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Employer Branding Agency

Exploring the Power of Employer Branding

In recent years, employer branding has emerged as the cool kid on the HR block. While some may have dismissed it as a fad or just another trend that HR and TA professionals are chasing, savvy employers understand that the world of work is evolving. Intentional employers recognize the power of branding on both the corporate and consumer sides and have strategically invested in shaping their organizational identity. Employer branding has become a strategic imperative for organizations.

 What is Employer Branding?

Employer branding is your organizational identity related to the employee experience. It’s what you become known for as a place of employment – its word on the street! While you cannot control brand outright, it can be influenced and shaped. This also enables a greater focus on honouring the brand experience throughout the entire employee lifecycle.

In a nutshell, HR used to be a combination of programs and efforts that created and supported the employee experience. Employers with foresight know this is not enough to promote memorability, identity, and ultimately, pride. Instead, they bring together these people programs, experiences, and messages, packaging them into a cohesive identity that deepens the key associations talent make with them as an employer – not leaving word on the street to chance.

Ultimately, when thinking about their brand, they are considering how to do right by their team and deliver on their people promise. It’s a win/win/win situation. Candidates gain a clearer sense of how a career with that employer can enrich their lives. Employees feel part of something. Employers spend less time educating others about who they are and how their culture is experienced.

The Importance of Employer Branding

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Builds Organizational Identity

Great employer branding unifies messaging and creates a powerful organizational identity that attracts and retains talent.

Activates the Full Recruitment Funnel

Move beyond “post and pray”. #DidYouKnow that according to LinkedIn, 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agree that employer brand significantly impacts hiring?

Supports Employee Pride

Modern employer branding turns the spotlight on the team, celebrating their efforts and providing a “window into the employee experience” that can ignite employee pride.

Communicates Differentiation & Supports a Pull Strategy

Think of employer branding like a recruiter working 24/7 to share your organizational story. Even when you and your team are sleeping, your employer brand assets can meet talent where they are and share your “why.”

Makes Hiring & Retention Easier

According to LinkedIn, organizations with a strong employer brand not only save time and money when recruiting but also experience reduced turnover.

Assists in Broadening Market Awareness

Strong employer branding efforts can help broaden talent market awareness, critical for activating the full recruitment funnel.

In conclusion, employer branding is not just a buzzword; it’s the evolution of HR and one’s people strategy. By investing in this important work, employers set the tone for how their culture is experienced and commit to honoring their people promise throughout the full employee lifecycle.

To learn more about our full-service employer branding projects and training, click here.

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Navigating Your Employer Branding Project: Tips for Success

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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.

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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 an Employee Ambassador Program

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Ever wonder how some organizations have the coolest employer branding content? There is spirit, fun, and personality…so what makes it so interesting? It’s the authenticity shared through images and video that depict the organizational energy. This can’t be manufactured. So how do they do it? Enter the employee ambassador program…

Employee ambassador programs have become increasingly popular in recent years as companies recognize the value of having their team capture the real deal. By empowering your employees to be social scouts and brand ambassadors, one is better able to provide what we like to call “a window into the employee experience”. This can ignite employee pride, connect distributed teams, and magnetize prospective talent to the organization.

Here are 8 steps to help you get started in launching your very own employee ambassador program:

1) Determine your goals

You are a busy HR/TA pro. No one has time for “busy work” that doesn’t move the needle. Before you start designing your program, define your objectives. Determine what you want to achieve by launching an employee ambassador program. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive engagement, grow candidate leads or increase team connection? Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, you can tailor your program to meet your specific needs.

2) Design the program

Next up is designing how the program will work. Is it an annual program where ambassadors sign up for a year term or will it be more free-flowing? How many ambassadors will your organization need? Will ambassadors submit content for curation and publication or will they also be mobilizing their networks to share the company’s story? There is not a one-size-fits-all answer here. Either approach can work. Should you wish the team to share on their social channels, will they be using their personal social handles or creating branded company ones, for example: @SeemaForXYZCompany?

Will ambassadors be trained and if so, how and by whom? How will ambassadors be selected? Will is be a sign-up process or will individuals be invited to participate (still kept voluntary)? What volume of content do you require and in what geographic locations? Will the program be enterprise-wide or business unit specific? How will you manage consent for content? These are just some of the parameters that you’ll want to think through as you design your program.

3) Select your tool/s of choice

Now it’s time to talk tools! There are several ways to collect the content. You can designate an EB lead and have content emailed in, set up a shared file and provide access to ambassadors to upload, or use a content management tool to capture content, curate, caption, and schedule all in one place! At Powerhouse, we love the simplicity of the latter.

After using Later for years, we are thrilled to be an Official Later Partner. Later is a social content scheduling tool with several other superpowers. When using Later for ambassador work, we add each ambassador as a contributor for them to have the ability to upload content into Later’s backend interface. You can also set up a custom content submission e-mail where one does not need a Later account. This works great for employee-generated content contests independent of an ambassador program. These are just a few of the reasons we love Later and are so happy to be partnering with them. Later has a ton of social platforms that it publishes to including LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and more.

To learn more about Later, click here.

* We are a proud Later partner which means not only do we use Later but we may receive a commission from them at NO additional cost to you. Later does this as a thank you to us for helping to share their awesomeness with the world.

4) Promote the program

Now that we have our program designed and tools ready to go it’s time to spread the word. Here’s where you can unleash your creativity to design compelling posters, splash pages, and other graphics that invite your team to become an ambassador. You could even connect with your marketing department and pick their brain on suggested approaches to broaden reach and inspire employees to become an ambassador.

5) Select your ambassadors

The success of your employee ambassador program hinges on having the right people on the team and their commitment to sharing the “window into the employee experience”.  Look for employees who understand the vision of this work, want to broaden their skills, and who are committed to sharing your organization’s story.

6) Provide training and get the team pumped

To be effective ambassadors, your employees need to understand your consumer and employer brand’s key messages, values, and objectives. Providing training and resources will help your ambassadors to be confident and effective advocates for your brand. Consider creating a brand ambassador playbook or cheat sheet that outlines your program’s objectives and provides tips.

7) Shout out, recognize, and gamify

One of the best ways to incentivize your employee ambassadors is to establish a leaderboard or rewards and recognition program. By recognizing your ambassadors’ efforts, you can encourage them to continue promoting your brand. Rewards can include things like exclusive access to company events, gift cards, or other incentives.

8) Measure progress 

Like any initiative, it’s essential to measure your employee ambassador program’s success. Define what success looks like from the outset. Does it mean increased employee engagement, team recognition (as perceived by employees), content consumption in the form of impressions, candidate research (as noted by candidates, thus serving as a conversion tool), etc. Like with any program, it’s an evolution and you will need to tweak as you go.

Launching an employee ambassador program is not only a great way to kick off your employer branding efforts, but it is also a fantastic way to bring your team into this work — supporting a co-created people philosophy. This can lead to much more interesting content, employees who feel part of the journey, and a team that celebrates all sites, roles, and levels…not simply the executive ranks.  It’s time to power up your content and empower your team to share the ride internally and externally. Now go on out there and make some noise!!!


Starting an employer brand project?

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

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HR Storytelling & Employer Branding – Connect Through Content

HR storytelling content saying

Content is Queen! In the world of people and culture, one might be wondering how content is relevant to our discipline. Unlike any other time in the history of our profession, storytelling is helping to set organizations apart, providing a window into the employee experience, igniting employee pride, and magnetizing others to join the journey.

As exciting as this time is, a large gap remains in our discipline. So what is the gap? It is the knowledge gap. There are many HR pros hungry for growth, change, and advancement within our discipline and to all of those who subscribe to this philosophy, we applaud you! There is so much that we can learn from other disciplines and domains even outside the business world that we can take inspiration from to fuel our advancement. 

So understanding the time is now to double down on our efforts for progress, what can we learn about content to help better our organizations?

  1. It all begins with self-discovery

When we uncover who we are as individuals, the world opens up to us. When we discover who we are as an organization and own it, the same is true. It all begins with an employee value proposition (EVP). An EVP brings intentionality and cohesion to the full employee lifecycle helping to honour our people promise and increase the likelihood of brand recall in market. If we don’t take the time to understand who we are, how can we expect others to be invested in the mission and join the journey?

  1. Aligning content to goals

Before designing a content strategy or building any content/creative, it’s important to get clear on one’s goals both organizational business objectives as well as people and culture. The two should go hand-in-hand, as only through our people and a strong and vibrant culture can we achieve our full potential and realize our business objectives.

  1. Designing a channel strategy

Next up is developing one’s channel strategy. There are so many places to distribute content to but that doesn’t mean we need to be everywhere. By understanding our business objectives, audience, and where we would like to expand awareness to support broader workforce inclusivity, one can select the appropriate content channels. This can range from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Reddit, blogs, YouTube, podcasts, LinkedIn, Medium, other discipline-specific niche sites, events, and more. We don’t need to try and boil the ocean. It’s about being selective but committing fully.

  1. Keeping it real!

Let’s lose the corporate-speak and stock images. Nobody wants to consume self-serving and artificial content. Let’s instead focus on highlighting the people within the organization, celebrating their unique stories, and who they are as people beyond their job title. Let’s show up with personality and build community at work!

  1. Showing up consistently

Time to commit to the process. It takes time to see the impact of ongoing effort but don’t be fooled, we are planting seeds and below the earth, they are getting ready to sprout. The harvest will come in time through consistent effort and showing up for our audience.

The benefits of content

  1. Market awareness

Content helps tell our story beyond a single job posting on our career site or internal chatter that’s happening within the organization. It can help activate the full recruitment funnel and optimize the efforts of our recruitment team. It can help us reach under-represented populations and build a more diverse and inclusive workforce. 

  1. Employee engagement and pride

Content can ignite employee engagement and pride across geographies and remote teams. It can also serve as a form of recognition celebrating the day-to-day achievements of our talented workforce. It can build a community that deepens ties internally and helps us share our story more broadly thereby inviting others to join the mission.

  1. Recruitment and candidate research

Content is by far one of the most powerful candidate research tools. It allows for multidimensional storytelling and helps bring to life our key messages. It also rounds out the information available on our organization, giving candidates more to consume than simply employer review channels and our career site.

 

So go on out there HR pros, let’s empower our organizational storytellers, and build more than a content strategy, let’s build employee pride and share our story more broadly!

To learn more about Employer Branding, EVP development, or content strategy, hit us up at www.powerhousetalent.ca. We build award-winning employer brand strategies. Will your organization be next?

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

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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. 

Let’s Put the Action in Talent Attraction Strategy!

The Talent Attraction Strategy Framework Course is here!

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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?

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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.

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Eight Ways to Show Your Team Some Love on Employee Appreciation Day and Always

employee appreciation day

Did you know that March 5th is Employee Appreciation Day? While this day of recognition is a wonderful idea to show some love to your team, employee appreciation should be a year-round affair. 

Think of this day as you would Valentine’s Day. If you only show your partner you care once a year, you will likely find yourself in a hollow relationship unable to withstand the inevitable storms that we face in life. The same is true for the employment relationship. One day of cupcakes or a gift card will not make up for 364 days of under-appreciation and/or disregard for the people helping to power your organization.

For all of the people-first leaders out there, here are some ways to send some extra warm and fuzzies to the team on Employee Appreciation Day:

1) Fun work awards: Many organizations have formal award programs but does your company have an award program that is actually fun and interesting for employees? If you’re a fan of the TV show The Office, then you’ll know how meaningful the Dundies were to the team at Dunder Mifflin.  These funny and wacky award categories were both an office tradition and an opportunity for bonding on a deeper level. While the Dundies may serve as the inspiration for this tip, it is still a TV show so keep your award categories respectful. Together with your employees (remember we believe in a co-created employee experience), come up with a handful of fun informal awards. Next, create bizarre-looking trophies (physical or virtual) to honour these not-so-polished moments and see your team light up in new ways. Come up with categories that celebrate the individual uniqueness of your team and share the categories before the big day.  Have your team vote on finalists to further make this a shared experience. Embed this annual tradition within your employee experience and have your team come together to celebrate, laugh, and go down in history with their very own fun award. 

2) Pay it forward – team style: With this tip, every employee is provided a fixed dollar amount electronic gift card that they can direct to a colleague who helped them the most, supported them the most, or just made the last year more manageable. This encourages a spirit of gratitude amongst your employee population and empowers your team to be thoughtful and aware of the positive impact others have had on them.

3) Pay it forward – social good: Set a fixed dollar amount and add it to your next pay cycle. Next, encouraged the team to make a donation to a registered charity or not-for-profit organization of their choice. Better yet, check out sites like Canada Helps for charity gift cards that make doing good that much easier. Research has shown that we feel better after spending on others versus ourselves. To learn more about this and other ingredients for a thriving workplace culture, check out our book Peace, Love & Meaningful Careers.

4) Theme of the year – SWAG: Create an annual tradition of setting a theme for the year and continue this idea into Employee Appreciation Day with customized SWAG that commemorates the theme. Think back to summer camp and the song of the summer, the sweatshirts, and t-shirts that marked that moment in history forever. Rituals and traditions are an important part of building a strong workplace culture and deepening the ties that your team has with your organization.  Pair this idea of an annual theme with an awesome playlist curated by your organization. This further helps to unite your team and can also be a fun tool on the recruitment marketing front.

5) Virtual party with door prizes: While this year has been unlike any other, it has helped bring much-needed progress to the workplace.  We are now comfortable and perhaps too familiar with every video conferencing tool out there. Pick your fave and throw a virtual party! Depending on the size of your organization, this could be by department or as a broader organization. Have awesome door prizes to help celebrate the day.

6) Our team rocks (low budget fun idea) – Invite your team to sport their favourite rock or musical artist t-shirt. This is an amazing way to see the person beyond the job title. Get the team together for virtual drinks, add some door prizes, and rock Employee Appreciation Day with fun games like Name That Tune and music trivia. You will catch me proudly sporting a Grateful Dead t-shirt and keeping it real!

7) Time off – Let’s face it, your team, like the rest of the world has had a rough 12 months. Tell your team how much you love them by giving them some time for self-care. This can be done in numerous ways depending on your operational needs. Perhaps it’s a morning or afternoon off where you rotate between half your workforce being off in the morning while the other half is off in the afternoon. Let the team know that your intention for the day is for them to use this time in a way that rejuvenates them, thus recognizing all of their hard work especially over the course of the last year.

8) Gift cards with personality (thanks a latte) – When in doubt there’s the much-loved gift card. While this idea runs the risk of feeling impersonal, you can combat that by adding some personality and linking your gift card to a fun theme. 

If nothing else, be sure to take the time to extend a heartfelt thank you to each member of your team. As small as the gesture may seem, it feels great to know we are appreciated.

The logistics:

  1. Set a budget.
  2. Start the work early.
  3. Create a “care crew” made up of employee representatives to ensure you hit the mark. This is an important point for any activity you are working on within the employee lifecycle. My firm belief is that the future of the employee experience (and the here and now for progressive employers) is a co-created one. Having our team by our side as we shape the employee experience, ensures that it is meaningful, collaborative, and united in its approach. 
  4. Spread the love: Shower your team with the recognition they deserve. Now more than ever, our team needs us. Send some extra special love to your “care crew” for their support in shaping an awesome employee experience.
  5. Rinse and repeat: Every day may not be Employee Appreciation day but every day we should be showing gratitude and recognition to our team for living our values and helping to power our mission

The key to a thriving culture and an exceptional employee experience is intention. Setting a regular practice of gratitude and recognition tells your team they are valued…not one day of the year, but always. 

To learn more about a thriving workplace and sparking a cultural metamorphosis, check out our website at www.powerhousetalent.ca (Employer Brand & Employee Experience Strategy Firm).

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Five Tips For Writing Employer Of Choice Award Submissions That Win!

So you’ve decided to submit an employer of choice or industry award nomination for your organization.

Now it’s time to write a submission that actually gets traction. We have some great news. We help clients with this frequently and are here to dish some tips to help you win at work! Insert happy dance!

1) Write with Personality

There is nothing worse than reading a regurgitation of stats and facts. Imagine what the judges are thinking when they are sifting through an endless stack of submissions. It’s time to wow them and move them into action in order to get your submission into the finalist pile.

Much like all of the writing we do at Powerhouse, we write with heart and in a manner that feels human. We encourage you to do the same. So what does this actually look like? It means finding your voice and ensuring a consistent tone across channels. This comes back to the overarching significance of taking time to understand and build out your employee value proposition (EVP) and employer brand strategy. When we understand our tone of voice and consistently use it with every communication including award submissions, we reinforce key messages, our brand personality, and build brand trust.

2) Tell Stories

Did you know that stories are 22 times more powerful than facts alone? I discovered this while conducting research for my book Peace, Love, & Meaningful Careers…shameless plug. The fact remains, stories work.

Reflect on the question at hand and then swiftly move into storytelling mode. Help the reader, in this case, the judge, become immersed in your transformational journey. This builds connection and deepens an emotional response to the information.  

Workplace culture book

 3) Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute

If you’ve decided to participate in various award submissions, really commit to the process. This means proper planning. There are organizations all over the world that hire agencies skilled in crafting submissions and telling impactful stories. These are experts in understanding the information required to help judges move into action and consider them as a finalist for an award. That is your competition. 

Slapping together facts in a generic fashion will not get you to the finish line, as it is a representation of who you are as an employer. If you care enough to submit your proposal for consideration, care enough to plan and do it right. This doesn’t mean you must hire an agency although many organizations who do not have internal Communications teams find it to be more effective and cost-efficient than hiring an internal resource to manage the work.

4) Use Another Set of Eyes or Two 

When we write submissions, we go deep in the zone becoming so familiar with the work that it proves more difficult to spot errors. As such, with every writing project we embark on, we undergo an editing phase. This is done by an individual skilled in copyediting which is a different skill set than writing. Not only does this improve grammar and overall composition, but it ensures minor typos are caught and a submission is flawlessly executed.

Buy your grammatically skilled colleague a virtual coffee and have them review your submissions with a fine-tooth comb. 

5) Persevere

When we started to walk, we didn’t just get up and run a marathon. The move from crawling to running down the halls of our home took time. There’s value in pursuing awards whether you win them or not as it works a self-reflection muscle which brings greater intentionality to building an exceptional employee experience. Check out this article here where we discuss this further.

It’s not uncommon to be shortlisted yet not cross the finish line in year one, only to find the very next year you are crowned the winner. Like everything else in life, it’s about perseverance.

 

Well there you have it, five tips to help you rock the awards circuit! We’re sending you winning vibes from the Powerhouse team. Send us a note and let us know how your award submissions worked out. Happy writing!

Employer of choice awards

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HR book

Human Resources Book – HR Reimagined

Workplace culture book

Human Resources Book – HR Reimagined & Ready for the Modern Age

Hey there friends! Ever ask yourself “Is this all there is?”. Guess what, your employees are asking the same question and it doesn’t need to be that way. In so many cases, the workplace has turned into the hamster wheel where we spend our time labouring to fit into a box versus truly tapping into our full potential as professionals and as an organization. That is exactly why I wrote this book.

This book is a trip through my twenty-year career as a Certified HR Leader (CHRL) and the research I have done. Here you will discover a methodology filled with the ingredients to nourish your workforce and build a thriving culture. And I didn’t stop there. As a lover of simplicity and bringing ideas to life, my book also contains an implementation blueprint designed to help you operationalize key concepts and tactics as you move your organization through a cultural metamorphosis.

Within the book, I cover topics such as workplace flexibility, Employee Value Proposition development, diversity and inclusion, corporate social responsibility…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! The book is filled with research as well as interviews with experts in the fields of diversity and inclusion, leadership, and media.

This is my contribution to the world in an effort to foster a greater sense of community at work. I hope you enjoy it. It was written with love. 

Wishing you peace, love, & meaningful careers, 

Alyssa

To learn more about Powerhouse Talent Inc. and our employer branding and employee experience strategy solutions, hop on over to www.powerhousetalent.ca.

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Article on EVP and employer brand

The Most Powerful Transformer in HR

Article on EVP and employer brand

I want to let you in on a little secret…

You might be surprised to hear me say that the biggest win related to an employee value proposition (EVP) /employer brand strategy project is not that of talent attraction, but rather the fostering of a cultural metamorphosis. A wonderful by-product of such a project is greater ease in attracting outstanding talent, as when one’s position and voice are crystallized, the opportunity for brand recall is strengthened. But again, that is simply a fabulous by-product.

When we commence these projects digging deeper and with a spirit of organizational self-discovery and intentionality around building an exceptional employee experience, we can transform more than a recruitment process. We can transform our culture.

This is not new and has always been the case. By the end of this article, you will understand why this happens. My hope is that I will inspire you to do this critical work. This does not require an agency although many organizations opt to utilize one for several reasons including expertise in this discipline, speed, ease, and objectivity. But most importantly, do not let budget constraints prevent you from realizing your organization’s best self! An EVP project is at the helm of a cultural rebirth.

Let the fun begin!

Let’s start with what an EVP is. An EVP is the “why” around your organization. It’s what attracts and retains talent. It is also your promise to your people. When we undergo an EVP project, we distill the very qualities which attract talent to us, as well as gain an appreciation for who we are not.  In this realization there is power. There is the capacity to communicate clearly to both existing employees and prospective talent around the authentic employee experience. In doing so we optimize our recruitment funnel by having those unlikely to find success at our organization opt-out while those who will thrive in our environment have their interest intensified. For example, some candidates thrive in builder environments with a higher degree of fluidity and ambiguity, while others will be met with frustration and crave deeper process maturity. An EVP is an exercise in truth-telling flavoured with the aspirational tone of what’s to come, as with each hire we advance closer to this.

Next, some mistake employer branding as an exercise in career site beautification. This to me is “veneer work”. If what is beneath the #instaperfect surface is far from inspiring and contrary to the messages being shared, credibility will be lost. When we approach this work with genuine motivation to become our best self, we can co-create an enriched employee experience and future together with our employees.  This is the business of transformation, not of selling an illusion.

For those who know that there’s something special that needs to be unearthed and are committed to this being the catalyst for positive organizational change and enhancement, this is the work that gets me fired up!

It’s important to look at this initiative with fresh eyes. It’s a paradigm shift rather than looking at it as simply another HR initiative. One needs to understand that the EVP is at the heart of one’s people strategy and brings cohesion to the full employee lifecycle.

Article on EVP and employer brand

Once an EVP has been established, every new HR program, initiative, and policy, becomes intentional and crafted to support an exceptional employee experience honouring the people promise. It is approached with a spirit of alignment to the overarching “why” of the employee experience. Rather than the employee lifecycle looking similar to a quilt with random employee programs patched together, it is an intentional and cohesive experience which aligns to this “defining why”. How we onboard, how we inspire, how we develop, how we build belonging, how we part ways, how we foster ongoing relationships within alumni networks, and how we invite those very people back into the organization as boomerang employees, all aligns with the EVP and tells a consistent story. If you’re looking for authenticity around your employer brand, this is how you do it.

An EVP is the Optimus Prime of HR. It is the transformer (80s cartoon version of course!) that leads the people strategy. Beware of the veneer, they are the Decepticons of this space.

Listen to our podcast to learn more on this subject.


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To learn how to escape the legacy mindset, foster a cultural metamorphosis, and change the energy of your organization, check out the book Peace, Love, & Meaningful Careers available in Kindle and paperback here. To learn how you can work with Powerhouse Talent on the development of your EVP, hit us up here.

Workplace culture book

 

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