Brand or Process – When it comes down to it – what really matters?
BrandingPublished June 9, 2009 at 12:46 pm No Comments
This weekend I did a whirlwind tour of California and managed to make it through Monterey Bay, Yosemite & San Francisco all in 2 1/2 days.
Here is a list of 10 things I learned on this trip:
1. Avis will not let you pick up your car 12 minutes early. You have to sit and wait.
2. If you let a surfer on a bike in Santa Cruz pass, instead of waving you get the hang loose sign
3. There is a limit to how much clam chowder you can eat (Trust me, I am shocked myself!)
4. Some 16 year olds think that the new “Come on Eileen” is not a remix, rather a new song
5. It is amazing to be in a place of nature so much bigger than yourself
6. A 7 mile hike in the woods is better than a 2 mile run on a treadmill
7. Roundtable Pizza is still my favorite pizza of all time
8. San Francisco is way cooler than I expected
9. Relaxing & Sleeping on vacation is overrated
10. I enjoy reading (this will come into play in a future blog posting)
While on the surface, these things may not seem to have anything in common with each other, let alone recruiting – I assue you – in my own strange way, I think they really do. You see, for the last few years we have been bombarded with the importance of your employment brand and how valuable it is to organizations. We have (At least I have) sat through hours of webinars, articles, presentations and discussions about why branding what the best thing ever and the million different ways that it can be done to make you the best organization out there in terms of the way potential employees view you. Through all of it, I have actually always wondered why no one took it the step further and discussed not only how important it was to do the branding on the front end and to really live the brand but be absolutely positive that your process upholds the image and brand you want to project. To me, it is all about the perception matching up with the reality of what is going on in your organization.
Take my list for example and you can see that there are a few spots where what you think would happen actually do.
2. If you let a surfer on a bike in Santa Cruz pass, instead of waving you get the hang loose sign
5. It is amazing to be in a place of nature so much bigger than yourself
6. A 7 mile hike in the woods is better than a 2 mile run on a treadmill
7. Roundtable Pizza is still my favorite pizza of all time
For me the perception of what the image or brand had been presented as (Yosemite is awe inspiring and amazing, Surfers are friendly and laid back) is exactly what happened when I was able to experience it for my self.
On the other hand is where your expectations are not met with the reality of the situation.
1. Avis will not let you pick up your car 12 minutes early. You have to sit and wait.
3. There is a limit to how much clam chowder you can eat
8. San Francisco is way cooler than I expected
9. Relaxing & Sleeping on vacation is overrated
10. I actually enjoy reading (this will come into play in my next blog posting)
For me – I was actually quite surprised at things on my trip – Avis whose motto is “we try harder” refused to let a number of people check in for their cars earlier than they had anticipated. One couple next to us had to wait 2 minutes. What exactly are they trying harder at?
San Francisco, which we went to on a total whim, was not the homeless infested, scary city you sometimes hear about here in the midwest. In fact – I absolutely fell in love with it and plan to go back for a full weekend later this summer.
OK – so, some of you are still wondering how this relates to recruiting – basically – make sure your branding matches what is the real experience the candidates have when they come into your recruiting process.
If your branding is amazing talking about the ‘people focus’ (or what ever else you may be focused on) and someone comes through the recruiting process and finds it to be disconnected, hard to get responses, generic and impersonal, even if your company really does have a great ‘people focus’ for its employees your recruiting process doesn’t allow that to shine through and your image or brand is not meeting the expectations and is just working against you.
On the flip side, if you have poor branding but your process is great then it gives them a great impression of you as an organization – but it really isn’t working in your favor. Not properly branding your organization is like a company forgetting to advertise they have a product to sell. You could be missing some great prospective employees who just honestly don’t know who you are or what to do. In this case you are like the 16 year olds who thought “Come on Eileen” was a new song – excited to find a song they like, but clueless where it came from.
So - Brand or Process – When it comes down to it – what really matters? Both!
The reality of the situation is that today, a company needs to have a solid employment brand that is an accurate reflection of who the company is and what they expect/want from future employees. It should also have a process that is in line with their employment brand and who they are as an organization. (The expectation & experience should line up – Yosemite for example)
So, the overall moral of the story is the fact that your employment brand is important, but the process that you employ from resume submission through start date is equally as important and should be constantly reviewed and evaluated.
