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We joined the world’s largest gathering of leaders in Employer Branding once again. Our Account Director Neneh was on hand to give us her top 5 take aways from the event in Prague.
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit Prague for couple of days and while a fair few chimney cakes and klobasa sausages were consumed (when in Prague!) the absolute highlight of the trip was attending this year’s World Employer Branding Day Conference.
Attended by over 450 delegates from organisations around the globe, it was the world’s largest gathering of leaders in Employer Branding. The conference was an incredible opportunity to share ideas and best practice, swap stories and challenges, and generally find out what the likes of Google, Accenture, LinkedIn and Adidas are doing when it comes to Employer Brand.
Check out my top 5 take aways from this year’s conference below:
Authenticity is (still) king From Accenture and Arval, to SAP, Google and AXA, one thing was clear; everyone was using their own people to shape their employer brand. From creating full-blown advertising campaigns starring their people, to hosting interviews and Q&As on social media, everyone who presented agreed that using their people was the best way to tell their story. What’s more, nearly every presentation’s key learnings mentioned how important it is to be real and authentic in their communications. It’s something we’ve preached about for a while at Synergy, so it was great to see this is now considered best practice across the industry.
Reaching the right talent takes more than job board hunting A strong employer brand works wonders when it comes to recruitment, so it was no surprise that attracting talent was once again a hot topic at this year’s conference. But what was really interesting was how some organisations are going that one step further to reach the right people.
Interestingly, enterprise software giant SAP sponsors its very own eSports team ‘Team Liquid’ with the purpose of promoting their employer brand specifically to passive job seekers in the tech space. eSport’s user demographic is primarily made up of young, educated individuals who spend the majority of their time online, providing SAP with an excellent opportunity to reach potential developers, IT and digital professionals outside of job boards.
Accenture is also doing things differently with their recruitment, focusing on attracting talented grads that excel at problem solving (over specific qualifications or experience). They shared some fantastic examples of how to draw in people with the right attributes and skills at graduate fairs, featuring everything from cool installations, VR experiences and brain challenges, through to an on-campus oxygen bar designed to enhance awareness and lateral thinking.
Turning insight into action – Arval’s The Journey Makers
A key highpoint of the day for me was watching our very own Nicky Clark and Chris Giddings share the story of how we’ve helped our lovely client Arval inform and cultivate their beautiful new employer brand – The Journey Makers. I love how it's insight-led, created through time spent with Arval’s people, interviewing external candidates and reviewing over 250 Glassdoor reviews. Nicky and Chris shared the process of how we helped Arval use this insight to determine what truly makes them special.
To find out more about The Journey Makers, check out this link>>
Even Google needs to keep working to stay ahead of the game For as long as I can remember, Google has always been one of those huge tech brands that everyone wants to work for. Hollywood even made a movie about working there!
It was therefore really interesting to hear them talk about the journey they’ve had to go through to differentiate themselves from other tech brands. Originally considered ‘ahead of the game’, Google didn’t have to work too hard in the later years to continue to attract lots of applications. However, after time they found that a lot of their competitors were starting to sound well...a lot like Google - and that this was having a considerable effect on the quality of applications they were receiving.
With a primary focus on increasing their headcount by 30% year on year, Google needed to up their game to ensure they stood out from other tech brands in the crowd. They went back to the beginning, using their business mission, founders letter and a whole lotta employee insight to determine what it is that makes them so ‘Google’. The result, a vamped up employer brand and a shiny new careers website that mirrors the simplicity of their original search engine.
Fun and employer brand go hand in hand One of the best presentations of the day came from Johan Driessens the Chief Enthusiasm Officer at Branded.Careers. Johan talked all about the importance of FUN both in the everyday workplace and in cultivating a really powerful employer brand. Their presentation talked about the R.O.I of having fun in the workplace and primarily focused on the increase in motivation/productivity this has on employees. They also gave some fantastic ideas on how to inject fun into work, from holding fancy dress meetings, dance breaks to even ‘bring a puppy to work day’ (Something I am very keen for)!
After all that it was time to say goodbye to Prague. What a brilliant few days and it was inspiring to see all the great employer branding work, and the talent that makes it possible in one place. Can’t wait for World Employer Branding Day 2019!
The original article can be found on Synergy Creative's website by clicking here>>