Last week I presented at the Australian Talent Conference about building a strong Talent Brand. In doing my research to find some good examples to back up what I was saying, a friend sent me a link to an Employer Branding video, which is, by far, the best I’ve seen.

The reason I love it is because it’s so real and honest. Would you have thought to sell your company by saying things like:

• "The job is being spat on"
• "The job is being slaughtered in the media"
• "It’s 2% excitement and 98% routine"
• "It’s too much paperwork"
• "The job is why you missed your kids activity and your soon to be ex’s birthday"

Well… I certainly wouldn’t have! Would this turn some people off? Absolutely. Is that a good thing? Absolutely. No doubt it would turn off all the people would be wrong for the job, but really capture the hearts and minds of the right people… have a watch and see what you think:

Met Police 'The Job' from Academy Films on Vimeo.

So what is Talent Branding anyway?

Ok, you’ve probably heard of employer branding which is the messaging you push to the marketplace. This video is a great example of it.

Thanks to social media, your employer branding messages are now being digested, critiqued and amplified, based on people’s own experience.

So your talent brand is the highly social, totally public version of your employer brand that incorporates what talent thinks, feels, and shares about your company as a place to work.

Why is your Talent Brand important?

A weak Talent Brand will get people talking about you in a bad way, which can destroy your Employer Brand.

A strong Talent Brand will get the right people talking about you in a good way, which makes your Employer Brand even more powerful, and is crucial in order to attract passive and A grade candidates.

All of which impacts the bottom line – companies with strong employer brands have a 50% lower cost per hire and 28% lower turnover rates… pretty compelling stuff.

How do you build a strong Talent Brand?

Your Talent Brand is beyond your direct control – you can’t stop people talking about you. You can however control your Employer Brand, which means step one to building a strong Talent brand is to make sure your Employer Brand ticks a few important boxes.

#1 Be Real

You can’t be anything and everything to everyone. As Ed Nathanson from Rapid7 says, “embrace who you really are, in all it’s hideousness or all it’s glory, understanding that there are people who aren’t going to like it.”

That’s why I love the video above, because it’s so real. It’s also why I started JobAdvisor, which helps you to be real.

#2 Be Consistent

Abstract, fake promises are easy to make and market, but they’re also easy to spot. In order to stay true to your company culture, you need to figure out what it is before you go around marketing it.

All too often we see an employer brand that conveys what a company wants to be, not what they are. When it comes to your Talent Brand, if reality doesn’t match your promise, you’ll be called out very quickly.

Again, this video does a brilliant job of ensuring that what they’re saying about working there matches the reality. You can almost imagine all the police out there saying, “yep, that’s how it really is!” and that’s exactly what you want. On the flip side, you don’t want people tearing down your credibility because what you’re saying doesn’t quite match reality.

Collecting reviews on sites like JobAdvisor is another way to be consistent – you are defining your brand by what your people are saying about it. You can’t get more consistent than that.

#3 Be Open

Social media has changed the game. Trying to suppress or control the conversation is the worst thing you can do. These conversations are happening already. It’s already part of your Talent Brand whether you like it or not. You can only influence by joining the conversation.

The best way to do this is to empower your best brand ambassadors (your employees) to speak on your behalf. They’re much more believable than you are. In fact, employees are more than twice as trusted as the CEO.

Review sites are really good news for you because it draws attention away from unmoderated platforms and puts them into a moderated platform where you can keep an eye on it.

And if you’re a little worried about trusting your staff to write reviews, then all I can say is, in my experience, when you give people responsibility they almost always rise to it. I don’t think it’s a surprise that the companies that have the best reviews on JobAdvisor have open, honest and transparent cultures, which is where it all starts really.

Need help creating transparency in your business?

You might be interested to check out a new product we’re releasing soon called JobVibe. It’s a mobile app that enables you to use Employee Sensing technology to enhance company culture, retain key staff, improve communication and drive change.