You can fill your website, job ads, and social media with talk about how great your company is and how much you value your employees. But the truth is, this won’t necessarily build your employer brand. Why? Because job seekers want authenticity. In fact, the comments we received from job seekers in our annual Talent Trends Report reveal what they are looking for:
“Give me a real picture of the company’s working environment, not the usual made-in-heaven company profile.”
“Connect me with insiders – nothing like hearing straight from the horse’s mouth.”
“I would like to hear the positives and negatives from real professional staff members – not the marketing gloss from the CEO or marketing. Real people. Real jobs.”
As you can see, candidates want an honest view of what it’s like to work at your company. From the culture and values to employee perspectives, your employer brand needs to clearly communicate what your company offers, and genuinely show the working environment.
But how do you tell a power and authentic story about your company culture? With your employees! Here are three quick-hit tactics to incorporate your employees into your employer branding efforts, used in 3 Brilliant LinkedIn Career Pages.
1. Shangri-La Hotel and Resorts runs quarterly campaigns that show employee perspective
Shangri-La Hotel and Resorts has a legendary history of exemplary service and demand for excellence. To breathe some life into their employer brand, Human Resources Officer Arthur Wan launched an employee campaign called #HIStory #HERstory. Each quarter, employees around the world nominate stories about themselves or their peers. Arthur takes these unique stories and creates visual-based employer branding content that shows the employees’ perspectives of the diverse opportunities at every hotel.
One regional recruiter recommended a Shangri-La pastry chef who grew up as a carpenter and won Best Ice Sculptor in the World Pastry Cup. They filmed his story and shared the video across Shangri-La employer branding channels. Arthur believes authentic employee stories like this really captures candidates’ attention and creates a strong connection.
2. World Vision hosts a photo contests for employees to gather team pictures
Christine Snell, Employment Brand Specialist at World Vision, is focused on unifying the global non-profit’s employer brand. With 45,000+ employees in 90+ locations, she wanted to balance the variety of job opportunities with a single employer brand identity. So she ran a photo contest called, “Orange you glad we’re a team?” Employees were asked to snap and send team photos that included something orange – the organization’s signature hue.
The result? A diverse array of team photos from around the world with brand consistency, creating a unified look for their Careers Pages. They constantly curate fresh photos by promoting the company hashtag, working with their internal communications team, and checking in regularly with regional offices.
3. Anheuser-Busch InBev organizes personal branding sessions for employees
To attract talent in key job functions, Anheuser-Busch InBev Employer Brand Manager Charlotte Matthews turns employees into employer brand ambassadors. She regularly organizes 2-hour personal branding sessions that teach employees how to rock their LinkedIn profile, post status updates and write articles. From university hires to established VPs, this top-down and bottom-up approach helps employees share their professional expertise and ultimately draw their industry peers to jobs at AB InBev.
With a little help from their creative agency, Charlotte also makes it easy for employees to write articles on LinkedIn. First, they interview the employee about their job and record the conversation. Then, they send the recording to their agency to write the post. Once complete, the only thing the employee has to do is sign off and publish the article on the LinkedIn Publishing platform.
For more employer branding tips and tricks from these companies, check out the lookbook.
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Topics: Employer brand
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