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David
Lee
Consultant
Speaker
Author |
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For
More Information:
David Lee, Principal
HumanNature@Work
P.O. Box 430
Bar Mills, Maine 04004
Tel: 207-929-3344
E-mail: info@HumanNatureAtWork.com |
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AR
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The
True Power of a Magnetic Employer Brand ™ |
| By
David Lee |
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| Reprinted
from ERExchange.com |
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Whether or not Employer
Branding becomes yet another flavor of
the month fad depends in large part on
whether it is seen as a technique for luring
talented people through the door, or whether
it is seen as a comprehensive, integrated
approach to, first, being an Employer of
Choice, and then communicating this in
a compelling way. Companies who get this
are exponentially more effective at recruiting
talent. Their Employer Brand acts like
a powerful Talent Magnet. Having this kind
of an Employer Brand is like the organizational
equivalent of having a magnetic personality.
Who you are draws others to you. Having
a Magnetic Employer Brand™ draws
the best of the best to you.
The following hypothetical example illustrates
the power of a Magnetic Employer Brand™.
Imagine that at the next job fair, your
organization’s recruiting booth was
staffed not by trained recruiters, but
by a random selection of your employees.
As job hunters stop to talk with your employees,
would they think: “Wow, I’d
like to work with these people!” and “This
is the kind of company I’ve been
looking for!” or would they escape
as quickly as possible, hurrying off to
the next booth? Would what your employees
said, and who they were as people, act
as a Talent Magnet or a Talent Repellent?
When I present this scenario to groups
of managers and HR professionals, some
blanch at this possibility, some squirm,
and some smile confidently. If your response
falls into the first two categories, you
know you don’t have a Magnetic Employer
Brand™. I see this scenario as a
litmus test for whether or not you have
a Magnetic Employer Brand™, because
it illustrates the defining characteristics
and benefits of a powerful Employer Brand. |
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The Power of A Magnetic
Employer Brand™ |
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You Recruit From a Position
of Strength
You know you have a Magnetic Employer Brand ™ when
your reputation in the marketplace and
in the labor market is such that you don’t
have to spend your time trying to convince
people why they should work for you. People
already know what a great company you are
both in the marketplace and as an employer.
At our hypothetical job fair, if your organization
has a Magnetic Employer Brand™, the
most talented prospects will make a beeline
for your booth. Unlike organizations who
have either a poor reputation as an employer
or who haven’t differentiated themselves,
your conversation doesn’t need to
be a sales pitch.
Your Recruiting Power Increases Exponentially
When you have a Magnetic Employer Brand™,
recruiting isn’t limited by the size
and budget of your recruiting department.
When you have a Magnetic Employer Brand™,
you turn your whole workforce into a tribe
of headhunters. I believe this is the most
under recognized benefit of creating a
compelling Employer Brand: it unleashes
the recruiting potential lying dormant
in your workforce. Although to some extent,
monetary rewards will motivate employees
to refer friends and colleagues, they only
become evangelical in spreading the word
when they feel passionate about their employer.
Think about your behavior as a customer.
You’re far more likely to tell others
about your customer service experience
if you were “wowed”, than if
you were simply satisfied. First, if your
experience was merely acceptable, there’s
no interesting story to tell, there’s
nothing to talk about. Second, when you’re
treated to exceptional service, you want
others to experience it, too. Similarly,
employees are far more likely to tell others
about their employer if they’re wowed
by a work experience far superior to any
other they’ve had. This is why the
foundation of a great Magnetic Employer
Brand™ is delivering an exceptional
work experience. If you don’t have
that, your employees have nothing good
to talk about, and no sincere desire to
bring others into the fold.
Your Employees Have a Coherent, Compelling
Message To Spread
A strong brand requires coherency in the
message. Good brand managers carefully
scrutinize the various messages, associations,
and experiences their brand delivers to
make sure they don’t send conflicting
messages. For instance, if Coca Cola® started
emphasizing the health benefits of drinking
plenty of fluids and how Coca Cola® helps
you do that, such a campaign would confuse
and weaken the brand message they’ve
invested in over the years: the message
that people should buy Coke® because
it’s a fun, tasty beverage; because
it’s “the real thing.”
When you have a Magnetic Employer Brand™,
everyone in your organization is “on
message” because they know what you’re
about, why you’re great, and the
stories that convey this message. This
is one of the reasons why it is so important
for employees to have a big picture view
of your organization. To be effective recruiters,
they need to be able to tell others about
your organization’s mission, vision,
and distinctive values. This doesn’t
happen by accident. Southwest Airlines
is a great example of a company that has
consciously communicated over the years
to employees about who they are and why
they’re a great company. Not only
does it inspire employees and strengthen
their culture – and therefore their
Employer Brand - it helps employees do
a better job telling others about why Southwest
is such a great employer.
You Unleash the Brand Building Power of
Story-Telling
Great brands are a collage of great stories,
stories about experiences people have had
with that brand. Companies with a strong
Employer Brand have a set of defining stories
that capture the essence of who they are
and what they are like as an employer.
For instance, one of the defining stories
about Tom’s of Maine as an employer
involves a frontline worker who came up
with an innovative packaging idea. This
Kennebunk, Maine producer of all natural
personal care and health products had an
item that was languishing on retail shelves.
Employees were alerted to the dilemma.
A frontline worker presented the marketing
department with a packaging design idea
that enabled them to provide more information
about the product’s benefits, use
less packaging (an important Tom’s
of Maine value), give the consumer more
product for the same cost (reflecting a
commitment to providing value to the customer),
and use less shelf space per package (critical
in retail). The result? Sales doubled.
This story tells a lot about who the company
is and how employees are perceived. It
is also far more memorable – and
believable - than simply saying “We
value our employees” or “If
you work here, your ideas and input will
matter.” By collecting and sharing
stories that capture what’s great
about your organization, you enable your
employees to communicate to others in a
more compelling way, thus increasing the
recruiting power of your workforce.
Your Employees Themselves Become Talent
Magnets
When you have a strong Employer Brand,
your employees are your best recruiters
not only because they tell great stories
about your organization, but because they
also embody your company’s unique
spirit and value-set. They themselves become
walking talking Talent Magnets. They become
brand and culture strengthening forces,
because they attract people who resonate
with your organization’s vision,
values, and culture.
Employees become brand messengers by experiencing
your Employer Brand in action. They absorb
it experientially by working in an environment
where your vision, values, and culture
are reflected in everyday work life. They
also learn it overtly, through the telling
and retelling of Employer Brand defining
stories in orientation, training programs
and coaching interactions. They also learn
it overtly when your mission, vision, and
values become an explicit part of making
operational, customer service, and marketing
decisions.
Having a workforce that embodies your brand
also comes from holding people accountable
for delivering on your Employer Brand promises.
Without this conscious effort at strengthening
your culture - and therefore your Employer
Brand – you will have some employees
who are inspiring messengers, some who
leave no impact, and others who are Talent
Repellents. As mentioned previously, lack
of coherency and consistency weakens an
Employer Brand. Just as hearing conflicting
messages weakens a brand, so does encountering
brand representatives who demonstrate conflicting
ways of being. It would be like the Ritz
Carlton allowing some of their hotels to
be staffed by morose, self-absorbed people.
It wouldn’t take many customer interactions
with these employees to damage their brand.
Creating an environment that elicits brand
strengthening behavior in employees doesn’t
happen by accident. It requires ongoing
communication, coaching, training, and
accountability.
You Create a Self-Reinforcing Talent Magnet
Success Cycle
When you have a Magnetic Employer Brand ™,
your cachet attracts “A” employees – the
kind of people other “A” employees
want to work with. Thus, your Employer
Brand, recruiting process, and culture
create a self-reinforcing Talent Magnet
success cycle that continually increases
your ability to attract and retain the
best employees.
“
A” employees are also more likely
to know other “A” employees,
further increasing the recruiting power
of your Employee Referral Program. Not
only does this give you a huge competitive
advantage, it also makes your managers’ lives
easier. Because you have a higher quality
talent pool to draw from, you can “hire
hard” and “manage easy.” Rather
than taking any warm body that slouches
through the door and then micromanaging
them to keep them from wreaking havoc,
you can afford to be rigorous in your hiring
process and then give your employees room
to move. Such self-motivated, low maintenance
employees are possible if you have a strong
Employer Brand. |
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You
Can’t Have the Benefits Without
the Foundation
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To Enjoy These Benefits,
You Can’t Just Talk the Talk
If you want to enjoy the recruiting power of a Magnetic Employer Brand™,
if you want your employees to be rabid recruiters, you need to deliver
on your Employer Brand promise. As you can see from the above benefits
of a Magnetic Employer Brand™, they’re all predicated on delivering
a great work experience.
This is where many, if not most, organizations drop the ball. They think
of Employer Branding as the process of creating a better sales pitch. Developing
a Magnetic Employer Brand™ is far more than just making sure your
ads, radio spots, internet postings, and recruiting booth presentations
work synergistically. It’s far more than a marketing make-over. If
you don’t actually do the great things you say about your company,
you don’t have a brand, you have a recipe for high turnover. Thus,
creating a Magnetic Employer Brand™ requires that your management
team look honestly at themselves and your organization’s daily operations
and ask “Do we really deliver a great work experience… or even
a good one?” It requires asking this question not only in a self-reflective
way, but more importantly, asking your employees.
I believe, based on my experience conducting employee focus groups, that
many of the day to day experiences that drive a wedge between employees
and management go unnoticed by management because employees don’t
speak up. They remain silent because they don’t want to be seen as
a whiner or get the dreaded label of “not being a team player.” So
instead, they just grin and bear it, while growing increasingly more disengaged
- and becoming increasingly less likely to refer someone for employment.
To counteract this, you need to put in place processes that invite employee
feedback, and communicate that giving “customer feedback” to
management is appreciated and important.
The First Step Toward Unleashing The Power of Your Magnetic Employer Brand™
If you do the work required to develop a Magnetic Employer Brand™,
you will dramatically increase your ability to recruit talented people,
both because you’re able to attract them (rather than always having
to sell to them), and because you unleash the recruiting power of your
workforce. Developing such a powerful brand requires more – far more – than
crafting a great image. It requires that you do the hard work it takes
to create a great work experience. If you are willing to do that, you get
to enjoy the tremendous recruiting power a Magnetic Employer Brand™ will
provide you. |
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About the Author: David Lee is an internationally recognized authority on organizational and managerial practices that optimize employee performance. He is the author of Managing Employee Stress and Safety, as well as dozens of articles on employee and organizational performance that have been published in trade journals and books in North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. For information on his programs and service, click here.
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