Instead of buying ads from a finite number of real publishers that had real human audiences, marketers were convinced to buy ads through programmatic channels, by ad tech vendors that created those channels to make money for themselves.

They’re goals.

For years, HR and talent acquisition teams have been told to 'think like marketers.' That's mainly because marketing is known for adapting to changing market conditions and leveraging new technology to create differentiation and competitive advantage. Brand and customer experience (CX) are prime examples where marketing shines.  But do we, or rather should we, flip this thinking back on HR and TA? Maybe we've had it all wrong. Maybe marketing should actually own all aspects of the organization's brand. And at that point, if marketing is taking ownership of the employer brand, then what about the employee experience (EX)? Should

Desperately trying to convince people to change their worldview with facts does not work and might even backfire. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌...

The connection between employer brand and talent brand is the difference between simply making a promise and consistently delivering on that promise.

It occurred to me just now, if there isn't one already, there should be an American-Jewish, or Jewish-America short story titled, "Would You...

Around 4 million adults aren’t looking for jobs, not because they’re scarce but because of worries about catching the coronavirus.

Why your employee referrals fail: one variable that can single-handedly impact the success of employee referrals in every organization regardless of size is your internal marketing strategy.

As news comes of the Royal family's desire to hire a Diversity and Inclusion consultant, Kim Tran explores how the industry is at a crossroads and if it could find its roots again.

Too often, ads end up targeting people who would buy the product anyway.

Even well-intentioned firms were biased in practice.

Guess who lies the most during interviews? Yes, you are right! How do I know you’re right, without even finding out your answer? Because everyone lies during interviews! Hiring Managers lie. Interviewees lie. HR lies. The Recruiters lie. Everyone. Lies. The Wall Street Journal recently did a piece on all the lies and the types of lies that happen during ... Read More

Businesses seldom topple and fall because of monumental and loud failures. They fall because of a quiet and relentless series of small and insidious decisions and behaviours that are made each and everyday. The Silent Revolution happening inside your company will spell your demise if you don’t tackl

If you've got the time (and the outrage), here is the big article on the internal comms and culture of Away. Why is this worth your time? It is an amazing example of how tools and processes (Slack! Value-driven culture!) that were launched to help us change work, can still be used to badger, belittle and abuse staff (someone in a forum called it "weaponizing values" and I can't get that out of my head). There's are a million quotes I could use, but I suggest you watch to see how "open communication" can be used to instill fear, how "embracing values" can be corrupted to build a cult of personality.

I've been in a lot of meetings and rooms where someone asks, "why don't we do what XYZ is doing?" I wonder if that's a function of all corporate recruiting being functionally the same that they don't recognize that branding should actually be different. But that's a tangent we can investigate later. Here's an article that talks about why brands that imitate are going to get in deep trouble.

So many companies rely on case-based interviews, that there's an assumption that they must be useful. 50 million Elvis fans can't be wrong, right? But there's a lot of data refuting the value of this kind of evaluation. As top consulting companies shift interview styles, there's an opportunity for employer branding to both shape what is being evaluated for (thus aligning with the brand) and communicate why the shift is happening (again, reinforcing the brand and how a holistic approach to talent might be driving these changes).

I can usually count on the HBR to take the safe road in any given situation, so seeing an article that embraces some very contrarian ideas is always worth a note. But this article on the three things most people get wrong about organizational change was pretty great. Things like "Share Your Failures" rather that "Follow Best Practices" make my heart warm on many levels. Also note the example of "Kill Our Company" (also known as Red Team exercises) where people try to figure out how to destroy their own company in order to shore up their own strategic weaknesses.

Speaking of not segmenting enough, this article on common mistakes on brand awareness lists forgetting to segmentation as it's first mistake!

Keep that in mind when you go investing in digital/social ads for your employer brand: for all the talk about amazing targeting, its still mostly bull. (For more ranting on the subject, check out Bob Hoffmann’s Ad Contrarian newsletter). And so I offer everything that’s wrong with ads in three tweets.