Employer Brand Headlines: The "New Frontier" Edition (#74)
We’re not the biggest and best employer brand newsletter… oh, wait. Yes, we are!
In this issue
500+ searchable employer brand links!
Shared learning is the new water cooler!
EB predictions!
Transformation!
The big idea
Full disclosure: I know that no one on the surface of the planet has ever been excited about someone else’s website redesign. So let’s not call this a redesign so much as the creation of employerbrand.news 2.0 (is “2.o” still a thing?)
One: I took the links from the last year’s worth of newsletter and dropped it into a single searchable, annotated, and tagged database. Not only are the link descriptions searchable, the text of all the articles themselves is indexed, which means finding useful content is a breeze. As of this moment, it stands at 500+ employer brand links for your reference, and I’ll be adding to it every week. Got an article you’d like me to add? Send it my way for consideration in the newsletter. (h/t Elena Valentine and Hung Lee for the inspiration)
Second, I am closing the chapter on Talent Chooses You. I wrote the bulk of it more than two years ago (which is an indication of how modern “modern publishing” is these days), and while a lot of the material is still useful, I’ve learned so much on top of it. Rather than go through the pain of writing another book, I started with a clean sheet of paper. What do I want to build? Who is it for? How should they interact with it? How will it help them? And I decided that the answer isn’t a book, but something more… organic. Something that isn’t ever meant to be “done.” I want to build the ultimate reference book for employer branding; the place people go when they are starting and the place practitioners go to push their thinking. It’s a living book, something akin to a wiki where you can see drafts in production and ask questions and even offer comments. At the moment, it’s an outline without a title, but it’s how things start, right?
Is it hubris and ego to suggest I write the employer brand reference? Maybe (or rather “probably”), but someone’s gotta do it, so we might as well get the work started.
Finally, I took my “99 ways to activate your employer brand” thing out from behind the subscribe wall. If you want it, it’s yours.
Headlines!
It feels reasonable to me that in a time of virtual/remote everything, the thing that will help bring people together and build connections and increase productivity is shared learning. What we learn together is what keeps us together. That holiday zoom class where everyone learned to make gnocchi in their own kitchens was the highlight of your Q4? Keep that in mind and start supporting shared learning experiences at work as a means of developing culture.
If you’re going to force your candidates through your TSA-like ATS (huh… they share the same letters… weird), you better be taking advantage of it as a shared point of contact (and data) for candidates and recruiters.
Last year, I did a whole newsletter based on the various prediction stories people were writing (how’d that turn out?!) and this year it sure feels like no one’s willing to put their head in the lion’s mouth again. But I did find one brave soul willing to predict the future of EB for 2021. I could quibble about how “HR tech will focus more on candidates than recruiters” is a gimme as it is impossible for them to focus LESS on candidates, but it’s a good read.
When it comes to transforming recruitment marketing, I don’t know anyone who knows more (or done more) within tech or large companies than Allyn Bailey. As she is someone who truly knows how to turn the biggest boats around, this series on how to think through your own recruitment marketing situation is going to be epic.
You know that my feeling is that the platonic ideal of employer brand isn’t to be a silo, but rather a single perspective through a shared brand for the entire company. Ignoring how surprised I was that a marketing/branding magazine even know what an employer brand was, here’s a great article geared towards marketers on how to leverage a stronger employer brand.
Further evidence of companies embracing that the world really has changed? Chevron managed a virtual summer camp for its employees’ kids. If your company cares about you, is there anything you care about as much as your kids??? So while this kind of thing will be common in the future, I love seeing companies pivot to embrace stuff like this.
Finally, if you’re looking for a list of great brand articles to help you think bigger and bolder when you get the year kicked off right, here’s a great one.
Quick hits
2020 Changed Your Employment Experience. What’s Your New Story?
Six Direct Response Copywriting Tips (and Examples)
Tip of the week
The new year is HERE. 2020 is done (mostly), so what is one new habit you’ll be installing right now? Better documentation? Turning off email for a few hours in the morning? Writing five thank-you notes every Friday? What are you going to do that sharpens the saw so that a year from now, you’re in a much better place than you are now?
Inside the fortune cookie
“An artist is someone who has learnt to trust in himself”-Ludwig van Beethoven
Thanks, everyone!
And as always, when you reply to this email I will read your questions and comments. Is there any article I should be commenting on? A book? A podcast? Is there something you what to know? How can I help? Just reply to this email and it comes directly to me.
Cheers and thanks!
-James Ellis (LinkedIn | Twitter | Podcast | Articles)
By James Ellis, Employer Brand Nerd
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