puts into perspective Procter & Gamble (P&G’s) decision to build their employer brand.

This decision was triggered by a major shift in the kind of skills and experience P&G needed from its employees, according to VP of Talent Laura Mattimore.

“Over the last four or five years the business needs have changed, and it’s caused us to need to get into the experienced hire space, which is a very different way of going to market and going to recruiting,” she adds. “So we had to think very differently about what’s our message to experienced hires.”

Laura Mattimore talks with Brendan Browne, LinkedIn’s Head of Talent, about how recruiting and marketing began working together, the steps her team took, and advice she has for other HR and talent brand building initiatives.

As Laura Mattimore began to think about her team’s effort to attract experienced hires, she approached the challenge like marketing would in terms of understanding its target audiences and what insights and messages the team wanted to communicate.

The rise of social media have pushed companies to focus more on their employer brand, many of them have found a strong partnership between marketing and recruiting to be essential. In fact, 36% of recruiting teams collaborate with marketing or communications to manage their companies’ branding efforts, while 30% take the lead themselves, according to LinkedIn’s 2017 Global Recruiting Trends report.

After her team spent more time with the marketing team talking about the scope of the work, “We, together, really concluded that we needed dedicated resources.”

Today, P&G’s talent team now has brand managers, data analysts, a market researcher, a finance leaders and other line leaders.

 

3 steps P&G took to build its employer brand:

understanding

clarifying

messaging

To kick off the brand-building process, Laura Mattimore and her team first needed to understand what it actually means to run a recruiting team like a brand.

She lists three areas:

  1. Understand the prime prospects (i.e., candidates).
  2. Be clear about the employee value proposition (EVP).
  3. Bring the message to life at every touch point with a candidate—whether that’s on the web, on campus, or at a recruiting event.

 

Laura Mattimore offered two key insights into this brand building exercise.

 “Think about your employer brand in the context of your company brand.

You want to show up as one common company.”

Laura Mattimore urges talent acquisition and HR to not shy away from asking executives for resources.

“Take it to the top of the organization and really ask for the help that’s needed, because…They absolutely love this—and it’s a different way to apply their toolkits in a whole new space.”

 

After all, many of those employees outside HR certainly care about what kind of talent they’re working with, and how their company is viewed in the marketplace.

http://thinkingahead.uk.com/2017/04/05/how-recruiting-and-hr-will-change/

http://thinkingahead.uk.com/2017/04/05/linkedins-head-of-recruiting-shares-his-tactics/

 

Talent on Tap is a weekly series where Pat Wadors and Brendan Browne break down some of the hottest topics, biggest challenges, and most enticing opportunities in the world of talent. Talent on Tap will also give you an opportunity to hear from other organizational leaders, subject matter experts, and thought leaders in the space. Stay tuned each week for the latest.