⚡ Employer Brand Headlines: The "Hourglass" Edition (#119)
My mission: move the conversation around employer brand forward.
Employer Brand Headlines, brought to you by James Ellis
In this issue
What’s the story?
What’s more important than a brand?
Useless survey questions
Be a better influencer
The big idea
Most people start their employer brand process/project/journey worried that they won’t “get it right.” They are so focused on being “accurate” in describing the company that they end up landing in the dreaded limbo or employer branding: they build an employer bland.
It’s a common situation stemming from shared misguided intentions. The employer brander interviews every part of the company, documenting every team and every office, searching for some concept or set of words that “distills” the brand into 3-5 simple pillars.
That’s why terms like “innovation” and “collaboration” seem to pop up in every company’s EVP, whether they are earned or not. These are easy terms every person wants to use to describe their company, their team and themselves. They get selected because they are safe, broad terms that can apply across the board in equal measure.
It’s akin to walking through an art museum and being asked to describe everything you’ve seen in three words. How can you? Where one piece leaves to feeling isolated and hopeless, another sparks playful joy. For every Guernica, extolling the horrors of war, there is Magritte’s absurd surrealism. For every Freida Kahlo’s depiction of everyday magic, there is Edward Hopper’s definition of alienation.
What three words could you use? You’ll be left thumbing a thesaurus trying to find synonyms for “striking.”
So perhaps the employer branding journey shouldn’t be focused on finding those “magic 3 terms” you can use in every team and microculture. Perhaps the goal is to discover what is truly unique about your company.
Great authors seek to tell the story only they can tell. Great employer branders midwife the story that only their organization can tell.
Headlines!
Why Employer Branding Is Still A Key Priority In 2021
While I agree that a strong (not just ‘positive’) EB can do wonders for your ability to hire, don’t put too much faith in the magic of a new EVP. It’s all in how you use it.
Employer brand is becoming more important than the brand itself
India is starting to become something of a hotspot for EB thinking. Ignoring that the author has only one name, there are some good insights on the power of EB.
hr.economictimes.indiatimes.com • Share
There is no easy fix to hiring.
All the easy jobs have been automated away. All that’s left are the hard things. This includes recruiting and hiring.
5 useless questions to remove from engagement surveys
There are as many ways to do engagement surveys wrong as there are surveys. Better surveys start by doing less wrong.
Making the Business Case for Your Marketing Budget
Business speaks three languages: make money, save money, extend brand awareness. If you want more budget, you need to know how to properly tie your work to those business outcomes.
These Strategies Will Help You Influence How Decisions Get Made
You have no power, so you must become a better influencer at work. That starts with understanding how businesses make decisions.
Good notes on culture change.
The Importance of Form and Content
For those of you who are asking for this strategy template or that project plan: build it yourself around your actual issue and situation.
21 Experts on the Future of Expertise
It’s a big read, but there’s a lot here to think about (h/t Recruiting Brainfood)
In case you’re looking to add some new tools to your toolset.
Aussies Are Encouraged to Turn Dreams into Reality
[Example of great creative] I’m betting at some point, the creatives felt stuck until someone said, “what’s the absolute worst idea we can think of?” Turns out, it wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
Inside the fortune cookie
“If you’re efficient, you’re doing it the wrong way. The right way is the hard way.”
— Jerry Seinfeld
Thanks, everyone!
There are now more than 1,100 links in the link archive. Enjoy!
Reminder: The more people at your org who read my books, the better your job will get! employerbrandbook.com (They’re free!!!)
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:
Squeeze - Hourglass (HQ)
By James Ellis, Employer Brand Nerd
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