Last month, Jim Welch brought his 25 years of management and leadership expertise to CareerBuilder, hosting a special webinar, Real World Employment Branding: A Blueprint for Success. Welch discussed his experience as Chief Marketing Offier of Hallmark, where he played a leading role in the creation and implementation of the company’s successful employment brand strategy. Below are some of the major takeaways.

“What I’ve Learned…” Employment Branding Lessons from Industry Expert Jim Welch

1. Size doesn’t matter.“You can implement a successful employment brand strategy, regardless of your size and also regardless of your budget,” Welch emphasizes from the start. To cap his point, he later offers the following tips to help you develop your employment brand:
   • Ask your employees first.  Employee surveys are critical for understanding your employment brand as other see it (i.e., as it truly is). Asking questions like, “What single thing do you value most about your company?” and “Would you recommend our company to your friends as a place to work? Why or why not?” will help you find your organization’s critical points of difference.
   • Create multiple messages for multiple audiences.  The wants and needs of Gen Y workers and Gen X workers differ; therefore, so should your employment branding messages.
   • Be a storyteller. “Great employment brands have great stories,” says Welch. Find a way to tell a story about your brand. Gather employee testimonials to post on your careers site and social media pages, for example.  Find way out to spread your brand message that is personal and emphasizes that emotional connection (see #2 below).
   • Celebrate your brand with your employees. Some ways to do this include hosting employee workshops, during which employees can share stories that they believe represent your company’s employment brand; or hosting  a ‘brand week’ with activities that emphasize your organization’s culture and values. In fact…
   • Have a year-round calendar of employment branding events and touch points. “Think of it as a marketing calendar you use for clients and customers – but toward both current and employees,” says Welch. Not only will it ensure employment branding remains a priority, it will also help you identify any employment branding gaps.
2. Emotions trump logic. “We need to move from a transactional decision to an emotional decision,” says Welch, pointing out that some of life’s biggest decisions – including whether to join or leave a company, are emotion-based decisions.  Employers need to appeal to that emotional connection in employees. “We don’t just need every brain in the game, we need every brain and heart in the game.”
3. Your employees are your customers. “Employment branding is really about your total employment experience. It’s also your reputation as an employer.” For many employers, thinking about their employment brand means adopting different mindset – that of employee as customer. Employee loyalty is just as crucial to nurture as customer loyalty.
4. Your employment brand is your company brand. Your employment brand doesn’t just help you retain and attract employees, but customers and clients as well: “Your employment brand makes you more attractive to as a strategic partner to other companies, because it creates an environment of innovation and growth – an environment that people want to be a part of.  It also impacts customer or client loyalty.” As the face of your organization, your employees – and how they feel about you as an employer – influence how customers and clients feel about your organization as well.

“Employment branding is easy to put off, but there’s a window now to position yourself to come out ahead in the economy,” Welch says at one point during his presentation. With the down economy where it is – and the job market on its way to recovery – it no longer makes sense to say, “People are just happy to have a job right now.” The best people are always the ones to leave first after a recession, so the time is now to focus on your employment brand, and position your organization to come out ahead as the economy recovers.

Want to know more? Check out my earlier interview with Jim Welch, or feel free to download the complete employment branding webinar.