Employer Brand

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      Developing and Activating a New EVP for an Old Company

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      The concept of employer brand is still fairly new to the world of business. Articulating an EVP (Employer Value Proposition) is typically on the agenda of management teams; however, not every organization knows how to go about it.
      Hence I was pleased to chat with Kayla Branham, Marketing Manager of Talent Acquisition at security giant ADT. Most of us will be familiar with this company and brand that has been around for over a century. But what is it like to work there?
      Branham points out that every company has an employer brand or employer reputation. The question is how you manage this and how you can highlight what makes your company stand out as an employer. In this case, Branham adapted Allison Kruise’s 3-step model for brand activation to develop a new EVP at ADT.
      Landing on an EVP
      Step one was to investigate what the current employer brand was for ADT. The research undertaken zoomed in on a number of areas, such as:

      How are we perceived as an employer?
      What is on offer to our candidates and employees?
      What makes working at ADT different from other companies?

      The purpose of asking questions to people around the business was to understand perspectives from all talent groups. The research outcome painted a picture of what it’s like to work at ADT.
      On top of speaking to current employees, the team also carried out external research to determine employer brand perception in the public sphere.
      Establishing the EVP
      One word kept popping up in focus groups: Trust. This particular word happens to be essential to the ethos of ADT and it was a natural place to lay the foundations of the EVP around trust. The governing thought was determined:
      “At ADT, you’re entrusted with tomorrow.”
      Next up, Branham and team identified four pillars of the employer value proposition:

      Take ownership
      Work with a great purpose
      Shape the future
      Win together

      “There’s a give-and-get element to each of them. It’s what team members offer to an employer and what the team member is receiving in exchange,” Branham notes.
      Time to activate
      The EVP was launched at the back end of 2022, and before this, it was communicated internally to various stakeholders and teams. The idea was to stoke interest in the upcoming external rollout.
      Branham and team developed a number of content pieces designed to inspire employees and to create engagement. Videos, LinkedIn banners, and social sharing contests were all part of the plan.
      Looking to the future, Branham will be partnering closely with Talent Management to focus on continuing internal activation and adoption. “We want to ensure that our EVP is a lived experience for our team members,” she says. They know that scaling the employer brand internally is the most important thing for growing external awareness.
      The next stop on the journey is to partner with Talent Management to embed the EVP with the employee lifecycle. By scaling internally, the EVP will manifest itself in the public domain in an organic fashion.

      To follow Kayla Branham’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help with your own EVP, get in touch. We help you identify the values and culture you want to create in your company.
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      How the Automotive Technology Space Is Attracting New Talent

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      Big changes in the automotive technology space have inspired a renewed focus on attracting tech talent and workplace diversity for this company’s employer brand leadership.
      That focus is just one of the creative challenges Joanna Babiarz faces as Aptiv’s Global Employer Branding Director.
      Your Candidate Messaging Should Evolve with Your Industry
      Recent and rapid tech innovation is rendering certain skill groups obsolete while placing others in high demand. This is especially true of the automotive industry, which now courts very different talent pools than it did a decade ago, according to Babiarz.
      At first, Aptiv’s employer brand messaging wasn’t focused on tech. However, after clocking the industry shift toward being a tech-centric space, Babiarz and her team reshaped their candidate messaging to grab the attention of tech talent and position Aptiv as a competitive employer to this sought-after demographic. Today, roughly one-third of Aptiv’s engineers are software developers and ship over 40 billion lines of code each day.
      To Achieve Workplace Diversity, Start Early
      Refurbishing your employer brand is an ideal time to ensure your messaging reflects your values. During a recent rebrand, Babiarz and her team realized they had an opportunity to disrupt an automotive industry trend with Aptiv’s employer branding: its male-dominated workforce.
      Aptiv employs a diverse team of workers from many backgrounds, but like most other companies in the space, it still struggles to reach women and other demographics underrepresented in STEM. “We are trying to change this ratio. We are trying to show that this space is a fantastic opportunity for growth for anyone, regardless of gender or ethnicity,” Babiarz says.
      What Candidates Really Want
      Today’s candidates don’t just want to collect a paycheck; they want their work to hold meaning. Babiarz observed this when talking to Aptiv employees who’ve stayed at the company for five years or more, as well as those who returned after leaving for a different job.
      She noticed a theme among employee responses: “They have a purpose here. It’s not that they’re working on another software app; they’re helping save lives and mitigate the risks of accidents. They offer solutions that reduce emissions.”
      No matter the nature and scale of the shifts occurring in your industry, Babiarz’s advice to employer brand leaders is the same: Ask your employees about what needs to change. “It’s not always about the market trends or what the stakeholders expect from you,” she says. “You have to talk to your employees!”

      To follow Joanna Babiarz’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help gathering data and insights you can act on to improve your company, get in touch.
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      Activating Employer Brand as a Science and Technology Company

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      Successful employer brand activation is all about thinking globally for this 352-year-old, progress-driven science and technology company.
      Merck Group has dedicated itself to furthering human progress through science and technology. It’s a lofty mission and one its team takes very seriously, particularly employer brand leader Chris Dinwiddy.
      You Value Curiosity
      Merck Group’s EVP, “Bring your curiosity to life,” carries two meanings for Dinwiddy. It invites employees to nurture their curiosity, but it also encourages employees to direct that curiosity toward improving life on earth. Curiosity isn’t just a trait of a great hire; it’s a skill that helps Merck Group make the world a better place.
      Curiosity also motivates the employer brand team’s investment in its ambassador network. With so many markets worldwide (including China, the US, Germany, and others), Dinwiddy has realized the importance of nurturing one-on-one relationships with regional heads of recruitment and demonstrating an interest in their unique region.
      You Stay Innovative
      When courting an in-demand demographic, filling a specific role type, or launching a campaign, the employer brand team relies on SAP SuccessFactors tools and custom landing pages. They keep a close on their Google Analytics and other sources of quantitative data, while also tracking more qualitative feedback (candidate comments like ”I didn’t know much about you before I applied” or “I’ve seen your brand around”) to measure success.
      The team is also trying out a new tool that’s been instrumental in gathering employee-generated content: an app called PathMotion, specifically designed to help candidates connect with employees.
      You Prioritize Humans
      “The recruitment industry’s drifted in the last few years away from corporate and polished,” Dinwiddy observes. Now, candidates are responding more to honest, authentic, and candid messaging.
      For Dinwiddy, this human-centered and end-user-focused culture is key to what makes it a great place to work and such an easy employer to promote. In describing his experience at Merck Group, Dinwiddy offers the same kind of candidness he encourages in brands: “My job’s really special. I work for a brilliant company—and I’m not just saying that because they pay my salary!”

      To follow Chris Dinwiddy’s work in employer brand, connect with him on LinkedIn. For help gathering data and insight that you can act on to improve your company, get in touch.
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      8 Ways to Hire Faster & Build a Better Employer Brand

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      What You’ll Learn

      How to fill positions more efficiently through tools, templates, and moreThe partnership making hires an average of 11 days fasterThe strategy that took an offer acceptance rate from 60% to 88%

      About this eBook, 8 Ways to Hire Faster & Build a Better Employer Brand

      In a panel discussion led by Hired CTO Dave Walters, talent leaders from Gem, Tanium, NBCUniversal, and One Medical shared their thoughts on trends and best practices for optimizing the candidate experience.

      They reviewed how to improve the hiring process by strengthening the experience and by extension, the employer brand. Now, we are covering eight of their strategies to consistently help their teams fill tech and sales jobs efficiently. Use them to take action with your recruiting goals! More

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      Building Employer Brand Awareness with Global Tech Talent

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      Everyone’s looking for tech talent, and the competition within this highly in-demand market is steep. This is the challenge Liz Gelb-O’Connor faces as ADP’s VP/Global Head of Employer Brand and Marketing. Here’s how Gelb-O’Connor and her team are tailoring their employer brand strategy to attract tech talent specifically.
      Building Global Awareness
      As a payroll services provider, ADP pays one out of every six workers in the US and is almost a household name. However, outside of the US, it doesn’t have the same level of recognition as major US consumer brands.
      The employer brand team spent 10 months researching the international talent markets that yielded the most candidates and nurturing relationships with partner organizations in other countries. The result was an EVP localized for each country—a monumental effort that turned out to be well worth it, Gelb-O’Connor says.
      Nurture Future Talent
      ADP’s employer brand team also devotes energy to the very top of the tech talent funnel, those that aren’t looking for work right now but may be strong candidates in the future. ADP’s tech blog, a first of its kind for the company, keeps future talent abreast of industry conversations and news while showcasing the brand’s innovation and the thought leadership of its tech employees.
      The results of this tech-tailored approach to employer brand have been powerful. In the five years since Gelb-O’Connor began leading employer brand, ADP has won industry accolades, and earned a strong NPS score for its candidate experience. Cost of hire has dropped, and the candidate conversion rate for the tech career site is twice the rate of its main career site (despite launching during the hiring slowdown of May 2020).
      This rapid change and growth around tech is one of the things that makes Gelb-O’Connor so excited to lead employer brand at ADP. “It never gets old,” she says. “That’s been the most rewarding thing: seeing how far we’ve come.”

      To follow Liz Gelb-O’Connor’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help identifying the values and culture you want to create in your company, get in touch.
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      Employer Brand at a Booming E-Commerce Company

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      This pet care brand is building an exceptional culture while growing rapidly, thanks in part to its successful employer brand strategy. And though stay-at-home orders certainly played a role in Chewy’s success, it isn’t just the convenience of online shopping that’s driving its transformation.
      Its employer brand is helmed by Senior Employer Brand Manager Kara Hendrick, who has played a crucial role in helping Chewy keep pace with a season of rapid growth.
      Internal Champions
      The employer brand function at Chewy grew out of the company’s goal to raise awareness of the growing number of diverse roles it needed to fill. Chewy’s HR department was one of its first champions, which kickstarted company-wide enthusiastic support for Hendrick’s work.
      Hendrick knows that finding these internal champions is key to employer brand success, and she prioritizes building relationships with stakeholders in PR, talent management, branding, and social. These relationships are especially beneficial for employer brand projects with vast scope but limited resources; they help Hendrick avoid getting too “in the weeds.”
      Culture Investment
      This attention to the personal pervades Chewy’s culture beyond its customer service strategy. Team members aren’t “employees” but “Chewtopians,” and Chewy’s operating principles include statements like “Act like an owner.”
      When lockdown restrictions forced Chewy’s corporate offices and customer service centers into home offices, the company’s talent management and employee experience teams met with its CHRO and CEO to revisit and recommit to its values.
      No One-Size-Fits-All Strategy
      Chewy recruits for corporate customer service, tech, and fulfillment center roles, all while maintaining a unified message and navigating each talent segment’s unique challenges. Hiring for a diverse array of roles, Hendrick has learned, demands diverse strategies.
      “What attracts a software engineer in Boston isn’t the same as what attracts an operations manager in Dayton, Ohio,” she observes. Designing an employer brand strategy that will be successful for all these markets demands careful listening.
      This fact hit home in Hendrick’s early days at Chewy when she met with the Head of Fulfillment Center Recruiting. After listening to Hendrick present her grand plans for targeting fulfillment center candidates, he asked, “Have you ever visited a Chewy fulfillment center?” Hendrick admitted she hadn’t yet. But after her first visit, “It all made sense.”

      To follow Kara Hendrick’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help gathering the right data and developing strategies to make real change at your company, get in touch.
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      Is Your Employer Brand Helping or Hindering Your Hiring Objectives?

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      Most employers agree that great employees are at the heart of every business. To secure the best candidates, hiring managers typically put significant efforts into two key facets of the hiring process: producing an attractive job advert and properly screening the applicant’s CVs.
      The interviews and onboarding that follow must be conducted with the utmost care, managed by members of staff with the knowledge and time to ensure they do not miss out on the opportunity to secure the right candidates.
      However, with 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agreeing that employer brand significantly impacts hiring, the key to enticing top talent could lie within how attractive your business seems to potential employees.
      So, if you want to meet your recruitment objectives, it might be time to think about the meaning of business branding and how you can use it to gain a competitive edge in the market…
      The ins and outs of company brands
      In short, business branding is a way of identifying your business. It encapsulates what sets it apart, what makes its offering different, and, perhaps most importantly, reflects the company’s values.
      A company develops a positive (or negative) impression of its brand through the quality and competitiveness of what it can offer its employees, including its salary and benefits, management style, culture, and commitments. As such, branding and recruitment go hand in hand — particularly in the digital world, where so much business and hiring activity happens online.
      Organizations around the world are working on nailing their branding — but why? What benefits are employees looking for, and why is it vital to get it right?
      Firstly, it generates cost savings. According to LinkedIn, companies with positive employer brands or favorable reputations within the market can get up to 50% more applications than companies with negative brands. And that is not all; successful employer branding has multiple proven benefits for hiring businesses, including:

      Conversely, companies that fail to focus on branding stand to lose out significantly — financially and reputationally. One study revealed that 82% of prospective employees consider brand and reputation before applying for a job, which could prove disastrous for business growth and bottom lines in organizations that fail to meet expectations.
      So, can you afford to fall short of the mark in the current recruitment landscape?
      Establishing a brand for your business
      A strong employer brand is crucial for securing skilled, engaged, and leadership-bound workers.
      When done well, a branding strategy can deliver multiple functions simultaneously — from defining products and services to showcasing a unique approach to company culture. Consistent, first-rate employer branding should speak for itself, helping to communicate all a candidate needs to know through every interaction with your company.
      Though defining and developing your business brand is a long-term commitment, there are a few key areas you can focus on to improve how your business appears to prospective candidates…
      Refining your employer value proposition
      Branding works alongside employer value propositions (EVPs): an employer’s marketing message and promise to its employees regarding its core values.
      Every company’s EVP is different. It is the sum of everything you offer as an employer — an employee-centric approach that tells the story of your business and why someone should consider joining your team.
      An EVP can be conveyed through consistent corporate messaging and recruitment marketing that helps communicate key messages to the employees you are trying to reach. However, whilst talking a good game is great, you must also walk the walk to ensure your branding comes across as genuine — a key facet to succeeding in your goals.
      Bringing your online reputation up to scratch
      One of the trickiest parts of navigating the job hunt for candidates is working out which companies they would enjoy working for. So, ensuring your business’ reputation reflects well across the board is crucial — from online reviews and staff testimonials to official accreditations.
      Many employers throw out attractive perks and salary offers, but a growing number of workers look for something more. According to research by CareerBuilder, 83% of candidates are willing to accept a lower salary from an employer with an excellent reputation. So, building and maintaining your brand as a business can lead to lower salary responsibilities and attract more interest from serious job seekers.
      In today’s world, social media plays a starring role in business branding, with many candidates basing their employment decisions on the quality of a company’s online presence. Monitoring and updating social media pages and websites are critical to ensuring you put your best foot forward.
      Optimizing your onboarding process
      Candidates often gain their first impression of your business brand during recruitment. As a result, every onboarding stage should be carefully considered to ensure talent is not dissuaded from pursuing an opportunity within your company.
      For employers, this means issuing timely, thorough feedback, remaining organized, and staying up to date with the latest trends — from virtual recruitment and remote working to HR management.
      Of course, this can quickly become an overwhelming task — especially in the current candidate-driven market. So, experts recommend enlisting the support of a specialist recruitment agency to support a successful business branding strategy.
      After all, if you are going to invest time and money in your business brand, you want to do it right.
      By Julie Mott, Managing Director, Howett Thorpe.
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      How Google Does Employment Branding

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      When your employer value proposition is to “build for everyone,” you need an employer brand strategy that centers on authenticity.
      Leading employer brand at one of the world’s tech titans means grappling with a reputation of legendary proportions, supporting a network of 120,000 employees around the globe, and staying sensitive to the needs of one billion users.
      It’s what Mary Streetzel faces every day in her role as Head of Employer Brand at Google. And though Google’s scale sets it apart from most other employers, the lessons Streetzel and her team have learned about employer brand strategy have universal relevance.
      The Need for More Data
      Data has played a starring role in the evolution of Google’s culture and employer brand strategy. Its mission to “increase the world’s knowledge” includes the company itself—Streetzel and her team are constantly gathering more data to help make Google a better place to work.
      You may have heard legends about the notorious Google interviews of 10 years ago. Hiring committees tested candidates with trick questions (“How many ping pong balls could you fit in a school bus?”), graduates of high-profile alma maters seemed to receive preferential treatment, and one candidate allegedly went through 16 interview rounds before receiving a decision.
      These hiring practices, Streetzel insists, are relics of a bygone era. There’s been a culture shift toward a more empathic, broad-minded, and diverse Google, thanks in part to data.
      Let Your People Do the Talking
      Streetzel refuses to let the buzzword status of “authenticity” cloud its meaning and importance to employer brand. “Brands have to go ahead and admit it: You’re a business. Tell the truth,” she says. “Then, let your users tell the story a little bit more. That’s authenticity.”
      User- and employee-generated content is one of Streetzel’s favorite ways to let people, rather than brands, do the talking. Most recently, Google handed the storytelling reins to its interns for International Intern Day and filled its employer brand channels with personal perspectives on life as a Googler, directly from the mouths of interns experiencing that life first-hand.
      Streetzel and her team want future Googlers to see themselves in these authentic stories, seeding a new and diverse generation of employees. “We really want everyone to see themselves at Google,” she says. “We want to build a Google that reflects the world around us.”

      To follow Mary Streetzel’s work in employer brand, connect with her on LinkedIn. For help identifying the values and culture you want to create at your own company, get in touch.
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