Who tries to hire when they don’t even have an employer brand? A lot of startups and scaleups, that’s who. These are the companies making products, providing services and getting amazing user feedback before they even have a company name. Or, they may have recently been acquired and exist in a state of flux; nameless, brandless, but still laser focused on growth via talent acquisition.
Without a dedicated and trusted employer brand, you’d think they’d be nervous. However, these companies have a few things in common: firstly, they don’t sweat it when corporate branding agencies and internal comms departments throw barriers or delays in the way of having perfectly polished employer brands.
Secondly, they understand that in the early days, hiring key people for growth is more important than having a 100% perfect employer brand, and that ultimately, these people will define and become the employer brand. As they progress, these companies speak to their people, determine their pain points, and work to define an employer brand that is representative of what it is really like to work for the organization: one that embodies its strengths and goals.
In addition, they get creative and innovative on the fly when it comes to hiring. A lot of companies manage to juggle it all in tandem, racing to define and differentiate their brands while strategically sourcing seriously niche roles in one of the most challenging acquisition landscapes we’ve ever had.
When they get thrown challenges like “hire 200 people amid the pandemic remotely, without using an agency,” they use all the resources available to them including digital campaigns, clever social media and outsourced experts. They look to these experts who specialize in helping early stage businesses to scale – those that can help them to reach a wider pool of talent and find the right people, whether that is executive hires or technical talent. They also look for assistance and advice on employer brand awareness campaigns when that shiny brand is ready to debut.
What They Don’t Do
They don’t wait around, that’s for certain. The pandemic has not stopped companies from hiring even as they work to establish their brands. Case in point, in our recent research that surveyed hiring managers of tech companies across the United States, 77% said they’d adjusted their Employee Value Propositions (EVPs) during the pandemic, and many of these companies indicated that they were also hard at work on their employer brands as well.
Another thing – they also don’t part with six figure sums in order to hire. Today, companies at every stage understand that these sums are not realistic.
We could say more, but we’d be giving away part III of Talent Tales or Reality, where we’ll be discussing the great budget myth – does more budget mean a better hire?
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