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PROFESSIONAL SERVICES BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING INSIGHTS

| 1 minute read

How to win the talent war

Mike Turner of Taylor Wessing makes the excellent point that people want more from their jobs than a simple salary. The aim is to be a firm that employees gravitate towards - and according to Mr. Turner that is about 'the story'.

The question then turns to how to tell that story. 

A wonderful example of this was the Google recruitment advertisements 'back in the day'. The rumour was that their ads were written in such a way that most people would not even understand that it was a job advert, so only the brightest could possibly apply. So only the very, very brightest could work there. Simply working there was therefore impressive on its own merit.

Before you ask, I never saw one of these ads so they might be apocryphal or maybe I wasn't clever enough to see them?!... Either way, it is a genius bit of employer branding.

Online, there are two standard approaches:

First, the About Us page - typically the second or third most viewed page on a site. This is where you tell your story. I'm not sure whether there are expert guidelines on this but I would suggest - show some humanity, be yourself and try not to be like all the others (whatever that is). Brand is about differentiation.

Second, enable your employees to support your story via the blog pages of your site. Let them speak on the issues around your business - develop their interests and demonstrate their expertise. Let them speak on your behalf and the culture of the firm will come across the page loud, clear and authentic. According to Edelman, the third most trusted group in a firm (behind company experts & academic experts - and way ahead of the CEO or journalists) is 'People like yourself' - your peer group. 

Rahul Gandhi, of CMS, a law firm, did a wonderful podcast with Sam Page, our marketing lead, last week which was a textbook example of this.

It is incredibly important [to build an employer brand]. We’re in a significant war for talent in the tech world in London today. Being known as a company that people want to come and work for is increasingly a deciding factor for that talent... It’s about making people feel that they are part of the story. In building a successful company culture, we are increasingly operating in a world that is becoming far more like Silicon Valley. People want to be part of that success story for personal motivation, of course, but also for the culture – the people you work for and with, for example, matter more than simple salary expectations.

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Tags

employer branding, recruitment, recruitment marketing