Employer Branding For Dummies

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Getting Started with Employer Branding 5 Chapter 1: Building a Strong Employer Brand 7 What Is Employer Branding? 8 Recognizing the benefits of employer branding 8 Stepping through the employer branding process/cycle 9 Laying the Foundation for Your Employer Brand 11 Aligning with business goals and objectives 11 Fitting in with your other brands 12 Rallying the troops (and leaders) 12 Taking an Honest Look at Your Employer Brand 13 Putting the Pieces in Place 14 Defining the give and get of the employment deal 15 Establishing employer brand guidelines 16 Giving your target talent a reason to tune in 17 Spreading the Word through Various Channels 19 Staying True to the Promise of Your Employer Brand 20 Monitoring Your Employer Branding Success 21 Chapter 2: Preparing for the Journey 23 Finding Your Fit within the Overall Company Strategy 24 Aligning with the corporate brand 25 Aligning with the customer brand 27 Supporting the business strategy 29 Getting the right talent onboard 29 Aligning with human resources 34 Building Your Business Case for Employer Branding 34 Considering cost-cutting benefits 35 Checking out possible performance benefits 36 Making Friends and Influencing People 38 Getting senior leadership onboard 38 Convincing marketing and communications to go along with the idea 39 Getting HR comfortable with the language and thinking of brand management 40 Chapter 3: Conducting an Employer Brand Health Check 41 Taking a Look in the Mirror 42 Finding out what you already know 42 Conducting employee surveys and focus groups 43 Taking a Look from the Outside In 47 Gauging employer brand awareness, consideration, and preference 47 Identifying your key talent competitors 49 Evaluating the strength of your organization’s employer brand image 50 Evaluating the factors that shape your organization’s brand image 53 Weighing Your Competition 54 Benchmarking your competitors’ media presence 55 Mapping your competitors’ brand positioning 56 Spotting generic plays and opportunities to be different 57 Part 2: Developing an Effective Employer Brand Strategy 61 Chapter 4: Defining Your Employer Value Proposition 63 Setting Your Sights on the Goal: A Sample Employer Value Proposition 64 Brainstorming to Generate Ideas and Content 66 Gathering the right people 67 Drawing insights from your data 67 Conducting a productive employer value proposition development workshop 69 Balancing Competing Perspectives 73 Clarifying the give and get of the employment deal 73 Weighing current strengths and future aspirations 74 Balancing global and local considerations 75 Differentiating Your Organization from the Competition 76 Choosing Your Core Positioning 77 Writing Your Employer Value Proposition 78 Sense Checking and Stress Testing 79 Identifying tangible claims and proof points 79 Field-testing your draft employer value proposition 80 Chapter 5: Building Your Employer Brand Framework 83 Aligning Your Employer Branding with Your Corporate and Customer Branding 84 Working with a monolithic brand 84 Navigating within a house of brands 86 Optimizing the parent-subsidiary house of brands framework 87 Creating a Visual Brand Identity with Impact 88 Developing Overarching Recruitment Campaigns 90 Setting campaign objectives 90 Writing a creative creative brief 91 Choosing the right creatives to work with 92 Testing Creative Solutions 95 Checking whether a creative solution works across different target groups 95 Choosing the best creative solutions 97 Chapter 6: Generating Engaging Content 101 Grasping the Need to Go Beyond Recruitment Advertising 102 Mastering the Principles of Content Marketing 103 Balancing immediate engagement with long-term brand building 104 Local engagement hooks 105 Exploring Different Ways to Pitch Your Story 105 Showcasing existing talent: Employee profiles and stories 106 Be bold: Cutting through the corporate speak 110 Delivering facts, figures, and infographics 112 Making the most of video 113 Gaming your system 114 Promoting Employee-Generated Content 114 Facilitating employee-generated content with the right technology 116 Developing policies to prevent misbehavior and mishaps 116 Managing Your Content 117 Assembling a content marketing and management team 117 Conducting a content audit 118 Tagging and categorizing content to facilitate indexing and raise its search engine ranking 119 Building a content marketing editorial calendar 119 Chapter 7: Rolling Out Your Employer Brand Strategy 121 Winning Internal Hearts and Minds 121 Briefing Managers before Engaging Employees 123 Briefing Key Management Stakeholders 124 Engaging leadership 124 Pitching your plan to the HR/talent community 125 Ensuring alignment with corporate communications and marketing 126 Briefing Your Recruitment Teams 127 Developing your employer brand toolkit 127 Creating content playbooks 128 Providing guidance on localization 129 Getting team managers onboard 130 Engaging Employees 132 Think: Taking a rational, measured approach 134 Feel: Nurturing emotional engagement 135 Do: Inspiring employee commitment and behavior change 136 Maintaining consistency and continuity 137 Part 3: Reaching Out through the Right Channels 139 Chapter 8: Constructing Your Recruitment Marketing Plan 141 Sizing Up Your Audience 142 Segmenting your audience 142 Prioritizing your audience segments 143 Creating talent personas 144 Evaluating Target Talent Media Preferences 146 Mapping out your media options 146 Reaching people on the move (mobile) 147 Connecting with active and passive job seekers 148 Setting Out Your Plan 149 Balancing inbound and outbound marketing activities 150 Putting a recruitment marketing system in place 151 Chapter 9: Creating a Winning Career Site 153 Making a Great First Impression 154 Checking off landing page essentials 154 Integrating with your social properties 155 Optimizing for mobile 157 Staying a step ahead of the Joneses 157 Delivering the Goods: Content 158 Aligning your website with your employer value proposition 159 Tailoring content to target groups 159 Writing effective job descriptions 160 Making it easy to apply 162 Personalizing your response letters 163 Creating Job Microsites 164 Chapter 10: Developing Your Talent Network 165 Leveraging the Networking Power of Current and Former Employees 166 Understanding why referrals make great hires 166 Setting up an employee referral program 167 Building an alumni talent network 171 Boosting Your Rejected Candidate Referral Rate 173 Creating Your Own Talent Communities 174 Chapter 11: Engaging Talent through Social Media 177 Getting Your Head in the Game 178 Where to show up: Choosing social channels 178 How to engage potential candidates 178 Laying the Groundwork 180 Choosing a social dashboard 180 Budgeting for ads and sponsored content 181 Making time for social media 181 Recruiting on LinkedIn 182 Building your Company and Career pages 182 Posting regular status updates 183 Measuring and optimizing engagement 183 Having employees update their profiles 184 Giving Job Seekers a Backstage Pass with Glassdoor 184 Making a Splash on Facebook 187 Creating a Facebook Page 187 Hosting Facebook Groups 189 Broadcasting via Facebook Live 189 Attracting Top Talent on Twitter 190 Picking up strategies by observing others 190 Using hashtags to source candidates 190 Engaging prospects 191 Getting your employees involved 192 Gauging your Twitter impact 192 Adapting to a New Model: Snapchat 192 Leveraging Video 193 Exploring ways to use video in recruitment marketing 194 Recognizing the importance of YouTube 194 Exploring Chat Platforms and Regional Channels 195 Building a Social Media Calendar 196 Chapter 12: Making the Most of Recruitment Advertising 199 Raising Your Employer Brand Profile in Search Engine Results 200 Using search engine optimization to improve your site’s search engine ranking 201 Gaining traction with search engine marketing 202 Sizing Up Paid Media Channels 203 Evaluating your potential media mix 204 Programmatic media buying 206 Getting the Best out of Job Boards 207 Adding a Personal Touch with Direct Engagement 208 Personalizing your message 208 Cutting through the spam 209 Chapter 13: Making a Splash on Campus 211 Marketing to College Students 212 Understanding the student/graduate mind-set 212 Attending to key touch points 213 Evaluating regional differences 215 Converting interns 215 Designing an attractive graduate program 216 Balancing targeting with diversity 217 Choosing Schools Wisely 218 Supporting College Career and Job Placement Services 219 Reaching Out to Less Prominent Institutions 220 Part 4: Delivering on Your Employer Brand Promises 223 Chapter 14: Shaping a Positive Brand Experience 225 Applying Customer Experience Thinking to HR Processes 226 Thinking differently about HR 226 Reviewing your current employment experience 227 Engaging in Touch-Point Planning 230 Conducting a touch-point review 230 Touch-point action planning 232 Designing signature experiences 233 Chapter 15: Making a Positive Impression on Candidates 237 Building Candidate-Friendly Application and Selection Processes 238 Designing a professional and courteous application and selection funnel 238 Tailoring your application, screening, and selection process to your EVP 242 Ensuring a Positive Brand Experience through Induction and Orientation 243 Focusing on the fundamentals 244 Preboarding new hires 246 Providing a warm welcome 247 Designing an extensive orientation process 248 Chapter 16: Engaging and Retaining Your Talent 249 Conducting Engagement Survey Action Planning 249 Considering the conventional approach to engagement action planning 250 Leading with your EVP 251 Leading from the top 254 Ongoing Engagement and Retention Processes 255 Conducting team briefings 255 Engaging in key people-management conversations 256 Identifying and responding to retention risks 257 Establishing an early-warning system 258 Maintaining Attraction and Engagement in the Midst of Organizational Change 260 Navigating a reorganization 260 Smoothing the transition during an acquisition 261 Rebranding a merger of equals 261 Part 5: Measuring the Success of Your Employer Branding Strategy 263 Chapter 17: Gauging Your Immediate Impact on Audience Engagement and Hiring 265 Linking Recruitment Marketing Activities to Objectives 266 Measuring the Effectiveness of Recruitment Advertising 267 Advertising costs 267 Audience exposure 268 Engagement 268 Source of application and source of hire 268 Analyzing the effectiveness of recruitment advertising 269 Measuring the Effectiveness of Social Campaigns 269 Social media costs 270 Audience exposure 270 Engagement 270 Source of application, source of hire, and source of influence 271 Using the results of your analysis to enhance your recruitment marketing 272 Measuring the Effectiveness of Career Site Content 272 Career site costs 273 Audience exposure 273 Engagement 274 Source of application and source of hire 274 Improving career site effectiveness through analysis 275 Measuring Referral Effectiveness 275 Referral costs 275 Audience exposure 276 Engagement 276 Source of application and source of hire 276 Improving referral effectiveness through analysis 277 Analyzing Your Overall Recruitment Marketing Strategy Success 277 Calculating cost-per-hire 278 Measuring success in terms of quality applicants and hires 279 Comparing your results to external benchmarks 280 Chapter 18: Monitoring and Maintaining Long-Term Impact on Employer Brand Value 281 Tracking Employer Brand Awareness and Reputation 282 Measuring improvements in brand awareness, consideration, and preference 282 Examining conversion ratios 285 Conducting employer brand image surveys 285 Drawing conclusions from external brand tracking 287 Tracking the Internal Impact of Your Employer Brand Strategy 289 Evaluating employee engagement 289 Tracking your employer brand experience 290 Evaluating the candidate experience 292 Assessing the onboarding experience 294 Evaluating employer branding’s impact on employee performance 294 Analyzing Your Employer Brand Index 296 Keeping Pace with Talent Market Trends 297 Part 6: The Part of Tens 301 Chapter 19: Ten Success Factors to Embrace 303 Getting Your Leadership Team’s Buy-In 303 Bridging the Gap between HR and Marketing 304 Sizing Up Your Company’s Talent Needs 305 Defining a Clear and Compelling Employer Value Proposition 305 Building Flexibility into the Framework 306 Getting Current Employees Onboard First 306 Making the Most of Social Media 307 Keeping an Eye on Your Competition 307 Getting into the Right Shape for Talent 308 Investing in Metrics 308 Chapter 20: Ten Common Mistakes to Avoid 311 Treating Employer Branding as a Project 311 Failing to Focus 312 Promising the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars 312 Playing It Too Safe: Corporate Bland or Industry Generic 313 Getting Obsessed with the Tagline 314 Over-Policing Your Local Teams 314 Underestimating the Resources Required to Create Quality Content 315 Forgetting to Connect Communication with Experience 315 Turning Off Your Brand Investment When the Going Gets Tough 316 Failing to Learn from Experience 317 Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Minimize Cost and Maximize Impact 319 Building More Talent Than You Buy 320 Maximizing Referrals 320 Hiring Above-Average Talent for an Average Wage 320 Targeting Efforts to Attract Fewer, But Higher-Quality Candidates 321 Focusing Your Creative Spend 321 Shifting from Paid to Owned and Earned Media 322 Localizing Content Creation 322 Encouraging Employee-Generated Content 323 Creating Your Own Talent Pools 323 Learning from Failure and Building on Success 324 Index 325