💡 Employer Brand Headlines: The "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" Edition (#132)
Is there a difference between being engaged and feeling engaged at work?
My mission: move the conversation around employer brand forward.
Employer Brand Headlines, is brought to you by James Ellis.
In this issue…
Who’s engaged?
2nd place finishers
EB vs CX
Get an outside perspective
The big idea
Do you have engagement surveys at work? Do you know your engagement scores? Do you break them down by team or unit? Do you spend money on tools to help you understand your engagement?
You probably should, as engagement is the fuel that drives a company. The best strategy and the best tools in the world mean nothing if employees aren’t engaged, if they are conscientious about what they are doing and how they are doing it, if they don’t care about the outcome or ensuing the collateral damage.
Despite it’s importance (or perhaps because of it), engagement is probably the third-most misused word in business (bested by only “strategy” and “culture”) to the point where I’m seeing articles about how it’s not worth measuring. Um… no.
But when you measure engagement, what are you measuring? Put another way, can you be engaged at work without feeling engaged?
I don’t think you can. “Being engaged” is a function of how you feel. Which means that engagement is an emotion. Or at the very least, an emotional state. You feel engaged because you feel heard, you are working on things that matter to you, you feel a sense of agency and value how you are working, you know that your work is valued by others, etc. There are lots of ways to stoke people’s sense of engagement (especially the above is my personal recipe for engagement, and yours will and should vary) but they all involve in changing people’s emotional state.
The problem occurs when we try to “fix” an emotional problem with non-emotional tactics. We increase salaries and bonuses. We introduce toolsets and checklists for managers. We ask people to take more surveys.
Then we wonder why we still have engagement issues.
If you have an engagement problem, you have to see it first as an emotional problem and use emotions to change it. How?
Stop touting how much you care. Stop trying to buy happiness. Stop trying to strategize other people’s emotions (as a twice-divorced person, I can assure you it will not work).
Instead, tap into your own emotions. I’m not talking about showing that you care, but actually care. Care about them as people. Care about what they want out of work. Actually want your people to succeed. Create safe spaces to allow others to show their own. Not for the sake of “hugging it out,” but to allow people to connect with their why and show it off.
Stop using a hammer to pound on a screw. If you want people to engage, think feelings, not outputs.
Yep, we’re still podcasting about a book.
The revised and annotated version of Talent Chooses You (the revenge!) continues with episode 4 about how the so-called “recruiting funnel,” once the solution to all your recruiting issues, is actually holding you back.
Headlines!
The Three Dimensions Of Brand Value
When you think about your employer brand, do you think about it in terms of functional, social and emotional value? You probably should. [Brand Strategy Insider]
How This Age-Old Soft Skill Can Help Resolve the Great Resignation
1,143 words to say, “stop treating people like dirt.” To be fair, it took MIT Sloan 2,300 and a ton of data to do it. [Recruiter]
Employer Branding Can’t Fix a Poor Candidate Experience
Yes and no. EB can provide framing for the candidate experience, and it has a chance to put that experience in its most positive light. That said, the candidate journey is when the company will want you the most, so don’t expect the company and brand to look better after you get hired. [ERE]
Why You Should Love Your Second-Place Candidate
If the great resignation is real, maybe its time to re-think your whole “e don’t consider second-place finishers” approach, hiring managers. [Firefish]
Make Your Employer Brand Stand Out in the Talent Marketplace
Fellow EB evangelist Bryan Adams doesn’t break any new ground here, but he does plant a battle-tested flag in a place CHROs and CEOs will definitely see it. [HBR]
From In to Out: The Outbound Recruitment Era Begins Today
I don’t make it a practice to argue with Steve Levy, especially when he’s right. The only think I’d add is that I suspect he’s known all this for about a year. [RecruitingDaily]
Recruiter.com Expects a $50B Increase Spent on Hiring in 2022
Take a look at the stack of poorly-conceived and poorly-implemented tools you already have. Do you really think more is the answer? [Recruiter]
People keep asking me how I'll change people's minds with such 'angry' content
This hit me. Change is uncomfortable. So why are we trying to create DEI change without making anyone (read: white people) uncomfortable? EB is all about creating change, so there are lessons (direct and allegorical) to take here. Madison Butler isn’t spilling tea anymore. She’s come to tear down walls. [LinkedIn]
Why Outside Perspectives Are Critical for Innovation Breakthroughs
The fact that the employer brander isn’t a recruiter is how it provides maximum value to recruiters. [MIT Sloan]
Turn the “great resignation” into the “great renegotiation”
Will “negotiation training” be the new “interview training?” [strategy+business]
How Business Can Build and Maintain Trust
All the stuff you think about in terms of employer branding can be re-packaged as “internal trust.” [HBR]
Inside the fortune cookie
“Tradition is a guide, not a jailer.” - M. Somerset Maugham
Thanks, everyone!
There are now more than 1,300 links in the link archive. Enjoy!
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Cheers and thanks!
-James Ellis (LinkedIn | Twitter | Podcast | Articles)
Where the subject line came from:
The Smiths - I started something I couldn’t finish
You don’t have to tell me that Moz is deeeeeply problematic. I know. But… The Smiths are amazing.
