Who's The Best Employer? 🤔
And is that even the right question???
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Last week I ran a series of focus groups. Rather than ask what they like about the company, I take a different approach: I ask where they would work (if they couldn’t work here) and why.
This week, Canva came up multiple times. Now, I am a Canva client, but I also spend a lot of time making fun of the 20,000 (!) “we’re hiring” templates they offer (spoiler: they are all the same). So I feel like I have a balanced perspective on the company, and I wondered, why was Canva getting named repeatedly?
I looked at their career site. While there was a lot of talk about design, it was a VERY human-forward site. Lots of images and videos of people who clearly aren’t models.
Their hero video was purposefully wonky (starting with a beep, subjects asking where to look, saying they weren’t ready, etc), imbuing it with even more humanity. It takes 16 seconds to get to the beginning of the point (which, in video might as well be hours), but each frame, even when it wasn’t “saying” something, was saying a LOT. This is a company that cares about empowering it people much like it cares about empowering its customers.
And while I think they could have gone far deeper on how the values shape decisions (I always think that), they did a good job making the listing of the values feel organic, like people weren’t reading them off a card.
They talk about doing the most good they can while becoming a valuable company (a pairing you don’t see much of) suggesting that this isn’t a company that would kick you over to make a nickel.
Lots of women front and center, a very on-trend color palette, and little design elements that feel like the core product.
Some of you remember a few months ago at their annual software release meeting which had a dance crew rapping the meeting wrap-up (for me, it is equal parts joyous and cringe, but that’s kinda the point: this is the specific kind of weird they are).
The end result is that I could see in real time that Canva has become a top-of-mind company for some very talented people, exactly the kind of people Canva would LOVE to hire.
So where is their “great place to work” award/badge?
For a specific kind of person, Canva isn’t a great place to work, it is their dream job. Aren’t they deserving of such an accolade?
What about my favorite punching bag: Goldman Sachs? Insane work hours, zero work/life balance, and heart-stopping levels of stress. Given the workload, junior analysts aren’t exactly raking it in.
And yet, GS has huge swaths of the graduating classes of the top universities vying for one of its coveted spots. To tens of thousands of ambitious high-potential people coveted by big name companies around the world, GS is the brass ring.
Where’s their award?
So then I went poking around companies listed in the certified “great places to work” list and I saw something interesting: They all kinda looked and sounded… the same.
Most of them talked about how they care about their people. About their values (which sound a like others company’s values). About their commitment to the community or giving back. They do their survey to see if staff will parrot the talking points and give away badges like confetti (at least 10k of them at last count).
So while Canva is becoming the #1 choice for one high tech audience and Goldman is the top choice of top grads, all these other companies are very busy checking the same boxes everyone else seems to be checking.
They are busy trying to be the best to as many people as possible, which isn’t possible.
So what they are really doing is working hard to look like all the other companies.
“The best” is a synonym for “the same.” - Alex MH Smith
It’s almost as if “great place” has become its own genre, and all these companies are bending over backwards to fit into it. It’s as if Honda got so many “best car” awards, all cars are trying to be Hondas.
And that why Toyotas, Hondas, Mazdas, and so many other car companies make cars that kinda just feel the same?
Ford used to play that game, until a few years ago they realized they’d rather play a different game. That’s why they only make trucks and the Mustang, now.
Wouldn’t you rather be a Mini, all cute and fun and perfect for city parking? Or a Suburban, toting an entire Costco in the trunk? Or an Aston Martin, sleek, sexy and fast?
Canva and GS don’t need awards. People know what those companies are and what they are known for. It obviates the need for awards.
And that’s how you know you’ve got an employer brand.
A complete class on how to use AI/ChatGPT to build a stronger employer brand? Free!
🤔 I fucking love this idea: Do the weirdest thing that feels right (it feels like an extension of Warhol’s “Art is whatever you can get away with”) »
🤔 From surprise gifts to doing something unexpected, we need to play (in a serious way) with spontaneity as a driver of engagement »
🤔 Frenemies or Just Misunderstood? Inside the Minds of HR, Talent Acquisition, and Employer Branding Professionals (EBN is becoming my favorite source of EB thinking lately) »
🤔 Are we closer to the death of the CV/resume? »
🤔 Ten Insights to Modern Leadership »
🤔 AI’s an anti-social strategist »
🤔 For my fellow Byron Sharp nerds: universiry professor says marketing science rules no longer hold »
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Institutions will try to preserve the problem
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- Clay Shirky
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Okay, okay, here’s the crazy Canva dance break:
***This Newsletter Contains No ChatGPT***