Cisco prides itself on being a great place to work with great products to sell.

But don’t just listen

to HR or the C-suite. On the company’s employee blog, Life at Cisco, a worker writes about
doing charity work in Guatemala, thanks to a corporate program that provides five paid days off
to volunteer (in addition to regular paid time off). Employees are “one, big, techie family. We
like building things to change the world while having fun,” the Twitter account says. “We had a
perception that we were an older, stodgy technology company,” says Macy Andrews, Cisco’s
senior director for global university recruiting and employer branding. So we started this
conversation―how do we get this story out there that shows who we are, in a really authentic
way that breaks through the noise of 8x10 color glossies [of the office]? Who can best tell our
stories? We realized it was our own employees.”. They want to feel connected to a company,
proud to work there and in sync with the company’s mission, experts say. Technology and social
media have made it easier for companies to brand themselves, for better or worse, and that
represents both an opportunity and a danger for HR. It’s hard to overstate the importance of
branding. The numbers show the need to use employer brands in hiring: 72 percent of recruiting
leaders worldwide agreed in a LinkedIn study that employer brand has a significant impact on
hiring. And yes, those Glassdoor reviews, best-places-to-work lists and social media chats
matter. According to a CareerArc study on the future of recruiting:. And a Talentnow study
found that 55 percent of job applicants abandon applications after reading negative reviews
online. SEI Investments bought the farm―literally. The entire campus is office-free. SEI
Investments employees meet at the IdeaFarm, a renovated, centuries-old farmhouse on the
company’s 96-acre campus in Oaks, Pa., that provides a unique space designed for innovation
and problem-solving. SEI’s entire campus is office-free. SEI’s culture isn’t for everyone, though.
But if they’re not going to fit in, in our culture, it’s best that they self-select out.”. Like Cisco,
SEI has employees who do the pitching in videos on the firm’s website. The brand―a serious
financial company with a more-casual and creative vibe―is communicated through the voices of
casually dressed employees, with the visage of a silo and (fake) cows behind them. How can we
match with [potential employees] in a truly genuine way? You can’t be all things to all people.
That’s Rule One for marketing, including marketing to prospective employees.”. And no matter
whether it’s the IT department or the sales division that’s hiring, a company needs only one
employer brand, adds Joe Shaker, president of Shaker Recruitment Marketing in Chicago. To
clearly identify the brand—and where it might be weak—organizations should rely on employee
feedback, from the rank-and-file up to the C-suite, experts say. Beautiful.ai, a presentation
software firm in San Francisco, chooses a different person every month to lead an all-hands
discussion of the company’s core mission and values. “We marry that to our aspirations, making
it clear where we want to be in the next two years. Next is to be super-focused going to market in
a variety of different ways―online ads, events, recruiting campaigns, whatever it might be, to
tell our story,” says Navin, co-author of The CMO of People: Manage Employees Like
Customers with an Immersive Predictable Experience That Drives Productivity and Performance
(De Gruyter, 2018). Tinypulse, for example, offers a product to send a quick, one-question
survey each week to workers who can answer through an employee portal or a mobile device.
Employees can also offer anonymous suggestions or give a pat on the back to a peer for a job
well done. That information can be used at every stage of the employment life cycle, says
Monica Cruz, SHRM-CP, Tinypulse’s HR manager. At Enterprise Holdings, the employee
experience is closely tied to the company brand. One program, Driven from Within, gives
employees the chance “to change careers without changing companies,” says Shelley Roither,
vice president of human resources. When marketing an employer’s brand to prospective hires,
technology is an HR manager’s friend, especially when trying to assess the brand’s strength or
impact. Beyond that, HR should determine what percentage of users become active applicants,
says Lauren Smith, vice president for the HR practice at Gartner, a global research and advisory
firm. Of course, the strongest brands connect with people, and it’s often current employees who
ultimately convince talent to come on board. More HR professionals are being charged with
integrating their employer’s brand into recruiting and retention efforts. Know your brand and
your target audience. Make branding part of the entire employment cycle. Use websites and
social media―a lot. That means establishing an easily navigable company careers page, as well
as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts that reflect the company culture, employee benefits
and perks. Engage employees in promoting the brand. Remember that Glassdoor and other job
review sites matter. So be ready to respond to negative reviews. Survey employees regularly.
Use feedback to make sure the brand is effective and is fully understood.