Feeling some kinda way 🤔
Feeling some kinda way 🤔
It hits me right in "the feels" ...or something
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Stop a moment and close your eyes.
Crap. This is text, so you can’t close your eyes. Well… think back to the last time you got a new job, that moment when the recruiter or HM told you it was a done deal and that they were thrilled to have you join.
Think of that moment.
What did you feel?
Excitement? Elation? Relief? Hope? Optimism? Exhausted? Unsure? Fortunate? Proud? Nervous?
Maybe you didn’t feel all those things, but I bet you felt a few of them. Maybe even some others.
And of course you did! Getting a new job is a life-changing event and comes with tons of emotional baggage.
But when I look at career sites, asking myself, “what is the emotion trying to be conveyed here?” Things get… simpler. Almost simplistic.
This one is all about how the company is the “best.” What’s the emotion? Well, for employees, I suspect they wanted people to feel proud, but employees shouldn’t be a career site’s target audience. So what do candidates feel? Probably not much of anything.
This one is all about the mission of the company, about how it is saving lives and making a difference. What’s the emotion? I suspect that they want people to feel “inspired.” But so so so many companies lean on that emotion… hard.
And then there’s all these other career sites where the underlying emotion is enthusiastic happiness. Happy people doing happy work and going to happy work get-togethers. Coke spends $4.4B every year getting the world to associate its sweet fizzy water with happiness, but they have nothing on how most career sites sound. Not that anyone visiting the actually thinks everyone at the company is happy.
Did I miss any emotions? Maybe one or two, outliers here and there. But for the most part, career sites (and employer brands) really seem to play the same two emotional notes (provided they remember to play any at all.)
It’s like we all got that 64-color Crayola box to work with and only use aquamarine, periwinkle, and neon magenta.
There are so many other interesting emotions we could be tapping into.
Fulfilled and peaceful. How will working there make them feel satisfied? And how would you define that satisfaction?
Renewed and refreshed. Whether its because you offer lots of PTO or because there’s a satisfaction in how you help others.
Brave and determined. The work you do it hard and lacking a road map, but together you do the hard thing because it’s worth it.
Empathetic and compassionate. Maybe its how empathetic the company is to its employees or how compassionate employees are to each other.
Curious and intrigued. The is the emotion that probably should be obvious when you say things like, “we’re always learning.”
Appreciative and humbled. We do great things together, because we’re together.
And that’s only a start.
You might note that these are generally considered “positive” emotions (though my wife, a therapist, would remind you that there are no such thing as positive or negative emotions). What about the other side? The less attractive emotions. Is there a place for them?
Perhaps.
First, we need to get comfortable with the idea that everyone isn’t 100% thrilled to be at work 100% of the time. Some work is difficult. Frustrating. Annoying. Friction-rific. Where is that on our career sites? All I see are Stepford Employees, all shiny and happy.
At the same time, we could also embrace the idea that work changes us, and that great work changes us for the better. And how better to show that change than by starting with frustrating emotions. To go from trapped to free. From distance and aloof to engaged. From burned out to passionate. From helpless to confident.
Those are journeys they make novels and movies out of.
Imagine how people would react if that was your brand.
So go look at your career site (and social and even job posts) and ask, “What’s the emotion being conveyed here? What could it be? And how would I spark that feeling?”
That’s how you turn followers into fans and applicants into hires.
*I have zero connection with this Etsy seller, but how shocked would they be when five or six of you buy a pillow out of nowhere???
Employer brand is all about helping people make choices. That’s employer brand 101.
😵💫 Netflix realizes it’s been 15 years since “the Netflix Culture Deck” and makes some edits. 1: I always love “internal” documents being used to show credibly what’s going on within the company. 2: A shift away from “the keeper test” which gave Netflix status (“Oh yeah? I survived five years at Netflix!”) is now softened, possibly in response to a FAANG-less talent world. 3: “People over process” is a big change, not because it puts “people first,” but as an acknowledgement that processes are static, and only because of people, that processes optimize and people invent. »
😠 The route to better culture? Better managers »
🤗 For those of you who use AI/GPT in your work: How to Reduce Hallucinations in LLMs for Reliable Enterprise Use »
🥹 The pitfalls of branding success are real: How Starbucks Devalued Its Own Brand »
😖 We don’t talk about these things enough. They world isn’t changing piece by piece but in waves and all at once. So why are we expected to just “deal with it” at work? Constant Change Is Rewriting the Psychological Contract with Employees »
🫥 Google wants you to get smarter about AI for some reason: AI for marketing »
😒 Your employer doesn’t own your career. YOU do. Do a Mid-Year Review of Your Career »
🤔 Want to really support your people? Consider helping them with their financial well-being. It would really help set you apart »
😏 I think I just got BINGO because I found this article that has more real buzz-word-level understanding of what employer branding is and how to use it. »
😭 Do brands have to get involved with politics? »
🏛️ All 2,400+ (five years worth!) articles from this newsletter are in a searchable archive. Go get ‘em!
What’s the easiest way to get on leadership’s radar so that they can understand what you do?
Volunteer to help out on a Sr Director or VP search.
Re-write the job posting. Suggest a quick brand-connected video. Pull together some content that recruiters can use for sourcing. Ghost-write some social copy for the leader who’s doing the hiring (and teach them that post-and-pray doesn’t work any better on LI than it does on a job board, so also put together a distribution/promotion strategy).
Treat this role like a VIP order and give it all your smart ideas and attention.
One, that will put you side-by-side with leadership and show them what good employer branding work looks like. Two, it gives them a chance to see the impact your work makes.
So jump on it.
I made my AI Power Tools for EB’ers class free! You can even download the prompts I used in the class:
One: Understand the financial impact having a strong employer brand. Nine questions to get your custom report. It’s free! I’ll be shutting this down in one week. So if you want your report, act now! »
Two: Compare 25 employer brand building companies side-by-side. It’s how you make a better decision about who will help you best in your EB journey. It’s free! »
Three: Three case studies that prove how an employer brand can be built in just three weeks. A 250-person manufacturer, a 300-person construction company, and an 800-person video game company. Just reply to this email.
Work is a wicked problem — a snarl of dilemmas, not a list of initiatives —
and the whole world and all its actors are fighting to control it,
bend it, contain it: in short, to own it.
- Stowe Boyd
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***This Newsletter Contains No ChatGPT***