Brandemix Bonus Reel: How to Become an Employer of Choice

Jason Ginsburg, Director of Interactive Branding at Brandemix, shows how any organization can become an employer of choice.

For more information, email us at employerofchoice@brandemix.com.

How to Become an Employer of Choice

A recent Gallup study found that only 47% of American workers are completely satisfied with their jobs. A MarketTools study found that 21% of employees had applied to another job in the past six months. Clearly, many employees are ready to look elsewhere for the next step in their careers.

How do you make them look at you? More importantly, how do you make your current employees stay with you?

Or, in short, how can your company become an employer of choice?  

Becoming an employer of choice means that applicants are eager to work for you, that people envy your employees, that you receive unsolicited resumes, and that your most talented workers stay with the company throughout their careers.

It's the holy grail for every employers. So do you achieve it?

There's no single answer to that question. In fact, coming up with the answer may require answers to more questions. Here are a few you should tackle:

1. "Employer of choice" to whom? 
Determine who are the people you want to run your business. Shark-like go-getters? Tech wizards? Ideallists who want to change the world? Employees of your competitors? 

Your workers don't have to be people who live nearby or happened to see your job listing. Create a vision for your workforce and strive to bring it to life.

The answer to the first question leads to the second: 

2. What do the people that you want, want?
A recent survey of college seniors by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that, when weighing a job offer, these workers look first for opportunities for personal growth, then job security, and then friendly co-workers. "High starting salary" didn't make the top three. So if you're offering recent grad lots of money up front but little chances of career advancement, you'll need to change your priorities to be successful.

There are plenty of workplace surveys out there, but you'll get the best information from your employees, your candidates (even the ones who turned you down), and your applicants. Ask them what drew them to your organization. What set you apart? What's still lacking? Accept the answers without judgment. You can't improve unless you acknowledge you're not perfect.

Spoiler alert: Answers to the next question may require collaboration with your senior leadership. 

3. What are you prepared to do to attract your ideal employees -- and keep them? 
This may require some changes within your structure or culture. You may have to increase perks, change policies, or even enhance your workplace with, say, a gym or daycare center or coffee bar. And that can't happen without approval of your senior leadership, who may not see the need behind such transitions (and costs). You can tell them that more engaged employees will lead to higher retention, lower hiring costs, higher  productivity, and eventually greater profits -- all true.

Every company wants to have an employer brand that positions them as an employer of choice. Who wouldn't want to have talent competing for you instead of the other way around? 

 So, in addition to the answers to the questions above, here is a short list of attributes of an employer of choice. How does your company stack up?

1. Interesting work
Challenging but not difficult; straightforward but not easy. Most workers want to be stimulated, challenged, or inspired by their work. No matter what your industry, are your positions actually interesting? Or do they ask too much or too little of the employees?

2. Career advancement
If you want workers to stay with you for their entire careers, you have to give them a career. This includes a clear path to promotions, regular and fair evaluations, and training for new skills. And don't forget about a mentoring program, which is lacking at most companies.

3. Social Responsibility
Many people want to feel that they're doing good. If your company isn't in the rainforest-saving industry, you can still recycle, partner with a charity, and engage in fundraising activities. This attribute also includes business ethics.

4. Recognition
Not just fair pay but also rewards for work well done and for time spent with the company. Contests (such as sales goals) also help employees feel valued, as can bonuses, free food,  and other perks. 

In closing, becoming an employer of choice isn't easy. It means taking an honest look at your current workforce and what you want it to become. It means acknowledging some difficult truths and making internal changes.

The rewards, however, are hard to overstate. You'll have the best workers, doing their best work, increasing profits -- and not leaving.

Want to know more about becoming an employer of choice? The door at Brandemix is always open.

Brandemix Bonus Reel: Social Media Simplified

Jason Ginsburg, our Director of Interactive Branding, shows how social media marketing and recruiting can be simplified down to three basic questions.

Learn more at our popular blog post Social Media Marketing Simplified.

The Most Popular BrandeBlog Articles of All Time

This blog recently celebrated its eighth birthday. That's a lot of blog posts. I'd thought I'd go through the archives to find the most popular, shared, and retweeted articles. 

The winners include two Social Media Superstars, one Social Media PR Disaster, basic principles for good social media marketing, and important employer branding statistics to share with your CEO.

The Top 5 BrandeBlog posts are:

Why Zappos is a Social Media Superstar
Our most popular blog post, here's a look at how Zappos is using YouTube and Pinterest to revolutionize customer service.

Social Media Marketing Simplified
Ever come out of a social media marketing planning session with your head spinning? This new frontier has created all kinds of vague buzzwords. Surely posting 140 characters isn’t as complicated as all those words imply? Don’t let the jargon throw you. Marketing, branding, and selling on social media boils down to three basic questions.

Zappos and State Farm are social media champions

Four Things to Make Sure Your Boss Knows About Employer Branding
So you're not Apple, Amazon, Deloitte, or Disney. Don't despair. That doesn't mean you can't have an employer brand or employer value proposition of your own. Here are four things to tell your boss when you’re putting it into your annual budget.

Why State Farm is a Social Recruiting Superstar
After rebranding with its famous "Magic Jingle" commercials, State Farm Insurance has continued its transformation with a big push in social media and interactivity. Discover the three ways that State Farm engages job applicants like a superstar.

Social Media PR Disasters: #McDStories
They can't all be superstars. This crisis illustrates that not even a corporate giant can control conversations on the internet. See how it all fell apart for a simple McDonald's hashtag.

Want to learn more about social recruiting, social media marketing, or employer branding? Contact me or visit brandemix.com.

Video: The Importance of Employer Branding

Director of Interactive Branding Jason Ginsburg explains why a strong employer brand is critical to an organization's success.

Brandemix Bonus Reel: The Best of Both Retail Worlds

Jason Ginsburg, Director of Interactive Branding at Brandemix, explains how retailers can combine the best elements of online and in-store shopping for a great customer experience.

How Retailers Can Connect the Online and In-Store Experience

The great overlap has started.

In the last few months, the worlds have physical shopping and online shopping have collided. Walmart, the country’s biggest retailer, has increased its massive e-commerce effort, using its thousands of US locations as distribution points for same-day delivery. At the same time, Amazon, the country’s biggest online retailer, now ships items to “lockers,” physical kiosks which can be accessed at any time. With Amazon Lockers, Brand Channel has declared “Amazon's strategy to distribute its products through traditional retail outlets is already underway.”

These retail giants are reacting to customer behavior. They know that customers want an online experience that’s connected to the in-store experience. So how can this strategy be implemented by specialty retailers? Here are some easy steps to get the best of both worlds.

Bringing Online Information to the Store

Price is not the only factor driving customers to online shopping. “Customers demand quick and easy access to relevant product information,” says Mark Brixton in Australia’s Power Retail blog. With turnover in the retail industry higher than ever, and employers unable to fully train their staff, many customers find that sales associates can’t help them make informed decisions about products.

The solution? Make your associates (and managers!) as knowledgeable as possible – even if it means “cheating.” At Best Buy, I once inquired about a camera, and the associate simply pulled out an iPad and looked at the Best Buy website with me, showing all the good reviews. It certainly was better than being told “I don’t know,” which makes me leave the store to find more information.

Another online feature that’s very effective is the recommendation engine: “People who bought X also bought Y.” Store associates can make those suggestions, of course, but there’s another option: reconfiguring your store so that items that are often bought together are actually displayed together.

Chico's online recommendations

What about online customer recommendations? Brazilian clothier C&A has “special hooks on the racks in its bricks-and-mortar store” that display Facebook likes for each item of clothing in real time, “giving in-store shoppers a clear indication of each item’s online popularity.” That technology may be a ways off for most of us, but that doesn’t stop you from putting a sign on an item that says, “Our most popular item on Facebook,” or “Our most pinned product on Pinterest.”

Bringing the Personal Store Experience Online

Jiadev Shergill, founder of Bundle.com, told a recent Internet Week New York panel, “Walking into a store and feeling the clothes, trying them on – this is a data point that you can’t get online.”

He recommends “product videos, multiple angles, more product measurement details, and real-world comparisons,” to simulate the in-store experience, making customers more comfortable with an item they can’t hold, use, or try on.

Many have us know at least one sales associate that has been helping us for years, who know lots of our personal details, and uses that information to help us shop. So why not ask for that information during online shopping? Asking for a birthday is expected, but you could also ask for more (optional) information, such as hobbies, favorite colors, or preferred brands. That allows you to offer exactly what the customer wants the next time they visit your online store.

This may seem obvious, but you should also make online returns as easy as in-store returns. Zappos led the way by making returns both free and hassle-free. Now many websites offer that service.

Zappos provides a video explaining how to return items.

Linking the Two Experiences Together

One good strategy is to keep a customer database that can be accessed by both your online store and your physical store. So when an online customer finally walks into your store, all they have to do is give their name or email address and a sales associate can look at their purchase history, preferences, and recommendations.

To the customer, your online store isn’t some separate entity, so if they’ve bought from your website five times, why should they be treated like a stranger when they finally pay your physical store a visit?

Most importantly, this entire philosophy is dependent on employees to deliver your brand experience. Whether you’ve been in the same location for 50 years or are a new internet startup, your brand has value. And it’s your employees who have the greatest power to make or break it. They’re the ones who shift your message from a concept to an experience – positive or negative. So whichever strategy you implement, make sure your employees can define your brand. If they can’t define it, they can’t deliver it.

I hope these ideas have helped you look at online shopping and physical shopping as two sides of the same coin, with each complementing the other. And if you’d like to create an online store – or refresh an old one – my agency, Brandemix, is happy to help.