Brandon Laws sits down with brand industry experts Bryan Adams and Charlotte Marshall. The two describe the revolutionary branding and employee value proposition methodology found in their new book, Give & Get Employer Branding: Repel the Many and Compel the Few with Impact, Purpose and Belonging. In this eye-opening episode, Bryan and Charlotte explain why they believe that “the most effective employer brands don’t attract candidates; they repel them.”
GUESTS AT A GLANCE
Bryan Adams, CEO and Founder of Ph.Creative, and Charlotte Marshall, author, advisor, and Employer Brand Leader of the Year, are the co-authors of Give & Get Employer Branding: Repel the Many and Compel the Few with Impact, Purpose and Belonging. Their unique approach is to replace the traditional branding model with their Give & Get Model which emphasizes not only attracting but also repelling candidates.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
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🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
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DEFINING TERMS
Employer Branding
According to Bryan Adams, “Employee brand is essentially your reputation as an employer. It’s how people describe you and what it’s like to work for your organization. Typically, it’s about the sentiment of the employee experience and what you stand for from a cultural perspective.”
Employee Value Proposition
“Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is essentially how you position the employee experience in terms of what you need, demand, want, and expect of someone in return for what they can expect to get in terms of salary, benefits, strengths, and opportunities.”
FROM THE CONVERSATION…
Breaking the Mold
Charlotte Marshall: The traditional employer branding model is a one-way value exchange. Here’s what we offer you in exchange for working here. Here’s our shiny parts, benefits, and opportunities that you can expect to receive. Our model is a two-way value exchange. Here’s what we expect of you in order to receive these things. So it’s a two-way value exchange: the give and the get. So you can very quickly make a decision if you’re willing to give that part of yourself to this company in order to get what’s being offered.
Bryan Adams: Really, the premise is that you have to be comfortable and confident with the fact that your workplace isn’t for everybody. So rather than think of [EVP] as a magnet to attract, it’s more like a small filter to give people the information they need to make more informed decisions as to whether there’s a good match, whether somebody will find what they’re looking for when they work for you. And happy people make happy organizations.
Be that brand that tells the balanced, more authentic version of what it’s really like.
Bryan Adams
Authenticity is Key
Bryan Adams: Be that brand that tells the balanced, more authentic version of what it’s really like. […] There’s no perfect organization. There’s no good or bad organization, there’s no right or wrong. There’s just what it is really like. And people want to answer that question. Have I got what it takes to thrive in that organization? And when they only find strengths, benefits, and opportunities, they can’t answer that fundamental question. The real beauty, the attractiveness, and the gold nuggets lie in the derivative of adversity and the challenges that people find.
Some people look at a challenge and think, ‘Whoa, that’s way too big for me. That’s definitely not a place that I want to work for.’ Some will look at that challenge and go, ‘Wow, look at the size of that challenge. I can find real purpose and meaning by taking that on.’ And they will lean into it and they will be compelled to want to know more. So if you use the harsh realities and the adversities of the employee experience, you can use it to your advantage. And often it’s the way that we find that point of difference, that sort of unique voice that stands out and gets you noticed for the right reasons as well.
The Art of Story
Bryan Adams: Storytelling is the best way of putting ideas into the world. It’s how to capture somebody emotionally, make that connection, and leave a lasting impression. It’s been proven […] that storytelling is just so effective from a communications point of view. In our book, [we use] the Star Wars perspective.
We put ourselves in the shoes of Luke Skywalker. The final climactic scene as Luke Skywalker is paddling towards that final job to destroy the Death Star. On one hand, he’s trying to satisfy an outward motivation, which is to destroy the Death Star, defeat the empire, and save the universe. And those are the sort of the outward motivations that a lot of organizations talk about — what’s offered from a compensation point of view and all of the logical types of things that you typically see in an employer brand.
But actually, Luke’s also trying to satisfy his internal motivation — the more emotional aspect. And in that very one shot as his finger hovers over the control, what he’s trying to do there is he’s trying to prove to himself. […] He’s trying to prove to himself that he has what it takes. And these are the things that we leave out of our narrative and our story when we’re building an employer brand. And it’s one of the most compelling aspects of the employer brand that people really want to satisfy for themselves.
These three derivatives are fundamentally key to any employer brand and EVP: purpose, impact, and belonging.
Charlotte Marshall: We try to make sure that the pillars that underpin our positioning statements, that there’s one that satisfies each of those critical areas. And we’ll reduce each of those down to a single storyline. Then, from a candidate and an associate’s or employees’ perspective, it’s storytelling. So I don’t care if people associate the pillar name or pillar word with each of those big ideas, but I want to start sharing stories to my candidates and internally to my workforce to reinforce them.
But those values, behaviors, and traits are alive and well. And the beauty, from a candidate’s perspective, is if people are reading those stories before they apply, your brand is going to be so much higher because they are applying after being attracted to the heroes in your story.
As Your Business Evolves
Bryan Adams: An employer brand — the essence, the aspirational headline — that’s something that should last you three to five years, depending on the trajectory of the organization and the general pace in which organizations organically evolve.
But the EVP is your shop window. And that really does need to reflect the reality of today at all times. A light refresh every 12 months is what we recommend, but that doesn’t have to be heavy duty. And it’s not anything that needs to blow up the work that you’ve done. It’s more of an evolution and maintaining that the proposition is accurate. There’s always an opportunity to collect more stories and we advocate that — whether you use Give & Get or not — you should always be on the lookout for great stories to tell.
LEARN MORE
If you’re interested in learning more about Give & Get Employer Branding, check out Bryan and Charlotte’s website, giveandget.net. Or you can grab a copy of their book, Give & Get Employer Branding: Repel the Many and Compel the Few with Impact, Purpose and Belonging, on Amazon.