Content from my books on employer branding: "Brand from the Inside", "Brand for Talent". Includes definitions and how to embark on an employer branding initiative.

1. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Brand From The Inside
2009

2. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Agenda
• The Power of Employer Branding
• Lessons Learned: Southwest Airlines and
Yahoo
• Identifying traps
• How to move forward
• Branding for Employee Life Cycle
• Making it come to life
• Branding for Talent

3. Libby Sartain, LLC
What Do Legendary Brands Accomplish? Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Connect to “the big idea”
Simplify and drive choice
Articulate the promise
Define the experience –
one touch point at a time
Capture lasting and shared memories

4. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Brand Promises
• Wal-Mart: Always Low Prices
• Southwest Airlines: A Symbol of Freedom
• Apple: Imagination, Design and Innovation
• Starbucks: The third place, in addition to the coffee
• Pepsi: The Younger Generation
• UBS: Wealth Management
• Hewlett Packard: Invent

5. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
What Creates a Legendary Brand?
Reliability
Experience
Reputation
How you
actually What occurs
deliver at every What your
what you customer customers
promise “touch experience,
point” remember
and share

6. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Doing Well In Recession
• Abbott Labs
• Wal-Mart
• McDonalds
• Proctor and Gamble
• Costco
• Whole Foods
• Johnson and Johnson
• Hewlett Packard

7. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Southwest Airlines
• Southwest had turned a profit for more than 30
consecutive years
• Southwest stock soared 300 percent in a decade
• Southwest consistently ranked number one in the industry
for Customer satisfaction and on–time performance
• Southwest has the lowest Employee turnover rate in the
airline industry
• Fortune Magazine ranked Southwest “The Best Company
to Work for in America”
• Other airlines in the business (and other companies) envy
Southwest for the loyalty of the Customers and
Employees

8. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
What Made It Work
• Clear Sense of Purpose
• Leaders who were stewards of the
purpose
• Culture and Brand brought purpose to life
• Processes and infrastructure supported
on-brand behaviors
• Simplicity and ability replicate a formula
• Evolution versus revolutionary change/
growth

9. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Putting it all together
Brand + Systems + Marketing = Reputation
Define and Develop the Articulate and Create a
establish the infrastructure — publicize the reputation in
brand promise the fundamental brand all
and customer systems needed promise, marketplaces
experience to support and customer and to support
reinforce the employee the brand
brand promise experiences promise
to a range of
internal and
external
audiences

10. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
What does it look like?
From the From the
On the
Outside Inside
Inside
Looking In Looking Out
The products, The inspiration, The infrastructure
process, or motivation of the employee
service that an and rewards that experience to
organization an organization support, lead and
should should reinforce the
consistently consistently delivery of the
deliver to deliver to customer brand
customers employees ... to experience
ensure the
customer brand
experience

11. Libby Sartain, LLC
Employer Brand Speaker, Author, HR Leader
How a business builds and packages
its identity, origins and values,
and what it promises to deliver
to emotionally connect employees
so that they, in turn,
deliver what the business
promises to customers
Sartain and Schumann

12. Libby Sartain, LLC
Employer Brand is the Business Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Who the business is
at your core
What you promise What you promise
your customers your employees
“What’s in it for me”
to work here

13. Libby Sartain, LLC
Apply Your Brand Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Organizational
Hear Apply Join Work Leave
Changes
Brand Recruitment On-Board Acquisitions Termination
Growth Retirement
Other Leadership Employee
Stakeholders Rewards
 Media  Coaching Competition Off Board
 Communications  Packaging
 Message Development &
Management
Leadership Friends
Change
Electronic Print Face-to-Face
 Personalized  Booklets  Meetings
Communications  Video  Events
 Web  Print  Service Center
 Promotional Ads  Training
 Direct Mail
 Campaigns

14. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Where to Start?
• What employer brand you have already built
• How your employer brand supports your business strategy
… and your talent strategy
• How well your employees understand and believe in your
customer brand
• How committed your employees are to deliver the brand to
customers
• What employer brand crisis you may be experiencing
• You might have to create your own crisis!

15. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Why Brand from Inside
• To Align Culture with External Brand Positioning
• To Compete With Other Employers for the Best
Talent
• To Communicate on-brand behavior/expectations to
employees.
• To Communicate the Employee Value Proposition.
What’s in it for Me?
• To Create Internal Brand Loyalty and Trust
• What We Stand For Versus What We Do
• To Create a Sustainable Competitive Advantage
• To Foster a high performance culture through people
who deliver on the brand promise

16. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Lessons Learned Yahoo vs. Southwest
Where the organization is in its life cycle and
growth affects whether it is ready for a brand
that will stick.
Values stay the same even if mission and
business models change or evolve
Employer brand will evolve over time,
but too much brand change breeds skepticism
H.R. cannot do this alone, it must be a collaborative
effort across the enterprise

17. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Build
Marketing the
Team
HR
Know the Operations
customer
brand Develop the Comms
promise and details of “the
deal” with Deliver the
what brand to
employees employees Connect the
customers
must deliver dots with
simplicity,
clarity and
transparency

18. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Brand and Behavior?
Value Propositions
Operational Product Customer
Efficiency Excellence Intimacy
• Speed • Innovation • Respect for
people
• Efficiency • Excellence/ • Teamwork
• Cost cutting passion for • Caring/
• Resourceful quality sensitivity/
• Continuous empathetic
• Creative
• Listening
• Committed improvement
• Empowered
• Careful • Risk taking • Friendly
• System • Detail oriented • Anticipatory
players • Experienced
(low turnover)
What behaviors are needed from your employees to support the organization’s
value proposition?

19. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Create
The
Brand
Identity:
Who We Are Mission:
Why We Must
Exist
Values:
What We
Stand For
Legend:
How We
Reward: Must Be
What’s In It Remembered
For Me

20. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Focus
on
Purpose
Articulate what we stand for
Clarify how we differentiate
Illustrate the difference we make
Solidify why we must exist
Create the value proposition

21. Libby Sartain, LLC
The Employee Experience Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Manage
the
Brand
Promise What a worker can expect
Personality How the company feels
Image How the company looks and sounds
Position How the company compares to others
Experience What a worker will experience today
What a worker can “take away” from the
Value
experience

22. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Brand Each Stage of Your Worker Experience
Program Design
Recruitment Candidate Onboarding Programs, tools, Offboarding
Experience Experience Experience resources process
HEAR Engage JOIN DEVELOP LEAVE
Build interest Begin to help Help new Motivate Sustain interest
among prospects self employees employees and support
prospects by select by assimilate to make the among
promoting the candidly quickly by most of the departing
employee discussing carefully work employees by
experience what’s offered articulating experience reinforcing
and what’s expectations & value
expected opportunities
Marketing

23. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Talent Brand
How to market the employer brand
to create demand as a magnet for talent
to find, keep and engage people
to do the right work at the right time
with the right results
Sartain and Schumann

24. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Changes in Talent Marketplace
• Global Talent Shortage and Changing
Demographics:
– Retiring Baby Boomers facing economic downturn
– Aging Government Workers
– Technology requires new skills/enables new ways of working
– Shift to Service Economy/Knowledge Work
– Rise of Emerging Economies
• Implications
– Global Talent Marketplace
– Multigenerational Workforce
– Migration Increasing
– Imbalance of worker supply and demand

25. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Generational Change
• Gen Y outnumber the baby boomers
• Gen X focus more on life than work
• Baby boomers “semi-retire” more than retire
• New habits will redefine how people work
– Digital
– Collaboration
– Consumers from an early age
– More interested in impact/making a difference
• Implications
– The shift of power is to the worker
– Ambition not about job or comp but work and role
– Open marketplace enabled by technology

26. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Emerging Economies
• Brazil, Russia, India, China
• Successful talent differentiators
– Brand: Global, Excellence, Leadership
– Opportunity: Challenge, Career Track, Training, Comp
– Purpose: Mission and Values, Global Citizenship, Commitment to region
– Culture: Authenticity, Meritocracy, Connection, Talent-centricity
• Attracting Talent: Promises Made
• Retaining Talent: Promises Kept
• Implications
– Must promise and deliver accelerated careers, meaningful work, meritocratic
culture.
– Leaders must inspire
Source: Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets
Harvard Business Review November 2008

27. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Social Media
• Open online exchange
• Wiki, Blogs, Social Networking Sites
• MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter
• Transparency
• Short Attention Span/Multi-task
• Expect Flawless Transactions
Implications
• Need to consider how to use social media
• Corporate reputation now transparent
• New policies based on openness

28. Libby Sartain, LLC
The New Consumer of Work Speaker, Author, HR Leader
• Generation Y is a “consumer of work” vs. a
job seeker
– Looking for a well branded work experience
– Always looking for the next opportunity
– Recognition, Rewards, and Impact
– Culture, Mentors, Social Responsibility
– Life and work boundaries aren’t as well defined
• Gives other generations permission to ask “what is
in it for me?”
• Implications
– New Talent Marketplace
– Branding versus recruiting

29. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Top Ten Most Difficult to Fill Jobs – U.S.
1. Sales Representatives
2. Engineers
3. Technicians
4. Production Operators
5. Skilled Trades (Carpenters, Welders, Plumbers)
6. I.T. (Programmers/Developers)
7. Administrative Assistants
8. Drivers
9. Accountants
10. Management/Executives
Implications
• Recruiting even core talent will be a challenge
• New sources of talent needed
• Talent Brand will need to be global
Source: Manpower Talent Shortage Survey – US

30. Libby Sartain, LLC
The Marketplace for Talent is New Speaker, Author, HR Leader
How work is arranged, timed
Open Exchange and compensated
Online Exchange How the Internet emerges as the
primary “mall” for talent
How commercial message – or
Noisy Exchange brand – is challenged to be heard
Consumer of Work How new behavior drives
work decisions

31. Global Talent Challenges
Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Good talent is always in the marketplace
Best talent goes to the “best buy”
Technology fuels the marketplace
A company must differentiate
The marketplace is segmented
How to respond during the downturn

32. Libby Sartain, LLC
Job Market vs. Talent Marketplace Speaker, Author, HR Leader

33. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
The Consumer of Work is New
Informed
Connected
“I need to In Control
know all the Spoiled
“I must be
details”
able to find
“I must
anyone I need
feel I make
at any time” “I need a
my own
decisions” trophy”

34. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
The Consumer of Work Is Different
From To
React to “Want Ads” Promote Abilities
Trust Institutions Trust Instincts
End the Search; Continue the Search
Begin the Job While Doing the Work
Support a Build a
Company’s Brand Personal Brand

35. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
The Consumer of Work Has Clear Needs
What the What the What the
Consumer Consumer Consumer
Wants Expects Demands
A clear A solid plan A personal
“picture” of life of what opportunity for
and career happens (and balance
when)
A clear A personal
commitment to A solid connection to
rewards foundation of coworkers
truth
A clear channel A personal
for feedback A solid network of
relationship opinion leaders
with a manager

36. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Market
the
Brand
Pivotal
Needed
“We can’t Replaceable
move the
needle “We can’t
without do business
every day “We can find
them” them when
without them”
we need
them”

37. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
The Market Has Changed
From To
Predictable Market Free Market
Reactive Hiring Strategy Holistic Talent Strategy
Compliant Applicant Consumer of Work
Market for Jobs Marketplace for Talent

38. Libby Sartain, LLC
The New Consumer of Work Speaker, Author, HR Leader
• Generation Y is a “consumer of work” vs. a
job seeker
– Looking for a well branded work experience
– Always looking for the next opportunity
– Recognition, Rewards, and Impact
– Culture, Mentors, Social Responsibility
– Life and work boundaries aren’t as well defined
• Gives other generations permission to ask “what is
in it for me?”
• Implications for HR
– New Talent Marketplace
– Branding versus recruiting

39. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Identify
Opportunities Brand:
At Each A Way of
Touch Point Define and Life
Illustrate
On-Brand
Behavior
Train, Manage
and Reward
On-Brand
Behavior
Clearly
Explain
“What’s In It
For Me”

40. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Shape the
Leaders
What a leader believes – and brings
Beliefs to life in day-to-day action
How a leader treats others – and
Behavior sets an example for how the
organization should live
Engage How a leader makes people feel their
voices can be heard
How a leader rewards others for
Reward their contributions to the
organization

41. Libby Sartain, LLC
Invest Speaker, Author, HR Leader
in the
Brand
Leadership Leaders model and encourage
the right behaviors
Communication Our people understand our
Enablers brand promise
to Get Started
Involvement Our people are engaged to
improve performance
We define clear goals and
Performance/rewards reward high performance
Embedders Our people have the skills to
to Make it Stick Learning/development deliver what’s expected
We hire and advance the right
Selection/staffing people

42. Taking the Pulse: Talent Branding
Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
75% HR leaders believe competition for talent is greater
than it was five years.
84% HR Leaders believe that competition will be greater
in five years.
72% Generation Y preferences have changed how HR
Leaders reach out to prospective candidates.
97% Have Developed Employer Brands
Research study conducted for Brand for Talent by
the Institute for Corporate Productivity in conjunction
with HR.com 2008

43. Taking the Pulse: Talent Branding
Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
55% HR leaders believe segmentation is important in
reaching out to perspective candidates
65% HR Leaders believe the employer brand has been
effective in engaging current employees
63% Employer Brand helpful in recruiting the right people
to the organization
43% HR leaders believe their corporate cultures support
the employer brand – a key factor in worker
engagement
Research study conducted for Brand for Talent by
the Institute for Corporate Productivity in conjunction
with HR.com 2008

44. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Culture and Brand
• Talent brand cannot exist on its own without the authentic support of
the organization’s culture.
• Culture and brand connect:
– the actions of words of leadership;
– the face-to-face interactions employees experience at each touch point;
– the products and services delivered to workers;
– the messages and content of employee communications media.
• The key to the culture is what workers experience.
• The leader is very important to developing a culture and sustaining a
talent brand. A leader must express:
– sense of purpose
– what is important,
– what is valued,
– what is rewarded

45. Who is the Brand Guardian?
Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
• Leader as Keeper of
Culture
• Marketing
• Communications
• HR
• Operations
• The Enterprise

46. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Create the
Experience
Customer
Brand
Employee
Leadership
Comms
HR
Employer
Products/ Supervisors
Brand
Services
Work
Career
Experience

47. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Nurture
the
Brand
Passive Informed Engaged Active Advocate
“I understand “I understand “I understand “I understand “I understand
the brand” how I can I need to my role to how to impact
Understand contribute” contribute” deliver the the brand and
brand” the company”
“I believe in “I believe “I believe I “I am “I am
trying to there are tools make a accountable passionate
Believe deliver the to help me difference for delivering about the
brand” deliver the when I the brand” brand, the
brand” contribute” company”
“I know what “I know how “I take “I deliver the “I am the
it takes to to use tools proactive brand … brand”
Deliver deliver the from the steps to make and make a
brand” company to a difference difference …
deliver the when I deliver every day,
brand” the brand” every
customer”

48. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Employer Brand Experience
HR Communications
Leader Behaviors and Values
“I am better able to make
decisions that affect the health “I experience our vision and mission
and well being of my family” every day”
Recruitment
Total Compensation “I meet new hires who are
“I see the connection between passionate about what we do…
doing my best and my rewards” and who will make a difference”
Performance Management
HR Service Delivery
“I understand how I contribute to
the mission and see the value of “When I need information, I get it
my contributions” easily. I can focus more of my
time and energy on my work”
Coaching and Development Business Processes
“I feel energized as I ‘fuel my “I see how the way we work enables us to
passion’ everyday in more make significant contributions to others”
challenging ways”

49. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
Measure
Brand
Results
Functional Emotional
Customer Know the brand Know the meaning
Brand Choose the brand behind the brand
Experience the Engage in the brand
reliability of the brand Are loyal to the brand
Trust the brand Advocate for the
brand
Employer Know the brand Know the meaning
Brand Choose the brand behind the brand
Experience the Engage in the brand
reliability of the brand Are loyal to the brand
Trust the brand Advocate for the
brand

50. Libby Sartain, LLC
Speaker, Author, HR Leader
In Summary
• Don’t work in silos
• Start with your brand promise
• Engage your employees
• Use powerful key words
• Be authentic
• Market internally
• Create internal brand standards