⚡ Employer Brand Headlines #125: Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)
Are you ready for 2022? Me, neither.
My mission: move the conversation around employer brand forward.
Employer Brand Headlines, is brought to you by James Ellis.
In this issue…
Housekeeping and other assorted changes
Facebook just became my favorite company ever
Is EB the solution to the great resignation?
Rants, raves and self-doubt
The big idea
Happy holidays, everyone! Since many of you aren’t at work or checking your email (good for you!), we’re going to keep this edition somewhat simple.
First! Yes, I have moved to Substack for this email. I really liked Revue, but after being purchased by Twitter last year, the service doesn’t work as promised. Nothing major, but last week’s edition went into many of your spam filters, so I’ve decided to take advantage of the break and switch platforms.
Rest assured I have ZERO intention to start charging people for the newsletter. EBH will remain free for… let’s just say “ever.”
All the other tools and processes remain. You can still find and read any of the 1,200+ articles I’ve pointed to in the last 2+ years in the link archive. My books are still open source at http://employerbrandbook.com. You can read articles on http://saltlab.com.
Finally, as promised/teased a few weeks back, I am spending part of my holiday break recording Talent Chooses You as an audiobook. The audio will be a 2.0 version of the book and a piece will be released one section a week for about 6 months. (Thanks to RecruitmentMarketing.com for sponsoring the audiobook!) Currently, we expect the first chapter to be released January 19th, so go subscribe to The Talent Cast wherever you get your podcasts.
As a fun present, I’ll be kicking off the audiobook/season 2 of TTC with a recording of a presentation that got a LOT of people talking last year. “What Does Employer Brand Want?” will drop the first or second week of January. You won’t want to miss it.
Headlines!
Facebook's reputation is so bad, the company must pay even more now to hire and retain talent. Some are calling it a 'brand tax'.
I’ll spare you the indignity of having to login to a Business Insider article: Yes, brand freakin’ matters, even if you effectively print money. [Business Insider]
Can Employer Branding Fight the Great Resignation?
Yes. Yes it can. [BrandingMag]
Why VCs should pay attention to brands
“As a decision-making filter, brand operates in several ways…” Brands aren’t logos and feel-good taglines. They have meaning, not just to employees, but anyone connected to (or considering doing business with) the company. A strong brand ultimately drives decision-making, which is a message most of us should hear at least once a day. [The Sociology of Business]
How long is a piece of content?
One of my pet peeves is the industry’s inherited understanding that “shorter content is better.” Sure. If your content sucks, shorter probably is better. For those of us trying to tell more engaging stories with different strategies, different rules apply. [The Ruffian]
4 Elements of a Successful Brand Refresh
It has nothing with thinking the logo is stale. It has everything to do with seeing that your brand stories doesn’t resonate with your audiences. [HBR]
From Self-Doubt to Self-Belief – Conquer your Creative Mind
Self-doubt is real, especially in our jobs. You can no more banish it than a marathon runner can banish the feeling of getting tired. You need to learn to manage that self-doubt. (And yes, this speaks as much to a loudmouth like me as is does a junior EB specialist) [BrandingMag]
7 Best Practices for Lead Nurturing Emails
Recruiters come in two types: those who “get” lead nurturing, and those who can be shown illustrations and diagrams and examples and still think their “Hi! I came across your profile on LinkedIn and thought…” InMail is the way to go. It was cute for a while, but if you can show me the quality candidate who raises their hand and says, “yes! that’s absolutely how I should be contacted!” you can have all the money in my pocket. [Hubspot]
Elf Value Proposition?
Maybe I’m feeling my inner Grinch, but this post annoyed me. I get that it was supposed to be a cute holiday “inspired” play on “EVP,” but the fact that these “jokey” pillars could have been taken from any number of company’s posters just reinforces how bland most EB work has been. Its moments away from 2022. Maybe it’s time for all of us to set the bar higher. [Found on Twitter]
Hire the Best Employees: Start with the Best Recruiting Strategy
One last Grinchy moment, sorry. Can’t we all agree that recruiting as we knew it in 2019 doesn’t work anymore? Then why do so many recruiting leaders act like the dog in the ”this is fine” cartoon? Their industry is in shambles, every element of their operating system has been flipped upside down, been automated and digitized, or found useless by the talent they so desperately seek to attract, and the solution is “get an agile strategy” and “do some workforce planning.” That’s like telling the captain of the Titanic that the solution to this “sinking” problem is to get a better ship. I’m not saying a strong employer brand is the solution, but it sure feels like a solution that 90% of companies haven’t really embraced at all. [HR Bartender]
Creative advice from the teams behind this year’s most talked-about campaigns
No more Grinching. In less than three minutes, get some damn good advice from people who are paid to be creative.
Inside the fortune cookie
“Some sound comes so heavily laden with intention that you can’t hear it for the intentions. This is the great problem of lyrics... they always impose something that is so unmysterious.”
-Brian Eno
Thanks, everyone!
Finally, if you have a question, just reply to this email and it comes directly to me.
Cheers and thanks!
-James Ellis (LinkedIn | Twitter | Podcast | Articles)
Where the subject line came from:
The Icicle Works: Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)