In yesterday’s Advisor Dr. John Sullivan—professor, author, corporate speaker, and advisor—gave advice concerning employment branding. Today we hear more from him.
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Q: What role do you think alumni programs play in a branding program?
A: Well, I call them “brand ambassadors.” These people love your company—they left for whatever reason—but they still love your company, they know your company, and they meet lots of people. First of all, they can make referrals if someone says, “What’s it like to work there?” They say positive things, but they also improve sales. Firms like Deloitte for example, DeVita, [and] McKinsey all have very strong programs. There used to be meetups, but now they are more electronic, because your alumni are spread all over the world.
It’s become quite popular—you can hold [meetups] on a Facebook page…and it doesn’t cost you money. You can find your alumni quite easily, because they’re on LinkedIn … it’s a very important program.
The last part is what we call “boomerangs.” If you have someone like LeBron, who went to Cleveland, wouldn’t it make sense to keep in touch with him to tell him what’s going on in Miami in the hopes that he might return? That would be a boomerang rehire.
So, [there are] lots of benefits [and] very few costs. Newsletters and all that stuff that we used to do paper and mail outs [for] now can be electronic, and it turns out nearly half of people who worked for a company for a few years want to be part of the alumni. They want to be kept in touch with, and that includes … retirees who, because of the stock market and things like that, might reconsider their retirement and want to come back. It’s a great program: low cost, high impact.
Want to learn more about employment branding? Start on Friday, October 2, 2015, with a new interactive webinar—Employment Branding: 8 Secrets to Unlocking Your Organization’s Branding Success! Learn More
Q: What are the components of an internal branding program?
A: Well, internal branding is what your current employees think about you (both positive and negative) and what they tell people. The first thing is some sort of employee survey; not an engagement survey, but “What are you happy with/what are you not happy with?” “What are you telling your friends about?” Next, it’s retention. Obviously you want to make sure that people stay, so when they leave, you [should] ask them why, and see if the reasons they are leaving could have been helped by branding. And last, customer impact. You want your employees to be happy, but what’s the impact if they say nothing and sit in the corner? It turns out in retail and in many areas, [employees] interact with a customer. So, you want to find out through surveys of employees and customers what … the employees say about you, positive or negative. And you can’t go to them and force them to [say] positive things, but … you can put together how your firm is superior, and how it treats people better.
Q: How is this branding really different from good, intentional culture management? It seems both are focused on who we are as a company and how we speak and act.
A: Well, culture is broader, and employer branding is a business ROI. So you’re not doing it … just to make the culture better [or] to make people happy. You’re doing it because if you don’t do well, retention will go straight down and, as I mentioned before, sales will be effected. It’s more focused, more businesslike, [and] easier to quantify.
We live in a highly competitive business world that demands speed and innovation. So, if you expect to be successful, it’s essential that your firm has the capability of attracting top talent that can move fast and innovate. How to get there? Fortunately there’s timely help in the form of BLR’s new webinar—Employment Branding: 8 Secrets to Unlocking Your Organization’s Branding Success! In just 60 minutes, on Friday, October 2, you’ll learn everything you need to know about building a great employment brand.
Register today for this interactive webinar.
Learn all about employment branding. Join us Friday, October 2, 2015, for a new interactive webinar, Employment Branding: 8 Secrets to Unlocking Your Organization’s Branding Success! Earn 1 hour in HRCI Recertification Credit and 1 hour in SHRM Professional Development Credit. Register Now
By participating in this interactive webinar, you’ll learn:
- Measure the current strength of your employer brand
- Identify the company and job factors that will most effectively attract your target audience
- Understand the most effective approaches utilized by employer brand powerhouse firms like Google, GE and P & G and why they work
- Adapt the most relevant benchmark branding approaches and methods to your firm
- Build an inventory of the best stories and examples that your employees, managers, and recruiters can spread
- Ensure that your message is highly visible on the Internet and on social media
- Counter any negative image factors facing your firm
- Increase product sales as a result of your positive employer brand image
- And much more!
Register now for this event risk-free.
Friday, October 2, 2015
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Eastern)
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (Central)
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Mountain)
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Pacific)
Approved for Recertification Credit and Professional Development Credit
This program has been approved for 1 credit hour toward recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) and 1 credit hour towards SHRM-CPSM or SHRM-SCPSM.
Join us on Friday, October 2, 2015—you’ll get the in-depth Employment Branding: 8 Secrets to Unlocking Your Organization’s Branding Success! webinar AND you’ll get all of your particular questions answered by our experts.
Train Your Entire Staff
As with all BLR®/HR Hero® webinars:
- Train all the staff you can fit around a conference phone.
- Get your (and their) specific phoned-in or e-mailed questions answered in Q&A sessions that follow the presentation.