The phrase "recruiting through the op-ed pages" may becomes shorthand in my head for finding unique ways of getting your employer brand story out into the wild without using the "usual" channels.

Branding Magazine takes a few steps back and asks, "what does brand success look like in 2020?" It's an interesting question for us employer branders, as many of us still have to explain our job and occasionally justify our existence (ugh). It's not a complex article, but might help you simplify your approach to what matters.

I've got mixed thoughts on this article on employer brand KPIs you can adopt. It has the usual suspects (Glassdoor rating, TTF, CPH), in addition to content engagement and candidate flow. Sure, those are good metrics to know, but they aren't clean metrics. If a million people engage with your content because you offered job seeking tips, does that really impact your employer brand more than tangentially, regardless of volume of engagement? And the same can be said for diversity metrics: while it's helpful to know what roles are appealing to which gender or ethnicity, metrics imply a goal, which isn't usually how we're expected to see diversity, is it? Just keep that in mind if your boss this sends this article your way.

There's something to be said for employer branding existing in the details, that it is strongest when it exists in the places where you'd expect it. Which is why I love this company's example of using its own website source code to tell a meaningful story about what it stands for.

What are we getting wrong about attracting and hiring diverse candidates? That we treat them like they are special. Instead, focus on giving them a concrete and tangible reason for them to choose you. It's a pretty compelling argument.

Amazon, the 80-ton six-armed gorilla in any conversation, has been quietly shifting it's MBA recruiting strategy away from "pick a few schools and camp there" to "use digital to cherry-pick talent from more schools," according to the WSJ. Two takeaways to consider. First is the obvious one: the world has been pushing students to be more open to digital-first relationships rather than face-to-face ones that students respond more strongly to. Students have been pushing back, but it looks like Amazon is going to be the one to change the conversation again and make digital recruiting more "normal." The second takeaway is that we may be seeing the end of the "top school" hegemony. There is simply too much competition from too many companies to recruit from top schools, so unless you're a FB/G/A/Amazon, you can't expect to get anything but table scraps. So maybe it's time to target top talent at second and third-tier schools rather than spend huge amounts of cash to attract also-rans at top schools.

Consumer brand folks spend a lot of time thinking about brand extension, taking a success in one product and extending it to more. There are eight defined ways of extending the brand, and while some of them don't obviously apply to EB'ers, there are some that will turn your gears quite a bit.

Feeling like you're behind the curve (and the 8-ball) on adjusting to the new reality? Don't feel confident taking a big leap forward? Don't feel like your leadership knows how to help you change? Take some queues from consumer brand shifts as they try to figure how to reach customers who aren't buying.

Sure, you might be measuring your brand awareness, but are you measuring brand equity? I've been thinking that the killer metric might be how much value does a candidate place in your brand. Are you able to offer a salary discount because everyone wants to work for you, or do you have to pay a premium to get talent in the door to overcome that brand sentiment?

Has anyone come across a legitimately good (not “good enough”) talent community? I still haven’t. But I have hope that it can be done, especially when I see consumer-side communities grow. Here are some examples on a strong community and how they got that way. P.S. the word “community” suggests two-way communication. P.P.S. If you think spamming people with open requisitions is a “valuable service,” try again.

Before I go any further, I must make an important distinction. This article concerns driving a brand's growth within an existing category. As such, it is Brands fighting for market share should keep these ten actions in mind.

My rule of thumb for strengthening your employer brand is to separate your sentiment and reach and treat them independently. But when you try and extend reach, its a rare day that you’re extending into blue ocean. So here is some great thinking on extending your market penetration, how to push others out of the way while staking your claim.

Let’s talk metrics! No wait come back! If you are thinking about metrics, there are any number of ways to approach them, and none of them are “right.” I did a few presentations where I came up with three ways of thinking about metrics all on my own, and there are many others. But to start, connecting your metrics to the funnel is a smart go-to.

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