Learn about how Sephora built a global Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and strengthened their culture.

In Making Great Strategy, Stanford b-school professors Jesper Sørensen and Glenn Carroll bridge the gap between abstract strategic visions and executable plans.

Each part of 2021 will be a distinctive marketplace with a discrete set of opportunities. Brands must plan accordingly. The ‘More COVID’ Part Of The Year Each part of 2021 will be a distinctive marketplace with a discrete set of opportunities. Brands must plan accordingly.

A survey of Fortune 1000 executives sheds light on the cultural barriers to change.

Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger explains why songs with the word “you” are more successful, and what that could mean for other products.

There’s no more compelling sales pitch for your workplace than one from the mouth of a worker. Anyone considering a position at your company would be wise to seek out the thoughts of one of your current and former employees, who come armed with firsthand experience, and are able to offer an unbiased view. It’s […]

Introduction

A craftsperson is someone who practices a trade or discipline with the ultimate goal of mastery. Anyone, in any discipline, can be a craftsperson if they so choose. Each and every one of us has the capacity to do good work of some kind. I myself am a consultant by trade and the founder of […]

Google's Official Digital Marketing Publication. Explore the three types of marketing incrementality and what each type can be used for.

Creativity can seem like a mysterious process. But many of the most creative people understand that you can actually break it down into a simple formula, involving what researcher Douglas Hofstadter calls “jootsing.” Here’s how understanding systems can help us think more creatively.

I've always thought about building an Oblique Strategies deck for EB folks. What, you don't know what the OS cards are? Designed by Brian Eno (the guy who turned "alien" David Bowie into "genius" David Bowie), they are cards you select when you're stuck. Designed for musicians originally, they had instructions designed to spark thinking like "go to an extreme and work your way back" or "change instrument roles." Sometimes they were very... high-minded like "twist the spine" or "question the heroic approach." I love it because it assumes that the right answer is inside you already and you just need to clear out the clutter of your own mind to find it. Anyway, if you're stuck, here are 10 strategies to re-spark your thinking when trying to turn around your employer brand.

This week's long read comes to us from strategy+business. This is a great primer on what you can do to create culture change in your organization. Sure, as employer brand people, you may grapple with the business of when you need to accept an aspect of the culture and when you should try to change it (especially when you likely have no formal power to do so), but this article may help you see ways to nudge the change into occurring.

I really wish we could all get away from talking about "culture" as if there's some platonic ideal of culture we should all be shooting for. What I like is not what you like and that's completely fine. And while there are some good points here about fostering a stronger and more obvious culture, don't get sucked into the position that there's only one measure of quality culture.

Because employer branding as a function is so incredibly complex, it seems like the people who do it each have their own "process" for development. Some people are copy-writers, some people approach it more visually. Some people leverage their tech stack. And others work the internal politics side to develop something that will have immediate buy-in. Those are all possible ways to do it. But what if you had something stronger, something that yo could build creative on top of, something that was tech agnostic, or could shut down petty squabbles internally quickly? Because such a thing might exist? What is your employer brand built on?

The dirty little secret to successful employer branding is the ability to "sell" the concept and idea up the chain. Without any buy-in, you will be isolated on an island for a long time ("a three hour tour..."). But if you can get leadership excited for the work, your path forward will always be clearer. So here's Phil Strazzulla whiteboarding how to build a strong business case for your TA and EB initiative.

Why should you think more like an anthropologist? Well, no brand can survive without feeling, sensing, and talking to their people. The anthropologist understands the development of humans in societies or cultures, which is what happens when people come together. That sounds like the sort of thing every employer brand pro should aspire to be.

Myself, I don't get too wrapped up in scripting the brand experience, mostly because I don't know how much you can really script the brand experience. But if you need to get a handle on the idea, here's a nice write-up on how to script your own.

If you're going to force your candidates through your TSA-like ATS (huh... they share the same letters... weird), you better be taking advantage of it as a shared point of contact (and data) for candidates and recruiters.

There are a lot of reasons you might communicate as to why someone should work for your company. But have you considered that they'd want to work here because you're a thought leader? Here are some guidelines to consider when building out your thought leadership connected to your brand.

Our jobs often feel lonely in a sea of people (because we're the only ones who understand what we do). So essays that discuss what someone has learned in their job and journey are so valuable. Jazmyn Mijuskovic talks about her first year at Publix.

Our jobs often feel lonely in a sea of people (because we're the only ones who understand what we do). So essays that discuss what someone has learned in their job and journey are so valuable. Here are two: Lilian Mahoukou talks about his work at Mondelez,

What does it take to build a strong employer brand? Well, you need to know how to execute projects (tactical mind). You also need to be able to select and prioritize your projects (strategic mind), but theres something still missing. If you want your brand work to achieve maximum impact, you need to know how to tap into a third mind: the political mind. The Three Minds of Employer Branding over at ERE.

In a lot of ways, an EVP is like home improvement: you start watching enough HGTV shows from your couch and you start to think, "how card could that be? Maybe I should tackle my own EVP project..." Which are some of my favorite famous last words. Now, I'm not saying you can't build your own EVP all by yourself, but watching the process from the outside misses the complex and messy things that go on during the commercial breaks where everyone's screaming at each other and that suddenly load-bearing wall has been demoed. Oops. So if you're thinking about taking the job yourself, here is a great article at ERE on some common ways that companies who try to to DIY their EVP get into trouble.

How does your brand change what it values? Here are six possible ways to approach how you change in light of the crisis (based on a study of how brands changed in 2009 after the initial housing collapse). Thinking through these ideas is how to position your brand to be far more effective and valuable once things calm down.

1,200 Post-It Notes to Fix a Broken Culture. Yes, sometimes it takes a lot of work to dig deep and make change.

I love talking about rejection letters (sorry... disposition messaging ...rolls eyes...) because they are deeply impactful messaging opportunities we tend to phone in. Which is why I loved this article about how Intel re-designed its rejection experience (and it is an "experience," is it not?).

It’s time to move past “What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?”The real value of emotional commitment is that it gives you (and everyone else) permission to re-write the "rules." You know those things you've always done because that's just the way it's always been done? Set that on fire and re-invent, not because it's what your boss says to do, or because that's what the magazines say is "cool," but because you actually care about outcomes. Example? Reinvent your hiring process. Now, HBR isn't exactly coming up with cold fusion here, but when the they are willing to say that the way we interview flat-out isn't working, you know it's time to reinvent. But don't reinvent around a fad. Thing about what you and your company really care about in an employee (and what you reward) and build round that. Writing, games, role-play, improv exercises, whatever it takes to tap into your (and their) emotional commitment.

One of the challenges EB is grappling with in the face of mandated remote work is how to collaborate, brain-storm or just workshop an idea together. EB, because it connects all the parts of the company, is inherently collaborative, and Zoom (et al) doesn’t really get many people’s creative juices flowing. So here are some ideas on how to brainstorm when no one can share a room with a white board and those massive post-it notes.

"If this is how we consume content in our busy, daily lives, why would we behave differently in our even busier work lives?"