♟️ Employer Brand Headlines #145: The "Hot Water" Edition ♟️
What is the value of moving to a hybrid model? Wrong question.
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In this issue…
The value of hybrid work?
Netflix has a new inclusion policy
Getting more human
DIY brand sprint
The big idea
I just Googled it, and I found more than four thousand results for the search phrase “reversing the great resignation.”
If you take the quotes off, you get more than 12 million results for the same words.
Now, I haven’t read all these articles, but I’ve read plenty. And they all tend to land in the same camps:
One: Oh my god the end is near, so give them money, hybrid work and a feeling of fulfillment in whatever way you can manufacture it.
Two: These damn commies are in revolt, demanding more money, and we have no choice but to give it to them along with some hybrid work and a vague promise of fulfillment at work. Maybe donuts are enough.
Three: Um, anyone who’s had to work a day in their life knows how horrible modern work can be and pandemic-driven remote work put it in stark contrast. So maybe it’s only fair that labor gets a share of the spoils, some flexibility in where we work and some sense that we aren’t wasting our lives? Please?
Every single one of these stories will offer stats (almost all of which are based on no more than a few hundred survey responses, when statistical significance won’t show up until you hit at minimum 2,400 responses) about how everyone wants (pick from the following list: [remote work, hybrid work, safe work, return to office, mental health benefits, fulfillment, puppies, love, a word from their boss that they are valued, etc]).
And no, you didn’t read that wrong. Plenty of people have data that says employees want to get back to the office and plenty of people have data that says employees want to stay remote or at the very least, have a hybrid model. And both surveys are equally accurate.
How? Well, maybe the survey that talks about how everyone wants to get back in the office was from people who work in financial institutions (or own office buildings) while the survey that says everyone wants remote was mostly of writers, marketers, and developers who can do their job from anywhere.
Both surveys attempt to answer the question of “what is the value of offering remote work? (or any other change)” and leave the reader confused. Because the question is wrong. It’s not about defining the value as much as it is about understanding to whom that idea is a value.
So when you ask, “should we be making these kinds of major policy shifts to ‘keep up,’” ask yourself: will these kinds of shifts attract the people we really want, or will they just attract people in general.
Because you need to understand the difference.
Season 2 of The Talent Cast continues!
The revised and annotated audio version of Talent Chooses You (all singing, all dancing!) continues with episode 17 episode on the power of connecting with candidate motivations.
Headlines!
Netflix Tells Employees to Quit if They’re Offended by Streamer’s Content
According to LinkedIn Recruiter, there are 75 people with the word “inclusion” in their title at Netflix. One weekend statement by leadership pretty much negated all their work. Why bring this up? Because your employer brand works the same way. [The Wrap]
Make Way for a More Human-Centric Employee Value Proposition
EVPs aren’t descriptions, they are reflections. As the company shifts, so must the value proposition. (That said, if you aren’t going to be all bout shared purpose et al, don’t promise it, just because an article said you should.) [Garnter]
Why Employer Branding is the best thing to happen to your business
Ignore the out-of-date and overly round “stats,” but more and more people are (finally) starting to connect employer brand as the “human” side of a company’s brand [LinkedIn].
Why Community Branding Efforts Fail
There are plenty of parallels between employer branding and community management. What, you don’t try to corral people to take action aligned to a common desire, even though they don’t have to listen to you? That’s what I thought. [Business Strategy Insider]
Culture.
One of the surprising effects of “newsletter culture” is that it seems like more people who would have written an idea up as an article (as in: this is the cold hard TRUTH, despite it being 90% my opinion) which I loathe, turn into thought-provoking essays (my perspective, but since I don’t have the protection of “journalism,” I guess I better think my thinking through). Anyway, I thought this essay on work culture was excellent.[The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past]
The 5-Step Brand Strategy Sprint
If you want to try it on your own. [Medium]
Quick hits
Inside the fortune cookie
“All writing is a campaign against cliche. Not just cliches of the pen but cliches of the mind and cliches of the heart.” - Martin Amis
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-James Ellis (LinkedIn)
Where the subject line came from:
Level 42 - Hot Water
I have a soft spot for bassists who can really play while singing. And this 80’s gem has such a great syncopated bass line with synth stabs, sound effects and a shuffling brass section to date it perfectly.
If you are enjoying the music, congratulations, you’re old! Just for you, I made a Spotify playlist of all the subject line 80’s songs I’ve referenced over the last year and a half. You don’t even need hairspray to enjoy it:
