11 Employer branding best practices to focus on in 2011

Readers: The BRANDEblog came across this excellent article by Brett Minchington, and found it so insightful and rich in content, we have reprinted it in it's entirety, including the tree. Of course we had to change the s in organization. ; )

Thanks Brett

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I've compiled a list below I wanted to share with you. The list includes 11 areas for leaders to focus their employer branding efforts on in 2011 based on some of the workforce changes we have encountered this year by the introduction of new technologies, global economic instability and the requirements of a modern workforce - one that is agile, adaptable and responsive to a constantly changing and highly competitive landscape.

It's great to see many more companies appointing employer brand leaders in 2010 to drive their organisation's employer brand strategy. I expect this trend to continue in 2011.

It is only with this focus will we see the continued evolution of the employer brand concept and employment offerings which on the whole, works towards achieving a much better match of the needs of employees with those of business.

Here is my top 11

1) Establish a real-time career development for employees

Today real-time career development can be facilitated with some imagination, technology devices, innovation and focus.

Each morning when I wake up, I grab an expresso, my Ipad and find a quiet spot whether it be on the couch (winter) or on an outside table (summer!) and spend an hour on my own personal and career development. This usually involves:

• Checking facebook, twitter and linkedin status updates, making comments and responding to overnight messages


• Using the apps previously downloaded from publications such as New York Times, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, etc I scan the world’s leading newspapers to find out what’s been happening in the world whilst I've been asleep!


• Read an article each from the latest editions of The Economist and Harvard Business Review


• Scan google alerts for key words I track such as employer branding, employment branding, talent management, employee engagement, etc


• Read apps from websites such as www.mashable.com, www.socialmediaexaminer.com, www.techcrunch.com, etc to update on social media and technology trends

and once a month I visit the world’s leading consulting firm's websites to download and read their latest research and statistics.

So, in early 2011 take an hour to speak with your employees and assist them to develop a real-time career development plan. This may include coaching them to develop a plan that tracks their career development interests, current job function responsibilities and personal development interests (if it’s just work related people will switch off, many employees want a blended life so if you mix it up a little you will keep it interesting). Don’t complain too much about the $600 it will cost you for their iPad, you’ll get a ROI many times over.

2) Have that meeting with HR, Marketing, Communications and IT!

It’s no longer efficient or effective to develop and implement an employer brand strategy solely with HR resources and budget. Your employer brand is interconnected with your corporate and consumer brand and the total portfolio needs to be considered if you really want to build an adaptable and agile employer brand. Think about how your organisation would react if faced with the situation BP found itself in when one of its wells starting leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year. Is the level of communication and connectedness between those managing your corporate, consumer and employer brand high enough to react quickly and effectively to structural changes (e.g. announcement of company layoffs), market changes (e.g. the GFC) or in times of crisis (e.g. social media sabbotage)?

In 2011 schedule a two hour meeting with leaders from HR, Marketing, Communications and IT and have a discussion around these agenda items – it will start the conversation and provide for some good discussion on where to go next. Some of the questions that may be useful include:

• How will a stronger employer brand support our business strategy e.g. mergers and acquisitions, growth, consolidation?


• What are the main factors currently driving our employer brand?


• What kind of organisational culture do we have? How consistent is it across geographical and divisional boundaries?


• What are the most consistently attractive and compelling organisational attributes for both current employees and potential employees?


• What behaviours are felt to be most characteristic of our organisation? What are the moments of truth when our organisation is at its best (and worse?)


• What is the most useful way of segmenting the employee population in terms of cultural characteristics and distinctive needs?


• What are the most effective channels of employee communication, both top/down and bottom/up?


• Which positions are most critical to our success and what are we currently doing/need to do to attract, engage and retain this talent?


• What levels of resources are we prepared to invest in our employer brand strategy?


• What timeframe will we be working towards to define and develop our employer brand strategy?

3) Assess your employer branding performance against best practice

Take this quick assessment to see how your employer branding initiatives measure up against best practice companies. Answer yes of no to each question and then total your score out of 20.

1. We have developed an employer brand strategy


2. We have developed a social media strategy


3. We have at least two of the following working closely on our employer brand strategy – HR/Marketing/Communications/IT


4. Alignment to brand values is part of our performance management system


5. We have an active coaching and mentoring program in place to transfer knowledge and build internal capabilities


6. We have defined our employer brand metrics


7. We have conducted research to determine the perception current employees have about our company


8. We have conducted research to determine the perceptions prospective employees have about our company


9. We monitor what people are saying about our brand online


10. We have identified the leadership competencies we aspire employees at all levels to have


11. We have created a database of talented employees who we would like to hire when the time is right


12. We have a dedicated careers section on our corporate website


13. Managers have access to a leadership development program


14. We have defined our employer value propositions (EVPs)


15. We have reviewed our EVP’s in light of the Global Financial Crisis


16. We have an active employee referral program which we promote to staff and external stakeholders


17. We conduct an employee engagement, satisfaction and/or climate survey at least once per year


18. We participate in an external annual best employers and/or employer of choice survey


19. Each staff member has a documented career development plan that is reviewed at least annually


20. We use an IT system to automate our recruitment process and rank candidates against weighted criteria

How did you rate?

0-5 We are in the very early stages

6-12 We have made a start

13-17 We just need some fine tuning

18-20 We are up there with the best

4) Review and update your employer value proposition (EVP) communication assets

When was the last time you review your EVP communication assets, how long ago were they developed? Make it a project to review all your internal and external EVP communication tools and ask the following questions:

• Does our employer value proposition clearly reflect the current employment experience?


• How inspiring is our welcome pack for new hires? How does it differentiate our employment offering?


• Can we deliver on what we are promising in our recruitment communication efforts?


• How effective is our social media strategy – are we engaging with our communities or are we merely broadcasting about our products and services?


• If I was looking for a job how inspired would I be by what our company is communicating and how consistent is the messaging


• How well do our communication assets flow from text – images – audio – video?


• How authentic is our messaging?


• How do we feel about the tone, style and imagery we are using in our communications?

Based on the outcomes of your review schedule a project in 2011 to update your communication assets across key offline and online touchpoints.

5) Learn from best practice employer brand companies

Study and learn from companies who are leading the way in employer branding including Google, IBM, Starbucks, Sodexo, SAS, Singapore Airlines, Deloitte, McKinsey, etc there are many but these are some good companies to observe and learn from - for starters!. Don't just study companies in your own industry - you'll find companies outside your industry a great source of innovation for employer branding best practice. Companies in the oil and gas industry companies such as Chevron, Schlumberger and Shell are good companies to follow as are the major players in the banking and finance industry such as Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs. They all invest in employer branding!

Companies to watch in 2011 include Research in Motion (RIM), UnitedHealth Group and Adidas. Each company's employer branding programs are headed up by world leading employer brand practitioners Kat Drum (RIM), Health Polivka (United Health Group) and Steve Fogarty (Adidas). I can assure you if you have the right type of leader in charge of your employer brand strategy you will go far!

6) Assess the employee lifecycle

click on image below to enlarge employee lifecycle map



Have your business unit leaders assess the employee lifecycle in their function to assess how well it adds value to an inspiring employment experience and one that adds, not distracts from engagement and retention efforts?

Employees at your company will transition through different stages of the employee’s lifecycle depending on factors such as age, education, experience, living arrangements, marital status, etc. It is important to understand how important these 'moments of truths' are to employees and to realise which ones if not handled well, can be deal breakers and result in employees seeking another place to work whilst being unconsciously unproductive in their current role. It is important to make adjustments based on observation and feedback from employees.

7) Develop social media capabilities and appoint some social media Rockstars to engage with your community real-time

If you haven't already started, 2011 is the year to train employees in how to use and leverage social media to support branding efforts. Global food service group, Sodexo have experienced a significant rise global brand awareness over the past two years through their ability to develop a social media sharing culture within their organisation. It won't happen just because your company has a facebook page or twitter profile, employees need to be trained across the company to ensure your initiatives are aligned with your brand strategy. To identify your social media Rockstars you may need to conduct some influencer studies to determine where your most connected, active and influential social media participants in your organisation are. I like to follow Kerry Noone from Sodexo.

8) Write a book!

Write a book about your employment practices and use it as an EVP communications tool for all stakeholders. In 2008 I was inspired by a book I read about the mentoring practices at Essar, a multinational conglomerate corporation in the sectors of steel, energy, power, communications, shipping ports and logistics as well as construction headquartered at Mumbai, India. Over a 12 month period the HR Manager had compiled a book on the company’s mentoring practices and included insights from leaders and employees across the organisation. Whilst the publication took a while to write, it will provide a lifetime of value for Essar. It has also been an excellent tool to build internal engagement as employees were involved in the development of the product and distribution of it on its release. So find a topic, write about it and share it with stakeholders!

9) Connect your employees on the inside!

How often do we see the ‘wheel being re-invented inside organisations because there is no way to track what has been developed previously and if it has, it’s usually outdated or too hard to find. IBM have had some great success in this area by establishing an internal social networking tool, 'Beehive' which has allowed employees across the world to make new connections, share knowledge and capabilities and to advance their career. Connected employees will lead to higher levels of communication and trust between employees across the enterprise and is becoming more important in today's increasingly dispersed workforces.

10) Leaders - slow down! and coach, mentor and share your knowledge and experiences with middle managers to enrich your talent pipelines, increase trust and developed capabilities

Too many of today's leaders are too busy to spend quality time coaching and mentoring or even just communicating with team members due to shorter deadlines, increasing workloads and longer working hours.

Before they know it, they’re burnt out, fail to take holidays and disconnect from the very people who can assist them, their staff. This leads to higher levels of disengagement which is an all too common output in organizations around the world today. For the first time in a decade, research from the Hewitt Global Engagement database shows the percentage of organizations with decreasing engagement now exceeds the percentage with increasing engagement. This is a disturbing statistic!

11) Build employer brand awareness, knowledge, skills and capabilities

Most of time employees don’t buy into your vision to develop and implement an employer brand strategy because they lack the skills and capabilities to do so. Employer branding is an emerging field in many economies so take the time to build awareness, knowledge, skill and capabilities within your organization.

Google Cools—Not Cool.

Image courtesy of WSJ Online

As readers of the BRANDEblog might remember, almost exactly two years ago I started worrying about Google. Though the employer brand was hot from desirability POV, the stock was tanking, free food was history and their new CFO was a Six Sigma black belt.

http://brandemixblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/good-brand-and-ugly-employer-brand-vs.html

Now the stock is almost double what it was, and last week Eric Schmidt announced raises AND bonuses all around for it’s 23,000 employees.

But what’s behind the seemingly good news is the hidden truth—from a talent perspective, Google isn’t cool.

This from CNN: “ it probably isn't enough to keep Google's brightest and most entrepreneurial employees from eyeing the lucrative stock options that await them at riskier startups.”

This from the WSJ: “Google Inc. is fighting off Facebook Inc. and other fast-growing Internet firms that are poaching its staff, a reversal for a company that has long been one of Silicon Valley's hottest job destinations. “

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are hot- a.k.a. not public, and talented techies want challenge- a.k.a pre- IPO stock.

Google has become the stable choice for Silicon Valley hotshots. And that stability has a whopping price tag.

According to last week’s Tech Crunch “We’ve confirmed today that a staff engineer at Google being heavily romanced by Facebook was offered a jaw dropping $3.5 million in restricted stock by Google (this means Google is handing over stock worth $3.5 million based on its value today, and that stock will vest over time). He quite wisely accepted Google’s counter offer. Facebook lost this one.”

From a distance, I watch and wonder about the durability of Google’s employer brand- maybe it’s time to re-build the brand architecture.

Somewhere Bill Gates must be laughing.

5 Most Engaged Brands in Social Media

Friends of BRANDEMiX,

While typically BRANDEblog writes original content, I thought this was a great article about the 5 most engaged brands in Social Media.
That and it's Halloween and candy is calling.

Before you read further, see if you can guess the top 5 social brands. I was surprised by at least 1 who made the list.
--------------- Happy Reading ----------------------

The Social Media for Business Leaders Series is supported by The Awareness Social Marketing Hub, an enterprise-grade application for marketers who manage multiple social channels. Learn more here.

Engaging in social media is about being extremely open, creative and flexible. To stay competitive online, brands need to be investing in social media as a way to extend themselves to their customers.

While advertising and cultivating an image are still important, it’s interaction that creates loyal customers. Using social media to show customers that your business is connected to what they say, think and feel about your products can amplify your brand’s message.

We’ve compiled a list of five big brands that are most engaged in social media, and that go to extensive lengths to connect with consumers. Add your own thoughts on which brands are ahead of the curve in the comments below.

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1. Starbucks

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Starbucks is on just about every corner in the real world, and that’s the same strategy the company has taken online as well. When it comes to a web presence, Starbucks has made its mark on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare, mobile apps and with its own social network, My Starbucks Ideas. The company dominates the social media landscape, creating active and engaging profiles on a variety of platforms. And according to some reports, Starbucks is the most engaged brand using social media for a few years running.

Take a quick look at the coffee giant’s Twitter page, and you’ll see the company has just more than 1 million followers. The next thing you’ll notice is that there’s a lot of conversation going on. Starbucks is keeping busy responding to mentions, apologizing for bad experiences, and just carrying on some interesting conversations with its followers.

Meanwhile on Facebook, more than 15 million people “Like” the brand. And Starbucks is trying to make buying its product as integrated and seamless as possible. Take, for example, the Starbucks Card Facebook application it introduced this past April, which allows customers to manage their Starbucks Card accounts from within the social network. The company also recently announced that customers could now “Give a Gift” and credit their friends’ cards via Facebook, too.

That feature is an idea born out of their community site, My Starbucks Idea. The Seattle-based caffeine king wants to know what you want from Starbucks, and the company is listening. The site enables consumers to share their ideas and critique others’ ideas as well. Discussions are encouraged, and the community votes to see which ideas become reality. The “Give a Gift” idea was suggested back in 2008, and drew more than 42,000 votes. It may have taken some time for the idea to become a reality, but it shows that Starbucks is listening to its customers.

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2. Coca-Cola

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As one of the most universally recognized brands, it’s not surprising that Coca-Cola is the second most engaged brand according to Famecount. Just like Starbucks, Coke is active on Twitter, engaging in conversation with its 142,000 followers. Given that it has a worldwide following, it’s appropriate that many of the tweets are written in different languages. In addition to its overarching brand, each drink it produces also has its own Twitter page.

On Facebook, it’s somewhat astounding that 15 million people “Like” the soft drink empire, but the company has done a good job of keeping things interesting and interactive. The Page is a hub of all sorts of activity, including posting fan photos, videos and social good initiatives like Live Positively, where fans voted for America’s favorite park to receive a $100,000 grant.

On Coca-Cola’s YouTube channel, the soda company launched “Unlock The Secret,” a viral video campaign featuring Coke’s inventor, Doc Pemberton. By clicking on bottle links in the videos, viewers are taken to the @docpemberton Twitter page, Coke’s Ahh Giver app on Facebook (which allows users to send a message to a friend delivered in video format by the Coke polar bear), and Coke’s Smilezier, a novel feature that allows users to record their laughter and listen to other people’s as well.

All of these efforts tie together Coca-Cola’s brand of happiness, and it’s created an interesting and original experience while engaging with consumers online.

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3. Oreo

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Oreo is the third most engaged brand according to Famecount, and for a brand that’s been around since 1912, racking up 12 million “Likes” on Facebook is a great way to prove that good products have real staying power.

For Kraft, makers of the delicious black and white cookie, Facebook outreach has been the main strategy. While other brands are engaged across the board, Oreo hasn’t leveraged Twitter at all yet.

The Oreo Facebook Page is a place to find recipes, videos, photos of fans enjoying the cookie, and games like Twist To Win for a chance to meet the Double Stuf Racing League (Shaquille O’Neal, Apolo Ohno, Eli Manning and Venus Williams).

The DSRL’s videos are the main focus on Oreo’s YouTube channel, including interviews with the athletes, commercials, and behind-the-scenes footage.

Check out Kraft Foods’ digital and social marketing lead Beth Reilly speaking on “how Oreo learned to fish where the fish are” in the video below.

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4. Skittles

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Skittles has an amazing online presence, starting with its website — a vibrant landing page that invites you to “Experience The Rainbow” by interacting with various features throughout the on-site experience. Users have opportunities to vote and post photos and videos while interacting with content. Keeping with the community theme on another site, Share Skittles is the place where YouTube videos of fans eating Skittles are posted.

While Skittles hasn’t quite figured out how to leverage Twitter, logging little more than 6,000 followers and producing some really weird tweets, more than 12 million “Likes” show they managed to figured out how to make use of Facebook.

The “Mob The Rainbow” feature was an innovative effort that strove to bring fans together to create something big. The first mob was a massive outpouring of Valentine’s Day greetings to a person who doesn’t get much love: a parking enforcement officer. Fans were asked to either make a card on the site or get the address and send one on their own — 43,037 cards were sent. Since the launch of Mob The Rainbow last year, fans have completed three mobs, with plans for a fourth one to “crash” an 85-year-old grandmother’s birthday party. It’s a brilliant way to engage the company’s audience with social good and keep its quirky image alive.

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5. Red Bull

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Red Bull is a brand that is associated with procrastination and the need for energy — last-minute studying, late-night partying, early morning meetings or classes, and the ability to keep you awake at almost any hour of the day.

With social media, though, the Austrian company has something more to offer than salvation from long work days and early morning grumpiness. With more than 10 million “Likes” on Facebook, it offers a really cool and interactive Facebook Page that appeals to the brand’s core consumer.

The Procrastination Station, featured on its Games page, offers high quality, engaging and interactive options for procrastinators, including a soapbox car racing game, a rock, paper, scissors game, and “Drunkish Dials” recordings — recordings of Red Bull drinkers who called the company’s toll free number, leaving “drunkish” messages. Yep, that’s what happens if you leave them a ridiculous drunken message — they’ll put it online.

Plus, they’ve run creative contests like 2009’s Red Bull Stash, where the company hid Energy Shots all over the country and posted clues on its Facebook wall. It was the company’s way of thanking fans when it hit the 1 million fan mark. Currently, the company has teamed up with San Francisco Giants player Tim Lincecum to create an ongoing scavenger hunt for 11 autographed baseballs hidden on the streets of San Fran. A picture of each baseball has been uploaded at a specific location and the first fan to arrive and check in with Facebook Places and the password “San Francisco’s Got Wings” wins the coveted ball.

The company has also done an impressive job on the mobile front with the Red Bull X-Fighters app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the Red Bull TV app, and the Red Bull BPM app that turns your iPhone into a complete DJ setup. All these apps are great extensions of the brand’s core product, and complementing the consumer’s lifestyle goes a long way.

A Lesson from The Gap: The Social Contract is a 2-way Street

Every company wants brand loyal customers, but this level of commitment requires the same degree of loyalty in return. Consumers value interactive experiences, one “Like” on a corporate Facebook Page can spread as virally among users as trending Twitter topics.

This was certainly the case when Gap recently unveiled its modern logo re-design. The sudden appearance of the new logo on the company’s website caused virtual uproar among graphic designers and Gap-loyal customers alike. Social media sites especially fueled the debate, giving outraged consumers a place to rant about the company’s unsophisticated, cheap new look. The innuendo of the former blue box, now a small gradient in the upper right-hand corner, arguably lacked the power, boldness, and tradition of Gap’s original look, and many felt the logo resembled the recently redesigned Price WaterHouse Coopers' new look.

In fact, Gap got so much pressure from the community that they quickly reverted back to the old one with this notice on Facebook:

Gap: Ok. We’ve heard loud and clear that you don’t like the new logo. We’ve learned a lot from the feedback. We only want what’s best for the brand and our customers. So instead of crowd sourcing, we’re bringing back the Blue Box tonight." http://bit.ly/9xvtvJ

and more: “At Gap brand, our customers have always come first."

The Gap presents a great case study of cultivating relationships through social media. Companies who value their employees can learn a great lesson from this example. The social contract is a 2-way street, and companies who listen and act on customer or employee feedback across any channel will build a concrete brand and an unbreakable bond within their target communities.

Planning Your Talent Acquisition Strategy. Are Pigs the New Cats?

With a growing abundance of vendors and options to choose from, mapping an appropriate talent acquisition strategy can be tricky. But BRANDEblog readers are in luck.

Trendwatching.com was kind enough to provide some tips for trend-tracking this month and some of the tidbits have great applications for HR as well.
1. Don't apply all trends to all people.
"One massive mistake both trend watchers and brands make all the time, is to assume or pretend that a certain consumer trend will affect or be embraced by all consumers. " Replace the word "consumers" with "job seekers" and you'll get the hidden message. Can we all stop tweeting yet?

2. Be (very) curious.
"while we're all set in our own ways, and we have our strict beliefs about what is right and what is wrong, closely observing instead of judging the world around you is tantamount to success." Launch research, do surveys, have focus groups. Knowledge is power and if you don't believe in "post & pray" methodology, find out what's working in your market, in your industry and around your world.

3. "Let others do some of the work for you in 2011"
"YOU DO NOT HAVE TIME TO DO ALL OF THE ABOVE YOURSELF. .. let professionals do part of the work for you, even if it's just to help you hit the ground running. We couldn't agree more. As long as there exists great partners to help you plan strategies, facilitate research and implement campaigns, you should take advantage of their talents on your behalf.

So what about the pigs?
A last bit of advice- If you can't tell difference between fads and trends, we know a purr-fect partner.

Your Content is Never As Interesting as What's On Your User's Mind

Here's a tip for all of you in the Employee Communications space. It's from Ryan Travis, Senior Manager, web and digital communications at Walmart. In this great interview from The Council of Communication Management conference, he shares Walmart's strategy for communicating with Associates across their exclusive internal social community myWalmart.com.

Walmart found out that the way they were communicating was not in line with the way associates process information. They found that associates think of themselves first, their peers second and the customer third. After that, they think of the store, the home office and then the company.

Now every conversation starts with the associate first and how everything affects the associate. Gone are the "Announcements" from senior executives. You know them... {company} is proud to announce... or {company} believes that...

Instead, Associates speak first about how issues affect them or the customers, and then Walmart inserts themselves into the conversation, adding how those same issues affect the store, the company and in many cases, the world.

It's a great step in learning, and a good lesson for building a brand from the bottom up. Don't talk about your brand and expect people to listen. Instead, create a dialogue with people who already share your same beliefs.

The Future of DIY Recruitment Advertising?

I admire the marketing savvy guys at Stevenson college for posting this DIY recruitment ad to You Tube. In less than 2 minutes, they were able to convey a bit of culture along with the candidate's 5 must-have's a experience-wise, and one value proposition- the opportunity to have a bit of fun on the job with seemingly nice folks.

Quite a nice departure from the typical 12+ bullets of boring requirements that appear in most job postings. Best of all, I found it as a mention in one of my LinkedIn groups, which means it's enjoying some modest viral success.

Having spent the past few days putting together a national recruitment strategy for a large national client, the simplicity of this strategy cheered me up. The ever-growing list of media, technology and social recruitment marketing options has fragmented our audiences and diluted our messages.

In our efforts to promote dialogue and engagement, content has left the building.

When newspapers charged almost $1 per character of text, we chose our words carefully. Although Twitter has brought the same consciousness to the digital world, the number of tweets is still endless. The more we receive, the less special it feels.

That's why, in building my branded media campaign, my goal is disruption. In the old days, it was the white space that stood out in a paper crowded with tiny text. Today, I'll call it white noise- a simple signal across multiple frequencies - a return to basics that's so true, it's arresting.

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Employee Retention in a Digital World

Employees join companies and leave managers. But how they leave is up to them. Conversations that were once shared with friends are now shared with friends, friends of friends and the world. And people, especially Gen Xers, discuss bad experiences almost 4x as much as good ones.

Here are 3 things you should be doing to make sure that your Employer Brand is thriving in a digital world:

1. Bi-directional communications: Make sure that you are creating listening opportunities from the bottom up. Provide safe ways for employees to discuss manager and co-worker issues.

2. Exit interviews: To ensure complete and accurate information, they should be conducted by a third party company, not someone on your staff.

3. Training: Add social media guidelines to your ethics and compliance training. Are employees blogging about the workplace or "friending" their vendors? Create policies and consequences.

4. Manage your digital reputation: Glass Door, Jobvent, Vault-- the tools are there. Make the time to use them, or get some help from the outside.

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BRANDEMiX is a B2E agency- we connect brands to people- your people - the one's you care about- the talented employees that advance your business goals. The competitors that you wish worked on your team. The engaged ambassadors of your brand who keep your customers coming back.




Employer Brand Development
Benefit Communications
Change Management Communications
Event Marketing and Support
Internal Communications
Interactive Marketing
Media Planning and Placement
Qualitative Research
Recruitment Advertising
Social Marketing
Training and e-Learning
Workforce Communications
Website Development

Going Trendy on The Web

Today’s trends continue to strut their virtual stuff on the web. Keeping up with the social, mobile, and design trends that are taking the world by storm could actually reel in more potential clients and better employees than you’d think. If you’re thinking of redesigning, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. DESIGN TO YOUR DEMO: For the younger demographic (ages 18-30), minimalism is in; for the "older" ones (ages 30+) simple eases the hassle of finding exactly what they’re looking for without having to be redirected to different places.

2. HI, MY NAME IS: If simple is too simple for your company, there is an alternative; make it personal! First impressions are the most important so why not make one as soon as surfers see your site? Now, this doesn’t mean you need a full page biography about you or your company. Separate microsites that speak to a demographic, geographic or psychographic is a great way to engage your audience.

3. ROY G. BIV: Color is very important to a website. According to Pamil-Visions.net, color can really influence an audience. “Brands should choose their corporate color carefully. (To read the whole article click here!)

4. APPLY YOURSELF: Almost all cell phones today have the option of buying and downloading apps. Creating your own app is a great way to keep your company “hip to the jive”. If you design it, they will download. (If you need help, click here!)

Don’t be scared to get out there and get trendy. It's easier than you think.

EMPLOYER VALUE PROPOSITIONS: Is it time for employers to switch from demands to offerings?

According to today’s Wall Street Journal, some firms are still struggling to hire despite high unemployment. While many of these firms seek hourly employees, and compete against extended unemployment benefits, others are looking for needles in haystacks. The more skilled the applicant, the more the business has to offer to them.

Looking to save some money? This is where the employer value propositions come in handy. In order for your business to attract (and keep) the best potential employees, here are some free things to keep in mind as you seek to influence behavior:

1. Quality of Leadership: The better your leadership in operating your company, the more attractive your business becomes because it’s successful. The more attractive your business is, the higher number of applications you will receive. The higher the number of applicants, the greater a chance of finding the perfect person for your company. Strong leadership is not only extremely beneficial to your company’s success, but it is also a big deciding factor for your future employees.

2. Reputation: With a good reputation comes the willingness for employees to work more for less. People want stability within their jobs and if you and your company can ensure security for potential candidates, your inbox will be flooded with talented people who will be fighting to work for you.

3. J.O.B: Just Offer the Best; the workspace is very important to an employee. If your employees aren’t comfortable with their environment, they’re less eager to do their job with the same quality and effort as if they were somewhere more pleasant.

4. Benefits and Rewards: Here is where you have to think like the employee and ask what about this company makes this the job right for me?” Whether its in the job description, brochure, or in the interview itself, if these questions should be answered without them having to ask; promote yourself!

What most employers don't realize is that a poorly promoted Employment Value Proposition (EVP) costs them a significant amount of money each year, either through overpaying employees, costs of recruiting or not filling open positions.

Let BRANDEMiX help put your EVP to work for you.

Non Profit Branding- Whether You Are the Tail, The Dog or The Big Apple

NOTE: This month's focus is on
Branding Q and A. All Q's welcome- Jody

QUESTION:

I work for a division of a large, national non-profit organization. Do I need my own Employer Branding materials for recruitment marketing purposes, or should I just use the same materials as our national organization?

ANSWER:

While there's no one answer to your question, here are 4 considerations that can help you decide on your best course of action.

1. Organizational Alignment- How integrated is your chapter with the national organization and other member chapters from a talent management point-of-view? Are benefits, policies and services centralized? Do lateral opportunities and career mobility paths exist? Consider your answer and go to step 2.
   
2. Brand Reputation and Tools- Let’s take a tip from Occam and presume the simplest path is the best. Consider whether or not there is a downside to piggybacking on the national brand. If you answered “yes” to question 1, and your national parent already has strong, positive brand awareness and great recruitment marketing materials, then alignment is advised. If there no alignment and there are some skeletons hiding in the closet (a story of embezzlement, bamboozlement or other) then cut the cord and go semi-solo.
   
3. Unique Differentiators- Your answer may not be A or B, but rather A & B. In creating the employer brand architecture, you may find that there are some common elements to your culture and unique drivers as well. In that case, go for a brand-blend and highlight the positives of the co-brand and the unique benefits inherent only within your chapter.
   
4. Competition for Talent: Are you competing for talent with your parent organization? If so, suit up and separate. You’re already competing for talent with other companies and non-profits in your area code, and I presume that compensation will not be the tipping point in candidate’s favorable decision to join you. Now what? Go back to number 2 and build your brand on your unique differentiators. The word differentiator is key.
   

Consider this ad campaign created by BRANDEMiX for Legal Aid Society of New York. In it, the city, not the organization, is the star. Talented professionals will always have choices of where to devote their time and/or money, but there is only one New York City. And giving back to a city that gives so much, and has been through so much, is powerful and pleasure-ful incentive that no other chapter could duplicate.

Complex Employer Branding of Large Organizations- The "Nobody Gets It" Syndrome

NOTE: This month's focus is on
Branding Q and A. All Q's welcome- Jody

QUESTION:

I’m trying to create an employment brand for a company that houses several well-branded independent brands. What are your thoughts on that? It seems unrealistic to maintain so many different brands in an employment space, however, we’ve been totally ineffective trying to collect the group under the segment name – nobody gets it. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to attract and retain talent in a segment with so many personalities!

ANSWER:

Unfortunately, it’s a prevailing conundrum -- one that we've heard before. People tell us that their organizations are too entrenched with big-named sub-brands to really benefit from one holistic branding effort. Of course, nothing is further from the truth.

The good news is that in reality, you can pick from 3 strategic approaches. Each with their own risks and rewards. To help guide you through the process, think about how the company operates from a Talent Management perspective. If there is trending evidence that rewards mobility throughout the brands, ie critical inter-brand experiences are required for progressively more senior opportunities, then option one is the best choice.

Option 1: Master Brand- unite all sub-brands (and all their employees) under one cohesive, motivating, strong brand.

This approach hinges upon finding the fundamental similarities, and success factors of employees (and the employee experience) across all sub-brands and creating a brand architecture that leverages them.

This isn't about tangible similarities like "they all pay well," but rather the cultural, psychological similarities that exist (if any).

For example, "all successful employees are out of the box thinkers and share a passion for pushing the creative envelope." Conduct research to find the core insights on which you can build and operationalize an authentic and unifying brand (culture).

Note: It’s critical to do qualitative research, regardless of how well you know the organizations, because connecting all sub-brands will require very keen insights that will not yet be apparent to the naked eye, ie not functional similarities. Furthermore, involving executives and employees in your brand discovery process is actually a great way of generating buy-in at the onset. How can anyone not get it if they were a significant part of making it happen?

Option 2: Sub-brands
You may find that there are no cultural themes that extend throughout all the brands.

In that case you can identify and embrace the individual cultures of each of the sub-brands. Certainly this is the consumer's view of the world -- -- so it makes some sense to build off the individual identity that each already has.

You would then go through the exercise of defining the employer brand for each property, and showing the stakeholders at each how to "use" and maintain the brand. Defining the brands isn't the hard part, it's finding the right people to make it work on the ground level for each brand, so it's not up to you to do this for all of them. You'd need to identify the right stakeholder for each to take the brand and make it happen.

You might also find that there are key pillars of the brand architecture that are shared, and tie things together tangently. I suspect this will be the case.

Option 3: Change Management

Start from the beginning, whereby you identify the traits that you (and management) would like to extend across all brands, and start hiring according to the new brand ideals. Slowly over time your brand would grow stronger.

The important thing to remember is that whichever option you move forward with, the fundamental operational alignment to the brand will bring about the change you wish to see.

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Are You Too Booked for a Social Life?

Based on the growing number of invitations I receive to veet-ups (webinars), meet-ups, workshops and conferences, I know that social media marketing has captured everyone's attention in a big way. We have truly embraced the concept of creating dialogues with our fans, and relationship building with our key interest groups.

I say above that "we have embraced" but it really isn't "us", is it?

Have you "down-sourced" the project to the summer intern you hired? Have you "out-sourced" it to your agency partner?

Search a job aggregator and you will find a handful of Social Media Marketing Directors, Strategists and Managers but more frequently, interns.

It is not surprising that we are unwilling to commit dollars to the ownership of communications that we can't measure the value of, but at the same time, the stewardship must be held by someone with vested interest in success of the program.

Your agency/PR partner can help you with the learning curve and messaging but actions need to happen within the company, not outside of it. The voice needs to be framed authenticity, and a person we can engage with. That person needs to be a permanent member of your team.

Your intern may be gone in September but your Digital Brand is forever.

Join the conversation and the Linked In group Your Digital Brand.

Are you Strong Enough for HR Branding?

You’ve tackled all the tough challenges and branded every communications initiative both inside and out: Employer branding, branded intranets, training portals, microsites, social network marketing, branded internal and benefit communications- you even have a smart-phone friendly career site.

And now, this summer, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water (ocean, pool, lake or other), I propose the super-branding challenger round –

HR Branding: The brand that is You and Your Department.

Here’s why it requires expert strokes—

• You will be swimming in strong currents- serving the needs of 2 masters, as employer and employee advocate.
• Due diligence in brand crafting means creating dialogues- you will need to be open to honest feedback from executives, employees, line managers and other fish, both big and small.
• Sustaining an authentic HR brand for the long haul might require making significant operational changes that pull you outside the safe waters
• Synchronization- make no mistake- this is a total team effort

If you’re still up for it, dive in.

Creating an Internal HR Brand

The Rules

1. Lay the Groundwork

• Define objectives, communications channels and audience needs

2. Ask (or have us ask) The Questions

• Who is HR?
• What Should Employees “Feel” when they “See” HR?
• What Should Candidates “Feel” when they “See” HR?
• How Can HR Best Support Their Goals?

3. Point to an End Goal

• A brand is a promise- what’s yours? Whether you create an HR mission, vision or charter, you must embody that promise to each person within your organization

4. Engage Employees

• The more they become a part of the process, the greater their commitment to your efforts

The Prize

Review step 1- what were you looking to accomplish?

Perhaps you want to create a unifying purpose to your HR team at large- have them thinking felling and acting as a brand. Or maybe instill a greater understanding within employees and executives of the important work you do.

Through the application of the same methodology employed by marketing professionals, your Human Resources Department will become the Brand of Choice for talented employees and potential employees looking to become a big fish within your organization

VIDEO STRATEGY! WHAT'S YOURS?

Last year, when I attended the Convergence Conference roundtable panel on "Video as a Catalyst for Conversation”, the moderator promised that “just like everyone now has a blog strategy, soon you’ll need a video strategy.” The audience shuddered, a clear sign that they had not yet adapted a blog strategy.

But the numbers do speak for themselves.

According to a recent comScore Video Metrix service, 178 million U.S. Internet users watched 30 billion online videos during the month of April -- that's 3 times the amount viewed in 2008.

But another statistic from Flowtown told me that 77% of small and medium sized businesses have not embraced video as a form of marketing.

Here’s why they should. The chart below, from the Wall Street Journal shows that after viewing a video ad on the Internet, 55% of 501 adults took action.

The hard part now is how to use this knowledge to your advantage. It’s a simple answer: call someone in to help. Aren’t you already doing too much at work. Who has time to think about your video strategy?

A media consultant (I know a great one) can help you

* Define your audience
* Plan your distribution using appropriate internal or external partners
* Add some control to the scary proposition of unleashing this on the world.


No one has all the answers, but emerging as an early embracer (it is too late for that) will help your brand for a very small investment of dollars.

And besides, doesn’t everyone want to be a SuperStar?

Greatness Is Timeless

Almost 13 years have gone by since Dr. John Sullivan blew me away with his article entitled "How To Hire The Next Michael Jordan."

I read it in Fast Company in 1998 and I was reminded of it last week as I was conducting an Executive Interview with the President of a Company. He said he was concerned about his bench strength and worried about his team's scouting capabilities.

Fortunately for me, this is 2010 and we have the internet and I found the article and re-read it and laughed because it still sounded new. That is a bad thing.

Here are just some of the insights.

From Coincidence Hiring to Continuous Hiring

What are the chances that the best person you're seeking to hire is reading a job posting or newspaper or even looking for a job on the one day that you've selected to advertise. It's a coincidence if you find someone. Hiring must be continuous.

 (I have adopted this mantra and paraphrased it until I now believe I invented it.

 )

From More Money to "WOW"

Michael Jordan was underpaid. Engaged employees will work for less because of their passion and belief in what they're doing.



From Interviews to Future Views


13 years ago John said that interviews were over-- just tell the applicant what its like and make sure they'll be a good fit. I call it culture-recruiting.

Find people that fit your culture by branding to your culture all the time.



Anyway, there are so many jewels here that it's worth taking a fresh look. I wish I still looked that good after 13 years.

On The Beach and Out of Home

If you were anywhere near New York last weekend you know how beautiful the Memorial Day weather was. Lying on the beach reminded me of this great blog of Summer '08, and thought I'd dig it out, dust it off and share it for the new readers of BRANDEblog.

If you were enjoying this beautiful beach weekend with me, you may have seen the cloud formation in the sky that spelled GEICO.COM and gone "OOH". OOH is an acronym for Out of Home- the classification of advertising so called because, unlike print or tv, it reaches the consumers when they are out of their homes.
According to the NY Times last Friday, Madison Avenue is having an out-of-home experience. "The ardor to reach consumers outside the home — and outside the realm of traditional media like television — continues to grow among marketers. They hope to fight back against technologies like digital video recorders, which make it easier to avoid conventional advertisements like commercials.

The category once referred to only billboards, posters and signs but now includes expansion into places like airports, offices, malls, schools and health clubs. Industry forecasters are predicting a growth rate of more than 12% a year for the next 5 years.

I've been following the trend carefully, since I am frequently called upon to develop advertising strategies beyond print and online. But even I was pleased and surprised at how the category has expanded and the opportunities to build a tactical buzz across specific geography have never been so creative, inexpensive and hopefully effective.

Considering opening a gym? How about chair advertising such as this for VIP Gyms?Regular BRANDEBlog readers are already familiar with advertising in and outside of malls, movie theatres, barber shops or on coffee cups. But here's just a partial list of OOH media that BRANDEMiX can now include as part of an integrated advertising campaign to increase brand awareness and make some noise.

ATM machines • Driver's Ed cars • Spotlight Ads • Gas Pump Toppers • Taxis • Valet Parking Lots • Sand sculpture • Street Decals ... and for the brave.. Wrapped Port-A-Potties.

If you want to know more, call us.

Oh and speaking of noise, those sky-typing GEICO planes created an out-of-home experience that was 8 miles long.

Your Recruiters Could be Killing Your Brand.

A close friend of mine landed the job of her dreams last week. Competition was fierce, the testing process was exacting and the interviewing process connected her with very impressive representatives of the firm.

Yet when the offer package came, there was a significant typo, which could have translated into several thousand dollars of unintentional income to my friend.

Of course my friend pointed out the error, and new docs were drawn up but something sad happened in the interim. (What do you do when the cover letter has a typo?) A bit of tarnish on the brass ring.

There are many phases in the recruiting process including

Advertising
Sourcing
Pre-Screening
Interviewing
Preparing for the New Hire
Offers and Regrets

How your recruiters (internal or external) handle each part shapes impressions, positive or negative of your brand.

If your brand is about Delivering the Wow (Zappos), then I want to be just as wowed with the recruiting process as I am when my shoes arrive. (I was.)

Your brand beats through everyone. If your internal team needs a primer or reminder, call BRANDEMiX to schedule me for your next internal meeting.
Crown included.

Your Digital Employer Brand

Reputation Management in a Digital World

According to a study conducted by Microsoft earlier this year, 70% of surveyed HR professionals in U.S. (41% in the UK) have rejected a candidate based on online reputation information. Don’t be surprised, but your candidates are doing the same thing.

In recent years, in most industries (healthcare and IT notwithstanding), the rise in unemployment created a temporary truce in the war for talent, as layoffs abounded and many non-business-critical positions were put on hold. That is slowly changing now, as corporate payrolls are increasing and jobs are being added.

That’s why it might be a perfect time check out your company’s digital employer brand. Pressed on time? Don’t worry. Technology coupled with sophisticated search engines has made it easier than ever.

Just type “working for [company]” into your fav browser and see what comes up. Chances are, you’ll see something from Jobvent at the top of the list. Further down, you may find surprising insights from Glass Door, Yahoo Answers or Vault.

Want to play more? Try putting in the name of your toughest competitor and see what you find out. Put together a play book for recruiters on how to sell against all your competition. Use the intel to re-sell employees on why they belong with you.

If want to delve deeper, LinkedIn can be a huge help. Do a search by your company name. Not only can you find current employees you’re connected too, but they’ll also show you past employees, new hires, and the most popular profiles. If you’re looking for brand ambassadors, there they are.

On the competitive side, call a past employee of your competitor. Find out why they left and what they think of your company as an employer.

Dick Tracy would be in heaven.

You can also opt to go with a no-work-involved investigation- sign up for Google Alerts, Trackr or Social Mention. Then the information comes right to your Inbox. (Or call BRANDEMiX- this is routine for us- it's part of the research we amass to create authentic employer value propositions.)

Online reputation management is becoming big business, as companies look to track what’s being said and measure the success of their social media marketing strategies.

In a simpler time, employee conversations ended at the water cooler, but today they’re flowing around the world. HR and recruiters need to be part of the dialogue.

Keep the conversation going at Your Digital Brand

Your Digital Brand

The Art of Cultivating Awareness, Likeability and Relationships online.

According to a February LinkedIn study of over 1,100 corporate recruiters, half of those in the US are nervous that competitors are learning to use social networking and social media more effectively than they are.

While many reading this may be dismissive of that fear- I understand and defend it.

Presenting a unified, authentic brand over a variety of new media requires a real strategy, a thoughtful examination of goals and projected outcomes (fans, followers, leads, applicants, sales) and true culture change. Organizationally, you may not be sufficiently staffed or aligned to be creative, collaborative or most importantly consistent. And unlike a magazine article or newspaper ad, digital failures can be forever.

I invite those interested in this topic to continue the discussion and become members of a new LinkedIn group: Your Digital Brand.

Uniquely poised at the cross section of technology and marketing, Your Digital Brand invites members to share stories of success in cultivating awareness, likeability and relationships online.. Business owners, human resources professionals, CMO's and CEO's are encouraged to enjoy learnings from the outliers of the digital world.

As the silos between employee, customer and shareholder have dissolved, it has become a business imperative for organizations to create a unified message that is both authentic and differentiated. And while social media marketing has a very low barrier of entry, I contend that the bar to excellence is still very high.

A New HR Metric- Your Employees, Your Fans

We've heard that employees are your greatest asset, your human capital, your discretionary investors- but are they also your fans?

Through Facebook, over 10 million users voluntarily connect with their favorite public figures, musicians and brands every day. (Lady Gaga already has more than 6 million fans and her fan base is growing by almost 100,000 each week.)

But while the coolness of the brand may open the door to fans, it's not necessarily enough to keep them engaged. It's all about adding value.

Isn't the same is true for employees? While opportunities, salaries and benefits may be enough to keep applicants walking through the door, what would make them truly be a fan of your brand?

The ongoing and very public dialogues that you (through your company) have an opportunity to create with your employees, are also the way your brand might be judged by talented professionals that you are hoping to recruit and engage.

The extra time it takes to create these dialogues will come from the time you save sourcing and selling candidates on why they should accept your positions.

It's the latest iteration of the testimonials "don't ask us, ask our customers."

And unlike a tv ad or billboard, it is digital and might be forever.

So, BRANDEMiX encourages you-- ask your employees- "will you be our fans"?
----

If you're looking for a strategy to unify your brand across web 2.0 media- call us.

MOBI - not MOBY

If you're not Linked In to me, or following my tweets (I don't judge), you wouldn't know about my perfect day last Thursday. I was having lunch with best-selling business book author Marc Effron at the Tribeca Grill. It was beautiful weather, and also the day of the Tribeca Film Festival Judges Luncheon. Marc and I were discussing plans for BRANDEMiX to revamp his website.

"Marc", I said, the trend is .mobi and iPhone doesn't support flash. Just to add more context, I was telling him that his website (and BRANDEMiX's too) was built in flash- the cutting edge of technology last year but that was then and this is now. The new iPhone G4 will be released this summer and according to the recent buzz, they still won't support flash technology.

As it turned out, Marc has an Android phone and immediately checked to see if he could access his website. No luck.

With 90%+ of all resumes coming to you via online, the internet may well be the first touchpoint in your relationship building process with candidates-of-choice. That's why it's critical for you to stay ahead of the technology as you build your digital Employer Brand.

For the bean counters:

• Over 95% of new phones sold today have web browsers and over 70 million US consumers/ employees use them regularly.
• Cell phone penetration in the US has surpassed cable TV, web
  access and Home PCs
• 11/9/09 Facebook announced that 1/4 of their monthly worldwide visits or 65 million visits, are via mobile.
  

Designing for .mobi is different from designing for flash. It's a new world where content is king and less is more (think 140 characters.) Easy navigation is critical for engagement and download speed will drive the experience. (This will be paramount once we begin the era of pay-for-play when cell phone carriers start charging us for our time online.)

What is your takeaway?
Take a look at your current website and start thinking of it in terms of a horizontal spreadsheet-
6 rows down and 6 across. Work with a digital architect to create a great experience for the digital natives. (Note: you can sidestep your internal IT department because you're only creating a mirror-site- something that will work in tandem with, and not in lieu of your current site.)

Start thinking in terms of the Twitter standard 140 characters, or 1.4 clicks to content. (I made that up.) Build out one pillar of your employer brand as tech geek and show your audience that you want to participate in the dialogue on any technology platform.

OK. I'm done with .mobi- and moving onto Moby.

Back to lunch at the Tribeca Grill. As we were watching the famous procession of Tribeca Festival Judges pass our table: everyone from Jessica Alba, Zach Braff and Whoopie Goldberg, Moby wasn't there.

Best from BRANDEland.

Candidate Care- Does Anyone Really Care?

Generally speaking, Candidate Care is a pet peeve of mine and I have the utmost respect for anyone who gets it right. It means putting your best presence forward all the time.

Oft times, particularly in the period of high unemployment, forgotten are the lowly candidates-- candidates who may turn into employees, customers, clients and investors.

Simple things can make a difference like returning emails, providing one point of contact, giving someone your undivided attention during an interview and providing them with written information in advance of their interview to let them know what they can expect when they show up.

More? Be on time for your interview, offer coffee, food, free company products and how about a list of the best business books you've read this year.


Best practice? How about implementing a Candidate Care Policy. Here's one I just swiped off the internet:

Candidate Care Policy

Treat candidates with respect

• Treat candidates as professionals and like customers or investors and ensure they are kept informed through every step of the process
• Respect the candidate's time and avoid requesting excess information
• Answer questions quickly and honestly
• Ask the candidate what their expectations are and get their feedback during the process.

Provide accurate and current information on the job

• Inform candidates on issues such as work/life balance, job sharing, flexible arrangements and career opportunities
• Only post jobs that are realistically available to outside candidates
• Remove job ads that have been filled as soon as possible.

Provide information on the selection process

• Notify candidates promptly when their initial application is received, accepted or rejected
• Tell candidates about the entire hiring process, including minimum,maximum time frames, who they will meet and the finalist selection criteria
• Give honest feedback and be positive and constructive.

The interview process

• Ensure best practice interview techniques are adopted and candidates experience a fair and legal interview
• Limit the number of interviews
• Respect the candidate's current employment by organising interview times and locations that are convenient for them
• Make the interview a conversation between equals and not adversarial
• Where possible give candidates the chance to speak to current employees. This will help to reassure candidates that the role is being realistically represented.

The offer process

• Make a fair offer within the candidate's expectations
• Give the candidate information that will aid their evaluation of the job such as bonus potential, job security, and career development
• Don't place pressure on the candidate to make a decision straight away and reassure them that whatever the decision, it is the right one for them
• Give the candidate the option to gracefully back out of a job during the first three months.

Keep in regular contact

• For those people who are still looking for work, phone or email candidates regularly to let them know that we are still looking for opportunities for them even if there is no news
• Keep notes on the database about each candidate’s current status and keep track of who you have and have not contacted to avoid duplication of effort
• Email registered candidates to obtain an update on their status, and to ascertain if they are still looking for a position. People appreciate the follow up.

And always remember

- How important it is for the person to get the job that they want, and how important it is for the client to hire the right person.

Where do you begin? Try looking at your Employer Value Proposition or your Employer Brand Pillars. (If you can't readily access them, shoot BRANDEMiX an email and we'll help you find them.) If one says you care about employees, please don't blow off the candidates.

After all, candidates are people too. In part 2, we'll talk about Vendor Care ; )