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Page 1: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

Employer Branding 101The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why,

what your employer brand means, how to inspire current and future

employees, and how it can help you achieve your core KPIs.

Page 2: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

We’ll cover that and more in this ebook, along with actionable next steps, and

other resources to continue your research on this increasingly important topic.

Catalyzed by the rise of the millennial professional,

candidates are increasingly focused on researching

companies before applying for a job, doing extensive

diligence on potential career paths, and generally being

picky about what’s next in their professional lives.

Let’s use a thought experiment to understand this new

behavior. Let’s say you’re deciding which restaurant you

and your friends should choose for dinner tonight. Before

making a decision, you’ll probably look at menus online,

and peruse Yelp reviews. You spend 20 minutes before

committing to a restaurant, and that’s for taco night!

Similarly, the job seeker’s decision making process now

mirrors typical consumer behavior. Everyone looking at a

job will do their diligence on a given company before

applying for a role.

A new talent acquisition paradigm

It’s just like Taco Night

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What is employer branding?

Why does it matter? What are the best companies doing to address

this key part of the talent acquisition equation? How do you document

your employee experience, so that company culture is clearly

communicated and existing employees can act as ambassadors?

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According to CareerBuilder, 68% of candidates are

spending more than 2 hours BEFORE applying for a job!

This is an incredible amount of time and effort, but makes

sense if put in the context of the impact a new job will

have on your life (remember how much time you spent

researching for taco night??).

The scary part here is that job seekers are doing their

research for a reason. If they don’t find interesting

aspects of your company or role, or they find disparaging

reviews online, they will move on. Ask yourself, if

someone researches my company for 2 hours, what will

they find? If someone asks a friend or contact about you,

what will they hear? Does the employee experience align

with your stated values? Do you have company values?

The rise in popularity of Glassdoor

means that companies need to be more

vigilant than ever in protecting their

employer brands online. 1 in 3

employees who are laid off will leave a

Glassdoor review. Just like Yelp, the

desire to leave a review is usually

triggered by a negative experience.

That said, there are many companies

who’ve done a great job in proactively

building their brands by telling their own

story (as opposed to allowing their most

disgruntled employees tell it for them)

via authentic employee authored

content that lives all over the internet.

The best of this content shows off what

it’s like to work at their company. Many

top companies are doing just that

through software like NextWave which

allows for easy content creation and

distribution.

Candidates are researching your company

Page 4: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

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What is employer branding and why does it matter?

Perhaps you’ve heard that HR and talent professionals

are now expected to think like marketers. Your

employer brand is defined by how the world perceives

what it’s like to work for your company. It's your job to

proactively influence this by providing candidates with

the information they need to form an opinion of you,

the same way your marketing teams provide your

potential customers with all of the information they

need to form an opinion of your product and company.

It’s also critical to give existing employees guidance on

the kind of company you’re building, so that they know

how to be effective ambassadors.

Employer branding efforts yield immediate results

when you put this rich information in all of the places

candidates are finding out about your job opportunities.

Given candidates’ propensity to research your

business before applying, you’ll positively shape their

gut reactions on what working at your company looks

like. If they're the right fit for the job, this increases the

likelihood of applying for your open position which

lowers your time to fill and cost per hire.

Imagine a candidate considering Google. What will she

find during the course of her preliminary research? On

their careers page, there are specific examples of what

the day-to-day culture is like from real employees.

Looking at social media, their message and

commitment to employees is consistent with the

information on the careers page. Employees currently

in these positions are speaking directly about why this

is a unique opportunity. Candidates appreciate seeing

a clear, consistent company identity.

For Google, their content and the corroborated stories

on other platforms paid off in the the short term by

getting a new candidate into the hiring funnel. It also

builds a brand over time. The gut reaction for

candidates is strong, positive and aligns with all of the

things Google prides themselves on. This sort of long

term brand building creates a pipeline of interested

professionals who are right for the job.

“Candidates think hard about the impact an employer’s name is going to have on their resume. So as an

employer, it’s important to invest in your brand, so people can easily answer that question. You want to a

candidate to say “Working for this company is going to make my resume really stand out in the future.”

-Molly Howard, VP of Operations at Ovia Health

Page 5: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

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“A uniquely collaborative culture”

If you are continuously hearing from

your colleagues about how they work

together, and have never been in a work

environment where people supported

one another like this, then you can very

credibly add this to your EVP.

“True autonomy”

Perhaps you’re recruiting engineers or

other ‘deep thinkers’ who value alone

time to work on problems. Or, maybe

you are targeting self starters in sales

roles. Whatever the case, this sort of

messaging can be quite powerful in

your EVP.

A few EVP Examples

Your employee value proposition is composed of the answers to the

following questions: “Why do I, and other employees, appreciate

working at my company?” AND “What makes working for my

company a unique experience compared to all of the other

places I could work or have worked in the past?”

Your answers can come in a variety of forms—from employees’

anecdotal stories, to phrases you hear around the water cooler, or

even from the excitement an employee gets when referring a friend.

If you ask your current employees what got their attention in the first

place and what keeps them here, what do they say? How do you

then communicate this to candidates? Don’t worry, we’ll get to that

later with some best practices.

Ideally, the employee value proposition aligns with your company’s

mission, values, and culture, as defined on the website and in an

internal knowledge hub like Tettra. This alignment will help foster

and maintain the best elements of your employee value proposition.

It also makes it easier for existing employees to tell others about

their experience working at your company.

What is an employee value proposition?

“This generation is looking for authentic, meaningful

places to work. You've got to convince them you’re the

best fit for their goals and lifestyle. They’re not convinced

by benefits and perks anymore. That's why tools like

Glassdoor incentivize employers to add photos of their

company events and showcase their commitment to

things like equal pay and diversity. Show them your story.

That's the only way to find the right candidates anymore.”

- Aaron Wheeler, Director of HR at Wistia

Page 6: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

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A Unique Opportunity

HR has been slow to adopt marketing principles to attract

talent. It’s not surprising. Imagine if we asked marketers to

learn how to do payroll, or background checks, or deal

with compliance issues. It would take them a while to put

down what they were doing already, which was working

‘well enough,’ and get them to learn a new skill set.

This means there is a unique opportunity for the

companies who approach branding correctly to reap

massive rewards over the coming years as their

competition struggles to adapt.

On average, candidates are

researching your company for 2

hours before deciding whether or

not to apply. If they don’t find

information about the role and why

they should care, they move on.

This means your cost per hire

rises, time to fill increases, and

your quality of hire decreases.

Page 7: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

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As a newly minted marketer, you now need to make the

information available to candidates about your work

culture. This means the good and the bad. Be honest. If

you have a tough sales culture, you want people coming

in who are ok with that. A startup without any process?

Definitely say that upfront so the wrong people can find

their way to larger companies.

We all want more candidates in the funnel, but the best

companies want the RIGHT candidates in the funnel. If

someone is not right for the job and will never be

interested in it, why spend your company’s time and

resources taking them through the interview process?

It's better to give them this insight upfront so they don't

waste anyone’s time.

What are candidates looking for?

Talented professionals want to work

alongside the best people—and want to

find out in the process who they're going

to be working with.

They also want to understand:

• The company culture and values

• What’s unique or interesting about a

given role

• What skills they’ll acquire

• The career path stemming from this

opportunity

• How to prepare for interviews

• How they’ll be mentored

• Benefits and compensation

• What excites others about the

company

• What people don’t like about the

company

The Right Candidates

Page 8: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

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The Power of Data

Pay attention to what the data is telling you. If candidates reference a particular blog your CEO wrote, for example,

get your CEO writing and publishing more often. One key insight: authenticity (not overly produced content and

videos) wins on the internet – webcams and iPhones are great ways to get content.

There are various consultants that can give you tips of

employee value proposition planning, collateral

creation, etc. There are also marketing firms that can

help you think through these core facets of building

your brand. Hopefully, you can also partner with your

own internal marketing team on some level (although

don’t be surprised if they are focused on revenue

related activities).

Take the time to map out your core message in an

internal knowledge management tool like Tettra. It will

ensure that your messaging and marketing material

are consistent over time and across members of your

people operations team. Shop this material around the

larger company, and seek input from other people.

This will help you generate new ideas and will

generate buy-in from colleagues.

It's important to always make sure the information you

distribute promotes an authentic and human

interaction with candidates while also providing the key

information that they’d care about. We like to think of

it in terms of a coffee chat. If someone sat down with

one of your account executives today, what would that

experience be like?

Power of D

ata

How to determine what message to send

Page 9: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

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Worst Practices

Here are a list of (anonymous) worst practices

that we’ve heard from various companies in the

marketplace. These aren’t meant to belittle

anyone, but simply to show what not to do and

why.

“We sell candidates once we are in the room with

them through the interview process” – You may

very well have a strong sales pitch once a

candidate is in the room with you…so why not

broadcast this online? Otherwise you’re going to

lose half of your talent funnel because your

careers page is devoid of information, your job

postings are 5 years old, and your social media

has no “life at our company” related content. And

if that candidate isn’t moved by the things your

company is proud of, they’re not right for you and

you've already wasted a lot of time getting them

to the point of being in that room with you.

“We have a 2 min video that an agency put

together which shows off our company’s culture”

– Some of these videos are great, like the new

GE careers commercials. But, 90% are terrible.

Ask your employees if they’d believe them.

Typically, these videos lack authenticity, details

on what a job is like, and are full of quick cuts

and stock background music. 10 people

repeating “this is a great company” is not a

compelling pitch.

Define the Employee Experience You’re Creating

Use a knowledge hub like Tettra to define the experience

you seek to create. Managers and employees may think

they all share the same viewpoint, but if it’s not written

down, there’s room for confusion. Additionally, by placing

this information alongside policies and benefits in Tettra,

existing employees can see how you live your values,

and then communicate that to candidates.

Employee Authored Content

Check out the careers pages for top brands like Goldman

Sachs, and you’ll find content directly from the mouths of

employees embedded into the pages with relevant job

listings. Sites like Glassdoor exist because talent is

desperate to understand what employees do, and what

they think of their employer. It’s not a coincidence that

one of LinkedIn’s core use cases is networking for the

purposes of getting a “coffee chat” with an employee at a

company you’re interested in. Give employees guidance

on how to be a good advocate if they choose to do so.

Social Media Presence

75% of talent will research your company through social

media. Make sure that you’re giving employees guidance

on how to promote the company on social channels.

Many companies use Tettra to share brand guidelines

with the team. At the very least you can push HR content

through your company’s existing social channels.

Best Practices from Top Companies

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Microsites

Engineers want to learn about the technology you’re

using. Sales people want to know about your training

program. Marketing wants to know about your marketing

stack. Blending this content together in one page can

dilute the messaging.

Companies addressing this correctly have dedicated

webpages with content for each of the key roles.

www.acme.com/careers/sales will have the information

for sales people so that they don’t get lost in the content

hosted on www.acme.com/careers/engineering that talks

about JavaScript programming.

Search Optimized Content

85% of candidates Google your company. Typically, this

means they find Glassdoor reviews, and perhaps some

other information you can’t control. The best companies

understand search engine optimization (SEO) and how to

get the right content/messaging in the right results. Enlist

the help of your marketing team to make sure you’re

ranking for the right terms.

Career pages that shine

This is an obvious one. 90% of candidates go to your

careers page. If it’s a static listing of job openings (or

worse, a hard to navigate job search and application

process), you are losing candidates every hour of every

day.

Worst Practices Continued…

“We only want candidates who understand that

we are a great place to work from our current

site” – If your current site is a maze that lacks

any real information around your EVP, please

don’t delude yourself into thinking it’s a fun

challenge for talent to decipher. You are losing

the best people.

“Branding is important, but we need to source

candidates ASAP and are focused there” – All of

the efforts you are conducting via job boards,

direct outreach to candidates, on campus

recruiting, etc are all AMPLIFIED by a strong

brand. The person who sees your job post, or

gets your Inmail is going to research your

company. The right branding means they are

now a candidate in your funnel instead of another

person ignoring you…now you can fill that req!

“This is something we’re thinking about for 2018

and are developing a strategy over the next few

quarters” – We get it, telling your story is

overwhelming and this is a new skill set. This

means that the companies who figure out their

talent brand and how to promote it will win while

other struggle to adapt.

Job postings that communicate

Most job postings are 10 year old amalgamations of various older job reqs. They lose all meaning, and don’t do anything

to sell candidates. On the contrary, check out HubSpot’s job listings. They have video and unique descriptions that

sound like a human wrote them. Use a model like this in your industry, or a tool like Textio to help you upgrade your

listings. You can also link to your best content from job postings.

Page 11: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

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Company Brand, Mission, and Values

This is the foundation that drives your employee

experience. Make sure you’ve defined these, gained

agreement from stakeholders, and documented

information in a central place like Tettra. If you have

disagreement on the company’s identity, this

misalignment is going to cascade down through all other

parts of your recruitment and hiring processes.

Team

First off, who on your team cares about employer

branding? According to iCims, 46% of companies either

have a dedicated employer branding professional, or

plan to hire one. Perhaps there is someone in marketing

who’s willing to lend a hand, or a c-suite colleague who

cares about finding the right people.

Goals, Planning, and Timeline

Get started as soon as possible: you’ll decrease cost of

hiring by nearly 50% and increase retention by nearly

30% (LinkedIn). What do you want to accomplish in the

next 3 months? 6 months? Year? Write down goals,

publish them on a wiki like Tettra, and stick to them. This

step also involves budgeting, the tools you want to use,

and how to execute with those tools (responsibilities,

timelines, measurable results).

Employee Onboarding

Make sure the onboarding experience is consistent with

the experience you give candidates during the

application process. A whopping 20% of turnover

happens in the first 45 days. Give people the information

and tools to succeed, and make it easy for them to

access information. More on this next.

What’s next?

Page 12: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

Your Company’s Operating System

Today’s workforce wants to join a company with values

that align wth their own. Make sure you communicate

your organization’s values, as well as the common

practices that uphold those values. If, for example, you

value transparency, you might choose to share all of

your investor decks. Document this in a knowledge hub.

If you hold weekly recap meetings, and monthly

planning sessions, make these cadences and operating

systems clear to new employees, so they never feel

blindsided. Better yet, share the notes from these

meetings in your knowledge hub, so that new

employees can get better context from reviewing past

conversations.

Information and Resources

The more information and context new employees have,

the more empowered they’ll feel to make decisions and

take action. They’ll also be more likely to make good

decisions. Give the new members of your team access

to as much information as possible, and organize it in a

logical way, so they can find what they’re looking for. At

Tettra, we’re bullish on organizing knowledge into

functional categories while also showing which content

has been updated most recently.

Ongoing Support

Make it clear how new employees can get support. If

you have a mentor program or affinity groups, (for

women, minorities, or parents, for example,) tell people

how to get involved. These support mechanisms are a

critical part of the employees experience. No only do

they play a key role in whether existing employees stay,

but they also impact the likelihood that team members

will act as company ambassadors within their personal

networks.

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Extending the Candidate Experience Beyond the Interviews

Continued Research

There are many great resources out there for learning about employer branding, here are a few worth checking out:

Next Wave Hire - Videos and eBooks on employer branding.

Recruiting Daily.com - Great blog for recruiters with lots of content for those interested in Employer Branding.

Smashfly.com - Smashfly has been a leader in the recruitment marketing space for years and has lots of interesting content.

Page 13: Employer Branding 101 - Tettratettra.com/.../Employer-Branding-Guide-from-Tettra.pdf · Employer Branding 101 The best HR professionals are becoming marketers. Find out why, ... Similarly,

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Tettra makes its easier to communicate and share information with new

and existing employees. We want to help teams operate more effectively,

so that onboarding, collaboration, and planning are a breeze.

We integrate with Slack and other tools you use every day, so that you can

access information more easily without context switching.

If you want to learn more, please visit Tettra.co and we’ll be happy to

continue the conversation.

NextWave Hire provides software that allows your company to

attract top talent through employee authored content showing

off what it’s like to work at your company.

If you want to learn more, please

email [email protected]


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