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Navigating Your Employer Branding Project: Tips for Success

Employer Branding

Image of desk for an article on Employer branding project tips

Are you considering diving into an employer branding project? If you’re stepping into this exciting realm of people and culture, there are some crucial considerations to keep in mind before taking the plunge. In this blog post, we’ll delve into some key points to consider before embarking on this journey, from setting goals to assembling the right team and more.

  1. Define Clear Project Goals

First things first—what’s the purpose of your employer branding project? Is it merely an item on the to-do list, or does it hold tangible significance for your organization? Understanding the objectives behind the project is essential. This work can unify your organization, deepen the sense of belonging, and underscore your organization’s identity. It’s about more than just attraction—it’s about defining who you are as an employer and what it means to be a part of your team.

  1. Assemble Your Dream Team

When it comes to project teams, less can often mean more. Avoid a bloated team that hampers progress and dilutes creativity. While expertise is vital, limit the core team to a handful of individuals representing areas like communications, marketing, talent attraction, and HR. This focused approach ensures quality output and streamlined progress.

  1. Seek Out a Blueprint

Don’t reinvent the wheel—seek guidance from established methodologies. We developed Land Your Brand, our employer brand training and blueprint for this exact reason. We are on a mission to help organizations lead with intentionality and share their epic story more broadly. To learn more about this comprehensive EB project blueprint, click here. Don’t forget to use promo code POWERUP for 25% off our courses.

employer branding agency course discount code

If budget constraints exist, look within your organization for processes used in consumer branding. Adapt and apply these principles to your employer branding efforts.

  1. Allocate Resources and Set Timelines

Employer branding projects require time and effort. Allocate sufficient time and resources for focus groups, assessments, and strategy development. A recommended timeframe is around six months for the foundation of this work.

  1. Educate Your Frontline Leaders

Your frontline leaders are the bridge between your brand and its execution. Equip them with the knowledge and tools to authentically deliver the brand experience to both candidates and employees. This education is pivotal to ensuring your brand’s integrity.

  1. Commit to Ongoing Advancement

Your employer branding journey doesn’t conclude with the launch. Commit to continuous evolution. Monitor, measure, and adjust your strategy as your organization evolves. Keep your brand alive, breathing, and in alignment with your organizational journey.

  1. Measure, Refine, and Evolve

Regularly measure the impact of your employer branding efforts. Evaluate the effectiveness of your key messages, visual identity, and overall brand strategy. Adjust and refine as needed to ensure your brand remains current and aligned with your organizational goals.

Before we wrap, remember that employer branding is not a fleeting trend—it’s a fundamental investment in understanding and showcasing your organization’s identity. By following these tips, you’ll be better equipped to embark on your employer branding project with purpose and clarity. Your efforts will yield lasting benefits for both your organization and the talented individuals you seek to attract and retain.

Wishing you peace, love, and meaningful careers on this exciting journey!

To learn more about Powerhouse’s full-service Brand Foundations Program, click here.

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How to Build a United Culture Following a Merger and Acquisition

Culture, Employer Branding

Image of fluid art representing the merging of organizational culture

 

If you were around in the 1970s, or love iconic retro TV, then you know from watching The Brady Bunch that coming together brings both challenge and opportunity.

When organizations blend through merger and acquisition, they face a similar setup in aligning disparate cultures, organizational traits, brand personalities, and team traditions. Unification is crucial to the health and wellbeing of an organization and it’s an opportunity to internalize and operationalize company culture—not water it down.

Here are seven ways to unify your organization’s culture post-M&A and get buy-in from employees.

  1. Start with the end in mind

Start with the end in mind and build a solid change management philosophy to support the teams coming together. Whether your organization uses ADKAR, a proprietary approach, or any other change management methodology, planning for change is critical to its success.

This work includes understanding the rationale for change and conducting an impact assessment to uncover the magnitude of the change on a multitude of levels, including individual, team, organization, industry, and beyond. People change management is a discipline that drills down into how the change may be experienced by each individual and then plans accordingly. From messaging to support, and from programs to systems, thinking through this transformative experience well in advance helps design change management programs that better prepare the organization and its people for a more thoughtful metamorphosis, while identifying change agents within the team.

  1. Employ the communication hat trick

You’ve circulated your M&A announcement to the team, now what? Be proactive in communicating the path forward to employees. Think of your strategy as what we call “the communication hat trick,” with the three goals of delivering frequent, transparent, and humanized communications. Communicating in a manner that is open and feels human resonates with our basic need for a sense of security…because we all crave connection and context, especially during times of transition. This supports retention and builds trust and connection with team members. By showing up consistently and keeping it real, you empower your team to feel part of what’s next.

  1. Uncover your organization’s DNA

Every organization has its own culture DNA—the unique factors that make it tick. In an M&A, it is vital to uncover the DNA of both organizations. This helps in understanding and supporting their different strengths and identities, while deciding how to bring them together in ways that deepen ties, build community, and foster a harmonized culture. You can help discover what makes each organization’s culture its own special unicorn by speaking with employees via focus groups. You can also use culture assessment tools to better understand the unique qualities and behaviours of each organization. As a CultureTalk Certified Partner, we see value in uncovering the distinct archetype composition of each organization and how this is experienced by the team through strengths and shadows. To learn more about the CultureTalk system and how it can support transformational change, grow organizational self-awareness, and enable greater team collaboration, visit www.powerhousetalent.ca

CultureTalk Certified Partner Canada Culture specialists

  1. Co-create the path forward

Don’t go it alone! Combining two organizations is the perfect opportunity to co-create the way forward. This is not just about sitting down with leaders in boardrooms, it’s also about connecting with employees, using a diversity of perspectives to mobilize a shared identity. Getting employees involved in what the future looks like means asking them how they work best. You can do this by establishing employee committees to share the employee perspective and weigh in on program design and policy development. Employee committees are also a great way of growing fresh traditions from shared interests.

It all boils down to this: Co-creation is getting employees involved to solve pain points and create the new future state together. This makes it a golden opportunity to elevate the merged culture above and beyond the sum of its parts.

  1. Get the best of both worlds

As you fuse teams and working models, don’t fall victim to larger company conformity. This can lead to a broad, loosely defined culture that is hard to rally around. Instead, take inspiration from both organizations, remembering that unity doesn’t mean uniformity. Tap into the best practices, branded assets, operational procedures, and funtivities from each entity to design a shared future state (and some epic staff parties). This helps get employee buy-in because one culture isn’t unseating the other, so all sides feel valued and heard.

  1. Keep evolving

Unifying your organization’s culture is not a one-and-done, it’s an evolution. This means building upon lessons learned, harmonizing, and tweaking. The philosophy of co-creation is valuable on an ongoing basis and not solely during times of change. Empower your team to help create the path forward and/or enhance the existing experience. When team members are involved, not only do we naturally solve pain points more effectively, we also create natural change agents, hence supporting adoption and advocacy. The work of self-improvement is ongoing and includes our organizations.

  1. Align with your employer brand

Finally, review your employer brand messaging to ensure it represents the future of your united organization. Consider the employer brand identity of each entity and ask employees if it aligns with their experience. Now is your chance to update and fine-tune your EVP messaging, refreshing your brand not only around the merger but also in a way that reinforces authenticity. Fill your channels with the new you! Populate them with consistent messaging to deliver a brand experience reflective of your shared mission.

Blending organizations after an M&A is no small feat, but it is also an incredible opportunity to create a culture even more united than the OG. It’s a lot to execute, but you got this! And we’re here to help! If you need additional support or want to learn more about culture building after a merger, hit us up at www.powerhousetalent.ca. We are proudly a CultureTalk Certified Partner, offering culture diagnostics, leadership alignment, culture transformation, and more!

Starting an employer brand project?

Land Your Brand is more than a course, it’s an EB project toolkit!

www.LearnEmployerBranding.com

Employer Branding course

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5 Ways to Make Your New Hire the Star of their Employee Onboarding Story

Culture, Employer Branding

Vintage typewriter for article on employee onboarding

Many of us remember our childhood story time and being read to by our parents and teachers. Storytelling has been part of how we learn, acclimatize, and relate to the world since we were young.  

As children, stories helped us learn to read and write. As adults, they allow us to share knowledge, our journeys and life experiences. And who doesn’t love a great story? So why not learn from the hero’s journey and weave this concept into the onboarding process as we welcome a new hire onto the team.  

As we can see from novels and screenplays, there are many elements to a great story. For our onboarding journey, we will focus on the hero, supporting characters, point of view, setting, and the goal.  

1) Hero 

Starting a new job can feel daunting, but it can also feel like an exciting adventure with the right support in place. Place your new hire in the starring role. View them as the hero of the story and help them learn, grow, and become as they embark of this next chapter of their career …pun intended. 

2) Supporting characters 

Next, have your new hire meet with other key players within the company or their area of business, from the leadership level to individual team members. Foster an environment rich in support with the voluntary sharing of personal stories of working at the organization or their career journey. These interactions deepen trust, accelerate rapport building, and help your new hire build relationships founded on a personal connection vs. simply a surface level meet and greet. Some employees will generously share their journey while others may prefer to start slowly but creating conditions ripe with psychological safety from the outset helps both parties connect in more meaningful ways helping to make the onboarding experience a more human one. 

3) Point of view 

With our hero (new hire) top of mind, design the onboarding experience from the perspective of what they need to know and how they would want to feel to have a successful ramp-up into the organization. Gone are the days where the company is at the center of the design process. Build an onboarding roadmap optimized for user experience not solely knowledge transfer.  

Like everything we do at Powerhouse, we recommend a co-created approach to design a process with meaning. Connect with team members to better understand their experience. From there, layer empathy into each milestone to ensure the new hire’s needs are at the forefront. 

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4) Setting 

Next up is context. Bring your new hire into the story by sharing and demonstrating the values, mission, and vision of the organization. It is important for the new team member to understand why the organization does what they do and what their value system is. Take them on a visual storytelling journey of how the organization was built and how it grew to be where it is today. Use casual images and videos but keep them unfiltered and real for authenticity and credibility. Add employee stories and experiences to demonstrate how people have grown with the organization and the value of a shared sense of purpose. This helps our new hire see how they fit into the story and empowers them to make a difference as they become part of the organization’s future success. 

5) Goal  

Like any great tale, there is a story arc. In onboarding, we are setting the stage for what’s possible. Our new hire may be the creator of the organization’s next product innovation, they may tap into new markets, or further reengineer a process, freeing up valuable capacity for even more meaningful work to be completed. Incorporating buddy systems or shadowing within the onboarding process encourages team members to work through and/or share challenges they are facing further optimizing the process for the next hire. 

While the complete hero’s journey is yet to be written, the goal of onboarding is to set this individual up for success. This means more than simply sharing processes and granting platform access. It’s about inviting the new hire into the story…celebrating its history, sharing its vision, and encouraging our hero to help write its next chapter of success. 

Great onboarding is not a nice to have, it is a business imperative. #DidYouKnow that 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for 3 years if they experienced great onboarding? While many organizations are investing in their EVP and employer brand strategy, it’s important not to lose sight of how we honour our people promise and deliver our brand experience. Exceptional onboarding is one critical component of doing exactly that. 

Need help standing out in a sea of sameness? We got you. Hit us up over at powerhousetalent.ca or [email protected] to learn more about our award-winning employer brand strategies. It’s time to POWER UP! 

Ready for more Employer Branding?

For full-service support – Building an employer brand strategy or EVP? We can help. Hit us up here. 

We build award-winning employer brand strategies with heart.

As a result… our clients transform their cultures and magnetize incredible talent to their organizations.

It’s time to POWER UP!

 

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What Is An Employer Brand And How Is It Different From A Consumer Brand?

Employer Branding

neon sign saying here for an article on employer branding

Employer branding is an emerging discipline within the world of Human Resources. While many are familiar with the term branding from the world of consumer marketing, employer branding is its own unique domain and requires a shift in perspective to truly get it right. 

So let’s start with what an employer brand is by definition. An employer brand is the organizational identity related to the employee experience. It’s not a logo or a tagline…those are simply branding tools. Rather, it’s what an employer becomes known for in the marketplace. It’s the associations that current, past, and prospective talent form about working at that organization.  

Your organization has an employer brand today whether you realize it or even more importantly, like it or not. You may just not be in a position of influence over your employer brand. Notice the word influence and not control. You can help influence your organizational identity but you cannot control it outright.  

The authentic stories employers share help build influence. When those stories are employee-generated, this influence increases even more as credibility grows. 

Savvy employers are becoming more strategic and intentional around how they show up in the world and the quality of the employee experience they wish to offer. Thank goodness! 

Many confuse the art and science of employer branding as an exercise in career site beautification. It can and should be so much more.  

The employer branding projects we have the delight to lead have allowed organizations to truly crystallize the essence of their existing employee experience and set out goals for what they wish to become. Rather than sharing an image of perfection, they share the journey and in doing so, build trust with their existing team and those ready to join the journey in the future. 

So how is employer branding different from consumer branding? 

While many branding principles are transferable, we are dealing with a completely different relationship where the stakes are much higher and the level of intimacy in the interaction must be thoughtful. It’s not simply a different audience. 

For example, when buying a pair of shoes, if you select the wrong brand and make a poor choice, you write off the purchase as a lemon, possibly return the item or leave a one-star review and move on with your life. In the world of employer branding, you cannot return the job. You may have uprooted your entire professional life and/or family thus creating far-reaching negative impacts. The stakes are much higher. Candidates need credible information and an employer with a clear sense of self to be able to make a strong and positive career decision.  

Enter employer branding… 

As mentioned above, employer branding is not a career site makeover or selling an illusion. It’s about reflection, strategy, intention, and commitment to who you are as an employer and who you wish to be.  

Employees provide their unwavering commitment. They deserve the same dedication to building an exceptional employee experience and one that can be proudly shared with the world. 

 

Ready to learn more about employer branding? Join my free HRDQU webinar on May 26th, 2021 to dig into Employer Branding in the New Normal. Hope to see you there! 

To learn more about Powerhouse Talent and our employer branding projects, click here. Don’t forget to check out our Employer Branding training and certification program, LAND YOUR BRAND.

Employer Branding course

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

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5 Steps For Spreading Good Vibes And Weaving Purpose Into The Employee Experience

Culture, Employer Branding

We often hear that the recipe for true happiness and success is when your passion meets your purpose. In his book, Start with Why, Simon Sinek echoes the fact that everything you do should always have a ‘why’ behind it and should always be done with intention. If you are one of the lucky people that have found the why in your job or in your company, then you have truly hit the jackpot. Companies who prioritize and advocate for social good create a richer and more engaging employee experience.

There are several ways to weave social good into the everyday culture of an organization without it feeling like a hollow gesture. Here are 5 key ingredients to what I like to call “The Social Good Recipe”! In equal parts, blend purpose, prioritization, passion, planning, and production. And as a special bonus treat, add a sprinkle of party as you celebrate wins together.

The Social Good Recipe

1. PURPOSE – Survey your employees asking them for organizations and causes close to their heart. Provide context and ask them to consider your values, the communities you serve, and underserved sectors. Being part of the journey from the very beginning will help them feel seen, heard, and more engaged in the process. This will also give them the opportunity to reflect upon their contribution in life, both personally and professionally. When employees come together, working towards the same goal, they are bound to develop creative ways to realize that goal.

 

2. PRIORITIZATION – Select around 3 to 5 causes that align well with the fabric of your organizational culture. Prioritizing down to this level shows intentionality and brings a strong focus to your overall goal. Too many options will muddle the process and may overwhelm your employees, causing them to become disinterested.

 

3. PASSION – Create a group of social good ambassadors representative of the world around us. Next, hand over the reins to the people that make up your organization, so they can own different aspects of the process. If you are a company that is dispersed regionally or globally, it is important to select a social good ambassador in every region who then belongs to the larger group at the head office level. This helps with consistent and seamless local execution of initiatives within the respective regions, helping voices across geographies to be heard.

 

4. PLAN – Develop a plan for execution and come up with different ways to achieve your goal. When social ambassadors put their heads together and create an all-encompassing plan, it helps them become more invested at a personal level. This may sometimes mean partnering with a consulting agency that focuses on not-for-profits. Clothing/Food drives, volunteering at the local food bank or soup kitchen, participating in walks/runs, and building a home are just a few ways to make this happen. Provide flexibility for employees to be part of other causes outside of the top 3 to 5 that the organization has selected. Some organizations have woven volunteerism into the employee experience by offering days off to support community enrichment and/or philanthropic efforts to charities of their choice.

 

5. PRODUCTION – Making it happen. This part will likely be the bulk of the hands-on work. Seeking out vendors, coordinating and promoting events, and communicating key messages across the organization. Encourage employees to include their family and friends wherever they can. This will not only deepen a sense of belonging, but it will also demonstrate to your employees that you truly care about them and their families. And don’t forget to share your journey and pictures across social channels to further unite the team, deepen the meaning of the mission, and attract purpose-driven talent to the organization.

 

Last but certainly not the least, celebrate your wins (the bonus treat “P” PARTY)! Recognize employees or groups that have contributed their time and energy to serve these causes that matter. There is nothing like seeing your purpose and efforts come to life!

 

Well there you have it, social good can bring greater meaning to the employee experience and enrich your overall brand, both employer and consumer. And when your employees come along this journey with you, they become your greatest ambassadors.

 

Are you a company that is on a social good journey? This recipe might be a good one to follow so you and your employees can find that perfect blend of purpose and passion, as you enjoy every bite of success.

 

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Need help designing an employee experience that matters? Hop on over to www.powerhousetalent.ca to learn more about our award-winning employer brand strategies.

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employee engagement

Deepen Employee Engagement

Culture, Employer Branding

Deepen employee engagement - Employee Experience Infographic

The workplace continues to change and progressive employers are deepening employee engagement by recognizing the paradigm shift that is occurring.  

You can read more about escaping legacy behaviours, sparking a cultural metamorphosis, and changing the energy of your organization in our book Peace, Love, Meaningful Careers.

Looking for support on this journey? Hit us up here or at [email protected] to learn more about our award-winning employer brand strategies and programs designed to help your organization realize its best self. 

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Employer of choice awards image of trophy

Winning at Work – Are employer of choice awards worth it?

Employer Branding

 

Employer of choice awards image of trophy

You’ve got the best gig ever, employer branding (I know what you are thinking…biased much? Raving fan of EB over here and proud!). Undoubtedly you will start to think about ways to build awareness and strengthen your organization’s reputation. Often employer of choice awards come to mind. With more and more award organizations popping up and categories emerging, it’s hard to know what is worth pursuing.

Employer of Choice Awards can be helpful within the world of employer brand management and employee experience strategy. When they are part of a larger people plan, they can provide intentionality and help narrow your organization’s focus on programs that are truly meaningful within the employee experience.

Here are five ways employer of choice awards can strengthen your organization’s position in the talent marketplace.

1) They force you to reflect upon the employee experience and make it better

The award submission process can serve as an opportunity for reflection. In my humble opinion, awards should not be a random exercise in throwing tactics against the wall to see what sticks. Like my philosophy around the broader people promise and employee experience, awards play a role in intentionality. They provide an opportunity to pause, reflect, and optimize. This may mean reviewing award criteria to better understand organizational gaps so that these gaps can be remediated. This may mean not pursuing awards for a period of a year to right the ship, do the heavy lifting, and serve the employee population in a more thoughtful manner.

Whether you are in it to win it in year one or simply information gathering, the awards circuit allows us to look in the mirror and ensure we are building a world-class employee experience.

2) Brand enrichment

For those lucky enough to be finalists or recipients of industry or employer of choice awards, employer brand enrichment can occur. Promotion around award programs provides additional reach and broader brand awareness to populations who may not have had the opportunity to interact with the brand in the past. Just think back to the last award list you saw and you will probably recall seeing names of organizations that provide a product or service that is not consumer-facing, thus you may not have had the opportunity to interact with the brand up until that point.

This means brand awareness grows, as does prestige, as discovery was through being noted as a leader within the industry and/or the employee experience.

3) Social proof

Social proof is essentially reinforcing a brand’s credibility by having a trusted third party associated with it. Think of your consumer brand purchases, you likely visited sites that mention the product or service being featured in a major publication or being used by a large multinational corporation. Social proof leverages the existing trust of these global publications and/or multinational organizations to establish credibility. Awards are valuable social proof.

4) Additional traffic

From a talent attraction perspective, many award sites link to either a career site or directly to one’s ATS thus providing an additional traffic opportunity. Let’s face it, attention matters. Gaining additional attention streams can serve both your employer brand, as well as your consumer brand.

5) Employee pride

Last but certainly not least is the benefit of employee pride. Being appointed a finalist or the recipient of an employer of choice award benefits more than the leaders of the organization, it can help to ignite employee pride. Employees want to feel proud of where they work as it is a pivotal association made with them as individuals. Being associated with an award-winning business with employee-centric practices helps employees feel proud of who they work for and indirectly helps elevate their personal brands.

There you have it, five reasons to consider industry and employer of choice awards. Once again, in order to derive the greatest benefit from this investment, it is important that there be an overarching people strategy that embeds the employee value proposition (EVP), essentially “the why” into each stage of the employee life-cycle. Once established, awards can provide intentionality, focus, and commitment to an exceptional employee experience.

 

Wishing you peace, love, and meaningful careers,

Alyssa

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Use Social Media to Build Your Employer Brand

Culture, Employer Branding, Recruitment

Why Your Company Must Use Social Media to Build its Employer Brand [Infographic]

Employer branding is a key component to attracting the right staff, and given the widespread usage of social platforms, social media is a key medium for boosting your employer brand.

Ready to put the ACTION in Talent Attraction!?!?

We work with employers who are ready to stand out in the war for talent and turn their company from “best kept secret” to “talent hot spot“. And the best part is, we make it feel easy on you as a busy HR professional, not to mention easy on your recruiting budget! We have put together a FREE employer branding webinar to help you rock the talent world! Click here to access it.

Ready to learn more? Check out our employer branding and talent attraction courses and coaching programs here.

Recruitment and employer brand training

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Walmart expands VR training to every US store

Culture, Employer Branding, Recruitment

Walmart expands VR training to every US store

Walmart has announced it will send virtual reality headsets to all its stores in the U.S. after testing VR training for the past year. Walmart said it saw an increase in training test scores of 10 to 15% after introducing the VR-based training.

We work with employers who are ready to stand out in the war for talent and turn their company from “best kept secret” to “talent hot spot“. And the best part is, we make it feel easy on you as a busy HR professional, not to mention easy on your recruiting budget! We have put together a FREE employer branding webinar to help you rock the talent world! Click here to access it.

Ready to learn more? Check out our employer branding and talent attraction courses and coaching programs here.

Recruitment and employer brand training

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