Do you know how to build and promote your EVPs when recruiting? Here are some tips to keep in mind.

What are the benefits you’d like to promote? Start by articulating all your standard benefits, such as competitive remuneration (base, or retainer, commissions, bonuses, on-target earnings), leave, flexibility, work-life integration, and your organisational culture.

Don’t forget about your “sometimes forgotten” benefits, such as:

• learning and higher education opportunities
• opportunities for career progression
• work-related social events
• complimentary coffee and food
• proactive leadership and mentoring
• autonomy and trust
• democratic decision making
• clear organisational goals and purpose
• feedback opportunities for progress and improvement
• reward and recognition
• modern technology and good resourcing
• clear communication
• health and wellness initiatives

…the list goes on.

Using this as a foundation, market the heck out of your beautiful, unique organisation! What achievements or awards has your organisation recently received? We all know storytelling is king – so use storytelling as a marketing strategy.

Do you participate in organisational philanthropy? Do you run social activities? Publish stories about these as well to connect with potential candidates.

Human interest stories work best of all, so unashamedly market your heroes. Sell them like they’re on Tinder! (No need to tell them you’re doing this, but then again… maybe they can re-purpose their profile?) You have heroes at every level in your organisation and your talent pool will want to work with them. What stories about your people are dying to be told? Publish stories about interesting and successful people who are currently in the roles you need to fill. Have they won awards or achieved anything that they are proud of?

Think about your executives, founders and directors. Everyone has a story to share, so find story angles that resonate with your talent pool and will make them want to work with you. These stories are, essentially, your value propositions.

Publish feature stories about people in your organisation who have progressed their careers, including where they started, what areas of the business they have experienced, and how they achieved promotions and risen through the ranks.

Build a catalogue of “people stories” and “organisational stories” that you can mix and match with different positions you need to fill.

Check out these EVP taglines from some of the World’s Most Attractive Employers (WMAEs).

In building your EVPs, don’t sit at your desk racking your brain – chat with your colleagues. Ask them for ideas and what benefits they enjoy as part of their role (including the less obvious ones). Request good news stories to understand who might be a hero that candidates would love to learn more about.

Ideally, engage an employer branding specialist to identify what your EVPs truly are. The beauty of external specialists is that they can be objective, and your people might be more willing to be open and honest with them. The best employer branding specialists will undertake a significant discovery exercise where they engage with people in different areas of your organisation across a range of roles, tenure and levels of seniority.

When it comes to marketing your EVPs to potential candidates, ruthless authenticity is worth its weight in gold. In the sales and marketing process of recruitment, the last thing you can afford is buyer’s remorse from candidates whose experience doesn’t match their expectations.

What are some ways that you articulate and promote your EVPs? Share a comment below.

The post From the editor: How to market your (often forgotten) EVPs when recruiting appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

If you ignore the mountain of garbage science and science fiction within Jurassic Park, you can still take away a simple idea: that the tiniest DNA contains the instructions to build massive creatures. Maybe not dinosaurs per se (DNA breaks down pretty hard after a few thousand years), but certainly whales, emus, and you and me.

It doesn’t matter how many itty bitty little pieces you break us into, we are still ourselves, and the DNA ensures that when you cut your finger, a toe doesn’t grow in its stead.

The same can be said for your organisation’s DNA. If you are all about innovation, if your people live to think outside the box and try new things, if they are happiest when they are surrounded by the most cutting-edge tech or ideas, if they stay late not to make a bonus but because they sense that they are on the cusp of a breakthrough, that drive to innovate is something that saturates everyone in the company.

This is why branding professionals always caution others that the logo and tagline aren’t the brand. Is the Nike brand the same when you can only see half a swoosh? Nope, it becomes something different. You can’t look at just a little piece of the logo or tagline and see the whole brand. In fact, it’s likely that you won’t be able to learn anything from it at all.

Here, we have Starbucks (like pretty much every other place humans exist), but we also have tiny little independent coffee shops. At Starbucks, they may be offering me a quick pick-me-up, but the culture dictates precision, efficiency and consistency. I know that if I get a flat white in London, it will be effectively the same as the one in Sydney and the same as the one in Brisbane. You may not think they have the best coffee, the best service, or the best food, you know exactly what you are getting when you walk in. Do you expect a giggle? A surprising flavour? A little something extra? No. This is Starbucks.

But that independent shop also offers coffee. It also offers pumps of flavours to make my latte taste more like a candy cane than coffee. It also offers me a selection of muffins and sandwiches.  Same place? Hardly. The independent place has all their specials listed as jokes from the TV show Arrested Development. They sell little candies that make political jokes. They have a chalkboard out front that makes a cheeky joke about how much I probably need coffee.

They aren’t the same, but that’s obvious. But let’s flip the script. What if instead, I started with the menu boards. At one place, you have professionally designed listings of coffee drinks (and here in the States, it comes with calorie counts and other nutritional data points). The font is professional. The colours muted but aligned with the rest of the space. There might even be a screen on which animated gifs of precise shots being poured and foam designs being drawn may show up. From just this single data point, I can infer that this place is part of some bigger chain, that they make a lot of shots exactly the same way every time.

At the independent coffee shop, the menu made of references to a semi-cult TV series shows personality and tells me I should expect more “fun” than “professionalism.” It might tell me that this place is owned by the person who wrote this (because most “employees” are too scared to go out that far on a limb), which suggests that I might even meet the owner as she pulls that shot. It suggests passion for coffee and life. Is this coffee better than the other place? Maybe not, but based on the tiniest data point, I can infer much of the rest of the shop and company.

Your prospect’s understanding of your EVP isn’t because you tell it to them, it’s what they infer based on lots of seemingly tiny touch points. It is a bird’s nest they build in their mind, collecting bits of whatnot to establish the form of the nest.

As an employer brand professional, your job is to establish and maintain the bird’s nest. But you can’t just tell the bird: no, you’re doing it wrong! Build it wider! If you want to change the nest you change the environment, replacing the coffee stirrers and plastic bag detritus with twigs and grass. The bird, taking what is lying around, will inevitably create a different kind of nest.

So if you want to change people’s sense of your EVP, you need to change the touchpoints. In the same way that you could tell a lot about the coffee shop by their menus, chalkboards and napkins, your prospect will be making conclusions about your employer brand based on all their touch points with the brand.

For example, if your brand is predicated on the promise of better candidate service, look at every element of outreach communication. Is every element driving the idea that you will take care of the candidate? Does it communicate the process and what happens next? Does it help the candidate understand what to expect? Or do you ghost them for weeks at a time and come back surprised that they aren’t interested any longer?

Look at your career site. A company that is claiming to care about its workers had better not have stock art on their career site. It should have stories about how the company goes above and beyond to ensure each person can focus on doing great work when they are there and not worrying about child care, health care, parental care, etc.

A company claiming to truly care about the employee must be clear with exactly how far they will go to provide support. On-site gym? Unlimited paid time off? Maternity and paternity benefits? Spell those out in detail (detail provides certainty and credibility). What about your social channels? Are they filled with job openings or stories about how an employee was supported by leadership, their team, or their boss?

What about your consumer touchpoints? If you sell something that your candidates interact with, will they be getting aligning or dissonant messaging? What about your application process? Does it look like everyone else’s or are you simplifying steps, communicating why you need certain bits of information, how carefully you will protect that data? Yes, even the help text of your application process is another bit of stuff in their mental birds’ nests. Will they be adding another twig or an old cigarette butt?

There’s really no level too granular when it comes to supporting that brand promise and there’s a reason for that: Stating a brand promise is cheap. Proving and reinforcing that brand promise all the way down to the DNA level is how the promise becomes real, because it isn’t easy. (Spoiler: the easier something is to do, the less impactful it becomes because if it is easy, everyone else is already doing it).

So if you think you’ve got your EVP nailed down tight, look around. Look at every single touchpoint a prospect sees in the journey, from passive to active to candidate experience. Look at every item and ask, “is this supporting the brand promise or undercutting it?” No element is too small, from the “thanks for applying” automated message to the signature on the recruiter’s email to the hiring manager’s willingness to turn their phone off during the interview. It all matters.

James Ellis

It’s possible that the stories are true and that a radioactive recruiter bit born-marketer James Ellis years ago. All we know is that James Ellis has become a well-known podcaster, writer, speaker and consultant in the growing employer brand industry. He’s done everything from putting a public Fortune 1000 brand on his back to building a 19-person employer brand activation team within the biggest recruitment marketing agency in the world. What drives someone to write, podcast, speak and work so obsessively towards revolutionising the recruiting and talent industry? Coffee. Yes, he would like another, thank you.

Website: employerbrand.consulting and jamesellis.us

Twitter: TheWarForTalent

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/saltlab

The post What’s your employer brand DNA? The secret to bringing your EVP to life appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

As we’ve shared, employee profile stories are the best way to build your employer brand and speak directly to candidates. Candidates are far more likely to read, connect with, and trust real stories from your employees than any of your other content. Stories allow them to gain insight into your organisation’s roles, opportunities, challenges, as well as the type of people they could potentially be working with. With this in mind, employee profile videos can comprise a powerful component of your overall recruitment marketing strategy.

Danila Dilba Health Service is an Aboriginal community-controlled organisation providing culturally-appropriate, comprehensive primary health care and community services to Biluru (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) people in the Yilli Rreung (greater Darwin) region of the Northern Territory. The organisation features a range of video profile stories from their people on their careers website.

The employer branding work Danila Dilba have done recently won them the 2018 AHRI Stan Grant Indigenous Employment Award! (Read our exclusive interview with Danila Dilba’s CEO and HR Manager.)

One of their videos centres on Jenon, Senior Project Officer for Tackling Indigenous Smoking.

“I chose Danila Dilba because I grew up here. I see what is going on in our community with our people, and I knew I could make a difference. It’s a very multicultural workplace. We have lots of Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander workers and we also have people from overseas, and people from different age groups. It’s a great reflection of what Darwin is like.”

Jenon’s role involves educating people about the effects of tobacco smoking, including the health, financial and social impacts while supporting people to quit through both individual and one-to-one services. Her team provides tailored support, intervention, motivation interviews and strategy development for people to reach their health goals.

“We have a wide range of skill sets that complement each other. We have that support when we come to work. We also know what each others’ strengths are and can call upon one other to help out.”

“That makes it easy to come to work. It’s like being at home!”

Does your organisation use employee profile videos? Get in touch to discuss opportunities to feature your organisation.

The post Are you using employee profile videos? Here’s how Danila Dilba engages candidates appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

“Employer branding” is an often-used term but what does it actually mean? While a consumer brand builds reputation and recognition for your products and services, employer branding builds your reputation as an employer to attract the best candidates and future employees.

Large organisations spend millions of dollars on their employer brand, hiring teams of HR professionals to create and share content about their culture. They also highlight information about their perks and programs through their channels, including social media, video, blogs and third-party sites such as Indeed Company Pages that combine employer reviews and ratings with organisational storytelling.

But here’s the truth: even if you don’t have the budget for a dedicated employer brand specialist, the tools and techniques these professionals use are available to you, regardless of the size of your organisation! No one has a monopoly on compelling storytelling to educate prospective talent and build positive associations.

If you’re a small or medium-sized business (SMB), highlight the unique qualities and strengths only you can bring to the table.

What does this mean in practice? Let’s find out.

Showcase your culture

For some people, big firms are just too big. One of the most attractive things about working for an SMB is the direct impact an individual can have upon the organisation.

At smaller firms you can directly set the tone for the workday and have the power to work closely together with others and get things done. You create the culture in a way that feels real and immediate, and in a world where people are constantly bombarded by slick marketing campaigns, this is a powerful advantage. You can’t buy this kind of authenticity.

But it’s not helping your employer brand if nobody knows about it—so share it!

Use authentic storytelling and showcase your people. Feature real employees on your company’s careers website and social pages instead of stock images. Encourage your people to leave reviews on Glassdoor, Facebook, and your organisation’s other pages. If the content is authentic, your voice will shine through and help you attract people who are a great culture fit.

Big firms may have deeper pockets for luxury perks, but SMBs have the lead when it comes to getting really local, personal or even downright quirky when it comes to culture.

You can transform your location into a dynamic place that reflects your values and attitudes. Maybe you let employees bring their dogs into the office. Maybe you are committed to protecting the environment and have a culture of biking to work and encouraging active living. Maybe you even allow employees to work from anywhere in the world they want for a month.

What works for you? There are many ways to showcase your culture that needn’t break the bank—so do it!

Showcase your people
Another benefit of working for an SMB is that people get to wear different hats. Roles don’t tend to be so specialised, so employees have opportunities to learn new skills.

Maybe some of your people were hired to keep the books, but there are opportunities you can give them in customer service, sales, social media—or other interesting areas!

For candidates looking to explore and gain experience in different career areas, this can be a very attractive offering. So weave these kinds of stories into your employer brand. Feature examples of employee growth and development through:

• your organisation’s website and careers site
• social media channels
• blog (let employees talk about how the opportunities they had to learn new things)
• videos and pictures.

Just make sure you get the story out there!

Showcase your personal ties to the community
Today, lots of people want more than just a salary; they want to know that their work has a larger social purpose.

But you don’t have to support major overseas development projects to “give back.” SMBs can do this too by staying connected to their local communities.

No one knows your neighbours better than you do, so make sure your efforts resonate with the values and tastes of the community you serve. You can do lots of things to build the philanthropic side of your employer brand, from sponsoring a local footy team to taking part in volunteer efforts like Clean-Up Australia Day—or even handing out branded sunscreen at the beach.

Or you could even take a leaf out of Salesforce’s book and give employees VTO—“volunteer time off”—to dedicate to causes they care about.

The key thing here is scale. It’s hard for big brands to develop a close, personal appeal and a sense of warmth.

By giving back, everybody wins—the community and your employees—and candidates will see that you are a company that cares.

Final tips
Whatever your SMB decides to do to build its employer brand, stay true to who you are.

Candidates may be turned off by any effort that seems overly slick or that can be dismissed as insincere talk. As with most efforts, the best way to begin an employer branding endeavour is to listen to the employees you already have. What do they love about working for you, and what are their concerns?

Use these as a foundation to make the changes you need to build your employer brand. Once you embark on this effort, keep listening to your employees.

What are you waiting for? Get out there and start building an employer brand that will attract the kind of employees who will make a difference at your company!

Raj Mukherjee, Senior Vice President of Product at Indeed, drives global product vision and strategy with the Senior Leadership Team and leads day-to-day operations of the global product team. 

Prior to joining Indeed, Raj was Senior Vice President of Product at GoDaddy, helping their 14 million customers build successful businesses online. He has significant experience with SMB customers and led multiple successful acquisitions for the company.

Previously, Raj worked on the Enterprise Platform team at Google and led Product Management for Domains for Google Apps and Google Drive for enterprises. He was also Sr. Product manager for the Online Services division at Microsoft. 

The post 3 tips to promote your employer brand without breaking the bank appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Their focus on “connecting” serves the dual purpose of expressing their service, as well as engaging their future people by expressing how their work has value and what they can accomplish through a career at Telstra.

Trends in employer branding have shown organisations promoting a purpose for the people, and Telstra does just that. The video begins with the statement: “At Telstra, we help millions connect to the people and things that matter to them most.”

“We’re the right people at the right moment with the resources to do extraordinary things. For our team that means more than just a job. Here, you can make a difference.”

Video allows Telstra to show (not tell!) the advanced technology they offer as part of their unique employee value proposition. They showcase attractive high-end technology with big teleconference screens in modern meeting rooms, large touchscreens, smartwatches, tablets, phones, and even computer-aided medical devices. (Check out that cool glass touchscreen and futuristic television room at 1.35!)

“As we evolve into a global organisation, there is an opportunity for every person to innovate. Leading the way isn’t easy. It takes courage to say there’s a better way. And here, that’s encouraged.”

Telstra people discuss how they are given ownership, accountability, flexibility, and trust, which empowers them to deliver and achieve.

“Because we know and strive to serve our customers better than anyone else, our work here is ever-evolving.”

“If you want to thrive, the opportunities are endless.”

The video speaks to the variety and career growth available within the company, and how people are supported to reach their goals.

“A job with us is like no other… You’ll be challenged, inspired, and proud. You’ll always be a part of something bigger.”

Their video showcases their diversity with people of different ages, genders, and cultural backgrounds. They share the “we care” Telstra difference, and articulate how they respect the needs, views, and ideas of their people.

“Our vision is for Telstra to be a world-class technology company that empowers people to connect. Every one of our people has a role to play bringing this to life.

The video comes to a close with an engaging compilation of employees completing the sentence, “My future is…”  (“My future is whatever I make it.”)

Circulating back to their introduction and core employee value proposition messaging, the video ends with the statement: “Come and connect to a future that’s created by you.”

The post How to link your consumer brand to your employer brand appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Today’s candidate-driven marketplace is competitive, which is why it’s so important to formulate a core EVP message that resonates with your target market. It’s your best bet for attracting top talent to your organisation who fit with your existing culture.

Wendy Frew reporting for HRM Online explains the value of a great EVP.

“If you want your staff to go the extra mile, you have to offer them more than great pay and benefits. When it comes to recruitment, top candidates are often also looking for career development and work that is fulfilling and stimulating […] That’s where an employee value proposition (EVP) comes in. It’s a statement that outlines the key reasons people are proud to work for you, and it will help you attract and retain quality staff.”

An effective EVP consists of one engaging core statement (EVP tagline), plus a few supporting sentences.

Use your EVP to both engage current staff and attract the best talent.

Conduct internal research

A great EVP will reflect all your current employees’ points of view.

Start by determining your goal.  Confer with internal stakeholders to pinpoint the key concerns your organisation wants to address. Do you experience high staff turnover? Are you hoping to create or increase your talent pool? Are you hoping to attract better quality candidates to choose from?

Involve current employees in the process from a cross-section of departments, tenure, and levels of experience. Conduct interviews and surveys to determine what they value and the common challenges they face.

Be authentic and honest

Customers are unhappy with products that don’t deliver in the same way candidates are disappointed by organisations that don’t meet their promises.

“Make sure the end result matches your organisation’s vision and strategy. For example, there is no point offering flexible working hours – even if your staff want them – if your business can’t sustain them. The EVP must be grounded in reality and not be an exercise in false advertising.”

A good EVP should be authentic and deliverable. A false message will only hurt you in the long run.

Create a draft and circulate for feedback

Be creative in formulating statements that are both inspiring and realistic. Your core statement or tagline should reflect your organisational vision and what makes you different as an employer.

Common EVP ingredients include the key elements of your employment promise, such as:

• inspiring purpose
• innovation
• professional training and development
• commitment to diversity and inclusion.

It’s important to get your EVP right, as your people need to live and breathe it. Seek feedback from key stakeholders and be prepared to make iterations.

Share and promote your message

So now you’ve created a winning EVP! It’s time to use your recruitment marketing skills to shout it from the rooftops. Brainstorm fun and interesting ways to share your message internally (for example, framing your EVP statements to decorate your office space!).

Promote your EVP externally too through your social media pages, website, careers page, and job advertisements.

“Even the best EVP is pointless unless it is well communicated to staff and job candidates, both verbally and in written form. It is important to use the right platforms to target different audiences. Make sure your message is consistent across your corporate websites and hiring channels, and that it comes from the top rather than from the HR department.”

Live and breathe your EVP. Reinforce it on a consistent basis so it becomes embedded in your organisational culture.

Measure results

After implementing and promoting your EVP, it’s important to measure KPIs. Refer back to your goals when you began the process. Are you receiving more applications? Are the applications you receive of better quality? Track and review these data points.

Keep in mind results won’t occur overnight, so be patient and consistent in promoting your message.

How do you share and promote your organisation’s EVP? Tell us in the comments.

Source

5 tips for writing a good EVP

Wendy Frew

HRM Online

The post How to write a great employee value proposition (EVP) appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

An effective EVP can be used to engage your current staff and attract high-potential candidates to join your organisation.

Your EVP tagline should pack a punch! Karim Ansari reporting for Link Humans shares a few great examples from some of the world’s most attractive employers.

Use the following EVPs from the world’s most attractive employers as inspiration for your organisation to create its own.  

ABB: It begins with you.

Allianz: A home for those who dare.

Amazon: It’s still day one.

Apple: Do your life’s best work here. With the whole world watching.

Australia Post: We’ve got a big history. Be part of our future.

Burberry: Protect, Explore, Inspire.

CA Technologies: Bring What You Bring.

Cisco: Connect everything. Innovate everywhere. Benefit everyone.

Citizens Bank: Maximize Your Impact.

Dell: You thrive, We thrive.

Ericsson: Change the world with us.

EY: Start today. Change tomorrow.

Facebook: Do the most meaningful work of your career.

GE: Imagination at work.

Google: Do cool things that matter.

Groupon: We’re changing local commerce on a global scale.

IBM: Do Your Best Work Ever.

King: Seriously Playful.

LEGO: Succeed Together.

L’Oreal: A thrilling experience, a culture of excellence.

Merck: Invent. Impact. Inspire.

Microsoft: Be the one who empowers millions.

Nike: We lead. We invent. We deliver. We use the power of sport to move the world.

Salesforce: Meaningful work and the ability to get it done, with good people in a good environment, and being fairly recognised and rewarded for it.

Shazam: Help create magic for over 100 million users.

Siemens: We make real what matters.

Southwest Airlines: Welcome on board the flight of your life.

SUEZ: Join the resource revolution.

thyssenkrupp: engineering. tomorrow. together.

Unilever: A better business. A better world. A better you.

Walgreens: At the corner of ideas and action.

Which is your favourite, and why? Share your thoughts in the comments.  

Source

30 Employer Value Proposition (EVP) Taglines from Leading Employers

Karim Ansari

Link Humans

The post EVP taglines from world’s most attractive employers appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

This creative and informative careers video from Australia Red Cross Blood Service is a powerful talent attraction tool, sharing their goal of delivering world-class blood products to people who need it most.

“3800 staff work in professional and close-knit teams. Individually we can do so much, but together we can achieve so much more.”

The post Winning EVP: We’re in the business of saving lives appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

People are your organisation’s most important asset. In today’s candidate-driven market, potential candidates not only know their worth, but have access to resources such as the website Glassdoor, which provide an abundance of information about what it means to work for your organisation. The needs of candidates have shifted also, with research revealing their preference for opportunities to contribute in meaningful ways over other benefits such as salary.

A consistent, authentic, and compelling employee value proposition (EVP) will assist you in attracting the best people to your organisation and appeal to people who will work well within your existing teams.

Nicole Dorskind, Managing Director of talent engagement organisation ThirtyThree, reporting for Forbes states: “A consistent, compelling and coherent brand message will help you become a magnet for the people you want and need to employ. This is the first step to taking control, changing the conversation and appealing to the people who will thrive in your culture.”

Be authentic

There’s nothing worse than making a great new hire, only for them to leave because the position wasn’t what they were expecting.  Start by being truthful about the experience people will gain by working for your organisation. Position yourself from their perspective and communicate the benefits as well as the challenges. (For the right candidate, the challenges of a role will be a point of appeal instead of a turn off!)

Match the realities of the role with an authentic message about your organisation as a whole. “A robust EVP is based on internal research and consultation.”

Engage in immersive research to reveal the truth about what your organisation stands for, as a truthful message is one based on internal consultation. Use objectivity to determine the predominate ideas and messaging.

Use creativity

While being objective in establishing an authentic message about what you can offer as an employer, Dorskind recommends using emotion to convey the message. Expressing this message creatively will help you connect with your target candidates and create a memorable impression.

Incorporate your aspirations

Strike a balance between your current business situation and your goals and aspirations. A powerful EVP can be a guiding force internally, while still being authentic and truthful. For example, Alex Fraser Group uses company values as both as an attraction strategy and a way to engage current employees.

Establishing a strong EVP will assist you in attracting, retaining, and engaging people who will enable you to achieve organisational success.

“Get this right and it more than pays for itself. An effective employer brand means that you’ll become an employer of choice, and build a pool of talent who will flourish in your business — not just for today, but for the future. With the right people working for you, you’ll have a more engaged workforce. And as we all know, more engaged workforces lead to higher performing [organisations]. Who doesn’t want that?”

How has your organisation articulated your EVP? Tell us in the comments, or get in touch with us to discuss opportunities to be featured.

Source

Style and substance: how to perfect your employer value proposition

Nicole Dorskind, Managing Director for ThirtyThree

Forbes

The post 3 tips to master your employee value proposition (EVP) appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.