Employers who grasp the connection between marketing techniques and talent attraction stand to gain the upper hand. Strong brands know who they are and engender consumer loyalty by living a life of alignment. This helps consumers know what they stand for and understand how to interact with them. To illustrate the point, let’s use the McDonald’s brand. No one would walk into a McDonald’s restaurant in search of a spaghetti dinner. Nor would we sit down at one of their molded plastic tables and expect wait staff to arrive with an order pad. We know McDonald’s for what their brand is: speed, a fairly consistent menu across geographies, and a standard ordering process that begins at the cash register.

Is there such a thing as a completely unique employment brand? Perhaps if you are the White House, Disneyland or Google. Most employers, however, struggle to determine what is truly unique about them that can attract candidates who have many choices.
Healthcare organizations describe themselves as “caring” places, where “you can make a difference.” Companies tell us that it’s all about “collaboration,” where your colleagues “feel like family.” Others speak in general terms about “career growth and opportunity.”
How do you cut through the clichés and create something memorable and enticing to candidates, especially when you may not have one startlingly unique attribute to advertise? Consider the following:

If there is one company whose outlook and understanding of corporate culture impresses me, it is Zappos. What started as an online shoe retailer with an aim of providing the widest selection of footwear, later became a full-line clothing and merchandise provider with an annual revenue of over 1 billion USD. Their revised goal was to provide exceptional customer service to prompt repeat business. This has become their recipe for success.

Once upon a time (sometime around 2005), most companies had mastered the art of using online tools to promote their products or services. Their websites were primarily focused on business activities and while some banner advertising and basic search engine optimization helped advertise their business on the web, it did little to promote the company brand to potential recruits. For that companies posted opportunities on their websites and possibly advertised them on BCjobs.ca or other job seeker sites.

On average, people do 22 Google searches per day, each lasting about 11 seconds. Google has replaced encyclopaedias, directories and even ‘Mom’ in many cases (don’t tell her I said that) as the go-to resource for seeking answers. So it should come as no surprise that when people want to find out more about what kind of company yours is to work for, they ask Google.

Social media is all about transparency. This can be a good thing! It’s a great opportunity for your company to share what it’s really like to work there, and show off the personality of your brand and your people. So how can you highlight the personality of your staff, and the environment of your company on sites like Facebook?

Yes, yes, Wikipedia is not exactly the latest technology, but it still delivers on providing the latest information on anything, including your organization and its reputation as an employer.

While recently on a trip down in the US, I was asked to participate in a taste test for Coke vs. Pepsi. Really… taste tests are still around. And this got me thinking about branding and how HR can make a difference to a corporate brand.