Mastering Employer Branding
Key Takeaways from The Rust Belt Rundown Podcast
Our CEO, Jason Therrien, was recently interviewed by Rust Belt Recruiting for their podcast, The Rust Belt Rundown which covers all things related to talent in the manufacturing industry.
Based on thunder::tech’s growing practice area of employer branding and recruitment marketing services for midsize brands, Rust Belt Recruiting interviewed Jason about his take on this important area of recruiting and brand building. The marketing solutions discussed are invaluable for all industries, but given Rust Belt Recruiting’s audience, were tailored to the industrial segment and their unique needs and challenges with talent who as Jason said “have a good story waiting to be told to the public”.
For a taste of their conversation, around minute 13 in the interview, there’s a great back and forth about what employer branding is and a couple of observations that Jason has when it comes to the minimal investment that is made in recruiting to show how great a brand can be to work for:
Paul O’Connor, Rust Belt Rundown Host: Okay, let's transition for people that have no idea what employer branding is. Can you explain what that means? And you know why it's so important, particularly for companies in the manufacturing sector?
Jason Therrien, CEO of thunder::tech: So let me let me set a baseline here, I grew up in a transportation business that my father had started, so I've worked on a shop floor and turned wrenches and all that. Most of thunder::tech’s work in the early days was in the industrial realm as a result of knowing that sector, and today we still purposefully keep our clients balanced at about 50/50 between B2B and B2C accounts. So, I love industrial brands, I love manufacturers and I'm really excited to talk about this topic, because this is one of those constant areas that we see brands struggle with. I believe nearly every organization can get much better with their employer branding which would then take some of the pain off their plates with recruiting.
In essence, employer branding is really the same idea as your outward facing consumer branding. Employer branding is the promise of the brand to your employment base instead of a customer base. It's what you stand for, to both current and prospective employees. It's really that strategy to influence how folks perceive you and build your reputation as an employer. Then you can use it to attract and retain talent by representing the brand's values, work culture, and so on.
Employer branding is something that exists whether you want it or not. And it's just one of those areas where you can more proactively care and feed it.
Paul: So, let's say you walk into a manufacturer or, whatever type of business it is, and they haven't been paying attention to employer branding and they haven't really been actively engaged. And like you said, it exists whether you invest in it or not. What is step one like, how do you bring them along the journey of why a brand should invest in this?
Jason: I think this is so much more easily understood today after the Great Resignation. thunder::tech worked with clients prior to that in fields with a lot of turnover or just a lot of volume to help them in various facets of their employer brand, but when the Great Resignation happened, all of a sudden the C-suite had five alarm bells going off and forced HR to go down the hall to talk to Marketing.
Most HR departments I've talked to have much more in common with their Legal department than their Marketing department. You know, there's plenty of reasons for that, but they don't tie the bow around the job and put the pretty packaging around the employer brand. And it's a shortcoming in today’s competitive market. So that's where, when we start with a brand, the first step is really understanding what we are dealing with. Are you in a place of strength? Are there areas to work on? What are those and how do we go about taking you more consciously out to market with your employer brand?
Paul: You mentioned going to market with your employer brand. What does that look like from a social media perspective? Are you helping them tell their stories? Are you highlighting employees? What type of storytelling and why is that important on social? So, what does that process look like?
Jason: It's an excellent point and social media is just one piece of assisting with employer branding, and there's a lot of pieces to this puzzle. Story telling is an affirmation or a vehicle for your reputation and we've seen a lot of great brands that even if you weren't aware of them, you get the job posting out there and they come to your site. We look at what are you delivering to them?
The majority of websites out there are built for the client or prospective customer of a brand. The employee section, you know that that job section, sometimes it's just one page and it's a huge disservice to that audience. Even if you start building it out and there's a little more there, someone's signing up for months, years, maybe decades of service with you. A brand can give them more than that one page in that job listing. So, like you said, a lot comes back to storytelling which could be video, testimonials, or pictures. It needs to be an understanding, a glimpse into your world and what this person is possibly signing up for.
With the demographic shifts happening and certainly the societal shifts we talked about earlier, brands are being interviewed before people are applying. So, if I go to your site, whether I've heard of you or not, and I'm unimpressed by your career section, I don't like your odds on having me apply. There are too many job openings out there today that you've got to be fighting for attention in a different way than you have before.
For more employer branding nugget like this including Jason’s two favorite mexican restaurants, check out the podcast!
If you’re interested in going deeper into building an employer brand, we have covered it in a variety of ways at thunder::tech including several blog posts such as these:
Happy marketing!
Based on thunder::tech’s growing practice area of employer branding and recruitment marketing services for midsize brands, Rust Belt Recruiting interviewed Jason about his take on this important area of recruiting and brand building. The marketing solutions discussed are invaluable for all industries, but given Rust Belt Recruiting’s audience, were tailored to the industrial segment and their unique needs and challenges with talent who as Jason said “have a good story waiting to be told to the public”.
Paul O’Connor, Rust Belt Rundown Host: Okay, let's transition for people that have no idea what employer branding is. Can you explain what that means? And you know why it's so important, particularly for companies in the manufacturing sector?
Jason Therrien, CEO of thunder::tech: So let me let me set a baseline here, I grew up in a transportation business that my father had started, so I've worked on a shop floor and turned wrenches and all that. Most of thunder::tech’s work in the early days was in the industrial realm as a result of knowing that sector, and today we still purposefully keep our clients balanced at about 50/50 between B2B and B2C accounts. So, I love industrial brands, I love manufacturers and I'm really excited to talk about this topic, because this is one of those constant areas that we see brands struggle with. I believe nearly every organization can get much better with their employer branding which would then take some of the pain off their plates with recruiting.
In essence, employer branding is really the same idea as your outward facing consumer branding. Employer branding is the promise of the brand to your employment base instead of a customer base. It's what you stand for, to both current and prospective employees. It's really that strategy to influence how folks perceive you and build your reputation as an employer. Then you can use it to attract and retain talent by representing the brand's values, work culture, and so on.
Employer branding is something that exists whether you want it or not. And it's just one of those areas where you can more proactively care and feed it.
Paul: So, let's say you walk into a manufacturer or, whatever type of business it is, and they haven't been paying attention to employer branding and they haven't really been actively engaged. And like you said, it exists whether you invest in it or not. What is step one like, how do you bring them along the journey of why a brand should invest in this?
Jason: I think this is so much more easily understood today after the Great Resignation. thunder::tech worked with clients prior to that in fields with a lot of turnover or just a lot of volume to help them in various facets of their employer brand, but when the Great Resignation happened, all of a sudden the C-suite had five alarm bells going off and forced HR to go down the hall to talk to Marketing.
Most HR departments I've talked to have much more in common with their Legal department than their Marketing department. You know, there's plenty of reasons for that, but they don't tie the bow around the job and put the pretty packaging around the employer brand. And it's a shortcoming in today’s competitive market. So that's where, when we start with a brand, the first step is really understanding what we are dealing with. Are you in a place of strength? Are there areas to work on? What are those and how do we go about taking you more consciously out to market with your employer brand?
Paul: You mentioned going to market with your employer brand. What does that look like from a social media perspective? Are you helping them tell their stories? Are you highlighting employees? What type of storytelling and why is that important on social? So, what does that process look like?
Jason: It's an excellent point and social media is just one piece of assisting with employer branding, and there's a lot of pieces to this puzzle. Story telling is an affirmation or a vehicle for your reputation and we've seen a lot of great brands that even if you weren't aware of them, you get the job posting out there and they come to your site. We look at what are you delivering to them?
The majority of websites out there are built for the client or prospective customer of a brand. The employee section, you know that that job section, sometimes it's just one page and it's a huge disservice to that audience. Even if you start building it out and there's a little more there, someone's signing up for months, years, maybe decades of service with you. A brand can give them more than that one page in that job listing. So, like you said, a lot comes back to storytelling which could be video, testimonials, or pictures. It needs to be an understanding, a glimpse into your world and what this person is possibly signing up for.
With the demographic shifts happening and certainly the societal shifts we talked about earlier, brands are being interviewed before people are applying. So, if I go to your site, whether I've heard of you or not, and I'm unimpressed by your career section, I don't like your odds on having me apply. There are too many job openings out there today that you've got to be fighting for attention in a different way than you have before.
For more employer branding nugget like this including Jason’s two favorite mexican restaurants, check out the podcast!
If you’re interested in going deeper into building an employer brand, we have covered it in a variety of ways at thunder::tech including several blog posts such as these:
Happy marketing!
About the Author
Jason Therrien is the President and CEO of thunder::tech. He is a fan of entrepreneurs and trailblazers, a proud dad and he liked scotch before Mad Men.