10 employer branding takeaways every employer branding leader should know (and apply). Presented by Jennifer Newbill, Senior Manager of Employer Branding at Dell.
Sponsored by Glassdoor for Employers.
2. #GDChat
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11. #GDChat
Transparency
• Get leaders involved
• Solicit feedback regularly
• Acknowledge wins & areas for improvement
Ebook: 25 Tips from Top CEOs (2015)
14. #GDChat
Human
• Get leaders involved
on social
• Respond to Reviews
and Feedback
• Call out employees
when they do
something impactful
• Create a hashtag
• Employee Blog
• Share real photos
and stories
21. #GDChat
Measurement
• Measure what matters based on your company culture and
processes
• Treat candidates like customers
• Keep your finger on the pulse of employee sentiment
• Monitor and respond to reviews
We encourage you to join the conversation online using our hashtag, GDChat.
Glassdoor for Employers handle is @GDforEmployers
Matt
Jennifer
Before we dive in to the day’s key takeaways, I want to give you an idea of how the day went for those of you who couldn’t tune in.
Glassdoor’s CEO Robert Hohman called transparency the “new normal,” and he’s right.
Without your employee’s trust, you can’t build a thriving, engaging culture. The best companies know that encouraging, listening to, and acting on honest feedback is healthy for the organization. It’s a critical ingredient in building trust and ultimately will contribute to your company’s success.
This quote from Brian Halligan, the CEO of HubSpot, is spot on. Transparency is a must if you want to build a truly strong relationship with employees and candidates.
At Summit, Glassdoor’s CEO Robert talked about the Edelman Trust Barometer’s data on trusted sources of information – nearly one in three said that employees are the most trusted source of information about a company’s operations. Glassdoor’s growth to 30 million unique users per month is evidence to this point – people are demanding transparency!
It’s not just critical to relationships with employees and candidates. In today’s business environment, it will impact your relationship with investors and vendors, too. Being authentic builds trust with consumers, who are used to getting information about everything online. They want to know how you’re running your business and it plays a role in their decision-making.
Alison Hadden, Head of Brand Strategy at Glassdoor, presented results from a multi-year financial analysis that showed that companies with high employee ratings financially outperformed the S&P 500 by 122%.
Things to keep in mind
Provide a human touch for your employees, candidates, and followers. Candidates want to speak with a HUMAN, not a company.
Spencer Rascoff knows this better than just about any CEO, personally reviewing and responding to reviews made about his company on sites like Glassdoor.
One of Zillow’s core values is “own it” and Spencer really lives and breathes this—it’s not an empty mantra. He avoids corporate “double-speak” like the plague. What he says internally matches what he says publicly, which fosters a sense of trust in his people and in consumers. He’s known as “a social CEO,” and frequently thanks employees on twitter. Think about how cool and meaningful it would be to work for a company where a leader takes the time to congratulate you on your newborn child or recognize your work anniversary. Think about the thousands of other potential employees and consumers that are seeing this, too.
Some tips for humanizing your brand:
Get social
Shine a spotlight on the WORK being done at your company. It’s by far the most compelling content to share socially
Share candid photos, department/employee blogs, employee spotlights, career strategies, relevant quotes
Have leaders respond to tweets and
Create a unique hashtag
Call out employees when they do something impactful
Add authenticity to your careers page – photos of real employees, stories about the real work being done
Salesforce’s Jennifer Johnston shared her vision of how to evolve the talent ecosystem and process.
Salesforce had crazy hiring needs this past year (5k people!) and made the numbers because they were able to use data to evolve their methods and systems.
Used data to understand the current labor market and determine the qualities of top performers
Analysis showed that it took only 8 referral leads to make a hire versus 154 outside leads, so they beefed up their referral program internally. Also created a referral app for employees.
Referral rate is one of Salesforce’s key metrics for measuring success, and by helping employees feel at home during their first year, they ensure they will maintain or grow their 50% referral rate
Another important factor Jennifer Johnson talked about was creating truly great candidate experience.
Trained recruiters and hiring managers in competence-based interviewing and provided an employer value proposition certification
This ensured candidates always got a consistent and compelling message
Customized the email journey for candidates and new hires
Their new hire email program has been super successful, with a 90% open rate
Employees have power in the marketplace.
They are trusted and listened to more than the company CEO, according to Christopher Hannegan from Edelman. Empower them and trust them to be your greatest advocates.
The 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual global survey that tracks trust in sources of information about companies, found that technical experts and employees are trusted more than the CEO. Companies have an opportunity to amplify both voices. Therefore, it’s important to label technical experts as well as empower employees in appropriate ways.
Also shows that HR is least trusted source of information. Internal subject matter experts are #1. We rely heavily on HR communications, but we need to rely on our people more.
Measure what matters to your organization and your company culture. Monitoring trends over time will help you and your organization shape and tell your unique story.
Advice to senior management.
What is your candidate experience truly like, from start to finish?
Experience your brand as a candidate and go through each step.
Google your company
Pull up your caeer page, social profiles, GD profile
Read your reviews
What are candidates walking away with after experiencing your brand online
What is your application, interview, and follow up process like?
Put yourself in the jobseeker’s shoes
Stacy Zapar, Principal and Founder at Tenfold Consulting and Employment strategist at Greenhouse emphasized the importance of telling a story of what it’s really like to work at your company, without the stock pictures of a CEO behind a big desk.
*Call on Matt to talk about JT O’Donnel Prezo
Paint a realistic picture—tell it like it is!
The candidate’s experience should help them answer the question of “can I see myself working here?”
Adopt a customer service attitude
Dell’s “Commitment to Candidates”
Richard Mosley, VP of Strategy at Universum and a former anthropologist showed us examples of 5 companies that are all using the same employer branding message (examples: using “a world of opportunity” as headline, “innovation is in our DNA,” and diversity images show two women and two men of different races).
This homogenous messaging is doing nothing to differentiate your brand from other companies, but it’s not enough to just change the language you use in your employer brand.
If you want your employer brand to stand out, make your entire employment experience different. Everything from how you rope in candidates, to the interview and onboarding process, people management, and employee engagement. You don’t need to be Apple. You need be something all your own. Create a signature experience.
Look different. Talk different. Be different.
If employers want to capture the eye of the RIGHT candidates for our culture, we need to be clear who we are and what we believe in and value.
As Celinda Appleby Head of Global Recruitment Branding at Oracle said, “get over yourself.”
Don’t be a brand narcissist
curate and share content that’s not just about you
What’s the latest in resume writing
Here’s what’s happening in the industry
Your candidates want to know the real you, your real culture, and your real employees
Be a marketer–apply a sales and marketing mentality to your strategy
Apply marketing tactics to your strategy
Social media
Creative job descriptions that are SEO-friendly
Branded recruiting events
If your employees are feeling a certain way, it will be felt by the world at large eventually (their friends, family, networks will feel it, too).
The advent of social media has made word of mouth even more powerful, which means it’s very likely that the way your employees feel is the way consumers will begin to feel about you.
Reverberating effects.
Word of mouth
Recap.
Don’t be horrible. Your employees are the heart and soul of your employer brand, so don’t be horrible to them. Culture starts from the top, from leaders like you. Don’t lose sight of that. Remind yourself and your leaders of your mission and larger purpose.
It may seem obvious but with everything we all have going on, it’s sometimes easy to forget the golden rule. Be intentional about keeping this in mind.