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neon sign saying here for an article on employer branding

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

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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HR and Recruitment Training

Recruiter Training Has Never Been So Much Fun!

Recruiter Training: You’ve heard it before, your recruiters want more training. The war for talent is intensifying and the landscape seems to be changing on a daily basis. While conferences are great networking opportunities, you are really looking for training that is specific to your organization’s current state. A collection of generalized approaches to topics is just no longer cutting it. 

Powerhouse Talent's Recruiter Training

Behold…Powerhouse Talent’s Talent Attraction Learning Intensive. Our custom learning workshops are called intensives for a reason. We get in there and dig into your organization’s specific needs. We dive deep into pain points and build the path forward together while learning simultaneously. We like to say we put the “action” in talent attraction learning.

Powerhouse Talent's Recruiter Training

Powerhouse Talent's Recruiter Training

In each customized session we provide inspiration, education, and operationalization to help get you to the other side! The best part is we have a blast doing it! Our sessions are designed for team building and togetherness. They are fun and human….no stuffy theory lectures here! So much so that we have a 100% net promoter score with participants describing the training as inspiring, engaging, unique, useful, and high quality!

Powerhouse Talent's Recruiter Training

Give us a shout today to learn more. 

Join our journey on Instagram! Wishing you peace, love, meaningful careers!

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Résumés Are Starting to Look Like Instagram—and Sometimes Even Tinder

Résumés Are Starting to Look Like Instagram-and Sometimes Even Tinder

When it came time late last year for 23-year-old Valentino Bogliacino Bueno to revamp his résumé, he added up top an oval photo of himself smiling. He didn’t stop there. He designed a watermark of his initials and stretched it diagonally across the page.

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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Grads flock to jobs in arts, social services

Grads flock to jobs in arts, social services over finance

Recent college graduates are more attracted to jobs in the arts, media and social services than graduates were four years ago, according to an Indeed report. Indeed’s findings show job seekers just out of college are less drawn to jobs in business and finance, including roles as economists, actuaries and statisticians.

 

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SMB recruitment hiring

How To Recruit And Compete As A SMB

You’ve heard it all before. There is a war for talent and it’s not getting any easier to fill those critical roles that are fundamental to your organization’s success. If you are like most SMBs, you may be asking yourself how you can compete with the big guys. Come hither friends because we have put together seven steps to help small business attract big talent!

1.Own who you are – This is not a time for “fake it till you make it”. You have a unique value proposition and it’s time to discover who you are as an employer and share that uniqueness with the world. Before commencing a recruitment journey, self-reflection is a great starting point.

 

You may wish to formalize this self-reflection and analysis in the form of an Employee Value Proposition (EVP). To learn more EVPs, click here. Regardless of how deep you wish to go with the process, you can’t attract others to your mission if you don’t know who you are first.

 

2.Design an end to end recruitment process – Now that you’ve uncovered your “secret sauce”, it’s time to build a candidate journey that delivers a remarkable candidate experience while optimizing the journey for efficiency.

Time kills deals! This is as true in recruitment as it is in sales. This is not about how quickly you can hire a body. This is about process excellence and allowing quality candidates to effectively navigate the journey with ease.

 

Not a DIYer? No worries, check out our recruiter training and blueprint…The Powerhouse Process. Still got the DIYer bug? We love that! Keep reading.

 

3.Train your hiring leaders– Your hiring leaders will shape the journey so we best be skilling them up to deliver a first rate experience. Train your hiring leaders on the overall process, what to ask in the interview and what not to ask. Help them see the bigger talent brand picture. Knowledge is power so enrich their skill-set with tools and education to help them rock the recruitment process.

 

4.Clearly define your needs upfront– Now that you have the process down, it’s time to consider the needs of the current vacancy. Many hiring leaders fail to spend the time to consider the true business need, not a wish list or a generic list of skills. What are the REAL requirements based on the actual accountabilities for the role? What skill-set would one need to have in order to perform the role? Next, articulate those needs in a manner that highlights your EVP or the “why” around your organization.

 

5.Select the right channels for advertising – Consider your ideal candidate and ask yourself where might they be spending their time. Select ideal channels and monitor your progress. If a channel is not producing the ideal results, optimize the posting further or select a new channel. Regular monitoring will allow for process speed and ease.

 

Better yet, consider programmatic job advertising where you only pay per applicant and roles are distributed across numerous channels. We’ve partner with a leader in programmatic advertising and can support you through this process. Hit us up here.

 

6.Add personal touches along the way – Once your have shortlisted candidates and have started the journey, make it special! This is where a SMB can shine!!! Many large organizations lose prospective talent by being plagued with impersonal and generic candidate experiences. The interview process is a time for authentic relationship building, not a tick box exercise.

 

Block multiple interviews into one day to help candidates have an easier time attending. Switch up the interview venues throughout the day by moving from meeting room to employee lounge to local coffee shop. Help candidates envision themselves working there, walking the neighbourhood, feeling out the employee experience. This alone is game changing!

 

7.Close out the process with a killer onboarding process– Knock it out of the park with an outstanding onboarding process. This doesn’t need to mean endless curriculum building. This is all about helping talent build a strong internal network quickly, communicating the excitement of their arrival to the team in advance, and planning for a special first week. Double down on people related activities and have a simple checklist to get the routine tasks organized such as technology ordering.

 

Well there you have it! As an SMB, you have a unique opportunity to humanize the recruitment process like no other. It all comes down to strategy, process excellence, and hiring leader development.

Ready to learn more? Check out our courses and coaching programs here.

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5 employer branding myths that are holding you back

5 employer branding myths that are holding you back

Editor’s note: This is a contributed piece by Eric Friedman, founder and CEO of eSkill Corporation, a provider of Web-based skills testing for pre-employment and training. As you may already know, your competitive advantage relies on the job satisfaction and productivity of the employees who work for your organization.

 

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Why Employer Branding Is So Important

Why Employer Branding Is So Important

3 min read This story originally appeared on Personal Branding Blog Having a reputable employer brand is a must for an organization’s strategy because it helps companies recruit better candidates, reduce hiring and marketing costs, and improve productivity. Therefore, for organizations that are still in doubt about investing in employer branding, here’s why it’s so important.

 

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Powerhouse Talent - Employer Branding, Culture & Talent Attraction

Top 10 Employer Branding To-Dos For 2018

Employer Branding (EB) is both the art and the science of employee experience storytelling. It’s the organizational identity related to the employee experience. It’s the emotional response to what it feels like to work at an organization.

According to LinkedIn, 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agree that employer branding has a significant impact on hiring. It’s no wonder why more and more organizations are investing in a comprehensive employer brand strategy.

The world of Employer Branding is changing quickly. Here are 10 EB to-dos to help your organization rock 2018:

1) Look in the mirror – It’s important to gain a strong understanding of who you are as an employer and your market position. It’s time to stop trying to be someone else and begin finding the magic within your own organization. This is done through dedicated time discovering one’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP). This is the “why” around an organization. It’s what attracts and retains top talent and an organization’s promise to its people.

2) Lose the glam in video content – There is a reason why candidates flock to employer review sites. They are trying to gain an understanding of the true employee experience. But often employer review sites are also job portals. This means reviews in those sites may not be a comprehensive sample of the employee population, but rather those seeking a job change. 

Effective EB helps share stories related to the employee experience allowing candidates to gain a glimpse into the real organizational culture. This helps round out content so that candidates also hear from employees who are happily employed at the organization. This is not to be confused with creating a perfected image of the employee experience, but rather providing more of a balanced window into the culture.

This is where it is less about production quality and more about authenticity. While high quality professionally produced video content may look great, it can erode brand trust if overly produced.

2018 is about raw and real video. We are talking vlogs and selfie style moment capturing created by employees. Talent attraction and HR can certainly support the mission, but the true stars are the employees. Character and authenticity trump polish.

3) But first a selfie! It doesn’t need to be a selfie per se but scrap the stock images. Nothing is worse than seeing a career site where if you removed the company logo, the reader would have no idea which company it was.

Hire a local photographer and capture the fun, silly, and human side of your business. Select a photographer who is not a “portrait studio” shutterbug. Hire an artist and give them the creative freedom to wow you.

At Powerhouse Talent, we like to share the employer brand strategy and creative vision with our photographer and let them go wild.

4) Power to the people – Employee generated content and employee advocacy are hugely important not just for credibility and brand trust, but also for building employee pride. Open your blogs and vlogs up to everyone. Talent Attraction can curate content to ensure it is appropriate but empowering the voice of your team has never been more important.

5) Rolling social and feed takeovers – There is a shift occurring where organizations with strong employer brand maturity are passing the baton to their employees. Social feeds are being run as a collective force versus a corporate function. Employees are showing “a day in the life” not in an over-produced PR campaign video, but rather through platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, etc. We are not learning solely about someone’s day to day job, but we are meeting their dog on their early morning walk, grabbing coffee with them on their way into the office, and hitting up a meeting with them. They show the world the people behind the logo.

6) It’s like the Hokey Pokey – You put you whole self in, not just your work self. Work/life integration is the real work/life balance. Modern employers are embracing flexibility and agile collaboration to help their employees achieve both their personal and professional goals. This integration will continue to play a strong role in EB storytelling practices in 2018.

7) Be purposefully purposeful – Employer branding content should be focused around the highest possible good an employee experience can provide. This can manifest in a purpose-driven mission, employee creative freedom, or self exploration. Purpose matters!

Author Salim Ismail in his book Exponential Organizations describes a common characteristic in exponential organizations as being the notion of having a “massive transformative purpose”. The world-class talent community craves so much more than simply impacting to the bottom line.  EB storytelling will dig deep in 2018 and find its massive transformative purpose. This may be innovation, reimagining an industry, creating social good, and/or skill enrichment.

8) It’s game day! – Gamification is a great way to engage talent high up in the recruitment funnel. If you are not familiar with the recruitment funnel, click here. Gamification can be used via formalized games that interest a passive candidate and prompt them to solve challenges and puzzles, participate in hackathons, etc. In the process, they get to “know, like, and trust” the organization. This helps build awareness and allows talent to descend lower in the recruitment funnel.

Organizations also solve real life problems via gamification and crowd sourcing solutions by using money and prizes. This not only helps advance business strategy, but also builds awareness for passive talent. When the time is right and passive candidates become active, there is greater depth to the relationship versus simply viewing a job posting.

9) A landing page is all the rage! – Landing or “squeeze pages”, are not new concepts in digital marketing. These tools can be excellent employer brand building mechanisms. If you are not familiar with the concept of a squeeze page, you can check out our ERE article here. These help socialize your employer brand and EVP with passive talent. Perhaps an industry white paper or webinar led talent to this content locked behind a landing page. From there, the candidate opts in by sharing their email and first name. They then gain immediate access to the desired content.

This is your best content, your thought leaders in action. Prospective talent gains instant access to this information, as well as gaining exposure to the incredible talent within the walls of the organization. This further builds the ever-sought after “know, like, and trust”, thus allowing talent to descend further in the recruitment funnel. 

Once on the email list, it’s all about nurturing. Read more on this topic here. This should not be confused with a job alert, but rather a relationship and brand building opportunity.

There are many more tips and tactics related to recruitment advertising such as programmatic ads, high precision targeting and retargeting, and more, but our focus for this article is employer brand building.

10) Try before you buy – A big focus for 2018 is a more captivating candidate experience that enhances the employer brand. This may be in-person or even via virtual reality (VR).

Candidate experience optimization continues to be very important. Organizations are reimagining ways to engage talent to showcase their employer brand during the candidate journey. For example, this may mean inviting talent into the workplace for a day of exploration beyond a standard interview. This may include peer lunches, interesting skill challenges, or casual tours of the facility and neighbourhood. Organizations are also exploring VR to build immersive candidate experiences that more realistically present the role and the culture, as well as use that same VR as an assessment tool.

Think of it like home staging. It’s about helping talent envision themselves as part of the team as they embark on the candidate journey. Only one person will get the job, but a human, interesting, and comfortable “interview” experience will not soon be forgotten. This not only enhances an employer brand, but also a consumer brand.

 

There is a reason our branded hashtag at Powerhouse Talent is #HumanBeforeResources. We are people before an employee number. A career should be more than a job you clock in and out of. We believe it should be a community you join, where a full life is enriched.

Employer branding efforts can be a process of organizational self-discovery, change for betterment, and a transformation to a new level of engagement. It all starts with understanding your “why” and then trusting your people to help share the story. After all, if we cannot trust good judgement for a blog post or a selfie, why are they part of the business? This is the difference between a recruitment marketing campaign and a true cultural metamorphosis via the power of an employer brand.

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Employer Branding just got easier! Learn about The Employer Branding Co-Operative, our revolutionary new program helping organizations and budgets big and small amp up their EB game! It’s time to POWER UP!

 

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How Great Employer Branding Answers the Question on Every Female Jobseeker’s Mind

How Great Employer Branding Answers the Question on Every Female Jobseeker’s Mind

Recently, my husband and I bought a new apartment. Before making our final decision, we looked at over 30 homes (much to our broker’s great chagrin). At each one, my husband zoned in on the quantitative metrics (what is the square footage?) and the mechanics (how is it heated?).

Check out our employer branding programs here.

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