left side of the image - leaving room for the headline and logo on the right. That said, this should not be achieved at the expense of a better image. Please also note that any imagery will need to be used in a variety of different sized marketing materials - both on and offline.

You can find more detail on what kind of photography should be used for different audiences in the following chapter on Audience Segmentation.

Overall, imagery should be clean, rich, warm, friendly and – above all – authentic. The images shown here give you a good indication of the style you should use.

The Asset Bank holds a number of images that you can use for our employer brand– but if you wish to commission your own shoot there are a number of rules your photographer should adhere to. These can be found in the photography guidelines,  but as a rule all photography should meet the following standards:

Video

Visit our video guidelines for more information on creating employer branding testimonials. Please consult with Group Communications when developing the concept of your video to ensure brand consistency throughout the regions.

Textual style - Tone of voice

The way we write for our employer brand should be reflective of our brand’s personality – Responsible, Ingenious and Personal. 

Responsible

In the same way that we take a responsible approach to our financial, environmental and social performance, we should also take responsibility for every word we write. Imagine what you could do? is an open and inviting question, but it shouldn’t be taken to mean that anything is possible. Everything we write should be true and authentic. Not full of superlatives or exaggeration.

Ingenious - Confident

Umicore is an ingenious business, but we shouldn’t strive to be too clever with our tone. The use of ‘Imagine what you could do?’ does enough on its own to convey our innovative spirit. However, what we should convey through our tone is a confidence that this is an exciting, growing organisation where those employees who contribute a lot will receive a lot back.

Personal

In the same way that we tailor products to our customers, we should also tailor our communications to our target audiences. That means following the messaging guidelines in our audience segmentation, but also being human in the way we write. For example, using ‘we’ and ‘you’ rather than ‘the successful applicant’.

Headlines

Central to our concept is a simple headline structure that highlights the work of Umicore and our employees, and then asks Imagine what you could do? The suggestion being ‘what could you achieve in this kind of environment/with this kind of technology/with these kind of skills/with this kind of organisational ambition?’.

In Umicore’s Brand Asset Bank, you can find an overview of all available headlines. They have been written for all businesses and audiences tailored according to the audience segmentation.

The first half of the sentence starts with ‘if our’ or ‘if my’ - referencing the capabilities of an individual or the organisation.

Headlines have been defined for all businesses and audiences. It’s important to note that 'Imagine what you could do?' always completes the headline.

Read our headline matrix

Body copy

For certain communication materials, which you can find under the Employer Branding Toolkit, we have prepared additional text elements for job postings including Umicore's company profile and job insert guidelines - accessible via the Brand Asset Bank. These are designed to align with our tone of voice and are specifically tailored to our target audiences.