Employer Brand Headlines Newsletter

A quick “hell yeah!” to Stephen Brand’s article on networks of networks. So much of employer brand is focused on looking for blue oceans of talent (hahahaha… like those still exist) to shout branded messages at instead of looking at who our own people already know. Quoting: “chances are, you already know 90%+ of all the talent you’ll ever need.” To ignore the best advocates you have because they don’t report to you is lunacy, so take it seriously.

Related to above, here’s a mega list of the ’world’s most influential values’ you should go ahead and bookmark now.

If you want to build trust, if you want leadership to be seen as trustworthy, if you are building your values into a platform on which any number of concepts and initiatives will live, it starts by defining fair. Is it fair that some workers make minimum wage and the CEO makes… sightly more? Is it fair that your company only extends the legal minimum of family leave to staff? Is it fair that there are no people of color or women in your executive suite? These are prickly conversations, all of which can be made simpler by defining what we all mean by 'fair’ (and baking it into our brand).

So, if you entitle your article ’7 Ways HR Can Build a Fairer, Data-Informed Culture,’ you are really asking for hurt. You know how I know? Because I have a brother and growing up, we each had a vastly difference sense of what 'fair’ meant. I have to imagine in your average 1,000-person company, you’ll be seeing dozens if not hundreds of definitions of same. It’s a tarpit, one which the article seems to acknowledge before skipping past it.

My big takeaway is that we’re seeing the further crumbling of the definition of a ‘job.’ Everyone is looking for transferable skills, flexibility in taking tried and true skills and applying them to new fields and brand new problems. Everyone is busy re-inventing their own career. Everyone sees the world as 'uncertain. All of which suggests that a lot of the foundational elements of your brand (what we do, our industry, how we work) are changing or eroding. Ignore these shifts to your own peril.

Here’s a list of current data that likely will influence how you shape your employer brand. My big takeaway is that we’re seeing the further crumbling of the definition of a ‘job.’

So I’ve really been living in this “employer branding is all about creating desire” thing lately, huh? I hope it’s a useful way for you to look at what you’re building and how it is performing. But be living in this world of “desire,” to be successful, we need to leverage different ideas. For example: Anticipation. By stoking anticipation, you create design, but it turns out you are creating something else: fear. Think about the last time you were prepping for an interview for a job you really wanted: you anticipated the interview, you were excited to share your experience and learn more, but you were scared you’d mess it up. Juggling two contrasting emotions at once will likely be one of the most valuable skills in EB.

"We’ve gone from one brand for every 1,700 people in 2,000 to one for just 158 people today. At this rate, we’ll soon be outnumbered."

We need to develop concrete content marketing goals that connect with broader business goals. Ruthie Bowles explains how.

Building your EVP? While there’s no right way to go about it, if you are doing it quickly, simply and without any doubts, I promise that you’re doing it wrong. So how do you make better decisions in that kind of situation? Combine data with doubt.

Five tips backed by neuroscience and psychology.

In my own day job, I am running into that age old issue: we don’t have enough employer-brand-style photos. I’d love to take some more, but… y'know: COVID. I’m not going to hire a crew to go to employee’s dining rooms or anything. Another industry struggling with this issue is (surprisingly) architectural photographers. Buildings are pretty and all, but they need people in them to tell the story. So how do you do that in the age of COVID? Some interesting perspective here.

In my own day job, I an running into that age old issue: we don’t have enough employer-brand-style photos. I’d love to take some more, but… y'know: COVID. I’m not going to hire a crew to go to employee’s dining rooms or anything. Another industry struggling with this issue is (surprisingly) architectural photographers. Buildings are pretty and all, but they need people in them to tell the story. So how do you do that in the age of COVID? Some interesting perspective here.

Your employees shouldn’t just be advocates, you should think of them more as “talent magnets.” A few lessons from SAP.

Emily Firth pulls zero punches with her list of ten ways employer brands fail. A lot of them could fall under the category of “ you treated your employer brand like some external ad campaign” or “you only think you got buy in, but you really just got ‘fine, fine, leave us alone.’”

This year has reminded businesses and brands that the work of being a consistent source of value is never finished. In helping clients reimagine their This year has reminded businesses and brands that the work of being a consistent source of value is never finished. In helping clients reimagine their offerings and relationships for lasting value we discovered ten things that may help you do the same.

Marketing activities may not produce an immediate effect on sales, revenue, or cash flow. However, this does not mean there are no effects or that the Marketing activities may not produce an immediate effect on sales, revenue, or cash flow. However, this does not mean there are no effects or that the effects of a marketing activity cannot be measured.

As Autumn passes very quickly here is some good content pieces you should not skip if working strategically with your employer brand. EBnavi team never sleeps looking for the best practices, experts and content worldwide! Enjoy 10 best pieces from last month in different ares of EB! 1.

The concept of “self-directed organizations” isn’t strictly new, but as business leaders are looking at 2020 as an opportunity to build back better, the idea seems to be coming into vogue. Building an employer brand in a top-down org is relatively straight-forward. Building a brand in a more self-directed org is a whole different beast, so take a look at this model for how business can become more self-directed and start identifying places where you can influence the process and embed more brand thinking into it.

It’s safe to say that a company like Disney knows a little something-something about content. While other companies (historically) have come to the gospel of content, Disney was born of it. It’s been part of Disney’s DNA effectively from the beginning, a point proven by the infamous 1957 diagram of how their content properties drove every single aspect of their business. And in this article from Stories Incorporated, that diagram is reinvented to show how employer brand stories can impact and drive virtually every aspect of how a company grows. This is worth sharing around your company.

Effective storytelling involves a deep understanding of human emotions, motivations, and psychology in order to truly move an audience. Luckily, storytelling is something we all do naturally…

A state-by-state analysis of where companies should recruit — now that employees can work from anywhere.

At LinkedIn's Talent Connect, former-Pixar animator Matthew Luhn explained how recruiters can use the craft of storytelling to sell candidates on their company. He also talked about why telling stories is so important to a company's employer brand and how to craft those stories in a memorable way.

Have you spent any kind of time considering your candidates’ behavior? Are they “hit the apply button” types who value the fastest possible process? Or do they want enough information before proceeding? Where are they getting that information? How are they validating it? On what basis are they making decisions? For inspiration, take a look at this conversation by brand leaders on understanding buyer habits.

Sure, infographics might feel a little 2015, but what about interactive infographics? I can see value in using them to show internal teams the value of your work, as well as putting together a fact-sheet for potential candidates.

Internal surveys are useful, but deeply flawed. They only show the perception of those who self-select into the survey. They rarely ask good questions (where everyone answering them are actually answering the same question in their minds). And most staff don’t reveal what they really think for fear of retribution. But they are useful if you know how to design and administer them.

Second, culture isn’t static. In fact, it often isn’t evident until something unexpected happens. According to analysis of 1.4MM Glassdoor scores, culture weighed heavily on whether ratings went up or down during the first months of COVID. Companies that dictated culture fared worse than companies who were transparent and allowed their culture to inform communication styles and subject. If a company understands that a culture is a function of what staff say it is, they respond better than when its rigid.

Is the culture you talk about the one that exists or the one leadership wants to be true? Yeah, sorry. That was a little blunt for this hour in the morning. Go get some coffee and come back. Good. We all know that in rooms we’re not always invited to, the Venn diagram of “employer brand” and “company culture” is often just a circle. This happens when companies want to be seen as “caring” about a thing when they don’t always understand a thing (see also: “strategy,” “innovation” and “employee engagement” amongst many many others). So they skim that HBR article (the one more concerned with clicks than understanding what we do all day) and say that culture is important and dictate one. Next stop: the power printer. So here’s a little counter-programming. First, over at Reddit, a great article from a leader who wrestled with their company culture as it went from 15 people to 75 people (h/t Recruiting Brainfood).

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