Richard Mosley, Universum's Global Head of Strategy, is widely recognized as a leading global authority on the subject of employer branding. He regularly chairs or delivers keynote presentations at many of the world's leading employer brand events.
Lars Schmidt, Founder of Amplify Talent and Cofounder of HR Open Source, is a leading strategy consultant, speaker, and writer in the fields of employer branding and recruiting.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Getting Started with Employer Branding 5

Chapter 1: Building a Strong Employer Brand 7

What Is Employer Branding? 8

Recognizing the benefits of employer branding 8

Stepping through the employer branding process/cycle 9

Laying the Foundation for Your Employer Brand 11

Aligning with business goals and objectives 11

Fitting in with your other brands 12

Rallying the troops (and leaders) 12

Taking an Honest Look at Your Employer Brand 13

Putting the Pieces in Place 14

Defining the give and get of the employment deal 15

Establishing employer brand guidelines 16

Giving your target talent a reason to tune in 17

Spreading the Word through Various Channels 19

Staying True to the Promise of Your Employer Brand 20

Monitoring Your Employer Branding Success 21

Chapter 2: Preparing for the Journey 23

Finding Your Fit within the Overall Company Strategy 24

Aligning with the corporate brand 25

Aligning with the customer brand 27

Supporting the business strategy 29

Getting the right talent onboard 29

Aligning with human resources 34

Building Your Business Case for Employer Branding 34

Considering cost-cutting benefits 35

Checking out possible performance benefits 36

Making Friends and Influencing People 38

Getting senior leadership onboard 38

Convincing marketing and communications to go along with the idea 39

Getting HR comfortable with the language and thinking of brand management 40

Chapter 3: Conducting an Employer Brand Health Check 41

Taking a Look in the Mirror 42

Finding out what you already know 42

Conducting employee surveys and focus groups 43

Taking a Look from the Outside In 47

Gauging employer brand awareness, consideration, and preference 47

Identifying your key talent competitors 49

Evaluating the strength of your organization's employer brand image 50

Evaluating the factors that shape your organization's brand image 53

Weighing Your Competition 54

Benchmarking your competitors' media presence 55

Mapping your competitors' brand positioning 56

Spotting generic plays and opportunities to be different 57

Part 2: Developing an Effective Employer Brand Strategy 61

Chapter 4: Defining Your Employer Value Proposition 63

Setting Your Sights on the Goal: A Sample Employer Value Proposition 64

Brainstorming to Generate Ideas and Content 66

Gathering the right people 67

Drawing insights from your data 67

Conducting a productive employer value proposition development workshop 69

Balancing Competing Perspectives 73

Clarifying the give and get of the employment deal 73

Weighing current strengths and future aspirations 74

Balancing global and local considerations 75

Differentiating Your Organization from the Competition 76

Choosing Your Core Positioning 77

Writing Your Employer Value Proposition 78

Sense Checking and Stress Testing 79

Identifying tangible claims and proof points 79

Field-testing your draft employer value proposition 80

Chapter 5: Building Your Employer Brand Framework 83

Aligning Your Employer Branding with Your Corporate and Customer Branding 84

Working with a monolithic brand 84

Navigating within a house of brands 86

Optimizing the parent-subsidiary house of brands framework 87

Creating a Visual Brand Identity with Impact 88

Developing Overarching Recruitment Campaigns 90

Setting campaign objectives 90

Writing a creative creative brief 91

Choosing the right creatives to work with 92

Testing Creative Solutions 95

Checking whether a creative solution works across different target groups 95

Choosing the best creative solutions 97

Chapter 6: Generating Engaging Content 101

Grasping the Need to Go Beyond Recruitment Advertising 102

Mastering the Principles of Content Marketing 103

Balancing immediate engagement with long-term brand building 104

Local engagement hooks 105

Exploring Different Ways to Pitch Your Story 105

Showcasing existing talent: Employee profiles and stories 106

Be bold: Cutting through the corporate speak 110

Delivering facts, figures, and infographics 112

Making the most of video 113

Gaming your system 114

Promoting Employee-Generated Content 114

Facilitating employee-generated content with the right technology 116

Developing policies to prevent misbehavior and mishaps 116

Managing Your Content 117

Assembling a content marketing and management team 117

Conducting a content audit 118

Tagging and categorizing content to facilitate indexing and raise its search engine ranking 119

Building a content marketing editorial calendar 119

Chapter 7: Rolling Out Your Employer Brand Strategy 121

Winning Internal Hearts and Minds 121

Briefing Managers before Engaging Employees 123

Briefing Key Management Stakeholders 124

Engaging leadership 124

Pitching your plan to the HR/talent community 125

Ensuring alignment with corporate communications and marketing 126

Briefing Your Recruitment Teams 127

Developing your employer brand toolkit 127

Creating content playbooks 128

Providing guidance on localization 129

Getting team managers onboard 130

Engaging Employees 132

Think: Taking a rational, measured approach 134

Feel: Nurturing emotional engagement 135

Do: Inspiring employee commitment and behavior change 136

Maintaining consistency and continuity 137

Part 3: Reaching Out through the Right Channels 139

Chapter 8: Constructing Your Recruitment Marketing Plan 141

Sizing Up Your Audience 142

Segmenting your audience 142

Prioritizing your audience segments 143

Creating talent personas 144

Evaluating Target Talent Media Preferences 146

Mapping out your media options 146

Reaching people on the move (mobile) 147

Connecting with active and passive job seekers 148

Setting Out Your Plan 149

Balancing inbound and outbound marketing activities 150

Putting a recruitment marketing system in place 151

Chapter 9: Creating a Winning Career Site 153

Making a Great First Impression 154

Checking off landing page essentials 154

Integrating with your social properties 155

Optimizing for mobile 157

Staying a step ahead of the Joneses 157

Delivering the Goods: Content 158

Aligning your website with your employer value proposition 159

Tailoring content to target groups 159

Writing effective job descriptions 160

Making it easy to apply 162

Personalizing your response letters 163

Creating Job Microsites 164

Chapter 10: Developing Your Talent Network 165

Leveraging the Networking Power of Current and Former Employees 166

Understanding why referrals make great hires 166

Setting up an employee referral program 167

Building an alumni talent network 171

Boosting Your Rejected Candidate Referral Rate 173

Creating Your Own Talent Communities 174

Chapter 11: Engaging Talent through Social Media 177

Getting Your Head in the Game 178

Where to show up: Choosing social channels 178

How to engage potential candidates 178

Laying the Groundwork 180

Choosing a social dashboard 180

Budgeting for ads and sponsored content 181

Making time for social media 181

Recruiting on LinkedIn 182

Building your Company and Career pages 182

Posting regular status updates 183

Measuring and optimizing engagement 183

Having employees update their profiles 184

Giving Job Seekers a Backstage Pass with Glassdoor 184

Making a Splash on Facebook 187

Creating a Facebook Page 187

Hosting Facebook Groups 189

Broadcasting via Facebook Live 189

Attracting Top Talent on Twitter 190

Picking up strategies by observing others 190

Using hashtags to source candidates 190

Engaging prospects 191

Getting your employees involved 192

Gauging your Twitter impact 192

Adapting to a New Model: Snapchat 192

Leveraging Video 193

Exploring ways to use video in recruitment marketing 194

Recognizing the importance of YouTube 194

Exploring Chat Platforms and Regional Channels 195

Building a Social Media Calendar 196

Chapter 12: Making the Most of Recruitment Advertising 199

Raising Your Employer Brand Profile in Search Engine Results 200

Using search engine optimization to improve your site's search engine ranking 201

Gaining traction with search engine marketing 202

Sizing Up Paid Media Channels 203

Evaluating your potential media mix 204

Programmatic media buying 206

Getting the Best out of Job Boards 207

Adding a Personal Touch with Direct Engagement 208

Personalizing your message 208

Cutting through the spam 209

Chapter 13: Making a Splash on Campus 211

Marketing to College Students 212

Understanding the...