Hire the talent you need by getting your company’s brand right
When I was early on in my career at Bridgewater, I assumed the position of Dartmouth “School Head.” This meant that I was responsible for working with the Campus Recruiting team to develop a strategy to attract Dartmouth students to Bridgewater for entry-level Investment and Management positions.
In an attempt to be creative, I came up with a seven stanza poem to be used in a marketing email to the graduating class of 2011. I sent it to my manager for review, and at 2:15 am, I got this response (edited): “That’s crazy. It is hard for me to imagine anyone reading past line 4 and taking us seriously”.
This was my first real exposure to the challenges of employer branding.
Getting employer branding right is tough. For lesser-known brands, how does one stand out? For established brands, how do you ensure that people are attracted to you for the right reasons?
Having worked now with countless companies across the spectrum of brand recognition, it’s become very clear to me that, while the outward image a company portrays to the world is extremely important, it’s the small ways that companies interact with candidates that can make all the difference.
Think about your process: Does your job description communicate the value prop of an opportunity? Do you employ consistent communication throughout the interview process? Are your interviewers polite and respectful?
Candidates see the interview experience as a proxy for what the actual working experience will be like at a company. These interpersonal interactions are just as important (if not more) when it comes to the essence of employer branding and how it influences your ability to close the right talent for your firm.
Sometimes, I still think that my poem might have been the right tone and just different enough to entice the quirky Dartmouth class of 2011. And yet, now that I’m almost 10 years wiser, I think that my boss was probably right in that it might have done more damage than good.
Stay Healthy, Stay Strong,
Jax
CEO & Co-founder, Scouted
#hirepeoplenotresumes