Holidays are for nostalgia.š¬ (EBH#177: In a Big Country)
Why are you even LOOKING at emails this week? This is just a year-end wrap-up.
Mission: Create a million employer brand thinkers (like you!)
***This newsletter contains no ChatGPT***
Firstā¦
The next EVP Masterclass Workshop (where that recruiters, TA leaders and HRBPs can develop their companyās employer brand) starts January 10. Above are some thoughts from people who took the last cohort. If you have questions, grab 15 minutes with me. Itās like an Ask Me Anything but itās just you and me!
These courses arenāt for everyone, but if youād like to see how they could help you attract and hire talent, letās chat!
The Big Idea (is a bunch of repeats)
Look. Yesterday was Christmas. Today is the last day of Hannukah. Zoroastrians are remembering the death of their profit. Not to mention Kwanzaa and Boxing Day.
Nothingās getting done. So hereās a few links to what I hope is some of the best stuff Iāve shared this year:
January 17, 2022: The long-term strength of your brand isnāt in your tech stack or budget. Itās in how you communicate and prove how your people are treated.
February 5, 2022: So much of our language is shaped by lawyers and committees. Why arenāt we hiring poets and comedians to change peopleās perspectives and spark emotions?
March 21, 2022: Your brand is a decision filter. It shows you what stories to tell and how.
May 30, 2022: The four legs of the employer brand stool.
July 4, 2022: Anxious times breed great art. When your company gets nervous, donāt ask for budget, ask for freedom.
August 29, 2022: Being specific is the gift you give your hiring managers and candidates.
September 26, 2022: Saying āweāre a great place to workā is safe. But āsafeā is not how you ask someone to change their lives and join your company.
October 17, 2022: What you call a ātalent strategyā isnāt a strategy at all. Which is too bad because recruiting needs all the strategy it can get its hands on.
November 7, 2022: Letting your freak flag fly creates credibility while your competitors pretend they are perfect.
Want to understand how well your employer brand is being activated? Request your free report here.
Strategy Idea
The Stop Doing Something Strategy. This is a perennial favorite of mine and can be summed up quite simply as: how can you do something interesting, cool, exciting, innovative, or just plain new if your calendar is filled to the gills with old stuff? Pick something and stop doing it. Give yourself room to be more inventive and experimental.
The Employer Brand Minute
ā¦will returnā¦
Headlines
Short and sweet this week:
āOrganisms in nature have survived and thrived for three and a half billion years, and they've done it without any kind of planning or predicting, or anything that we spend so much of our time doing.ā - Rafe Sagarin
Whenever youāre ready, hereās how I can help you:
EVP Masterclass: Develop your own Employer Brand/EVP alongside other recruiting leaders in my next guided cohort.
Employer Brand for Recruiters: Video on demand to teach recruiters how using their employer brand properly makes them more effective. Group rates available.
Coaching and support: Email me and weāll set up time to talk 1:1 about how I can help you or your company take advantage of your employer brand.
Cheers and thanks!
-James Ellis (LinkedIn)
Resources:
Download 105 free (or almost free) ways to activate your employer brand.
Read Talent Chooses You for free from this open source Google Doc.
Search all 1,700+ links historically referenced in the article archive.
Hereās the 2022 version of The Employer Brand Manifesto.
220+ episodes of The Talent Cast podcast.
Where the subject line came from:
Big Country - In a Big Country
Thereās just something magical about this song. Itās anthemic, but aboutā¦ nothing? The lyrics, when read cold, suggest a smaller, far more intimate tune about recovering from a broken heart, about the lessons learned about love. But then you hear it andā¦ Itās massive. The bass is really front and center: Simple but a real driving force (a lot of lessons from The Police here). The drums are tribal. And for most of the song, the guitar seems to content to live way in the back, plinking around on random stuff, like a little kid waving with both arms hoping someone pays attention to itā¦ until the solo. Somehow its capturing the dissonance of bagpipes (they are Scottish, after all). Thereās so much reverb and gain on the guitar, it feels like its bouncing around a massive chasm, really reinforcing the big country.
The band had way more success in the UK than the US, where this was their only hit. But what a song.
Enjoy!
If you are enjoying the music, congratulations, you have great taste in music and/or youāre old! Just for you, I made a Spotify playlist of all the subject line 80ās songs Iāve referenced over the last year and a half. You donāt even need hairspray to enjoy it:
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