Sep 23, 2013 | Blog

Employer Branding and the Brand Police

Acquire the Right Talent

As someone who has worked at the intersection of recruiting and marketing for many years, I find the evolution of employer branding fascinating.  The companies who are at the leading edge of employer branding (and I believe that SuccessFactors is one of them), have accomplished a master feat of collaboration with the corporate branding team (aka the ‘brand police’). 

 

We all know that companies with strong brands have a real and valid need to protect the essence of the brand like a dog protects a bone. But in today’s world of social media, holding too tight can backfire, and not marrying the corporate and employer brand is a missed opportunity.

 

In the old days, it was assumed that a love for the brand and the products would imply a love for a career at the company.  But it turned out that everyone who loves to shop at the Gap may not make the perfect employee.  It is better to project an employment brand which is realistic that will attract the right kind of candidates, while staying true to the corporate brand. 

 

Our own recruiting strategy team has done an amazing job of this with videos of real employees surrounded by our brand, talking about what it’s really like to work here.  You can see a great example of this on our Facebook careers page.

 

Here are a few tips I’ve learned from our crackerjack recruiting strategy team (headed by our own Will Staney) about employment branding:

  • Don’t be afraid of the brand police, but it may take some time to build a bridge to them – you need to show them that you are amplifying the brand, and not diluting it
  • If candidates find out what it’s like to work here and they choose not to apply, this is a good thing!
  • Staying true to the brand means staying consistent across all your channels – your own career site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., by using the type of content the channel was designed for
  • Source where your brand is. If people ‘like’ your brand – be sure they can easily find your jobs and you can easily find them
  • Don’t be afraid to try new things.  Instagram for recruiting?  We’ll see if it works!
  • Analyze what’s working and what isn’t.  Our team is constantly measuring success with our own advanced analytics.  Your instincts are not good enough – test and confirm!

 

Want to hear more from a thought leader on the subject? 

 

Join Bryan Chaney -  global talent branding and attraction strategist and employer branding expert  -  for a discussion of the best way to attract and engage the modern workforce find more information here.

 

Adrienne Whitten is the Director of Product Marketing at SuccessFactors, within the cloud division of SAP. She has been designing and marketing software and writing about best practices in the recruiting and talent management software industry for more than 15 years, with roles in product marketing and product management for SuccessFactors, HotJobs/Resumix, Taleo, and Saba.