Build an Amazing People-Magnet Machine: Establish Your Brand as an Employer

The dream of many successful leaders and entrepreneurs is to have a strategy and flywheel so powerful that they experience incredible growth. When you’re doing great work delivering what your customers need and you’ve figured out how to scale up, then the biggest challenge is to get enough of the right people on the bus, and to develop them so that growth is sustained.  

The key is to have a constant flow of amazing people who want to come work with you – like the tech giants who open a new office in town, and attract lineups of people, looking for work. Because those companies are so well known, people want to be part of something great.  

In this first of a series of three blogs, we’ll talk about how to build what my Growth Whisperers podcast partner Brad Giles and I call an amazing people-magnet machine.

Here is the first principle to help you to attract a flow of awesome people.

Establish an Employer Brand

Lots of companies put all their energy and marketing efforts into getting or keeping customers, but not nearly enough into getting and keeping employees.

• If you look at the careers section of your company’s website, is it as powerful, engaging and well thought-out as the pages designed for prospective clients?
• Have you found a way to show and articulate how appealing you are to someone who’s considering coming to work for you?

Here are some things to consider when building your employer brand:

• Get on a list of great places to work. Many high performers take this into account because it’s like a certification of caring or quality. If you don’t get on, the time and energy you put into trying is likely going to improve some things in your company
• Show your engagement survey results. If you are a great company, the feedback you’ll get from your team would be excellent.

We conduct quarterly mini-pulse surveys to stay aware of everything needing to get done heading into strategy meetings. The end result is a word cloud relating to the culture. This is an excellent branding tool to describe what the company is really like.

• Proactively share great things about your culture and what you’re up to now. Perhaps an interview in which your CEO talks about your culture. In addition, compliments from customers, suppliers or your employees, posted on social media.
• Articulate your employee promise. This is similar to the strategy work we do on the customer side to define a unique value proposition. This exercise defines what makes people want to come and to stay working with you. What makes you different and more powerful than other companies? This exercise helps to align many of your HR decisions. It also provides clarity on how you can continue to improve your employees’ experience.

The Challenge

• Make your employer value proposition crystal clear. Why is working at your company such a great opportunity for the right person?
• Who are you going to work with, to make it happen?

For more on this topic, check out Episode 37 of The Growth Whisperers podcast.