This is part of a multi-article series on employer branding through social media.
Photo by Herval
How would you like to have a pipeline of qualified candidates who were incredibly excited to come work at your organization – before you’ve even posted a job opening?
I want to talk to you about employer branding, and how it can help you hire better people with less effort.
What is Employer Branding?
Employer branding is like marketing for your corporate culture. When you hear the name of a particular brand – Apple, for instance – you immediately create a perception of the products they offer. Reliable. Sexy. Expensive.
Employer branding is the process of creating associations between your organization and a career experience. Choate Hall & Stewart Law Firm, for example, has built a brand around being a place where entry level people get meaningful career experience – not just crappy desk work.
Why does employer branding matter?
Simple. Employer branding makes it easier to find great candidates, and easier to close to deal.
Who would you rather buy an expensive and important product from: A brand you’ve never heard of, or a name you trust?
Choosing a new employer is an important decision. People want to work for a name they’ve heard of and an organization they trust.
You already have an employer brand
Even if your organization hasn’t developed an employer brand, you still have one. Every employee – and ex-employee – who talks about working there builds your employer brand. Every customer. Every blog article.
Your employer brand isn’t just what’s on your corporate career page. It’s what people find when they Google your name. Try it right now – what comes up?
Finding nothing is better than finding lots of negative articles. But wouldn’t it be great if you could find lots of positive information about working for your organization, scattered across the web by people who work for you, have worked for you in the past, or have worked with you?
That’s employer branding, and with social media, its easier than ever to get started.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing a series of articles about how to use social media to build and maintain an employer brand. If you have any specific questions that you want me to address, leave them in the comments section below, or shoot me a quick email.
RSS
YouTube
Slideshare
I really want you to answer, once and for all, who owns the employee brand.
- The company.
- The employees.
- The marketplace.
- Former employees.
Who is responsible for it?
@Laurie – The answer is “yes.” Yes to all of the above. Senior leadership actions, employee actions, marketplace and what former employees say about you are all components of an employer brand.
Who’s responsible for managing it? I’d like to say we all are. If you hire grown ups and then treat them like grownups, I think its as simple as having an honest conversation about the type of company culture you want.
What behaviors do you and don’t you tolerate? What do we value as an organization – not just on paper, but in practice? What makes us a great (or crappy) place to work?
Employer branding isn’t something you develop as much as its something you communicate. If your culture sucks, people will find out eventually. And with social media, a disingenuous brand – employer or otherwise – gets found out pretty quickly.
The focus of this series isn’t going to be on putting lipstick on a pig. It’s going to be on identifying what makes your organization a better place to work than your competitor, and starting conversations around that.
Great subject for a series of blog posts Chris! I’ve shared your post in my weekly Rainmaker ‘Fab Five’ blog picks of the week (found here: http://www.maximizepossibility.com/employee_retention/2009/10/the-rainmaker-fab-five-blog-picks-of-the-week-3.html) so my readers can stay tuned for what is to come!
Be well!
Chris Young
Thanks Chris – I really appreciate that!
Dear Chris,
You already have an employer brand, yes, so true, your employees make your brand, your stakeholders. I think that even something like employee branding will emerge. This is personal branding as a part of employer branding strategy.
Please have a look at my Employer Branding & Talent 2.0 presentations on slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/alhoupart/presentations?order=popular
Best regards,
Alexander Crepin
The Netherlands and globally online
@Alexander – Employee branding… now there’s a new one! I love the concept, and I think that’s something Zappos probably does particularly well. They empower their employees to identify as Zappos people and talk about what it’s like there. It helps build them as individuals, but also builds the Zappos brand.
I love the presentation zen style presos you put together, Alexander. Thanks for popping by and commenting. Looking forward to hearing more from you!