I’ll be in New York City sometime during the month of March. I’ll be attending The Human Capital Summit to talk about employer branding.
You know what I think about employer branding, right? I think that a company has a brand, a reputation, and a relationship with its consumers and employees. Those relationships are complex, multifaceted, and bigger than a splashy website and an overstated benefits package that offers you access to the company gym.
When I look for a job, I look for fiscal solvency. I review products and services. I don’t want to work for a company that manufactures poisonous toys for kids. I make sure the last couple of CEOs haven’t been perp walked on CNN. Then I look at the career website. I review the benefit page, the obligatory statement on culture, and the rest of the Human Resources propaganda. If it all adds up, and if I know some people who work for the company and aren’t miserable, I accept the interview.
To me, employer branding is much like consumer branding. A company is trying to override my free will with the goal of selling me a flawed product — a job that will eventually break my heart and never pay me enough money.
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So I’ve been asked to come to NYC and talk about what employer branding means to my readers. Specifically, “What do you see in the marketplace?”
I know several fancy bloggers who focus on this area of expertise, and I’m good friends with many HR professionals who are charged with employer branding strategies in their organization. I don’t care about them.
What does employer branding mean to you? Does it mean anything? Does your HR department care about employer branding? Are you working in tandem with marketing to create an overarching strategy for your organization? As a job seeker, do you give a crap about employer branding? What are your priorities?
I would love your thoughts. I would like to speak to issues that impact the lives of real HR professionals, real job seekers, and the real employees who deal with this stuff on a daily basis.
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Alright, here are my thoughts on employment branding:
An employment brand can only be developed with the input of three groups: 1. Employees, 2. Customers, 3. Candidates.
Brands, particularly in this interwebs age, are driven from the bottom up, whereas in the past, when the world didn’t have the access to information, it was driven from the top down.
Knowing the three groups that constitute the brand, I’m surprised more companies don’t take the time to survey and involve those constituencies in the creation of their employment brand.
When you develop a brand that is “real” and from input of those three groups, you also minimize the disconnect between your published and public brand and the reality that may exist inside the organization.
Are you saying that mission, value & diversity statements do not work?
When I am job hunting, I will to the company’s website and take a look at all of the spin and careers information.
I visit my friend Edgar on sec.gov. I like looking at 11-k (more useful for companies with profit-sharing components in their 401k); 10-k (especially focus upon the legal, forward looking & potential issues sections) and the proxy statements. Even privately held companies will have to file some information if they issue any debt securities (e.g. bonds).
Again if its a publicly traded company, I will go into my IRA (401K rollver) account and use the stock research tools to review the company news and analyst opinions.
I look for blaring issues. Then I compare all of this information to the company’s spin. Any major differences are red flags.
I think the employer brand must start with top level management, not marketing or HR. There must be buy in at all levels that the message be real, not just created. Find the things that are unique about your company and make sure the promised appeal can be kept to through the employment lifecycle. The brand is both internal and external. If it’s real there isn’t much need for separate messages.
I personally don’t think anyone outside of HR ever gives a flip about “employer branding.” They may look at a potential employers reputation (the perp walk, no poisonous toys, etc.) which, as you state, is part of the brand. But the average, everyday John or Jane Q. Public applying for a job would have no idea what you’re talking about if you asked them about your employer brand during an interview.
And that’s all I have to say about that . . . . .
I agree with your assessment Laurie. Here’s the most important thing about employer branding: you need to make sure your hiring and employee practices are congruent with your product or service brand. If you have a stellar reputation for providing great products and services to your customer, you better have a stellar reputation for providing a great place for people to work so that they can easily keep up your reputation. Otherwise, get ready for turn over and the possibility of eroding that customer reputation over time. Treating employees as less important that your customer has an economic impact.
Without much experience with corporate branding, I can only comment on what I’ve experienced at the company I work for currently. Customer Service— bottom up— period. This company has been able to survive for 25+ years (a couple resessions, etc.) through the actions of the employees with candidate interaction, preparedness of the candidate for position assigned—- and the focus on client satisfaction. You can have all the trademarks, call-tags, brochures, client lunches, seminars on branding, etc. you want— but bottom line– if you’re not delivering the goods in the end— you will suffer client and customer loyalty.
I don’t think you could START a company without customer service being priority one, could you??
I’m going with HRPufNStuf on this one, Craig.
While an employer brand “initiative” has to start with top-level management (they pay the bills, after all), the employer brand itself comes from the experience of the employees, candidates, and customers.
At the recruitment solutions firm I work for, we begin the brand discovery process by sitting at a table with HR and Marketing folks, but the real work doesn’t begin until we start interviewing the employees.
The way we position it to our clients is: “A brand cannot be created, because it already exists as a fact.” It’s our job to uncover the brand, wrap it in a creative (and honest) message, and then make sure the client looks at it and says, “Yes, that’s who we are.”
Discovering the real employer brand (as opposed to making one up from a wishlist of what you want to be) is in the best interest of the company. By ensuring that candidates know exactly what they’re getting into before they take the job, an honest employer brand will help improve retention rates; and by putting an honest face on the company, it will help with employee morale.
I agree and disagree. Overall, I think employer branding can be very important to companies recruiting top candidates but it all depends on what your definition is.
When I think of employer branding, I see it as not just the “spin” you put on your careers page (which is almost a necessity to have now.) but more importantly it’s creating brand advocates among your current and past employees, customers and candidates (as HRPufnStuf points out) Keeping them happy is step #1.
Step # 2 is encouraging them to become the front line of your recruiting efforts (through referral programs or maybe just ask.) tracking the online buzz that they create and creating a hub (using social media) where it is easy for potential candidates to connect and interact with these advocates.
I agree that candidates can look at “spin” on a careers page and be a little skeptical, but good reviews from a trusted source (i.e. knowing some people who work for the company and aren’t miserable) can go a long way in an applicants mind.
For me, it starts to get cloudy when we add the “ing” suffix. My favorite Aussie Brand expert, Michel Hogan, vehemently insists that “brand” is not a verb. Rather it’s a full-blooded noun… something intrinsic to an organization that can only be recognized and nurtured, but never manufactured. Sure, organizations want to embody the brand at every touchpoint, whether consumer- or employment-related. But that can only happen when a company understands its brand, and aligns all aspects of its organization–employee, consumer, vendor and media relations–to reinforce the positive aspects of that brand in everything they do. It’s a major cultural undertaking, and a process without end, requiring unwavering support from top-level management, which is why most initiatives stall out over time. However the reward is a competitive advantage that can’t easily be pried away. My best advice to companies is to approach those constituents that HRPufnstuf mentions above and discover exactly what it is that makes your organization unique and indispensable to them. And then get down to the more challenging work of aligning the organization with those core brand pillars, and arming them with the tools and support they need to make good on the brand promise at every internal/external encounter. As everyone here seems to agree, it’s not what you (the company) say, but what THEY say that defines your brand. You can only influence what “they” say through clear purpose and consistent action. That’s how brand loyalty is won and championed.
Company branding is on the way to being the next corporate buzz word to be added corporate lingo bingo. I don’t think the average job seeker gives a flip about corporate branding. I think they want a position that will pay the bills, give them work they are qualified to do for someone who doesn’t micro-manage and if they’re lucky it will provide challenge too.
One of the best lessons I learned in graduate school was on the last day at a seminar with the dean. He was talking about the values of an organization and how you should strive to work at a place whos values match your own. Like you said Laurie, no poisonous toys, etc. And I’ve tried to live that ever since. But I think that imparting those values as a part of the employment brand can be tricky with the present employment market. Yes, ideally I am going to want to see what a company stands for before I consider working there. But that really isn’t an option for most people today. Factory workers driving 1000 miles to work at a location that hasn’t been closed yet, laid off corporate big-wigs working fast food, retail, etc. are probably not too concerned that the company that is willing to hire them today has a subsidiary that also makes cigarettes. They just need to get back to work.
Using a brand to market a company is the same as using a brand to market a consumer product. You are telling people that they should want what you have (selling them a new quadruple guacamole bacon cheeseburger or selling them on working for your company). Right now there are too many people competing for that product so “selling” it might not be to necessary.
Here’s an interesting metric (you know I love a good metric!), that I use to measure our employment brand, which in all honesty I prefer to consider as our employment value proposition: number of employment referrals from candidates we interviewed but didn’t hire. It’s an easy metric to track and really telling on how well your brand/value prop gels with the reality the candidate sees/feels during the interview process.
Over the past three months, I’ve been amazed that each and every company I’ve talked to, no one else has even thought to measure this.
Ok so heres a stretch statement:
I think action speaks louder then words (or Ads, or corporate communication)…If your a great place to work you don’t need to have the great place to work institute say so or win a 100 pay for play awards (because your company advertises in their publication – i.e. “Workforce” or HRE)…in todays world a great employment brand happens organically…people find out because great employees tell other people about great places to work…and the circle is closed because great employees usually refer other great people…all this time and money on employment branding…I don’t know…treat people well and with a level of dignity…give them lattitude to do great things…maybe its to simple…and if you do it well …maybe you will work for the best kept secret or maybe everyone will know because word spreads fast virally (zappos was a cool place before there were a million articles on it and Best buy was cool before the ladies wrote their book too)…
PS – I do my own travel (yesterdays post response)…and I dont have an assistant either…
M
@HRPuf I’m with you, but let me throw in one other group: chumps. What about those people who weigh in on your brand and alter the image of the brand without interacting with the product or service you offer? Right now, people are dogging on Toyota. How many of those people are Toyota drivers? And how many of those people work for Toyota? “Oh it’s a culture of high expectations and safety was pushed to the side.” Really? Do you really know that? Doesn’t matter because some guy in Omaha with a computer and 10K Twitter followers says it’s true.
@salescomp mission, value & diversity statements do not work? Yes. Also, I wonder if most people are just happy to WORK and therefore do not care about an employer’s brand or fiscal solvency?
@Craig I agree that you need leadership and endorsement, but most free market conservatives (cough cough) think that the government is a good example of how a top-down approach will always fail. This is the biggest argument against health care, right now.
@Robert I will quote you, okay? Or at least, capture your spirit. Because I feel the same way.
@nelking Gold. Thank you. I feel exactly the same way. Don’t hand me a plate of shit and tell me it’s candy. I know shit when I see shit. So do most consumers & employees.
@MattyMat Now hear me out: I don’t care about customer service. I have low expectations. Deliver something that works, meet my expectations, and I’m happy. Fine, try to wow me. That’s awesome. But I don’t need the bells and whistles. I am a woman who only expects basics. So give me basic customer service and I’m a loyal customer.
@Kyle Wait, you had to go through a brand discovery process? See, while I’m with you in spirit, that’s the kind of stuff that drives me nuts about brand management and employer branding. Let’s do good work. If we don’t know what we’re doing, and we don’t understand our mission, that’s another discussion. But brand discovery sounds akin to team building. I’m otherwise with you, though.
@Chris I like your organic endorsement process. Be good to your employees, let them spread the word through their networks, and see what happens.
@Eric I’m with you in theory, and I love the noun v. verb discussion, but I think we hoist too much importance on the brand and not enough importance on the output. Some argue that a brand is the sum of the products and services, and I can’t disagree with that, but I still think you do work on your products & services first. Those are your pillars. That’s the infrastructure. The brand work happens once you have something important and tangible to offer. Good comment, though!
@Ann Thank you. At the end of the day, we leverage our organizations most authentic interests by ditching the meta-concept of employer branding.
@Glen That is exactly right. We are aligned on this one. There’s almost two worlds: the world where people can be picky about employers and the world where people need jobs. I think group A and group B are stratified and the gap is growing. It’s too bad.
@pUf Hm. That is interesting. I never thought about that one.
@Mark Thank you. Voice of reason. Also, good for you re: your own travel. I book my own, too, because Scrubby doesn’t have thumbs.
Hmmm. Depends on who you ask:
Roles: Those in more ‘professional’ roles vs blue collar.
Career stage: eg fresh grad may only be thinking j-o-b to get foot in door vs. mid-career person.
Size of company: employee experiences can differ vastly across grps within a large firm.
Timing: ultimately, current economy says most could care less as long as they can get a gig.
Good employer branding for me is finding that insider info is mostly positive + external research (fiscal, etc) checks out + getting meaningful answers to lingering concerns @ interview (e.g. not deflecting query on how secure your grp is since recent acquisitions created duplicate roles).
I also think its important to avoid automatically assuming that good product brand translates to good employer branding.
I’m currently with an organization in a state of change and can you tell you first hand how difficult it is to work without an employment brand that someone can articulate. We came from a very large and globally recognized company that had a well established brand, but it doesn’t fit our new company. Without the brand, you’re attracting people due to the association with the past, but once they get through the front door, there can be a complete mismatch. Either they came with the impression we were the huge company from before and they are upset when they find out how different it is; or they come in and can’t keep up with the pace of a much more nimble and changing environment. Yet, at the lack of defining what our value proposition is to both current and future employees, everyone reverts back to using our past as a reference for describing our identity because we know nothing else. Regardless of how people come to a company – whether they have choices of employment or not – they all need a reason for staying and typically the ones you want to keep will look for more than just a paycheck. I am also of the belief that while you need top management buy-in, employment brands are similar to culture. You can’t put words on a page, shove it down people’s throats and expect it to stick. Much of it already exists, it’s just articulating what is already there. In addition, it should be more than just HR. Employment branding really is a cross-functional activity involving HR, Marketing and Communications so it aligns with the company branding and is integrated with your internal communication strategy.
Branding strategies needs to be established as a company wide guideline. It is vital that all employees be on the same page as to what company image they want to give off.
A couple of thoughts…first, I wholeheartedly disagree with the notion that candidates don’t care about brand. Having recruited for (and competed against) some of the most recognizable, sexy, controversial brands, I can’t count the number of times I played the “brand” card to attract and close candidates. And I lost to companies with cooler brands/buzz. Quick – which company feeds their employees all day long and allows employees to devote 20% of their time doing whatever they want? The truth is, the unnamed company didn’t have the most competitive benefits package, their recruiting process sucked and most employees didn’t get the 20% deal. But their brand was emblazoned in the minds of candidates. Candidates have their perceptions and will make decisions based on their perceptions.
Secondly, an employer brand should be aspirational. I worked for a big coffee company that enjoyed a super positive employer brand. The truth, behind the scenes, the company struggled to live up to the brand and be profitable. But what I admire – still admire – about this, um, coffee company is that it *aspired* to excel at creating a happy workforce.
As someone who spent several months searching for a job, I looked at company brand like I would look at re-sale in a home.
Huh?
Let me explain: When you are looking for a new home, you are looking at a whole load of factors: Neighborhood, # of bedrooms, square footage, etc. etc. But one of the factors is resale: How the home might appeal to the next buyer. At 30, I’m not looking necessarily for the home for the rest of my life – just like I’m not looking for the job I’ll keep for the rest of my life.
Company brand, like resale, plays a role in how future employers might look at my work experience. My next employer is the ‘next buyer’ – if you will. They’ll look at my experience in my current job and ask: Is the company a respected company? Does it do quality work?
As you want a home to have those qualities that appeal to a wide demographic – so to do you want a “non-lifer” job to appeal to prospective future companies.
Other then that – I couldn’t give a rats ass.
Kind of like that fancy, expensive crown-molding.
I am with Ann. Most folks just want a job that will pay the bills and give them a reasonable challenge to keep them interested. I agree to with you, Laurie, that people want to work for an organization that they see as principled, but in this economy, many don’t even care about that. They just want a job.
I am in the beginning stages of developing a business. (I do not aspire to be an employer, although I may at some point employ people to do specific tasks for me.) I hear all this business buzz word crap being thrown my way, and “brand” seems to fall into that category. Adding “employer” to it seems like a double load of crap.
From what I can gather, the whole concept of “branding” centers around being focused on the value, purpose and marketability of the product or service that you provide; finding ways to articulate those things in concise messages for PR purposes; and then backing it up with good customer service. With so-called employer branding, I would think it would add an element of treating your employees with fairness, dignity and respect. Duh. Why do companies spend so much money to bring in consultants to tell them what should be a foregone conclusion?
Brand has two faces for me. It is the aspiration for the employee experience on the employer side. It is the expectation of the employee for the experience from the employee side. When these are in sync, things are reasaonably good. When they are out of sync, things are kind of a crap shoot.
Since most organizations do not try to manage their employment brand, so the chances of the experience and expectations being in sync get smaller.
What I am not sure about is whether managing the brand is entirely worth the effort for most companies. The crap shoot might be good enough for most companies – at least in this economy.
The verb “brand” is fragrantly, squishily ripe for Buzzword Bingo.
The concept isn’t horrid, but I think some employers are making this harder than it needs to be. Especially for small and mid-size employers, the brand is what it is. If the brand seems broken, it’s only as a symptom of a real problem (such as a leadership crisis, financial difficulties or cultural gridlock) and will organically correct itself as those challenges get resolved.
I don’t have much for Large and Mega employers: obviously it’s more challenging because of the inherent complexities of being large organizations. Treating the human capital as more human, less capital is a step. Generally being a responsible world citizen is another. And be willing to do things that shareholders will get pissed off about in the short term, like telling the truth about financials and expectations.
@JV I don’t have much for Large and Mega employers. I’ve never really worked for anything but big companies. They have benefits and comp plans and real programs. Are they soulless? Do they suck? Yes, but they paid for my colonoscopy. There’s employer branding for you right there.
@BZ Maybe that’s part of your business model? Bringing value to the real meaning of brand in a business. You could do brand awareness/brand discovery workshops!
@Bill M I’m with you and wondering if brand management is a luxury or necessity.
@Sean OMG, crown molding. That’s hollow. And not even wood. And doesn’t flex and separates from your walls after a year. What a waste.
@Peopleshark I think you’re so right with some of these bigger companies, and it gives them an advantage that kills the competition, but I’m not sure that most small businesses operate in a world where aspirational employer brands can demonstrate ROI. I dunno. Maybe if they invest early enough in this endeavor it can pay off — but I suspect that my local nail spa, the mercado where I buy my flour tortillas, and the Q Shack where I get my mac & cheese (delicious, btw) are more focused on meeting basic business needs & not worried about how their brand speaks to high performing, high potential employees.
@Roger Not sure I agree.
@Heather That’s an awesome HR answer, and I appreciate it, but it still doesn’t sit well in my heart & soul.
@Geekette I also think its important to avoid automatically assuming that good product brand translates to good employer branding. Well that’s the first time today where I said, yeah, okay, she’s on to something. Good point. Plenty of great products and services and crap employers. True.
I think I view the Employer “Brand” more as what the Company lives day-to-day vs. Marketing collateral. I hope that they do match, but prospective, and current, employees are looking for behaviors and not smoke/mirrors.
The thing I love about working with today’s workforce is that they want employer’s to be forthright and they want to be forethright as well.
Too many people have taken the word “culture” and made it a catch phrase which is unfortunate because this is what employees are seeking and really the one constant a company can offer.
Now, as to whether it’s a genuine, healthy, productive culture – that’s a leadership issue – especially for HR. It’s actually a great opportunity for us to build that elusive “brand” from the grass roots. It’s challenging, but also rewarding when it works !!
I currently work for a very large organization that sits in the middle of a very depressed metropolitan community that is struggling to re-group and survive and grow. And yet, our organization is operating in the “black” with a tremendous market share. Why? Because every employee knows that customer service is job #1. Our culture is such that our customers and potential candidates see our brand in everything we say and do. They know that when we say we will do something it’s done within the best service, skill and technology available. People want to work for us.
Sure, we provide newsletters to employees, maintain an award-winning website, offer outreach to the community and on and on. But what really rounds out our brand? It’s our people, actions every day, service, the quality of our product. That’s our brand!
Amen Laurie!
I’m still amazed at:
1) When I ask HR folks about what they’re doing related to employer branding, most describe updating their recruiting materials and/or getting their “messaging right” to employees, so employees know what kind of place they’re working at ?!
2) How many employers spend tremendous sums of money trying to convince the marketplace they’re a cool, fun, “best in class” employer, rather than finding out from their employees if they actually are…and then working to become one.
I don’t know if you ever read my ERE.net article “Before You Waste Your Time and Money on So Called Employer Branding”, but I think you can tell from the title we’re on the same wavelength.
Here’s the link:
“Before You Waste Your Time and Money on So Called Employer Branding”
I also have a bunch of articles on how to actually create a workplace worthy of telling others.
Again, great job!
Best regards,
David Lee
P.S. If you’re up for it, I’d love to interview you for a future article
Employment Branding, within and of itself, is probably not the best name. What it really is, what you are really getting at is the culture. And the culture is really important. So we like to call it cultural branding.
We know from countless studies that almost 1/3 of employees leave an organization due to a cultural mismatch. Why? Because they were told during the recruitment process that their job would be to work at a really cool, modern, flexible company that is actually overly structured, political and has no room for growth. My first job at my advertising agency started great and then I began to learn that i was surrounded by a lot of Executive Vice Presidents that had no interest in letting anyone outside of the board room make a decision.
When you start looking at cultural branding, you are really looking at what things, outside of the paycheck (which is never enough) and benefits (which is always too limited) that keep an employee coming back through the doors. In a time of low engagement but high producticity, we have to give employees a reason (a truthful reason) to keep coming to work. And whatever cultural brand you settle on should become your external recruitment brand. And don’t listen to your marketing department that you HAVE to make you employment brand look and sound exactly like your consumer brand. There are countless examples out there to show how the consumer brand and employment brand align but are absolutely not the same. Sometimes SURPRISE over consistency is ok.
But is your cultural brand important? YES, HECK YES. A well-developed and authentic cultural brand is the reason people are dying to work at certain companies. It’s the reason people forgive working through their holiday weekend, or until 8 pm. It’s the reason we have some clients with engagement scores through the roof. Anyone who doesn’t believe that their culture (their authentic culture, both the good and the bad) doesn’t recruit and retain the very best for that organization is kidding themselves. People want to be somewhere they belong, or are inspired by, or that challenges them, or that they are proud of.
If you can tie your retention, your engagement to business results/bottom line then you should probably look at your cultural brand.
Nice article! I agree with nelking and Kyle. I think employer branding starts from the most senior staff (CEO) and trickles down to the most junior staff members. If senior management doesn’t value the employee then a quality employment brand just can’t exist, no matter how great the staff is b/c that staff will always be turning. When the attitude at the top is “my employees are valuable and I want them to be happy”, the brand will just create itself, especially if you’re already hiring quality employees. I don’t think it’s something you can just create it’s an attitude senior management needs to take on and nurture. Employment branding is crucial today b/c all of that marketing jargon is transparent as jargon and there are too many venting boards out there for any employee to state their opinion on what kind of employer you truly are.