Why Radical Transparency is Crucial to Your Employer Brand Strategy
There’s a lot of information circulating the internet on the importance of employer branding. Tons of blogs will tell you how to create rich content and how to position it across social channels. Not to mention the ins and outs of engaging and building with your followers to increase the efficacy of your outreach. What isn’t touted as widely is the need for your messaging to be authentic and transparent. If you aren’t representing an accurate depiction of what it’s like to work for your company then you may be missing the whole point of employer branding.
Not every job is “amazing”.
Let’s start with job descriptions because those are the most fundamental pieces of content that you’ll work with in recruiting. Do a quick search on Indeed.com and you’ll find that there are over 80,000 positions that advertise their positions with the word “amazing”. While writing this, I came across a description for an order packer that was described as… “amazing”. Now, dream jobs are in the eye of the performer, but I don’t think that most people would describe filling boxes as an “amazing” opportunity. You don’t have to sell the position for what it’s not. Often exactly what it is will get the right people in the door. If I were the recruiter for the order packer position (say that 3x fast!) I would have led with “great entry level opportunity” or even “come pop a wheelie in our forklift”.
Stop trying to be Google
Google comes up in almost every discussion about having a great employer brand. I hate it. Sure, they’re cool but you’re not them and you don’t have to be. Even if you don’t have nap pods, or on-site daycare, I guarantee you there is something cool about working for your company. At Tangoe HQ and in a couple of our other locations, we get to bring our dogs to work. Shameless plug, I know. But you better believe that our recruiters leverage that for all it’s worth. Start honing your story to include all the reasons your organization is fantastic and then weave them into your brand strategy. If you don’t know why someone would want to work for you (sincerely hoping that’s not the case if you’re in recruiting) try leveraging your top performers. Why did they accept a job with you and what makes them stick?
You’re ignoring the bad
You know what’s worse than trying to be Google when you’re not? Ignoring the fact that you’re getting lambasted on Glassdoor or that your reputation as a few dings. Candidates are doing more research on companies than ever and most of it occurs before they decide to engage with you. Potential employees want to see that you’re aware of and are trying to fix any warts. While it’s never great if your reviews are less than stellar, pretending that they don’t exist gives the impression that you don’t care. It sends an additional message that you’re out of touch with your workforce. Who wants to work for an employer like that? Take the time to respond to negative reviews. Even if they’re horrible don’t be afraid to acknowledge your rep when engaging with candidates.
Radical transparency in employer branding is scary. We’ve been conditioned to fake it a bit on social and put our best foot forward. The idea that we’ll potentially turn others off is daunting. The upside, however, is immeasurable. With a genuine and authentic brand you’ll attract the talent that’s good for your company and weed out the rest. So be bold, or weird, or fun. But above all, be transparent.
