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Todd Raphael's World of Talent

Who's hiring, who's not, and what else is hot

4 Branding Questions follow this blog post

posted by on May 28, 2009

I'm at a one-day workshop, put on by the Canadian company Brainstorm, on college recruiting. It's at the Marriott Manhattan Beach (apparently home of a painfully slow Internet connection).

Sabine Gillert, senior brand consultant for TMP, offered up four questions to ask yourself about your company and how it's perceived. I thought I'd share:

  1. What most distinguishes you from others?
  2. What will attract the people you most want to attract?
  3. What will most engage and resonate with current employees?
  4. What will people recognize as "true to the core" -- an honest view of what's best about the organization?

She also mentioned some interesting data a few minutes ago, I think from the Corporate Leadership Council. Job candidates evaluating a company with a compelling brand expect significantly less money from their employers than they do from companies with weak brands.

Makes me think of Southwest Airlines. Not the highest pay, but a magnetic employment brand and a long record of success.

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  • 1 point 5 months ago

    Hi Todd,

    Interesting information.  Would Sabine share that research data, I think the findings are facinating.

    The four questions are good as a launch pad for dialog arond your company brand.  The next step is collecting the data (quantitative and qualitative) to back up your assumptions.   Then you can build an authentic employment brand that will attract, retain and repel the right "fit".

     

     

  • 1 point 4 months ago

    Lizz -- I wanted to answer your question about the data. I've got my hands on it ... it's from the 2006 Corporate Leadership Council's "Attracting and Retaining Critical Talent Segments" study.

    According to the study, when the employment brand delivery is excellent, 38% of new employees have high levels of commitment (vs. 9% when branding is poor). After 12 months, 31% of employees at excellent-at-branding companies have a high level of commitment, vs. 3% at poor-branding companies.

    Also from the study is the info you asked about more specifically. It says "only an 11% increase in compensation is needed to attract candidates who feel the employment branding is attractive" but "a 21% premium is needed to lure candidates who feel the branding is unattractive."

  • 1 point 5 months ago

    All great questions.  Bouncing off this idea, I think that companies often times have a heightened sense of themselves too.  Ie.  When I work for company X, i think it's great and everyone around me thinks it's great, but we often times fail to evaluate what people outside our organization currently think of our employment brand.  Do they know how great it is?  I think we should also add "What does our target talent think of our brand today?"  If you don't know where you are today, how do you expect to get where you are going?