Kill Mission Statements And Empty Corporate Slogans: How to Attract Millennials With A Solid Employer Brand
Brett February 3rd, 2009
Employers have been slow to recognize the shift in the American workplace toward increased employee mobility. In fact, most companies have failed to realize that they need to actively recruit talent with as much determination as potential employees look for their own jobs. Too often companies approach both recruiting and employment in a passive way: posting jobs in different media, and waiting until a credible candidate appears. That system no longer works especially for Gen Ys or Millennials, and companies must develop processes that attract new talent to them.
This process starts first and foremost with the employer brand. The employer brand represents the ideas/impressions a company evokes in the minds of others. Suppliers, customers, current, past, and future employees all affect the employer brand. Each of these influencers takes their positive or negative interaction with the company and spreads their impression across their network of friends and acquaintances. This constant interaction with influencers means that an employer brand has to be an ever evolving thing, which companies must adjust and tweak over time. Too often companies rely on vague mission statements that were formed at a company’s inception to create the brand, which are both boring and useless (especially to Gen Y recruits). Human resource managers must begin to see the employer brand as a living, breathing thing that needs to be updated, modified, and changed on a daily basis. Human resource employees must also realize that in this marketplace of real time information and instant connection, developing a static brand is the wrong approach to take.
To understand an employer brand, a person must first understand what an employer brand is not. Human resource executives often make the mistake of defining an employer brand through a slogan. Many of the management and entrepreneurial books suggest that creating a slogan energizes and focuses employees on a company’s goals. While that may have worked in the 90’s, we have become a society completely over stimulated with slogans. According to Nike we should “Just Do It”; Canon seeks to “Beat Xerox”, but much like advertising messages, Millennials have tuned these catch phrases out of their conscience. So instead of arguing over the minutiae of what ten words describe the vision of a company, expand the discussion to create a whole host of characteristics and traits the company hopes to attract (Dan and Chip Heath have also written an interesting piece about ending corporate slogans in Fast Company that I suggest everyone take a look at as well titled “Kill the Slogans Dead”). Companies must also evaluate their employer brand on a consistent basis to see if it still has relevance. In evaluating the brand, human resource professionals should look at a few simple questions:
How Do You Define Your Company/What Do You Stand For?
This question usually posses the greatest barrier to creating a powerful brand because this part must be effective and succinct. The normal corporate jargon of achieving synergy, strong partnerships, and value for the shareholder serves no purpose defining a company or the creation of its employer brand. Instead of vague mission and vision statements, corporations should define themselves with a series of short, powerful statements that can be easily transmitted throughout the community and workplace.
What is the Corporate Lifestyle?
What type of people fit well in your company? Human resource managers should create a ‘buyer persona’, which is a list of characteristics that define a certain type of buyer (in this case a prospective employee) the corporation wants to attract. A company can have multiple buyer personas for each division or team within a company. With these buyer personas in mind, a company should create content, material, and marketing directives to attract the various candidates.
Companies should additionally look at their corporate culture and how that affects which types of new hires succeed over the long run. Does the company look for team and consensus builders who want to achieve work-life balance? Or are they seeking a candidate who understands they need to be in the office on Saturday and possibly Sunday? Is the atmosphere at work freewheeling with an anything goes attitude? Or do casual Fridays not even appear on the radar screen?
What Differentiates Your Company From Your Competitors?
Distinguishing yourself from other companies is critical when trying to attract young professionals. After expressing their initial interest, this question comes to the forefront of a prospect’s mind, and will make or break the deal. Many Millennials have the impression that salary is the only differentiating factor between companies within an industry, but showing how your company is different using non-monetary examples will break that cycle. However, human resources must really think about what sets the company apart from others: Is it your low turnover rate? Employee benefits?? Flexible schedules? Young professionals value honesty, and fake/generic responses to these questions will affect a prospect’s decision negatively.
Constant Reaffirmation and Marketing of the Brand
After creating the brand, the hardest and most tedious part becomes maintaining the brand. I would suggest going to the marketing department, and learning from them how they create engaging advertising for your customers. Just like marketing, human resource employees must constantly reaffirm, promote, and update the brand across a wide spectrum of media to ensure its success.
Why the Brand Matters
Employers should understand that the recruiting world now requires employers to act like marketers. The recruiting process has changed from a young professional begging for the opportunity to work at a company, to corporations having to present a convincing case why their company is the best choice. Even in a recession, talented recruits will have offers from multiple corporations, and not differentiating oneself from a competitor could prove costly. This is why the employer brand has become so important to winning the next generation of workers. The brand is the first aspect of a company that piques a candidate’s interest in a company, and the last part that pushes a candidate to choose a company. The brand takes on such importance because prospects want to ‘get inside’ the company, and the employer brand provides one of the few windows into the soul of a company. As such, a company with a compact message that differentiates itself from its competitors will have a distinct advantage when recruiting talent.
Unfortunately, when constructing their brands too many companies create mission statements and sayings that no one really understands, let alone cares to read. Young professionals want an honest assessment of the company’s strengths and even their weaknesses because just as much as a company is interviewing them, they are interviewing the corporation. Think about Google. Whenever you hear that name mentioned in a recruiting sense, you get the image of a successful company that has an engaged workforce, expecting them to work hard, but also rewarding them with interesting perks. Now think about your corporation, what impression does the average prospect receive when they first walk in the door?
A solid employer brand attracts the talent you desire. It takes the guesswork out of a prospective employee’s hands and allows them to see the true distinctions between various companies. These prospective employees know best if they want a company built more on teams or where the individual takes control, and a bold employer brand will quickly weed out candidates who do not fit your mold. And while you may lose some candidates because of the brand, they probably weren’t the right fit for the organization anyway.
Another great post for young professionals to check out is by Alexandra Levit where she gives some good advice about what young professionals should look for in a company:
[...] tend not to resonate with this millennial. And it seems your correspondent isn’t alone. A neat post over at BrettHummel.com explores the effect of these in employing Millennials: To understand an employer brand, a person [...]