Employer Brand Headlines: The "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" Edition (#82)
Our mission: Help you understand your employer brand better and make it work for you.
In this issue
It’s not easy… on purpose
Measuring your EB
How the Peak-End Rule defines your candidate experience
What goes viral?
Motivations, SWOT, and outreach
The big idea
It’s not easy. Employer branding isn’t easy. Helping recruiting, comms, and marketing teams (let alone the business!!!) understand what we do isn’t easy. Convincing them to try new ideas and integrate them into their workflow isn’t easy. Explaining to leadership why what we do is crucial isn’t easy. Influencing people we exactly zero authority over isn’t easy.
So I think I had a moment this week where I kind of threw up my hands when I realized how many people are trying to make things easy.
I’m not calling anyone out, but over and over again, people are trying to make things less complicated, simpler, and easier to manage. Employer brand is not a software package you install. It is not a tagline you repeat or a tactic you implement. Employer brand, when done properly, is a kind of business therapy. And if your therapist tells you your therapy is going to be easy, find a new therapist.
Think of all those home reno shows where the semi-famous semi-professional points at a wall and says, “that wall will have to come down, but it should only cost $500.” Do they show that they figure out later that it’s a load-bearing wall or that there’s a plumbing stack there for some reason and it triples the cost of the change? Almost never. Why? Because they are in the business of selling a dream: of buying a home on the cheap and turning it into a jewel for almost no work. That hell hole can be your dream home for the cost of a coat of paint and two weekends of sweat!
It’s a fantasy that gets you to swing by the hardware store with big ideas. I want to see the fretful nights of realizing that opening that wall became a pandora’s box that they are on the hook for, one that, until they fix, they can’t sell (let alone recover their investment). That’s reality. The reality is the expensive fixes to the foundation, sewer lines, and rafters don’t change how the house looks. That’s the way real home renovations work. Real home renos don’t involve sweetheart contractor/design couples who make most of their money hawking paint colors and furniture on the side. Home renovation is hard frickin work. That’s why the return (and the sense of satisfaction) is so high.
Here’s something I read this week that just… stuck. Stolen from The Ruffian, this is James Baldwin talking about Shakespeare: “That is why he is called a poet. And his responsibility, which is also his joy and his strength and his life, is to defeat all labels and complicate all battles by insisting on the human riddle…“ That’s right. It was Shakespeare’s responsibility (!) to defeat labels and complicate things. His plays get to the core of the human condition, but not by making things simple. He did it by defying what people expected and making things less easy. And by building intricate plots and playing off subtle but precise motivations, he was able to tell a far more compelling (and human!) story.
So today, I’d like you to consider that anyone who is trying to say it’s easy is probably selling you something, whether it’s a book, a software package, or a dream. Employer brand can’t be easy. We’re trying to create change within orgs that don’t always want it. Employer branding is a job you don’t take because it is easy, but because it is hard.
Which, in some way, is why we do it.
Headlines!
After “where should EB live?” the second most common question I hear is “who do you measure it?” Well, there are a lot of answers to that question, but I like this response from Ted Meulenkamp about focusing first on awareness and likeability. As someone who knows the power of selling EB inside big conservative organizations, this is sage advice.
Change like Covid isn’t likely to let us go back to the way it was. This year in isolation will change things in dramatic ways even once we’re all safe. This is a chance to build a better company, a better culture, and a better brand. You need to start talking to leadership about what the future looks like and how you can start talking about that future to candidates now.
I love this. Think of the last big event you went to (I know, I know…). What do you remember? Probably one peak emotional moment and the last thing. That’s the Peak End Rule of memory. Why bring this up? Well, what are the biggest emotional moments and last moments of your candidate experience? Is it waiting (and waiting and waiting) to hear how the interview went and the generic disposition email? Ugh. This might be why your candidate experience investments haven’t really been making a dent.
Are you being too rational in building your employer brand? Are the claims you’re making too “feature-driven” and not designed to connect to the less rational parts of a person’s decision-making process? Are you considering what really motivates different candidates? I love talking about motivations, so it was great to hear that actual behavioral scientists are talking about it, too.
I’ve been in way too many (way too many) SWOT analysis workshops that land exactly where they started. In fact, I’ve only been in one that actually leads to a surprising discovery or insight. They are generally ways to document and codify something that everyone already knows (which isn’t always a great use of time) to justify some plan already being proposed. I wonder if that’s because most people are doing their SWOT analysis backward?
In a way, you are the marketing brain for your recruiting team. You can help craft better messages and job postings and all that other good stuff, including outreach emails. Want to be a TA hero? Help your recruiters get more responses.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but if you want to increase the likelihood that your hiring managers are nudged towards selecting under-represented candidates, make your shortlist longer.
There are three big ideas involved in competing during a period of uncertainty (1: you know that’s what you’re doing right? 2: It’s always a period of uncertainty!) - Manage the present, Selectively forget the past, and create the future. The first and last are pretty obvious but for us EB folks, the idea of ‘selectively forgetting the past,’ is something we’re not good at. Too many companies (and leaders) are so in love with their past accomplishments that they can’t talk about the present or future. You can’t make room for the future if you’re surrounded by the past. What can you clear out to make room for your brand to grow?
Want your messages to go “viral’ (even if only within your company)? Leverage status, fear, novelty, voyeurism, and four other drives to maximize the ‘sharability’ of your content.
Quick hits
Current, care-focused, virtual: The content your employer brand needs now
3 ways to improve your creativity (backed up by neuroscience)
How to Create an Internal Communications Strategy [+ Free Template]
Data Science Reveals Why the Best Business Writers Avoid Certain Words
2020 Employee Referral Program Data: How Do You Stack Up
5 top tips to promote diversity in your business from the world’s biggest brands
Tip of the week
Are you properly using the power of the CC: in your emails? When you hit a milestone or complete an interesting project, let your boss and stakeholders know. But then, copy in other people. Like who? Well, who do you want to work with next? Quietly looping them in on one success increases the likelihood that they will want to participate in your next project. This is how you can subtly advocate for yourself and your work one step at a time.
Inside the fortune cookie
“[N]othing important, or meaningful, or beautiful, or interesting, or great ever came out of imitations. The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” — Anna Quindlen
One last thing
And I’m going to take Clubhouse seriously for a while. Last week we had a great of folks on and covered their questions and challenges, and this week the one and only Holland McCue and I will talk about employer brand beyond the “obvious” tools. Got an idea to talk about? Hit us up!
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)
Where the subject line came from:
Six Months In A Leaky Boat - Split Enz (1982) FLAC Remaster HD Video
By James Ellis, Employer Brand Nerd
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