I’m going to #truHelsinki next week. Like last year, I wanted to kick off my personal track with a blog posting. Give something to munch about before, during and after. It worked last year. Once a dog learns a trick, it’ll repeat it in the hope of a reward. Thus, I’m writing again. In English also, because the event is in English and there will be many of our international unrecruiting enthusiastic peers.
Employer brand is foremost built by the experience we as organisations and employers provide for the human kind.
My hypothesis (or claim) is that employer brand is foremost built by the experiences we as organisations and employers provide for the human kind. We may try to alter the image by sexy and visually attractive presence in the media, but foremost our image and reputation, thereafter our brand, will be built by how we are, behave and act.
I don’t care about the experience the employer gets. I care about the experience the employer gives.
I also like to talk about employee not employer experience. Because, not to play with words, I don’t care too much about the experience the employer gets. I care about the experience the employer gives to their people and those they would like to hire, and those who may or may never become part of the company. And this is the trick. Our efforts in building great workplaces are typically diverted into existing staff satisfaction, if at all. Which is absolutely fantastic as attracting and engaging company cultures are my passion. But does anyone care how the rest of the world feels about us? Because there are, after all, more of the rest of the world than staff.
I drew this handy picture about what I mean:
To really develop an attractive employer brand, we must focus on the experiences we provide for our people, those who apply to our jobs and get forward, those who apply and never get past the no, as well as all those that ever come across with anyone who has anything to do with our company, anywhere. So to say employer branding is a visual project leading to a marketing campaign, is really just the tip of the ice perk. Right?
If you agree with me, then let’s talk about the how’s more.
