Why a Recruitment Brand is Nonsense

Nearly a week in Vegas. Pretty much enough to form a serious cloud over your brain. But, it was for work. HR Tech, the largest HR technology specific industry show took place over the past few days. Hundreds of vendors, thousands of attendees and a ton of noise ... both casino and industry induced.

Similar to last year, recruitment branding and marketing was a big deal. Seems that every decent size company on the planet is trying to figure out how to effectively market themselves as a premier employer. Good thing? Of course. But ...

“Recruitment branding” has become a buzz-word de jour of late. Having an image as a great place to work or an innovative environment or whatever is all good. But I think the entire conversation is pretty misguided.

There can be only one brand and that belongs to the whole company. “Who are we or what do we want to be in the minds of a candidate” is the wrong question and yields a lack of authenticity. “What about our company and its brand can we leverage to attract top talent” may be a better approach.

Companies attract top talent when there is a brand alignment to customers, employees, candidates, and any other stakeholders. It’s probably the most over used analogy in HR but consider Southwest Airlines. If SWA was not a fun airline to begin with, would a brand that promotes them as a fun place to work ever have impact? Maybe for a little while until the truth came out.

Recruitment branding exercises often focus more on brainstorming appealing statements to candidates and less on communicating the natural advantages of the business. The next time you are thinking about your recruitment brand, really consider your overall corporate brand. What makes is special, different? Why did your top performers choose you over other companies, why do they stay and excel? Need a place to start? Ask them. Chances are it will say far more about your company as a whole than any inauthentic “recruitment brand”.

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I am Greg Moran, Founder and President of Chequed.com. If I've learned one thing in my nearly 2 decades in recruitment and talent selection it's that the way most companies hire makes no sense and hurts both candidates and business performance. I've authored two books, Building the Talent Edge (AuthorHouse, 2002) and Hire, Fire & The Walking Dead (W Business Books, 2006), been featured in just about every major business publication and spoken to thousands of people at too many conferences around the world to mention on how to rationalize the recruitment process and get HR aligned with candidates and business results. If you like what I have to say, please hit the Follow and Like buttons and we can stay in touch. You can also follow me on twitter @CEOofChequed.

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