tips to help transform your hr stories biocom hr executive breakfast september 24, 2015 v1.5
TRANSCRIPT
Tips To Help Transform Your HR Stories
Biocom HR Executive Breakfast
September 24, 2015
© Dr John Sullivan 1
These slides are currently available on www.drjohnsullivan.com
EMPLOYER BRANDING
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Topics for today
1. What exactly is employer branding?
2. What are the positive benefits of EB?
3. Who are the benchmark firms?
4. The best ways to spread your messages
5. How to make your stories more powerful
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Let’s have a conversation
Please interrupt at any time… with questions, comments or examples
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Part 1
Can we agree on exactly what is
employer branding?
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Most have no EB strategy
Employer branding is a proactive “image management” strategy
Globally, 87% of companies “believe that a clearly-defined strategy is the key to achieving employer branding objectives”
But what % actually have a strategy in place?Only “17%
Source: Employer Brand International 2014 5
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The 10 components of external employer branding
1. EB is an “image management strategy”… where you make your image as an employer visible, focused, positive and differentiated
2. EB is the only long-term recruiting (& retention) strategy
3. The 1st goal is to have your firm’s name known as a great employer by your target audience
4. The second goal is to have your target audience know the factors that make you a great employer… known and believed
5. The third goal of EB is to be rated higher, when compared to other talent competitor firms (there will be winners and losers)
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The 10 components of external employer branding
6. EB is a form of boasting or even bragging
7. EB requires a shifting away from a reliance on “inauthentic” paid advertising and corporate webpages…
Toward viral messages that are spread by others (your brand is owned by others)
8. EB drives your target audience to take action (apply for and accept jobs)
9. EB must be data-driven (science not an art) >
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You must have a metric driven approach
Use data toDetermine what your targets care aboutWhere they would hear a branding messageWhat factors will be “talked about” and spread
virally spreadWhat factors actually worked (survey of new hires)
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Shift to data-driven decisions EB
I
Source: Entelo 2015
Poaching seems even… until you add DecemberDuring what month should you start branding efforts?
When do salespeople accept a new job?
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Only recently has the candidate experience been considered part of employer branding
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The 10 components of external employer branding
10. The candidate experience may become a story, so it is part of your EB (are they a customer?)
A bad candidate experience will be “talked about” on SM (Glassdoor, Yelp, Indeed)
Ex. - The hiring manager (at Wind River Associates) took a week to respond, so the candidate said…
“It's not like I need their job. If it takes them a week to respond to a resume like
mine for a job of this importance, they're not the kind of company I want to work for.
I move fast, and I can already see that my style wouldn't fit their culture.”
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The benefits of a positive candidate experience component of EB
Provide a good candidate experience because happy candidates act positively:56% would consider seeking employment again
with the company
37% would tell others to seek employment there
23% would be more likely to purchase products or services from the company (more rev.)
Source: CareerBuilder 12
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Employer branding negative consequences
A negative candidate experience also has consequences
42% would never seek employment at the firm again
22% would tell others not to work there
9% would tell others not to purchase products or services from the company (Lost rev. $)
Source: CareerBuilder
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Fully understanding the positive benefits of having a strong employer brand
Part 2
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Illustrations of the benefits of employer branding
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HR must identify and focuses its resources on activities that increase revenue & profit (BCG)
16Source: BCG/WFPMA - From Capability to Profitability: Realizing the Value of People Management, 2012
Which HR functions have the highest impact on rev. /profit?
Does a top “employer of choice” ranking correlate with business success?
Employer brand
1. Google
2. Apple
3. Amazon
4. Facebook5. MS
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Market cap value
1.Apple - $603 b
2.Google - $419 b
3. MS - $344 b
8 Facebook - $248b
8/24/2015
Product brand
1. Google
2. Apple
3. IBM
4. MS
Do you see the similarities?Source: Poachable
Are the top branded firms more productive?
Expectation: better branded firms will have a higher Rev. per Employee #
Average rev per ee $208,000
Amazon* #3 $622,000 (Nearly 2 ¾ times the average)
Microsoft #5 $788,000 (Nearly 3 ½ times the
average)
Google* #1 $1,290,000 (Nearly 6 times the average)
Facebook* #4 $1,590,000 (Nearly 6 ½ times the average)
Apple* #2 (Source: MarketWatch.com 9/24/15)* The red # is the firm’s employer brand rank among all firms in the US
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$2,410,000 (Nearly 10 ¼ times the average)
BCG found that frequent “best place to work” placement influences stock market returns by ___
19Made Fortune list 3 out of 10 yrs. (109%) vs. S&P (10%) - BCG 2012
S&P
10x
10X
Positive impacts of branding
Branding improves quality of applicant & hire
Firms “can improve applicant pool quality by 54%”
And “quality of hire by 9%”
Source: Corporate Executive Board (CEB 2014)20
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Employer brand impacts job applications
It attracts currently employed not-looking applicants
87% would consider leaving their current job… if offered a job with a company that had an excellent corporate reputation
Source: CareerBuilder
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EB is a prime driver of offer acceptance
Brand reputation is a top job acceptance factor
It is # 1 for senior managers
It is # 1 for sales people
# 2 - All employees (After compensation)
Kenexa Global Survey 22
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The costs of weak employer branding
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Employer brand impacts job applications
75% of Americans would not take a job at a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed
Top job seekers especially would not consider interviewing for a position at a company with a negative employer brand
Source: CareerBuilder
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Know & emulate the benchmark firms that have the most powerful employer brands
Part 3
The “dream firms” for the average employee
LinkedIn – Most in demand employers 20141. Google2. Apple3. Amazon4. Facebook5. Salesforce6. Disney7. Nike8. Microsoft
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The dream firms for non-lookers
Poachable – Firms that employed people admireCompany Desirability rank1. Google 1.02. Apple 0.613. Amazon 0.304. Facebook 0.265. Microsoft 0.216. Uber` 0.177. Twitter 0.158. LinkedIn 0.099. AirBnB 0.09 10.Netflix 0.0711.Tesla12.IBMSource: https://poachable.co/
Bold = Bay Area firm
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What are the best ways to communicate your
brand messages?
Part 4
• Your corporate webpage• Recruitment advertising• Recruiters and hiring managers• Your employees through the referral program
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Ways to spread your employer brand messages
Your corporate webpage has many weaknessesCandidates today only rely on the employer for
only 20% of the information that they gather when looking to apply for roles
Why? Because 60+ % of applicants “say they are more skeptical today of what employers say about themselves than they were three years ago”
The problem is that websites are written by a PR, screened by lawyers and they include no negative information, so they are not judged as authentic
Source: Corporate Executive Board (CEB 2014)
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Ways to spread your employer brand messages
Recruitment advertising has many weaknesses It makes it appear like you must pay to have your
message spreadAds are expensiveAds may be skipped by everyone (because it’s an ad)It’s written by you… so it’s not authenticThere isn’t space to say muchAds are not interactiveAds are often generic and not targeted to what
top performers and innovators demand An example >
High-performers are different because they are attracted by “the work”
Criteria for top performers
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1. Appreciation for their work2. Relationships with
colleagues3. Good work-life balance4. Relationships with superiors5. A firm’s financial stability6. Learning/career develop7. Job security8. Attractive fixed salary9. Interesting job content10.Company valuesSource: BCG survey
Criteria for average workersDoing the best work of your life means1. Can’t put it down exciting work2. Having an impact 3. Work with top coworkers4. Great managers5. A chance to win / be 1st 6. Learn advanced things / growing7. Opp. to innovate/ take risks8. Be an expert / mastery of an area9. Opportunity to implement ideas10.To be constantly challenged11.Freedom, a choice of projects12.Input into schedule / location13.Opportunity to make decisions14.Measure & reward performance
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Ways to spread your employer brand messages
Recruiters aren’t always the best story spreadersMost don’t like talking to recruiters… “People
don't always listen to recruiters, but they do
listen to their friends” (CEO of ThoughtSpot)Recruiters don’t always know much about the jobRecruiters have been known to stretch the truth in
order to get a hire (some will quickly quit)Hiring managers are not good salespeople
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Employee’s spreading stories as part of the referral program is the most effective way because:
Top people… know other top people and they already have relationships
Colleagues can get close, with little resistance from top performers
Talking to recruiters may be seen as disloyal Employee stories are more real and credible
because they “work there” they are considered likely to know the inside story
When employees tell stories, questions can be answered to tailor the story
One-on-one conversations last longer, so detailed stories and follow-ups are possible 33
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My extensive “candidate research” revealed what story elements excite candidates
You can take an ordinary EB story and make it great by adding these factors…
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
A great program name Often just having an HR program with a great
name can turn an informal program into something credible.
A “cool” or catchy name for any program makes it even better.
Ex. – The zombie smashing contest at Google
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
Quantifying program results in $Using performance numbers to demonstrate the
business impacts of a program is important. Adding dollars to quantify program outputs or
the reaching of goals makes any story stronger. Include a benchmark comparison number with a
great performance number & a weak number, make understanding the magnitude of a number easier.
Also showing the large amount spent per employee or as a large % of total expenditures tells the listener right away this program is important.
Ex. – “We invested $10,000 per employee (10% of revenue) for career development & employee output improved by 12%”.
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
Comparison with the industry average / best Try to show how "your program" is superior to the
competitor’s on a side-by-side basis. The use of direct comparison percentages or
numbers makes for an even better story (improvement over last year, compared to the industry average or the best in the industry).
Being first in your industry or region to offer a program is also an excellent story builder.
Ex. – “We were 1st to offer 1 year maternity / paternity benefits and we’re still the industry leader”
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
Add a WOW to the story A WOW is a story element that when told / read,
it is so powerful that the person literally responds with a verbal sound (WOW).
A WOW the most likely part of the story to be remembered
Ex. – “75% of our managers started out as hourly employees”
Ex. – “Applications from women went up nearly 50% in the position after we let them re-write the job description”.
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
Add a video clip Sometimes words aren’t enough and a moving
picture may be worth 1000 words. Short video clips (< 3 minutes) can clearly reveal
the excitement at your firm Employee generated videos are often viewed as
more authentic… than professionally done ones. YouTube instructional videos can also be
powerful
Two quick examples >
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Employee generated videos – Film Festival
Make “finding the excitement” easy for outsiders
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Video job descriptions provide an EB message
A video job description can reveal the excitement behind a job (Quickstop, Accenture and Deloitte)
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
Degree of participation Just having a program isn’t compelling… if no one
participates in it. Show the estimated percentage of workers that
actually use a program helps make the message stronger.
Ex. – “90% of our employees change their work schedule each week in order to participate in family or civic activities.”
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
Testimonials from individuals Short testimonials from individuals outlining
their passion for the program “personalize” a program.
Testimonials about their treatment, experiences or impacts also add value.
Video testimonials and employee profiles can be powerful.
Ex. – “The weight loss and wellness program literally saved my life – Kim Doe
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
Add a picture to a story Many people don’t like reading 100% narrative…
so a picture can be attractive. A picture that raises emotions can be a valuable
addition to a story. The mobile phone is great for spreading stories Also consider posting or encouraging your
employees to place powerful pictures on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Ex. – “Here is a picture of our employees building a house for “Habitat for Humanity” on our community involvement day”.
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
Add a link to more informationBecause of limited space, you can’t often tell the
whole story in the written piece
Make it easy for the reader to find more detailed follow up information by adding a web / social media link or a QR code inside a written story or blog,
Ex. – “Here is a link to the complete report outlining the extent and the impact of our sustainability program.”
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
Note that you’ve been cited in a major publicationNoting that something you have done has been
cited in a major publication adds credibility to a story, because it is often assumed that editors demand the best examples.
Rather than avoiding reporters and bloggers, build a relationship with the credible ones.
Encourage editors and reporters to do a complete story highlighting your HR program.
Ex. – “the Wall Street Journal noted that we had the most advanced STEM women recruiting program.”
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Add these to make your stories more powerful
Note the impact on low-level employeesMany people to remember stories that reveal how
“the common employee” did well.Seek out examples of where a low-level,
struggling or diverse employee made great progress in a short period of time as a result of your program.
Ex. – “A year ago Ted Dias was a struggling maintenance man, but after completing our after-hours “Employee Coding Program” he now holds a six-figure Python coding job.”
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A story inventory makes your stories more accessible
Part 5
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Put together a story inventory
Benefits of a “story” / best practice inventoryEmployee access means better referralsThe goal is to respond quickly to reporters
inquiries with powerful “on the mark” storiesIt should also allow managers that are giving
speeches/ writing articles to find powerful stories related to their topic, function or business unit
Use it for “best place list” applicationsUse Excel or develop an internal web site >
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Google has a story inventory
A story Inventory for recruiters and employees
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Branding requires story inventories
Microsoft “Spreadthelove” internal websiteTheir “Spreadthelove” website allowed Microsoft
employees to "write up" their own individual story about their career with Microsoft (their story might include pictures, testimonials and video)
Employees can then share the web link and "spread the love" with targeted friends, family and potential referrals
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Additional EB categories
The available time means
I can’t cover the 50 additional employer brand factors that can excite potential applicants… but
they can be found listed in the slide deck… which is available right now on
www.DrJohnSullivan.com