Is Employer Brand Important in Candidate Selection?

As a job seeker, one of the best things you can do is to get in the heads of recruiters, hiring managers and company leaders. If you understand why, how, and who they hire, you’re already steps ahead. This includes understanding an organization’s tools, processes and resources—everything from what happens after you submit your resume to the candidate selection and evaluation process.

However, it’s not just about the process—every company has some sort of strategy around hiring including their brand in the talent market.  Just like companies such as Apple or Coca-Cola spend millions of dollars to sell their products every, they also pour money into selling their jobs.

Definition of Employment Brand

The concept of an employment brand is an important one for companies in this competitive job market with 51% of employers saying they have an employment branding strategy in 2012 according to a recent study by Bernard Hodes.  Nineteen percent of companies surveyed admitted to re-working their current plan and another 24% are working towards one.

What does this mean for you? Employer brand. A company’s employer brand is the perception you, the job seeker, have of what it’s like to work there and the reality of that experience. It’s like walking into a big retail store. You have expectations about the products you’ll find there and the service you’ll receive. If those expectations fall short, it hurt’s that store’s consumer brand, their reputation in the marketplace. You’ll take your spending money elsewhere.

The same can be said for an organization’s employer brand. If you take a job based on the promise of challenging work, certain benefits and growth opportunities, and once you start, that promise isn’t met, it tarnishes the reputation of what it’s like to work for a company.

As a job seeker, understanding a company’s employer brand is essential to both determining if the company is the best fit for you and your success in the application and selection process. An employer brand can provide exceptional insight into an organization and the opportunity.

When companies define and communicate their employer brand, they’re focusing on what matters most to their employees and what they do well.  They connect that to their culture and to employees’ success: who performs the best in the organization and how do they think act and behave.

As a result, good employer brands clearly define the most important returns you’ll get from working there.  This includes specific benefits and perks but more importantly, the workplace lifestyle or flexible workplace.  An employer brand can help provide insight into the people, the culture

Big Brand Employment Like Zappos

For some organizations like Southwest and Zappos, this means employees like to have fun at work and embed their personalities into everything they do. For companies like Google or 3M, it’s all about innovation—employees have to have a passion for trying, creating and believing in new things.  Southwest flight attendants often tell jokes or sing songs at the beginning of a flight—this isn’t a fit for everyone. If you take a job and the fit’s not there, you’ll be asked to perform and behave in a way that’s not comfortable to you and ultimately, you won’t be happy. Really understanding a company’s employer brand helps you as a job seeker ensure you’ll fit.

Understanding employer brand also means you have a sense of what the company is looking for. What are the qualities (outside of the skills required for the job) that are an embedded part of the company’s culture? What behaviors are common in successful employees?

Take Marriott International’s employer brand line “Find Your World™.” Marriott’s not looking for passive employees that just want a paycheck.  Find Your World™ sends the message that growth and movement are encouraged among their many locations and brands. If you’re looking for upward mobility and the chance for varied challenges throughout your career, you can share that as part of the process.

Knowing how a company brand’s it’s employment experience can give you an edge up as you look for a job. You can better position yourself as a fit if you understand what matters to a company. The important point here is to make sure you don’t force it. If you have to stretch the truth about yourself or your experiences to sell yourself based on a company’s employer brand, it won’t work for you or the employer.

Job Seeker Education Key in Company Recruiting Process

As you’re learning about a company’s employer brand, keep in mind that not every organization understands the concept or does a good job of defining their own employer brand. Less sophisticated companies focus only on advertising their jobs and the associated tangible benefits that come with them (medical benefits or a flexible work schedule).

These things are important, but as a job seeker you’ll be much more successful in the long term if you think about the entirety of the opportunity—the employer brand. Consider the promise the company is making and ask yourself if that promise really matters to you. Use the brand to evaluate fit—are you the kind of person who wants to act and behave that way on the job?  If you’re in a job and not sure whether to stay, ask yourself if the organization’s employer brand resonates with you? Are they delivering on what they promised? And if so, is that the promise you want?

Understanding employer brand doesn’t have to be complicated. There’s a simple way to think about it. Take a look around your home or your workplace. As a consumer, what products can you really get behind? Where do your loyalties lie? The same goes for your next job. Choose an employer you can really get behind, believe in and support. Their employer brand holds the key to understanding just that.

Photo Credit. 

Susan Strayer is the founder of Exaqueo, a talent and brand consulting firm specializing in strategies for start-up and high-growth companies. She’s spent years recruiting and creating talent and employer brand strategies for companies like Marriott International. The Ritz-Carlton, The Home Depot and Corporate Executive Board. She’s the author of two books including The Right Job, Right Now: The Complete Tool-Kit to Finding Your Perfect Career (St. Martin’s Press). Connect with Susan via @SusanStrayer or at www.exaqueo.com. 

Business Networking Rules of Engagement

There is a no lack of networking advice or tips out there in the blogsphere today. Additionally, you can buy any number of great books by authors such at Keith Ferrazzi and Harvey Mckay. But I have been networking for a long time as well, plus I have read all this material too. So for those of you who are trying to find a job, change jobs or increase your business here are Five Rules to Make You an Effective Business Networker.  

Rule #1: Business Networking

Never start a conversation or relationship with someone by asking for something. Yes, I realize that the purpose of networking is to “get’ something, such as a referral or a name, but relationships start better if you are offering something. However, you cannot offer something unless you know the person at least a little bit. So I recommend you start off with this kind of approach.

“Hello Bob, my name is Mike H. Joe S. (the mutual friend) told me you are someone I need to know. I was wondering if I might be able to schedule a brief meeting (or call) in order to see if indeed we can be of mutual benefit to each other?”

Prior to the meeting use social media or search to find out whatever you can about the person you are meeting with. Determine if there is something in their background that might act as a target for some way you can help them with. At the meeting pay attention to what is said, who is talked about, what their background is, where they went to school or any other information that comes from the meeting. Then try to be a resource of information or contacts for that individual.

You will probably shock the person big time by not asking for a name or referral right off the bat. It will be even more memorable if you can offer the person something of value as a result of that first meeting.

Rule #2:  Target Your Networking 

Be focused and targeted in your networking. The shotgun approach of calling everyone and contacting everyone with no seeming purpose just makes you look desperate. Now you may be desperate, but you do not want to come across that way. Understand what you are trying to learn from each individual and why you are contacting them.

Rule #3:  Social Networks are Not Business Networking

Realize that networking is NOT adding someone on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ or Facebook. Networking is best conducted person to person, or at least voice to voice. The tools help your research and they facilitate the introduction but that is not networking.

Rule #4:  Your Networking Success is Your Responsibility 

No one is going to take responsibility for you finding a job or finding a new piece of business. You have to take that. So when you are done with meeting someone their memory will fade very fast. Set up a schedule of contact with them and follow up. Watch for information that they will find of value and send it to them. Set up a Google alert or search on key words to notify you of things that your contact may find valuable. You don’t have to do that for everyone, but the very important ones need to get things from you to remind them of your existence.

Rule #5:  Be Realistic Yet Effective Business Networking 

Be confident but be realistic. Another writer cautioned against trying to reach too high in order to make a contact. It is unlikely that you will be able to connect with Bill Gates, or Donald Trump, or Richard Branson or other mega personalities but that doesn’t mean you should give up hope of reaching someone that has title of President or Vice President. Who knows, perhaps you would eventually be able to reach a superstar if your network gets you there but start more realistically.

There is a ton of networking articles out there, some written for women, some written for shy people, some written for sales people, some written for consultants, etc. Just do a search and do some learning to get started on effective business networking.

Photo Credit. 

 Michael (Mike) D. Haberman, SPHR is a consultant, writer, speaker, teacher and co-founder of Omega HR Solutions, Inc.  He has been in the field of HR for 30 years as both practitioner and consultant. He specializes in compliance issues for his small business clients. He is the author of the blog HR Observations which can be found at www.omegahrsolutions.com and he has been writing blog posts on a full spectrum of HR topics for almost seven years. He is an active user of Twitter and can be found at @mikehaberman or @HRComplianceGuy. He has been an instructor in HR for 14 years and has helped many people achieve their PHR or SPHR during that time.

The Buzz About Online Networks & Talent Communities

“There’s a lot of buzz on Talent Communities in the HR world right now.”  It seems like that’s something that’s heard at least a couple of times a day and it’s true, there IS a lot of buzz out there.  Everybody wants to have a voice in the conversation because of it; and like the latest fashion, there’s a mad rush to have one of our very own.  So, the building begins, the community is launched as people are invited.  They sign up, the make an initial post & participate in a discussion or two and then?

Nothing.  Where has all the ‘talent’ gone from the talent community?

In the mad rush to create the talent community; many businesses & HR/Recruitment professionals fail to invest the time to properly understand that success is not a given.  Communities do fail; and according to Fortune, most do.  There are four main pillars of success for any online community:

• Commitment

• Strategy

• Content

• Members

Without these four components planned prior to launch; there’s little chance the community will succeed.  And if they do fail; it’s in front of those you were trying to strengthen a prospective employment relationship with.  Not exactly inspiring for the ‘talent,’ is it?

Commitment

The first pillar to Community success is to have commitment to dedicate the resources, time, and the appropriate personnel.  The best community managers are natural ‘control freaks’ who have learned when to hold tight of all the things that need to be done; and when to ‘let go’ of controlling the conversation so the invited members can do what you invited them to:  get connected.

Community architects & their organizations also have to be committed to the holding firmly to the truth that they don’t get to retain true ownership of the talent community… and they shouldn’t want to.  In order for the community to blossom, they must ensure there are enough content to initially bond around; but ultimately allow the community members to drive discussions & ownership.

So how do you get comfortable enough to let go?

• Liken your community to a 24/7 party.   When you’re hosting a social gathering, a lot of planning and preparation goes into making sure it’s a success.  But while you plan the food that will be served, the games that will be played, and the entertainment that’s enjoyed… do you script the conversations everyone will have about them?  No, of course not.  Same with your community, you provide the initial content & continue to “refresh the plates” as needed; but then let the guests discuss and enjoy it as they will.

• Give it Away.  Whenever I launch a community, I immediately seek out the help of 2 others that can serve as additional administrators & champions of the cause.  They’re given administrative rights & the freedom to use them. The strategy is shared & once responsibilities are clearly understood; I back off and let them lead, taking more of a ‘strategist’ role.  This allows the new administrators’ excitement to remain high & will increase the likelihood they’ll evangelize new members & drive discussions.

The next step is to make it abundantly clear that the community is there for your talent - and they don’t need your permission to post a new topic, or have their views moderated.  No one likes approvals – it bottlenecks the conversation & is a major cause of community abandonment.  If you can’t give the control away to your admins & members; you might as well prepare for the ghost town.

• Remember No One’s Perfect.  Learn to be okay with making mistakes and remember that it’s not possible for everyone to like you – even Fairy Tale Heroes have detractors.  Ensure your reaction to your detractors is calm, measured, and in keeping with your brand.  Don’t delete the negative unless it’s offensive material; use it as an opportunity for your influencer members to rally around your brand.

Strategy

For any community to succeed, you need to know what you want to get out of it… and then build it as though it’s not about you.  Because the truth is that it’s not.  If it’s about your motives, your agenda; your Community will fail. Success comes when you can merge your desired outcome with their perceived value.  It is that which will drive participation.

Be careful about the technology & platform you pick to hold your community. Most people have problems with third party platforms; there is enough social congestion that they don’t have the desire to log in & track conversations on a separate platform.   If you can effectively build your community on a platform they’re already interacting with you on?  You’re ahead of the game & it greatly increases the odds for success.

By following these guidelines and checking out part 2 of this blog series, you’ll help keep the talent in your talent community interested in coming back for the long-haul.

Crystal Miller, known on Twitter as @theonecrystal is a builder of talent communities, addicted to Instagram, and avid social recruiter who also co-hosts a weekly radio show called Talent Net Live. Visit her blog, TheOneCrystal.com to learn more.

Need Buy in From Your Executive Team on Social Media?

Do your senior executives’ eyes glaze over when you talk about using social media to drive branding and market share?  Are they leery of the benefits? Prefer to interact face-to-face than key-board-to-keyboard? Or afraid to admit they don’t get it or understand it?  That’s the challenge that many organizations are facing today.  Companies, senior leaders, and the C-Suite are struggling to embrace and understand the power of social media external as a marketing tool as well as internally with internal social networks.

As part of the Diversity and Inclusion strategy at The Hartford, we launched a Reverse Mentor Program to teach senior executives about social media, emerging technologies and related trends to drive business value. On the surface, the program is fairly straightforward- pair tech-savvy millennial employees with senior leaders, reaching across generations and organizational levels. But what evolved was so much more- relationships formed, there were “Aha Moments” and executives got the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of Millenials.  Most importantly, they learned about the powerful ways that people and businesses interacting using social media.

Social media offers an individual experience catered to the interests and goal of the user making it very complex.  Our reverse mentoring program at The Hartford helped answer common executive questions on social media:

• How can employees communicate and knowledge share using internal social networking and collaboration tools

• How social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook are used for information and knowledge share as well as communication

• How YouTube can be used as a training and information tool helping you improve your golf game

• What is the ROI of social media but more importantly how younger generations are communicating and why

What is a Reverse Mentoring Program for Social Media?

“Reverse mentoring” as a practice has been used by hundreds of companies on numerous topics.  Eight years ago, more than 500 executives at GE participate in a program to learn about the Internet and technology applications.  Jack Welch spearheaded the effort, which went on to bring significant changes in the way that GE worked.

In 2011, we “piloted” the Reverse Mentor program with our executive leadership and C-Suite team (CEO, CFO, Chief Risk Officer, Lines of Business Presidents, etc.) Due to the program’s success, we’ve expanded participation in 2012 to their direct reports and select departments.

The program consists of seven sessions, 30-60 minutes in length, scheduled approximately every three weeks. Topics include “Technology and Devices, The Power of Search and Online Presence, Networking, Connections and Communications”, etc. The sessions follow a broad outline that mentors can tailor to meet the experience level and interests of their mentee.

Social Media Program Learnings from the CEO

The pilot taught us that there are three phases in learning social media:

• Gain trust & buy-in

• “Aha moments” and key insights

• Creative brainstorming

The first couple of sessions were about finding common ground- building trust; swapping app’s breaking down stereotypes and creating a challenging, interactive learning environment. Second phase, mentors respectfully offered ideas and help. Execs began to listen with an open mind… and saw value… and ideas and opportunities started flowing.

Working across generations helps realize the tremendous value of diverse perspectives, which often spur creativity and innovation.  The long-term success of any organizations depends on the contributions of employees from all ages and experiences.

Looking for a way garner executive buy-in for internal collaboration tools and social strategies?  Leverage the talent within your own organization to launch a Reverse Mentor Program.

Photo Credit. 

Lisa Bonner is the Assistant Vice President of Contemporary Work Practices at The Hartford.  She is the proud mother of very active 14 year-old twin boys and resides in Suffield, Connecticut. Connect with her on LinkedIn.  The opinions expressed are personal and not related to The Hartford.

Diverse Audience Among Digital Natives

Know your audience. This phrase has been drilled into the heads of marketers and content creators since the beginning of marketing and content creation. And while your mind may immediately jump to a consumer audience, the reality is that recruitment marketers must be in-tune with their job seeker audience in order to really connect and make an impact.

This brings us to a “shocking” statistic (although it’s not so hard to believe if you take a look around). Digital natives – a.k.a. Generation C, Gen Y and Millennials – shift their focus between different media platforms 27 times per hour… or approximately every other minute. This ever-shortening attention span of job seekers makes it increasingly difficult to market employer brand and draw them in to your organization. However, they’re not the only ones you have to worry about.

The Dividing of the Talent Pool

Yes – I said pool. While the whole idea of talent community is nice, for the sake of simplicity, we’re not going there right now. The real point is that consumer marketers identify and target segments before developing a strategy, and the same process should hold true for recruitment marketers. And though the segments will not always be as clear cut as digital vs. traditional, it is a good starting point.

Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

Typically, marketing segments are based on demographics, geography, behavior, etc…, while your recruitment marketing segments likely target experience and cultural fit. But to break it down further, your platform and content choices must be geared toward an audience that’s diverse in their digital usage and preferences. Here’s why: The number of digital natives who send or receive a text message on a given day is 63% higher than that of digital immigrants, with Facebook usage 40% higher and Twitter close to 86% higher. And because jobs – unlike many products – are not age-specific, these varied digital habits call for multifaceted recruitment marketing campaigns.

Adapting to a Digitally Diverse Audience

In every industry – whether it’s HR, recruiting or other – hot, new trends make us susceptible to Shiny Object Syndrome. Instead of using a data-driven approach and getting to know our audience and our community, we drift toward the latest tool and latch on like it’s our only hope. Then, many wonder why things like social and mobile recruiting don’t work for them.

While it may be tempting to get involved with every new development, the reality is that your recruitment marketing strategy must be well-rounded and well-researched to reach target talent. Think about it: Using Facebook to advertise jobs isn’t going to capture your entire target market, just as e-mail campaigns won’t effectively engage every type of job seeker.

The key to successful engagement is getting to know your job seeker audience, their habits and their preferred methods of communication. While the latest trends may seem like the greatest, you can’t walk away from traditional methods just yet.

Photo Credit.

Autumn McReynolds is the Content Strategist and Lead Blogger for TalentMinded, an online publication focused on talent attraction and engagement in the digital age. After landing in the recruitment space in 2009, she has spent the past three years with Careerbuilder.com as both a recruiter and project manager, consulting with clients about job advertisements, employment brand and SEO strategies for attracting new candidates via job postings. You can connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.

The Average Employee at Work Is Just Average

Thomas Friedman wrote about the effect that the ever increasing use of technology and the increasing global competition is having on unemployment in the U.S. His conclusion is that average is no longer good enough for American workers.

Friedman says “In the past, workers with average skills and employee performance, doing an average job, could earn an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But today, average is officially over. Being average won’t earn you what it used to be.” Technology and foreign competition has been eating away at our manufacturing base and it will continue to do so. So we have shifted to an information and service economy. Yet Friedman gives an example of technology eating away at the service economy as well, with Ipads replacing servers in many restaurants. (See E la Carte)

To me what Friedman means by average is mediocre. I think we need to eliminate the use of the term “average”. There will always be an average regardless of how good workers are. Average moves up. What we have fallen into is mediocre work and mediocre is not going to help us in the future.

Americans, Unemployment, and Education Level

Friedman reports the latest unemployment figures for American’s over 25, by education level.

• Less than a high school degree-              13.8%

• High school but no college-                     8.7%

• Some college or associate degree            7.7%

• Bachelor or higher                                     4.1%

Average = Mediocre = Unemployment

He then says “… the one thing we know for sure is that with each advance in globalization and the IT revolution, the best jobs will require workers to have increased performance and better education to make themselves above average.” Friedman ends his piece by saying we need to pass “some kind of GI Bill for the 21^st century that ensures that every American has access to post high school education.”    This will only work however if people realize the value of that education and I am not sure how much this message is getting across. There are mechanisms that exist today for people to get education and improve their skills yet I know many people who are not taking advantage of those opportunities. They continue to look for jobs that require the same set of expired skills they have. What is that old definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Whatever the solution, we need to get the message to people that “average” is not going to make it anymore. To be better than average as Friedman suggests it is going to require technology and education. Employers need to be as aware of this as do employees. We need to make sure that we are educating our workers. We need to make sure we are letting them know that their continued employment requires ongoing education and an ever greater understanding of the use of technology.

Photo Credit. 

Michael (Mike) D. Haberman, SPHR is a consultant, writer, speaker and co-founder of Omega HR Solutions, Inc.  He has been in the field of HR for 30 years as both practitioner and consultant. He specializes in compliance issues for his small business clients. He is the author of the blog HR Observations which can be found at www.omegahrsolutions.com and he has been writing blog posts on a full spectrum of HR topics for almost seven years. He is an active user of Twitter and can be found at @mikehaberman or @HRComplianceGuy. He has been an instructor in HR for 14 years and has helped many people achieve their PHR or SPHR during that time.