Now that employer brand is a core element in every company's talent strategy, you might ask yourself: is that all? Looking around, you might see that every company sees, understands and executes its employer brand differently, to the point where it is hard to understand what the appropriate best practices really are. The trick is to understand where your organization is in the Employer Brand Maturity Model first, so you can properly select the next initiative to elevate your own employer brand. Join James Ellis, noted employer brand podcaster, thought leader and consultant, on what the maturity model looks like and how to use it to plan your talent strategy more effectively.

4. The aggregation of individuals’ perception of
what it is like to work at your company.
These individual perceptions are based on
information and experiences with your brand.
Many of these experiences happen well before
they ever think about looking for a new job.

5. Rule #1

6. Rule #2

7. Rule #3

8. Tactics
The skills to know
how to build and
launch “stuff”
Copywriting
Video editing
Photoshop
Event management
Social media
Strategy
The skill to know
if/when to build
“stuff”
Prioritization
Message stacking
Candidate journey
Resource mgmt
Politics
The skill to get
others to help you
achieve your goals
Partnering with
other teams
Sharing credit
Brand integration

9. Director of Employer Brand, Universum
Host, The Talent Cast
Employer Brand Newsletter
@TheWarForTalent

10. Candidates want to control their own destiny in a chaotic world
Business Students
1 - High future earnings
2 - Leaders who support my dev
3 - Training and development
4 - Secure employment
Engineering Students
1 - Innovation
2 - High future earnings
3 - Training and development
4 - Secure employment

14. 5 Leading
Employer brand thinking is second nature,
allowing these companies to experiment
and push boundaries
3 Developing
Having seen the value, how do you
embrace employer branding thinking at this
company?
1 Traditional
Recruiting as usual, getting butts in seats
and focusing more on job boards than
anything else
4Advanced
With the basics handled, looking to expand
employer brand thinking into more aspects
of the company
2Starting
Pilot projects to see how employer brand
thinking might help

15. “Business As Usual”
Partners None
Strategy Put butts in seats
Focus/Goal Push job postings out as widely as possible
Channels Job boards
Social Media Posting jobs only
Metrics Impressions, applications
Content Job postings
Budgeting None
Lead Recruiter
Accountability Recruiting manager

16. “We Should Try This EB Thing”
Partners Recruiting
Strategy Provide credible proof that employer branding can help at this company
Focus/Goal Make recruiter's lives easier by providing a more positive sentiment of the company
Channels
Job boards, passive awareness of review sites, career site which is a page within the corporate
site with the name base navigation
Social Media Occasional posts on the corporate social channels
Metrics Glassdoor rating
Content Career site content, photos, support writing job postings and outreach messages
Budgeting None
Lead Recruiter who has a percentage of their time dedicated to EB
Accountability TA Director

17. “This Works. Let’s Make a Plan”
Partners TA and HR
Strategy Get all of recruiting on board and aligned with EB
Focus/Goal Establishing a credible core EVP for the entire company to all candidates
Channels Job postings, dedicated career site, social, oversight of review sites
Social Media
Beginning to establish 1-2 career-dedicated social channels. Content cadence is 2-4 times a month.
infrequent commenting and content monitoring
Metrics Core recruiting metrics (CPH, TTF)
Content Content curation, ad hoc content curation, reporting on events, ad hoc video (phone)
Budgeting Less than half the cost of a FTE, possibly pulled from recruitment marketing budgets
Lead Recruiter or recruitment marketing manager with majority of time dedicated to EB
Accountability TA Director

18. “Let’s Get Strategic”
Partners HR and MarComs
Strategy Embed EB within every aspect of hiring
Focus/Goal Taking the EVP and connecting it to various internal and external audiences
Channels
Deep on multiple social media channels, third-party content partners, internal content channel,
content management system, light CRM, small events
Social Media
2-3 well-developed social channels with regular content monitoring (and established response plan).
Non-employees engage with content on a regular basis
Metrics Integrated metrics connected to each stage of the hiring life cycle
Content Proactive content creation, telling intentionally, polished phone-based video
Budgeting Dedicated annual budget, more than half FTE
Lead Dedicated employer brand manager with ad hoc resources, often based on personal relationships
Accountability CHRO

19. “Let’s Push the Boundaries”
Partners TA, MarComs, Business, Leadership
Strategy Make EB personal to all employees and turn them into advocates
Focus/Goal
Creating granularity to allow various offices and teams to embrace the EVP in their own way so they
can express it to the world
Channels
Internal community tools, CRM, microsites, large scale events, helping internal teams tell their own
stories and proving hosting for them
Social Media Live video, experiments with influencers and emerging social tools
Metrics Predictive, performance-driven metrics
Content Commitment to building some larger-scale content (history of company ebook, 10m video, et al)
Budgeting
Dedicated budget more than cost of FTE, plus opportunity for below-the-line budget lines for special
projects
Lead EB SR Manager/Director with dedicated team
Accountability CEO

20. 5
Leading
Establish specialists for writing, video,
web, etc. Work with MKTG/Comms to
find real synergies. Look beyond
recruiting for tech
3 Developing
Meet KPIs. Victory laps. Show
competitive set and show what it
would take to meet them.
Establish a team.
1
Traditional
Commit to one basic idea. Show
the impact.
4Advanced
Grow the team. Involve MKTG and
Comms to “work together.” expand
skill sets within team.
2Starting
Show off the impact to leadership.
Show a low-cost plan to
implement. Establish a KPI and
point person..

21. Just try something
Projects and
initiatives
● Glassdoor responses program and system
● Rewrite the company paragraph for use on job postings
● Rewrite front page of the career site
● Create library of authentic and reusable photos that have been vetted by Comms and others
● Competitive analysis of top 3 competitors’ social media messages
Challenges and
Obstacles
● Effectively no resources
● Effectively no authority
● No expectation of next steps
Thinking Hat 100% Tactical

22. Establish and formalize the function
Projects and
initiatives
● Define recruiting and hiring manager process expectations
● Build program to certify people and teams in EB and what’s appropriate
● Create relationships with business leaders
● Work with HRIS to understand metrics and process to spot opportunities to create EB micro
events within existing systems
● Work to define your own social media channel dedicated to EB/recruiting
Challenges and
Obstacles
● You’ll have to educate everyone in the company on what EB is (and isn’t)
● Anyone with preconceived ideas
● Avoid being pigeonholed as the Swag Dude/Dudette
Thinking Hat 95% Tactical
5% Strategic

23. Develop long-term thinking and impact
Projects and
initiatives
● Develop a true EVP that connects to every office, team, employee
● Deeper competitive research to understand what other companies offer prospects relative to
what you are trying to offer
● Share out proactive (self-defined) metrics with leadership
● Develop a stand-alone strategy deck that you can share with more business leaders
● Maintain a sentiment document: what you’re known for (positive and negative) and keep
track of how it shifts over time
Challenges and
Obstacles
● Spend a lot of time in marketing and comms meetings to develop relationships
● Leadership needs to see that EB is more than talent attraction
Thinking Hat 30% Tactical
50% Strategic
20% Political

24. Integrate and Strategize
Projects and
initiatives
● Make the EVP more open to staff, where they can suggest ways to communicate and share it
to various microcultures and audiences
● Publish your activation strategy so that people you don’t know can pick it up and run with it
● Look for ancillary projects like onboarding, alumni, referrals, where you can extend your
reach and shape more of the hiring system
● Publish benchmarks of your company relative to major competitors and aspirational
competitors
● Publish your metrics openly
● Take more meetings with vendors
Challenges and
Obstacles
● Avoid ego traps: the goal is to share EB with more teams, but that means it won’t be obvious
that you’re the genius behind it
● Few companies reach this stage, so you are inventing your own processes with other teams
with no rule book to follow
Thinking Hat 50% Political
40% Strategic
10% Tactical

25. james.ellis@universumglobal.com
http://employerbrand.news

27. Director of Employer Brand, Universum
Host, The Talent Cast
Employer Brand Newsletter
@TheWarForTalent