With social media usage, are we seeing the need for an employee brand?

With all of us having an increased online presence, will this mean that we will no longer need a resume – our online reputation will speak for us. In his blog “why bother having a resume?”, Seth Godin asserts that examples of your most recent work, your online reputation and/or a compelling blog easily accessed through your online presence can certainly help get you your next job.

You may think worrying about your online reputation is only for serious high flyers, but it isn’t, not any more. In my line of work I speak to a lot of people who are responsibile for recruitment. Quite a number have mentioned en passant that they do a quick online search on prospective candidates as part of their evaluation process. With so much that has been said about managing and owning our online reputation, are we seeing the advent of the employee brand?

If our employee brand is reflected in our online presence, by having fun on social media sites are we potentially affecting our future employment prospects? We all have many different faces that we choose to show to different people at different times. (Which one is real – without therapy will we ever know or do we even need to?) There is the person we are at work, with friends, with family … the list can be endless. There is an argument forming that it may not be a good thing for the whole of us to be visible to the online world with some people even withdrawing from their online networks (Kaiser).

Friends of mine who are free lance are accutely aware of the impact showing too much of yourself can have on potential work. They are very controlling of their personal brand on Facebook, MySpace et al. I now find myself self-censoring what I say on my facebook profile these days as my network is no longer just friends but clients and work colleagues too. I don’t necessarily want everyone to know when I have a hang over or what I have been up to over the weekend. And I’m fairly tame in what I get up to these days.

If you look around FaceBook there are so many groups where people are venting their spleen. When we look at online reputation for a company we want to know what people are saying but turning the tables what does it say about the people who start these groups and how much would we want to employ some of these people.

With the recent merger of Westpac and St George banks there is the group If we wanted to work for Westpac we would have. There are some quite candid comments from some of the 160 members which could impact the employer brand of Westpac but it could rebound on the individual if recruiters are on facebook as it may make them think twice when it came to deciding between two candidates for a job. There are also the angry people out there who start groups like The List – companies to be boycotted . Whilst making some interesting points about the organisations mentioned it can reflect badly on the person who started it – but then again this person probably isn’t looking to work for any of the companies mentioned anyway – but what about in five years time?

HR has the potential to help drive sales too

Taking consumer behaviour and applying it to employer branding, when 67% of all consumer decisions are primarily influenced by word of mouth (McKinsey) how can marketeers use employee engagement to build the public brand and drive sales?

 

Whilst corporate comms and marketing professionals are seen as the communication experts, we shouldn’t forget about the impact that HR professionals have on building a brand. Whilst HR professionals manage the employer brand, we need to look at the wider impact their work has,

 

It is as important to make employees as well as consumers advocates for your organisation. Whilst every advertisement and every newspaper article has an impact on the employer brand, likewise every conversation an employee has about their place of work has an impact on the consumer brand. As marketeers we are always looking to influence word of mouth conversations, isn’t collaboration between MarComms and HR the answer?

 

When an engaged employee discusses their feelings towards their work and employer positively, we know this impacts the employer brand. It influences the listener to consider working there or be an advocate if their advice is requested. It also impacts the public brand as it can influence the decision to purchase their products or services too.

 

Employee engagement is a high priority in the HR community but the marketing community should be listening too and getting involved as this has a direct impact on what they are trying to achieve. Employee engagement is not only part of the solution to employee retention and effectiveness it is the way to build the brand from the grass roots up, influencing potential customers and candidates alike at a micro level.

 

When 90% of customers identify word of mouth as the best, most reliable and trustworthy source about ideas and information on products and services (NOP World) who is better placed to spread the word but those in the know, actual employees.

 

We rely on our marketing and communications experts to support the drive for increased sales and greater awareness. We task HR with reducing the overall recruitment expenditure by focusing on employee retention.

 

If HR professionals and marketing professionals worked together to focus on every organisations greatest resource, its people, two of every organisations constant challenges can be impacted – decreasing the cost of recruitment and increasing the number of sales.

Is there a difference between a corporate site and a careers site?

How often does the corporate site let down the careers site? We know the opposite can be true. With HR owning the careers section and MarComms owning the corporate site the experience isn’t always consistent. I know the rationale is that they have different target audiences and need to convey different messages and information - but does that really still hold true in these times of customers being potential employees being potential investors being potential brand advocates or detractors?

Surely the overall experience of an organistion impacts the brand no matter what the initial touch point. The corporate site has as much impact on potential candidates as the careers site if not more if it is particularly good or bad.

A recent review “What the latest minds are doing with their new websites” – http://adage.com/columns/article?article-id=126674 showcased some amazing corporate sites that creative agencies in the US have recently launched. It introduced me to www.barbariangroup.com which I thought does an amazing job at communicating an essence of the culture and personality of the agency – it made me want to work there and that was without there being any separate employer brand – it didn’t need one. Whether this ‘promise’ is carrried through in the employee experience I don’t know as I don’t know anyone who works there, what with me being in Sydney but I hope so - it would be such a disappointment if they didn’t.

As an aside, another site showcased, www.modernista.com is like no other site I have seen and is remarkable in that it utilises all of the social media and information sites out there to showcase its work – it really gives you a sense of things to come. I showed it to a client who felt it was just so far out there, but I think that is because it is a completely different way of thinking about and looking at things - give it time and this kind of site will be the norm. Its an interesting case study for building an online brand by harnessing all that Web2.0 has to offer.

Employees’ voices are getting louder

When conducting some research on Facebook (I had already caught up on what my own network had been up to so had some free time) I was surprised to find a group that had been set up to discuss the grievances of a person in a large multi national company. Even though it was one individual in the US and there weren’t that many people in the group, it got me thinking that from “small acorns large oak trees grow”.

Employees no longer have to fight for a voice. With the advent of social media networks like facebook, as individuals we are all empowered to air our views to the wider community. In this case there were over 500 people on facebook who were either working for or had worked for the organisation across the world. That doesn’t include potential employees or customers. With this kind of network the voice of a single employee just got louder.

But is this company listening? And are organisations in general listening? A group of this nature has the power to do a great deal of damage to the company’s employer brand if it gains momentum. It can show the employer brand to be just words and images in an ad or a poster if not translated into postiive action by the company itself. This is a great opportunity for the organisation to actually respond and get involved in the conversation. This can have a twofold effect – 1. confirming to their current workforce that they do listen, whatever the outcome which indicates how important their employees are and that ; and 2. communicating a sense of their culture to the outside world that says they are modern, open and honest which is what a lot of people look for in an employer.  

When companies spend thousands of $$$ building an employer brand through the traditional routes and press their agency for a return on investment – any headway made can be wiped away by a simple conversation being had out of ear shot. Its time for companies to start listening and join in the conversation because the conversations will only get louder as more people join in.

joining the conversation

Much is being said in the area of employer branding and employee comms and this blog is going to be my contribution to the ongoing conversation.

Everyday I read the latest thoughts on ‘what is an employer brand and what are the benefits?’, ’how do you better engage employees to meet business goals?’, etc… This will be the forum that I can express my thoughts and reactions rather than just sharing with those who are around and happen to be listening.

Its all about journeys and this is the beginning of mine.