Today we bring you a guest post from Bryan Chaney, an experienced global leader in recruitment and employment branding. We asked him to tell us how companies can align the recruiting experience with the company’s brand.
Why is the employer brand important to the recruiting experience?
A brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Whether a company has a consumer brand or business brand, its reputation in the market is related to the products it sells, how it supports those products, and the services that back them up.
An employer’s efforts to convey the experience and value proposition of working in their culture? That’s the employer controlling the information and message, or “employer brand.”
So, a “talent brand” is what employees really say about a company when they’re not at work and their boss isn’t within earshot.
Understanding the overlap of the two brands (and also where they miss the mark) is the key to educating prospective talent about the true value of an organization. Not just to compel them to apply, but also to tell them when they wouldn’t be a fit. Remember, culture starts with cult. And the members of every cult-like organization need to fit a specific mold in order to function.
“Those who can’t rock Wild Cherry Kool-Aid mustaches need not apply.”
The biggest mistake that companies make when trying to insert an employer brand into their recruiting process is trying to manufacture a reputation that doesn’t exist, or even line up with, an accurate experience.
An employer brand is not created. It can only be revealed.
The best advice I can give to an employer wanting their recruiting process to reflect the brand is to start with real stories from real employees. Some will volunteer and some will need to be recruited to tell their story. Depending on the culture, incentivize them to take a specific angle or theme, like six-second videos featuring “the life of a software developer at X company” and watch what unfolds.
Categorize those employee stories by skill set, business unit, or segment of the EVP (Employer Value Proposition). This will enable you to understand what role each piece of content plays, and where and when it makes sense to share it on the career site, blog, or talent community.
Because the best stories shared are those you can trust and those that are the most relevant to your audience.
Bryan Chaney is an experienced global leader in recruitment and employment branding. He was most recently the manager of Global Social Strategy for Aon. Bryan’s strategic global recruiting strategies have helped funnel talent for offices in India, the UK, and Canada. Before joining Aon, Bryan worked in recruitment, technology, and marketing, gaining insights into the marketing of hiring, the importance of technology, and the buying process candidates engage in when applying for jobs.
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