Five employer brand reports to influence up and gain traction

If you want management to take your employer branding strategy seriously, here are some surefire ways to gain extra traction and get buy-in from your business leaders…

1. We’re not being as strategic as our competitors and it’s hurting us this much…

No leader likes to be told that they're not being as strategic as they could be. Therefore, evidencing a stronger strategy is a very compelling and effective way of getting the attention of a business leader who now has an ego driven, moral-bound duty to listen and take some affirmative action one way or another.

2. Use Talent Flow to know where your best talent is going and why?

You can get a great report on LinkedIn, which shows you where your current people are going, and where your new people are coming from. It’s called the Talent Flow Report. If there is any trend emerging, or any consistency to where you're losing talent, it should spark interest and be compelling evidence that you need to do something about it. Especially if it is talent flow that accounts for a significant amount of regrettable loss - people that you didn't want to loe.

3. Our share of market is dropping as others get stronger and here’s what we need to do about it…

Again, you can get this from LinkedIn, or there's other social listening tools to measure Share of Voice or Share of Marketplace.

From a reputational perspective, and a brand visibility and positioning perspective, this is just really interesting insight to have, compared to your nearest known competitors. It's a very useful indicator to measure. If share of market or share of voice is in decline or rapid decline, then that's something that needs to be addressed. Everything else you're trying to do underneath the umbrella of employer brand and talent attraction, will be affected by how many people you reach in the marketplace and what their perception of your brand is.

4. We’re not seen as relevant in our new market and here’s what it will take…

If you are a very well-established organisation, with a decent employer brand, and you've got a consistent means of attracting and retaining talent,  sometimes when the organisation pivots or expands into a new territory, the same rules don't necessarily apply to a new marketplace because of brand perception and because you are talking to a new talent audience.

It can be a double-edged sword. Sometimes when you're trying to get the attention of a new talent audience and you are an organisation which is very well known for something, with a perception that is strong and serving it well across the organisation, that strength can actually be detrimental

You will need to work hard to change that perception and be seen as relevant. As difficult as it is getting the attention of talent, it's futile if when you do get their attention, they don't see you as relevant.

So, you need to get attention and then you need to create affinity and work through a talent engagement funnel. And that starts by controlling or influencing your brand position and your brand perception in the marketplace.

5. Proof: Every existing priority has a ‘people’ derivative and recommendations how to resolve

The best way to get the attention of busy leaders is to demonstrate a very direct correlation between what you're working on and the challenges problems and priorities that are currently sat on their desk, instead of trying to compete against those priorities and challenges.

In every organisation, underneath the issues and challenges of most business leaders, regardless of what they are, you will find a lack of resource, a lack of performance, instability, or a lack of expertise. All those things are typically people-related in one way or another because every organisation is just a group of people. And they could be ineffective people, so you might need to change behaviours, or the employee experience may not be optimum to the requirements that you are asking of your team.

By contextualising what you're trying to do, and framing it in a way that the team will very much align with and appreciate, you can quickly get buy-in. Demonstrate what you're trying to do  and how it will directly impact what they're trying to do.