♟️ Employer Brand Headlines #138: The "Head Over Heels" Edition ♟️
Your employer brand is great... compared to what?
Together, we can push the conversation around employer brand forward.
Employer Brand Headlines, is brought to you by James Ellis.
In this issue…
Compared to what?
Better email outreach
Ye Olde Grand Resignation
Throw out the playbook
The big idea
What should a cup of coffee cost?
If you’re standing at a cool/hip/indie coffee shop and you order a medium americano with oatmilk and honey, you can expect to pay $5-6.
If you’re at a Starbucks in O’Hare, add on another dollar (and good luck with that oatmilk).
And if you’re at home, what does it cost to throw a filter into a machine with 3-4 heaping spoons of ground coffee you got at Target? Maybe fifty cents?
So here comes a Nespresso (we will ignore anything Keurig-related, thank you). It’s an at-home machine where you throw in a pod and some water, press a button and a minute later some kind of decent coffee drink shows up.
What should that cup of coffee be worth?
Well, it depends, doesn’t it? Is the Nespresso a replacement for the aging Mr Coffee machine you got in college? Then $1.20 per pod probably seems expensive. In fact, it seems almost like a rip-off.
But if you got that Nespresso to replace your daily Starbucks fix, $1.20 is a steal! Heck, you can make a double and still save money!
You’ll notice that Nespresso commercials almost never show home use, they show exciting locales like movie sets and restaurants. They WANT you to compare their $1.20 pod to expensive restaurants or places where someone will have to make a Starbucks run. That comparison is intentional.
(I’m down to one coffee a day, and have been for a month now. Can you tell? ☕)
So when you say that your company is a great place to work, I am forced to ask, “compared to where?”
You say your office is laid back and chill? Compared to an Oakland head shop? Or a D.C. law firm?
You say your company has great perks. Compared to a well-funded Palo Alto startup run by a former Googler? Or to an Amazon warehouse?
You say your people support one another. Compared to an Army Ranger platoon? Or to a “you eat what you kill” consulting firm?
You can make any claim you want about your employer brand, but until you establish a frame of reference, until you give me something to compare you to, you’re just talking.
Yep, we’re still podcasting about a book.
The revised and annotated audio version of Talent Chooses You (almost like you’re there!) continues with episode 10, where we reveal how recruiters and candidates absolutely want an employer brand strategy (even if they don’t always know it).
Headlines!
9 Ways to Make Email the Happiest Place on Earth
Content Marketing royalty Ann Handley has some great rules about using email (you know, for outreach and stuff), but the thing that grabbed me was the idea that the sender of the email matters way way WAY more than the subject line. That idea really underlines the different between recruitment marketing (subject-drive, hacks and tricks to get the click, short-term focus) and employer brand (building desire, reputation-driven, long-term focus). [Total Annarchy]
Employers hire talent marketers to promote their values and culture, as ‘war for talent’ intensifies
Okay, I’m calling it. This is the year of Employer Branding. I’m seeing stuff like this, people coming to the same organic conclusion we did years ago, as a means of first surviving Ye Olde Grand Resignationeth, but as a way of letting marketing “see” what we’re doing. [WorkLife]
One Question Employer Brand Professionals Must Answer
Spoiler: it’s “why?” [exaqueo]
Workers' Perceptions Have Shifted Dramatically
And if they don’t trust the company or leadership or management, everything we do will only make it worse. [work futures]
Haphazard Organization Design Is Holding Companies Back From Growth
Everything impacts the employer brand, including how the company is organized. [Josh Bersin]
A Guide for Executive Leaders Delivering on the Promise of Your EVP, Part I
Look, I get that agencies exist, and that there are plenty of reasons why you’d want to engage one. What I cringe at is the assumption that only agencies can build an EVP. That leadership only respects an agency-built EVP. Or that you need an EVP at all. Great work gets done EVERY DAY in companies without agency support. So when you boss asks, “do we need to hire an agency for support here?” the answer shouldn’t be assumed. [blue ivy]
The best way to lead in uncertain times may be to throw out the playbook
Aaaaand EVERYTHING is uncertain, especially in our business. [strategy+business]
5 Ways Managers Sabotage the Hiring Process
In case you were thinking HMs aren’t involved in the establishing and proving of your brand, they really really are. [HBR]
Convincing Your Team to Stay in Times of Change.
Interesting to see Bud Caddell (focus on org-development and engagement) start with the core human drivers and links them to how to to encourage people to stay. [NOBL]
What Is Brand Essence? 5 Examples
Normally, I’d roll my eyes at YET ANOTHER element of a brand (like promise, position, voice, pillars, etc weren’t enough???), except that this rings true. In fact, while I have used a different term for it, it’s been pretty core to the work I’m doing at the DayJob™ [HubSpot]
Inside the fortune cookie
“There is no piece of advertising so small that the audience doesn’t use it to judge the brand as sounding smart or sounding stupid.” Lee Clow’s Beard
Thanks, everyone!
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-James Ellis (LinkedIn | Twitter | Podcast | Articles)
Where the subject line came from:
Head Over Heels - The Go-Go’s
Yes, there are bigger hits in their catalogue, but this one is easily my favorite. The Go-Go’s do NOT get a lot of credit. They wrote their own songs, played instruments, and despite how they were portrayed in their videos, were as messed up as any punk band you can name.
If you are enjoying the music, congratulations, you’re old. I made a Spotify playlist of all the subject line songs I’ve used over the last year and a half:
