3 Things Employer Branders Need To Stop Saying
Three things I wish people would stop saying when talking about employer branding and talent marketing:
- "The war for talent" - This isn't a "war", people. No one is dying. There are no bullets, bombs, or national secret services infiltrating nations to destabilise their political structures and overthrow governments in the name of o̶i̶l̶ (ahem) democracy. We're tying to find humans jobs or careers in our organisations. If they want to go head-first-kamikaze into the over-used coffee machine when they're there, then you don't need employer branding in your "war for talent". You need a company culture revolution.
- "A seat at the table" - What table? The C-suite table? If this is what people mean, then I'm sorry, it makes us sound like we've delusions of grandeur. The CHRO / CPO, CMO, and CCO (comms) are already at that table. I suggest investing more time advising / consulting / educating them so they can represent us when they're there. Maybe do that around a dinner table. Over lunch, perhaps? A more relaxed setting might help the conversation go more smoothly.
- "Humans have less attention spans than fish!" - This is nonsense. It completely depends on where a person is in your marketing funnel. If it's upper awareness then okay, you might have 3-7 seconds to grab someone's attention amongst their content-overloaded online experiences. However, podcasts are becoming one of the fastest-rising, most popular formats. According to Riverside "𝘥𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘥𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘰𝘥𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 104.9 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘺." I believe that, on average, this is in 20+ minute stints. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a fish listen to something for that long? (Maybe they turn it off when Stephen Bartlett disturbs them with another bloody advert for Huel or Zoe. 🤷🏼♂️)
