Key takeaways:
- Focusing on employees’ experiences can authentically showcase your brand’s success. Utilize internal advocates and encourage user-generated content to share genuine stories externally, highlighting your organization’s identity.
- Showcase authentic experiences by featuring employees in videos, allowing them to interview each other and discover commonalities and differences.
- By incorporating AI technologies in a human-centered manner, you can innovate your employer branding strategy and stand out in the talent market.
In the ever-evolving job market, transparency and authenticity are key for talent marketing leaders looking to connect with job seekers.
Communicating your brand’s successes while maintaining humility can be a delicate task.
Join us as we delve into the insights shared by Talent Marketing Board members who discussed strategies for authentic employer branding.
Senior talent leaders gave insights on how to effectively amplify your employer brand to build trust with your audience and best practices for managing AI.
Balancing humility and brand promotion: Authenticity in your employer brand
Communicating your brand’s successes authentically is important in gaining trust with current and potential employees. But when executives feel that celebrating accomplishments appears self-serving, how can you effectively market your employer brand?
In a confidential leadership discussion on promoting brands within a “humble” culture, Talent Marketing Board members explored strategies to authentically communicate brand successes and amplify accomplishments both internally and externally without compromising humility.
Members discussed the power of focusing on employees to promote brand success and shared that while certain charitable or relief efforts may not be suitable for publicizing, business leaders can leverage employee profiles to showcase the positive impact their brand is making.
One talent marketing leader gave insights on using employee storytelling for authentic employer branding. They suggested leveraging your internal advocates for user-generated content and prioritizing sharing personal stories externally to showcase your organization’s identity.
That member said utilizing animated graphics for social media, incorporating videos into job requisitions, and publishing relevant blogs on your careers site is essential in communicating your employer brand.
Highlighting employee interactions in your video strategy will enhance your authenticity
Former Talent Marketing Board Member Jessica McCadden, Senior Digital Writer at Adobe’s Digital Experience team, spoke with us about how her team built out an authentic employer brand through their video strategy during her time at Capital One.
As a Video Content Strategist, she noticed many talent marketing videos spanning various industries frequently showcased a single individual speaking directly to the camera.
“What you’re missing there is the natural human interaction that happens every day in the workplace,” Jessica said. “I wanted to bring that feeling of connection into the videos, giving potential candidates a better sense of what it’s actually like to work at Capital One.”
The Capital One team launched a video series called “Creating Connections” to showcase the authentic experiences of their associates. The series paired associates who had never met before, allowing them to interview each other and discover commonalities and differences.
Jessica said the team emphasized aligning stories with high-level goals and tailoring messaging to specific audiences.
“You need to think, ‘How am I going to connect with the audience so they care about what we’re telling them and see the value in our content?’” Jessica said. “I think people connect with other people before they’ll connect with a brand, so we need to keep that mindset at the forefront.”
She explained how they ensured each associate’s story drove the creative process and demystified the inner workings of the company.
Navigating the AI Boom in Talent Marketing: What “Being Real” Means in 2023
As talent marketing leaders rely on tools to filter job ads, many candidates are using ChatGPT and other AI tools to enhance their applications.
In another Talent Marketing Board member discussion, industry professionals came together to explore the impact of AI tools on the authenticity of company stories and candidate applications.
During the conversation, members conducted an experiment, testing how ChatGPT generated job descriptions and drip campaigns.
While skepticism existed about handing over content creation entirely to AI tools due to potential errors and biases, members found value in using these tools as brainstorming aids, generating ideas to fuel their creativity.
Throughout the discussion, members shared resources to deepen the understanding of AI in talent marketing. Topics covered included comparing chat tools, the potential for gender bias, AI’s impact on sourcing roles, and the use of AI in streamlining hiring and onboarding processes.
Leveraging AI-generated avatars can be an innovative strategy for your employer brand
Jorge Lukowski, Global Director of Marketing and Communications at NEORIS, shared how talent marketing leaders can use new technology at the core of employer branding campaigns in a Forbes article.
“One approach is to use AI to create custom avatars reflecting the values and personality of your organization,” Jorge said.
He explained how this process involves developing criteria to create personalized avatars that align with your organization’s values and goals. Jorge also noted that avatars provide a human touch and allow individuals to express themselves better than photographs.
Jorge emphasized that AI enhances employees’ abilities rather than replaces them and said companies that leverage AI technologies in a human-centered manner create engaging experiences for candidates.
Strategize with your peers in the Talent Marketing Board
Balancing humility and brand promotion is a delicate task, but through collaboration with Talent Marketing Board members, you can gain valuable insights into strategies for effectively communicating your brand’s successes without compromising authenticity.
Our community of employer brand and recruitment marketing leaders will provide you with the knowledge and support you need to leverage employee storytelling, enhance video strategies, navigate the AI boom, and explore innovative approaches like AI-generated avatars.
If you lead talent marketing at a large organization, you can apply to benchmark your employer branding strategy with your peers in our community.
