Marketing and HR have a lot in common. The success of one depends on the other, but all too often they work in isolation. In this people-centric age where authenticity is everything, this has to change. This paper outlines how Marketing and HR can help each other in building a consistent brand and how marketing approach and technique can enhance talent attraction.

1. People are
the brand
THE UNITY OF MARKETING AND HR
by Felix Wetzel
MARCH 2016

2. PEOPLE ARE THE BRAND.
THEY ARE THE STRONGEST
AND MOST INFLUENTIAL
BRAND AMBASSADORS.
MARKETING AND HR WOULD
BENEFIT FROM WORKING
CLOSELY TOGETHER AND
UTILISING EACH OTHER’S
KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE
TO ACHIEVE MORE IMPACTFUL
BUSINESS OUTCOMES.
PEOPLE ARE THE BRAND2

3. 3PEOPLE ARE THE BRAND
Marketing and HR have a lot in common. The success
of one depends on the other, but all too often they
work in isolation. In this people-centric age where
authenticity is everything, this has to change.
Authenticity isn’t a new thought and has been
discussed to a significant extent. Nevertheless,
the majority of companies and brands still do not
deliver an authentic brand experience. The Marketing
function and the HR/Talent/People function are
not working together. Often different brand values
are applied in communication and interaction with
consumers to those in their communication and
interaction with present and future employees –
a clear sign that a company’s culture isn’t being
managed nor their identity fully developed. As a
consequence, the consumer has an inconsistent,
often disappointing brand experience, which
damages authenticity for the external audience. This
inconsistent approach also has a negative effect on
productivity and employee engagement as well as
the attraction of future employees.
People are the brand. They are the strongest and
most influential brand ambassadors – marketing
and HR would benefit from working closely together
and utilising each other’s knowledge and expertise
to achieve more impactful business outcomes. A
better understanding of each other’s problems,
approaches and experiences will unearth many
similarities and many joint undertakings, from
brand building to talent attraction.
There are many models, approaches and techniques
we marketers use that could enhance talent
attraction and people management functions.
Consumer brand and employer brand; consumer
value proposition and employee value proposition;
advertising and job descriptions; consumer attraction
(performance marketing) and candidate attraction;
consumer engagement and candidate engagement;
most profitable consumer segments and best
performing employees – as you can see, all these
areas have similarities and originate from marketing.
This paper outlines how marketing and HR can help
each other in building a consistent brand and how
marketing approach and technique can enhance
talent attraction.

4. PEOPLE ARE THE BRAND, By Felix Wetzel4
W
hen building a
(consumer) brand a lot
of time and effort is
spent on understanding
a company’s positioning towards
their clients and their competition.
Little time is spent trying to
understand the positioning in
regards to the company: What
is our identity? What do we
stand for? How does the brand
work for current employees and
future employees? How do the
overall values play out in day
to day working life? How do we
implement the brand internally?
A lot of time is spent pouring
over words, images, product
ideas. The same concentration,
determination and creativity
is missing when planning for
another important stakeholder:
the internal audience. Marketing
is focused on the consumer/
client and the competition (and
is remunerated accordingly).
The internal focus is often an
afterthought. A big internal launch
event maybe, but subsequently
management is delegated to a
junior person and more often than
not falls off the radar.
HR and Talent
management are often
missing from the brand
creation process
HR and Talent management are
are often missing from the brand
creation process. This represents
a lost opportunity to take what
has been built and extend it
towards the internal audience
thus creating a consistent
company culture based on shared
values and shared experiences.
To make the most of this
opportunity requires changes
to the status quo and for HR
and Talent to depart from
their comfort zone so that the
company culture doesn’t just
develop by accident.
Here is an example of how we
rolled out a successful and
attractive external brand at Jobsite
with little attention to the internal
brand: Jobsite’s brand essence was
“We help you plan your work life, so
your whole life works better” and
whilst Jobsite was a great place to
work, we weren’t rigorous enough
in adjusting internal behavior,
policies and programs to help the
Jobsite employees to plan their
work life, so their whole life would
work better.
We talked about the brand
essence, what it meant and
how to communicate it, but
it wasn’t consistently and
convincingly applied in the
internal communication and
interactions. We brainstormed
ideas and developed products
to help candidates but we didn’t
innovate internally so people could
really live our brand. Using spiral
dynamics we built a questionnaire
for candidates to identify their
personal profile, how they relate to
others’ profiles, and we supplied
questions to use in interviews so
candidates could identify if the
culture of a company was aligned
to their own.
We never used this internally,
either as a recruitment or a
performance management tool.
Over time, separate internal
and external brands developed.
The external one continued to
be managed, the internal one
just happened.
Inconsistency
between internal
and external brand
At the beginning the inconsistency
between the internal and external
brand doesn’t really matter, but
over time it shows. Over time the
internal credibility drops and once
the internal belief is gone, it seeps
through every client interaction.
A company loses its soul and
slowly a brand ends where it
started: undefined, undervalued
and unloved.
This inconsistency between
internal and external brand can
also be felt from the consumer
and client side: The external
brand builds up a significant
expectation. But when the
brand isn’t lived by every single
employee, it isn’t delivered
through every interaction. In
the end the brand experience
becomes significantly different
than the brand expectation. This
can be positive if you start with
a low expectation or it can be
negative when starting with a high
expectation. When brand values
and corporate culture are not
aligned, rather than positioning
the company for success,
management are leaving it up to
chance and the professional pride
of the individual.
This misalignment can also
occur purely internally, if two
or more sets of brand values
exist. Balmer’s AC²D test (see
next page) nicely explains
these discrepancies.
1. Creating a consistent brand
HR AND TALENT
MANAGEMENT ARE
OFTEN MISSING
FROM THE BRAND
CREATION PROCESS.
THIS REPRESENTS A
LOST OPPORTUNITY
TO TAKE WHAT
HAS BEEN BUILT
AND EXTEND
IT TOWARDS
THE INTERNAL
AUDIENCE THUS
CREATING A
CONSISTENT
COMPANY CULTURE
BASED ON
SHARED VALUES
AND SHARED
EXPERIENCES.

5. CREATING A CONSISTENT BRAND 5
In “From the Pentagon: a new
identity framework” Balmer
describes the AC2
D as “a
tool that can detect conflicts
between stakeholder perceptions
and inconsistencies in official
communications strategy, and
encompasses the notion of
evolving image and strategy”. In
other words, it helps to point out
discrepancies and at the same
time helps to manage culture
and corporate identity in a
changing environment.
As long as the mismatch is desired
and managed, it can actually be a
positive. If you build a brand only
on actual values (what you have
always done and do now), you
are in danger of stifling growth
and not adjusting to a changing
external environment.
Ideally, the actual identity and the
communicated one are completely
aligned – no mismatch between
internal and external brand. At the
same time the ideal and desired
identity are built with the future
in mind. Where do we want to be?
How do we have to behave and
evolve to achieve this?
The next step is for the leadership
to communicate the vision and
live the new reality. Working
with HR and Marketing, a
roadmap needs to be designed
to transition between where we
are now to where we want to be.
Communications, behaviours and
competency frameworks should
be adjusted and used to assess
and manage achieving the new
reality. If some employees can’t or
won’t come along on this journey,
then this needs addressing
rather than allowing it to slow the
process down.
The desired identity, as Trueman
said in his paper “Can a city
communicate? Bradford as a
corporate brand” in 2004, “lives in
the hearts and minds of corporate
leaders. It is their vision for the
organization. Whereas the ideal
identity normally emerges after a
period of research and analysis,
the desired identity may have
more to do with a vision informed
by a CEO’s personality and ego
than with a rational assessment.”
Morphing the two and adequate
execution underpins success.
This planned and managed
mismatch is important for the
growth of a company and to
attract investment, customers
and employees. A learning and
developing company does well to
engage in this mismatch.
Most of us will have experienced
these discrepancies in their
unmanaged state. It happens in all
types of companies, even start ups
where you’d think there would be a
clean slate. But whenever there are
people involved, there is no such
thing as a clear slate.
Often the misalignment becomes
apparent when values and
associated behaviors have been
defined. The leadership realizes
that they themselves don’t live
the values that they proclaimed.
The value definition is quickly
dismissed as unimportant or
slowed down without real reasons.
A mismatch between word
and actions will occur unless
behaviors are adjusted or the real
values unearthed. That can make
for uncomfortable conversations,
especially when it has to be
pointed out to the leadership that
they are not living the values that
they actually want the company
to adopt or when the company
adopts them easily but the
leadership doesn’t.
If a company is flying, the general
success is enough to keep morale
up and paper over the cracks,
but it will minimise the ability to
scale rapidly in a coherent fashion
and across borders and will lead
to decisions – both hiring and
commercial – that are against the
brand values.
Building the brand
Setting brand values always
starts with the leadership. It
is then extended to the people
within the brand. The process
needs to be linked to the business
strategy and objectives, hence
taking the external environment
into consideration and creating a
brand that is attractive for all three
stakeholders – company, clients,
and competitors.
The leadership needs to buy in
and live the brand essence and
the values. The leadership needs
to be honest, if the brand essence
actually is “make the owner richer”
then it is better to be honest
about it rather than trying to
hide it behind some aspirational
veil of ultimate nothingness and
permanent post-rationalisation
of decisions. It will be found
out anyway as values ultimately
become part of day to day
conversations and behaviours.
Actions speak louder than
words. Values are observable
everyday in employee behaviour
values become the glue for
social cohesion, the DNA of
your corporate nation. Living
BALMER’S AC²D TEST
Critical
Concern
Identity Type Concept Timeframe
What we
really are
Actual
Corporate
identity
Past/
Present
What we
say we are
Communicated
Corporate
Communication
Past/
Present
What we
are seen to be
Perceived
Corporate
image
Past/
Present
What we
ought to be
Ideal
Corporate
strategy
Future
What we
wish to be
Desired CEO vision Future
AActual
CConceived
DDesired
IIdeal
CCommunicated
FROM THE PENTAGON

6. PEOPLE ARE THE BRAND, By Felix Wetzel6
behaviours are key items and
here the HR and Talent function
can add real value through
their expertise of competency
frameworks and performance
management. It is important
that the company clearly states
the behaviour that corresponds
to each value, how this differs
for the different levels within the
company and how this is linked to
performance management.
This is often another point when
consistent brand development
breaks down: I have seen several
companies, who built their brand,
rolled it into the competency
framework and then didn’t apply
it rigorously. There are many
reasons for this: as mentioned
above, the leadership suddenly
realises that they don’t live up to
these values and behaviours, or
they don’t want to rock the boat
and don’t want to go through
the pain of aligning internal and
external brand. So in short, it
either threatens a control position
or makes life too uncomfortable.
A competency framework that has
been aligned and is being used
as a management tool allows us
to separate performance from
results. You can measure both
independently and therefore
reward a great performance, not
only great results. That in itself
is already an improvement to the
way many companies and teams
are currently run. It is also a great
tool to assess the people with
the “right” attitude and mindset
and help those people grow even
if they don’t have the skills that
others possess whose attitude
and mindset is not “on brand.”
HR is required to identify and
nurture the former and address
the mismatch with the latter
proactively, instead of hoping that
the new reality will slowly take
care of it for them.
Having one brand touches
other areas as well. If you
have a brand value that states
to your clients “Seeing things
differently”, you have to ask how
this is translated into working
practises, from the way the office
is arranged, to the tools given
and the policies applied.
The values also become a key
component in the recruitment
process – what are the questions
we ask to establish if a possible
recruit possesses these values?
What are the answers that will
most likely lead to a successful
and productive hire? Obviously,
now I am teaching Talent and HR
professionals how to suck eggs,
but these are the tools that have
been missing in Marketing to
implement a consistent brand.
Marketers can also be a
stumbling block when defining
values: In our world view, we
want ideally 3 or 5 values,
mainly for simplicity and impact
reasons. However, when learning
from the best, and for me
Amazon is one of the best, we
are more likely to be looking at
11 to truly assess a person’s
potential performance and
learning agility as outlined below.
That might make the values
initially unwieldy but in the longer
term will deliver better outcomes
and, most importantly, values
that are useful for the entire
company, not only for marketing
and their branding purposes.
Furthermore, I would use the
same behaviours used to assess
existing and potential employees
in supplier and investor selection.
The entire company network
needs to run as seamlessly and
frictionless as possible. If your
company sends consultants or
contractors into businesses, they
are an extension of your brand.
Any candidate a recruitment
company sends for an interview
represents the recruitment agency
and is therefore an extension of
their brand.
After all a brand’s strength
is defined as “the number of
active participants in a brand’s
network”, so this network is
generally pretty wide and includes
everybody, because remember,
you can set your brand values
and your brand essence, but
your brand will be defined by the
market, by the experiences the
consumers/ candidates have on
all their touch points. You can
influence your brand, but you
can’t really control it.
Let’s talk employment or employer
brand: The employment brand
is a facet of the overall brand. It
is based on the brand essence
and brand values of the company
brand but is tailored towards
the specific B2E audience so it
is relevant for both inbound and
outbound marketing activities.
Talent people, work with your
marketing teams. Take advantage
of their knowledge and their
expertise. Marketers, include
your Talent function in brand
development, because they are the
ones to ensure that it is consistently
applied through performance
management and hiring.
Resu
lts agility Self-awar
eness
Changeagility
People agility
M
entalagility
Learning
Agility
Delivering results
in challenging first-
time situations
Likes to
experiment
and
comfortable
with change
Skilled communicator who can
work with diverse types of people
Extent to which an
individual knows his
or her true strengths
and weaknesses
Ability to
examine
problems in
unique and
unusual ways

7. 7DEFINING THE PROPOSITION
L
et’s have a look at some
practical steps and how
they relate to talent
attraction. Different
people use different tools and
techniques, but they normally
follow a similar path and this
always begins with business
needs. For example, before
deciding in which programming
language to develop a new
project, it would be wise to
consult the talent function on
available skill sets and how they
might develop in the future.
From a marketing perspective, it
always starts with segmentation,
targeting and positioning (STP).
You ultimately divide the entire
market into smaller, relevant
pieces and choose the one
you want to target. It could be
done by skill and location or
it could include other factors
such as backgrounds, desires,
motivations. This segmentation
also works for and is informed
by the existing workforce:
Several years ago I worked with
Motorola in attracting telematic
engineers to work on products for
big car manufacturers. We used
the usual methods of sector,
skill, experience and location.
Through a survey of the existing
Motorola engineers we realised
that the majority shared a deep
interest in the design of Formula
1 engines. That insight helped us
be more precise in our targeting
and tailor an attraction strategy.
It is as important to understand
their desires as their frustrations
and turn offs. These days
it is often called persona
development. It is important
that qualitative and quantitative
data is used collectively. Both
are valuable on their own, but
they deliver their real beauty
when combined. This helps you
understand your target market
in depth, and lets you assess
the size and the feasibility of
targeting it.
Relevance and speed has driven
recruitment in the past and will
drive it in the future. But the
backdrop is changing. Let’s put
it in the context of the world we
live in, of the broad behaviours we
can observe today:
The world we live in
Frictionless experiences: We are
busy. Our lives are full. We want
everything within it, all the
services and technologies to be
as easy and as smooth as
possible. In an ideal world, they
just run in the background with
minimum interference. Take
Terminal 5 for example, it is
very easy to go through check-in
and security, hardly any waiting
and only afterwards you notice
how easy it was and how all the
different little items created an
overall smooth and seamless
journey. Even leaving feedback is
easy and simple via the
smiley buttons.
Amazon is another great example:
easy to understand and use,
accessible everywhere, entirely
flexible. No unnecessary actions,
as few clicks as necessary, great
suggestions (like mind reading
at times) and completely reliable
at every stage. They make my life
easier and that’s what I want.
Mobile centric: Even though
we have been talking about
mobile for a long time, we
are only starting out on the
mobile journey and still now
there are many companies with
unresponsive websites. But
that’s not what I am talking
about. What I am talking about
is using the data that is intrinsic:
it knows my location, it knows
my address book, it even knows
and remembers the languages
I use to write texts to specific
people. Linking up these data
sets is incredibly exciting and
users today expect that it is being
used to give a more personalised
experience.
Diminishing loyalty: People are
becoming more happy to share
personal data, login by Facebook,
try new apps and website. But if
it doesn’t work as promised, if
it uses your data for something
else than stated, they abandon
you and won’t use you again
and to top it all off: they tell the
entire world. Loyalty has to be
earned through every interaction,
every single time. This trend
is especially pronounced with
younger generations such as the
Millennials, but is now seeping
through to everyone, as we all
have learned the hard way that
most companies don’t reward
loyal customers but just chase
new ones.
People expect a tailored
experience that works around
their busy lives, uses all
available information to make
decisions easier and faster, and
communicate with them in an
honest and authentic way.
Use my data and deliver me the
best solution, don’t bother me
with having to make unnecessary
steps. That is the world your
brand and talent attraction
strategy has to fit in.
2. Defining the Proposition
PEOPLE EXPECT
A TAILORED
EXPERIENCE
THAT WORKS
AROUND THEIR
BUSY LIVES, USES
ALL AVAILABLE
INFORMATION TO
MAKE DECISIONS
EASIER AND
FASTER, AND
COMMUNICATES
WITH THEM IN
AN HONEST AND
AUTHENTIC WAY.

8. 8
Occupying a distinct
position in the job
seeker’s mind
After segmentation and targeting,
the next step is positioning your
company within the wider world we
live in and the specific mindset of
your target customers: “Positioning
is a marketing strategy that aims
to make a brand occupy a distinct
position, relative to competing
brands, in the mind of the customer.
Companies apply this strategy either
by emphasizing the distinguishing
features of their brand (what it is,
what it does and how, etc.) or they
may try to create a suitable image
(inexpensive or premium, utilitarian
or luxurious, entry-level or high-
end, etc.) through advertising.
Once a brand is positioned, it
is very difficult to reposition it
without destroying its credibility.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Positioning_(marketing)
Replace “consumer” with
“candidates” and you end up with
an employer value proposition (evp).
As I said above, it is important
that it isn’t just based on an image
but that it is based on a reality.
At this stage, you can use Kenichi
Ohmae’s triangle (below), to keep all
major stakeholders in mind.
Only when all three are taken
into consideration and
dependencies are understood
can you build a sustainable and
meaningful positioning. I like to
add a 4th C into the model – the
one of ‘Community’. It used to be
normal that good business was
profitable business and took care
of the communities it touched.
These days it seems to be less
obvious with some industries not
adding any value to society.
Now it is time for more
detail and precision: really
understand the target market
and their perception of you,
so you can tailor your
proposition perfectly to their
needs and desires.
To take you back to the Motorola
example: Most telematic
engineers didn’t know that
Motorola was working with car
manufacturers. This insight
helped us tailor our messaging
to position Motorola differently.
As a next step the reknown
marketing mix comes into play.
This ultimately focuses on
delivering value to your customer
(customer value proposition or
within the HR industry: the evp).
From customer
centricity to people
perspective
Most people will have heard
about this tool Marketing’s 4Ps
– product, price, promotion and
place (there are also extensions
to 7 and 12 Ps).
At some stage, there was the
realisation that the 4Ps are
inward focused and look at
the market from a company
perspective, where as marketing
(the clue is in the name) is
about a market perspective
and about customer centricity.
So the 4Ps became the 4Cs.
Product became Customer
Satisfaction (or Customer
Value), Place became
Convenience, Price became
Cost and Promotion became
Communication. This makes
much more sense and increases
the accessibility of this method.
This approach can also be used
in the talent community:
Customer value/satisfaction
is by far the trickiest and
comes down to overcoming
frustrations. What really
frustrates people and how can
my product or service overcome
this frustration? Some people
might not know what to do with
their dog while they work, so
you could allow dogs into the
workplace – that is a shallow
example, but you get my point.
It could be time to develop their
own products or training. The
research you have done in the
previous step will tell you.
Convenience – it is one of the
biggest differentiators in today’s
world and lots of businesses
like Amazon are pushing ahead
in this field. Some people might
find it more convenient to work
from home, so how would you
accommodate this in your
working environment?
Cost – how much are people
willing to pay for your product?
This often also includes the
indirect cost of switching.
This is when salaries and
packages come into play, but
also the cost of losing
protections if people have been
in a job for more than 2 years.
CUSTOMER
• Core benefit
• Expected product
COMPANY
• Basic product
• Potential product
COMPETITION
• Augmented product
• Potential product
KENICHI OHMAE’S TRIANGLE

9. 9DEFINING THE PROPOSITION
Communication – how do
your customers want to be
communicated with? At what
frequency about what topic?
What interests them at what
stage of the process? When
does communication become
interruption? When does
engagement become stalking? It
is seemingly the simplest ‘C’, but
judging by the way recruiters treat
candidates, and by how many still
rely solely on the the traditional
advertising route, it is clear that
this ‘C’ is potentially the one that
could have the biggest impact.
The four Cs don’t exist in isolation
but rather reinforce each other
and, depending on the market
you operate in, will have different
weighting and importance.
Putting the viewpoint of the
consumer/candidate at the centre
(becoming customer centric) is
the most important step, because
it prevents you making costly
mistakes. Let me repeat again,
the adjustments you make to the
outside world need to be mirrored
on the inside. Ideally they are
already in place internally before
you start externally.
I wonder if customer centricity
needs to be expanded to also
include internal customers.
In this case it would be helpful
to move from the term
“customer centricity” to
“people perspective” with the
following definitions:
Customer
centricity
People
perspective
Employee Consumer
CUSTOMER
SOLUTION
PERFORMANCE What is expected of me and what will the
company do for me?
How will performance be managed?
How will my manager ensure that I can
perform to the best of my abilities?
Will the company invest in my
performance improvements?
How will my life
improve when using this
product/service?
CONVENIENCE PERSONALISATION The workplace is designed around
my needs:
I can work from wherever I want,
with the tools I want.
I have the freedom to create my
own environment and can bring in
my own style.
How will it be
personalised to me and
how will it be delivered
to me?
Can I combine it with
existing offers and
applications?
How will it use my data to
tailor it to my needs with
no input of myself?
COST PACKAGE What is the total package? Salary,
stock options, pension, restrictions,
onsite massages...
How does the company benefit the
wider community?
How does the entire
contract work like?
What other non-direct
costs or savings are
included?
What is the cost to
the wider world (has
it been sourced from
environmentally friendly
materials?)
COMMUNICATION PARTICIPATION I can participate in the making of this
company as much as I want.
I can just vote or I can become part of the
movement.
This company participates in making the
world a better place.
Can I participate in an on-going project to
get to know the people and the culture?
How can the product
participate in my life?
Can it be integrated
into my overall routine
and preferred way of
communicating?
How can I feed into
this product?
How can I build on top
of this product?
How can I participate in
their success (through
crowdfunding, feedback)?
How can I let other people
know about this product?

10. PEOPLE ARE THE BRAND, By Felix Wetzel10
Replacing the 4Cs with the
new 4Ps makes a lot of sense
when moving people, instead of
consumers, into the centre of
a company’s activities. This is
especially apparent when seen
against the bigger backdrop
of conversational commerce,
collaboration, personalization and
the blurring of the traditional lines
between consumers, candidates,
employees, contractor, suppliers
and investors.
Throughout the entire process,
we are dealing with people, so
remember this is an evolving
process; one of testing, learning,
refining. It is less about failing
fast than learning fast. Don’t
forget that a new evp and all the
benefits need to be translated for
the internal audience, the people
already working for you. Don’t
make the mistake of taking your
existing people for granted!
Measuring
improvements
You have worked with Marketing
in developing the brand, you have
spent time defining your personas
and overlaying them with
quantitative data, you have fine
tuned your evp with the 4Ps. Now
it’s time to get it out there and
create the candidate experience.
Let’s set the metrics first. How
will your activities feed into
the fulfilment of the business
objectives? How will we measure
its impact along the way?
What are the key performance
indicators that help us stay
focussed, help us differentiate
between the important and nice to
haves and help us make decisions
on what to continue with and what
to abort? Are you spending your
money in the right channels? Are
you judging your suppliers against
the right data set?
At carwow, for example,we realised
that marketing money spent in
the second half of a month (say
January), only delivered returns
in the following months (February
and March), but not in the month
that it was actually spent. So an
ROI based on spend and revenue
in one particular month was
inaccurate and useless.
In talent attraction and sourcing
you have to take time to hire
into account, in order to assess
suppliers and manage your
funnel proactively. In Marketing,
this has now become known
as “performance marketing”.
Anybody who managed a B2B
pipeline will know the drill.
Along the way there will be new
insights. This new information
will allow you to build more and
more meaningful and more and
more accurate data sets and
metrics. Be aware to have enough
data before you change direction
and overlay it with insights into
actual behaviour.
It‘s about learning and
continually tweaking, reinventing
and improving, not giving up at
the first less than optimal result.
To do this effectively, don’t be
tempted to only look at pure ROI,
but rather at the conversions of
every step from start to finish.
This will allow you to test, tweak
and ultimately improve the ROI,
focussing on performance rather
than results as discussed above.
The impact of branding can also
be measured, both qualitatively
and quantitatively – a brand and
branding activity has to deliver
impact and response.
The importance in planning
the metrics beforehand can
be seen in the guidance this
provides to help you stay
focussed on the most important
tasks along the way.
IN TALENT ATTRACTION AND SOURCING
YOU HAVE TO TAKE TIME TO HIRE INTO
ACCOUNT, IN ORDER TO ASSESS SUPPLIERS
AND MANAGE YOUR FUNNEL PROACTIVELY.

11. 11TALENT ATTRACTION CHANNELS
T
he career website is the
starting point for any
outbound activity but it
is surprising how many
are not mobile optimised and are
not built for SEO purposes. It is
also worrying how many are built
without the appreciation of what
job seekers want from a site and
how job seekers choose to be
interacted with (see paragraph
“The world we live in”).
Instead of a focus on relevance
and speed and an understanding
of where a career site sits in a
candidate’s recruitment value chain
(or job searching journey), many
career sites focus only on great
culture and drown the individual
in videos and white papers. People
are time poor and extremely busy
- be very clear why they come
to your website and make it as
easy as possible to find what they
look for. If a career website only
promotes the brand but doesn’t
drive response, change it. If you
can’t change it, park it. The metrics
set out above will help you.
We have become a cynical bunch.
We all know that corporate videos
and interviews with employees are
scripted. So how about you connect
me with real people that can
answer my questions? Every other
site these days has a chat service
that is triggered by consumer
behaviour, why not career pages? If
your candidates are so important,
surely you can spend the time
talking to them when they have the
questions, in real time, now, when
it suits the candidate. Another
step towards the application of
conversational commerce.
Have a look at retail sites and
transfer the same principles
into the design of your career
pages. There you will find all the
eye candy, but also a clear goal
orientation to shepherd you to the
check-out while offering additional
items and giving reassurances
along the way. Retail sites
remember where a returning visitor
has left off. Registrations and check
outs are made as easy as possible.
Some career pages still require
the candidate to manually cut and
paste their CV or use old parsers
that are so inaccurate that the
candidate might as well fill out the
CV form manually. At this stage,
recruiters – more likely than not –
blame their ATS. Change your ATS
if it is destroying your candidate
experience. Anything that hinders
a seamless candidate experience
needs replacing.
Retailers also make great use
of emails or sms to inform
consumers where they are in the
process, what is happening next,
and to prompt the move to the
next stage in the purchase funnel.
This is an area that deserves
much more focus in the Talent and
Recruitment world. It has a real
potential to impact your metrics
positively. There are two types of
emails, transactional ones and
information ones – I would suggest
utilising both and continuing to
activate participation.
When a website is launched,
it is only the starting point of
the journey and a career site
needs constant attention and
improvements.This includes
uploading new content. The
improvements I am talking about
are linked to the metrics - how
can we improve our conversation
rates, how can we get more people
to open their emails? Permanent
questioning, permanent testing and
permanent measuring. It requires
permanent allocation of skill sets
that are not naturally found in
Talent functions, such as designers,
developers and data scientists.
Include existing
employees
In an ideal world all of a
company’s existing employee
should also be held in their
CV repository so every new job
they want to fill is first matched
against current employees.
Employees know that they won’t
be overlooked and the recruiter
knows what talent they have
available. If they don’t or can’t
offer the new role to an existing
employee, at least they have the
beginning of a blueprint of what
kind of person they are looking
for. Email or internal messaging
systems are a great way of
keeping employees informed of
when they appeared in a short list
for a new role and could give them
insight into potential future career
paths or personal development.
This empowers employees to
more proactively participate in the
overall growth of the company.
Some companies take it a step
further such as Sodexo who use
internal headhunters. Their internal
recruiters have access to succession
and performance data, and use
this information to help guide
their internal searches. They also
support and coach the internal
candidates in preparation for
interviews. This helps to address the
issue in organisations of external
candidates arriving much better
prepared, as the internal candidate
believes that the manager already
knows about them. Although,
as you can imagine, many line
managers were not too enamoured
with internal headhunting,
Sodexo’s approach makes sense
on so many levels. It works for
3. Talent Attraction Channels
WE HAVE BECOME
A CYNICAL BUNCH
AND WE ALL KNOW
THAT CORPORATE
VIDEOS AND
INTERVIEWS WITH
EMPLOYEES ARE
SCRIPTED. SO
HOW ABOUT YOU
CONNECT ME WITH
REAL PEOPLE THAT
CAN ANSWER MY
QUESTIONS?

12. PEOPLE ARE THE BRAND, By Felix Wetzel12
the individual as getting a call
from the internal recruiter makes
them feel valued and highlights
their opportunities for growth.
That results in the individual
feeling good about the company
and in turn becoming an even
stronger brand ambassador.
It works for the company in terms
of talent retention (because let’s
face it, if the employee sees no
chance of change or success,
they’ll leave anyway), and what’s
more they can now up-skill their
staff not only through courses
and coaching but also through
real world experience. This in
itself will result in reduced time
to hire and time to productivity.
Additionally, it’s a great way to
reinforce new behaviours, spread
skills and enable more impactful
cultural change, yet in a very
subtle way.
This active portfolio management
of employees is admirable,
because a company’s talent pool
starts and ends with the existing
workforce. Let’s build clear
characteristics of the players
we want on our roster. Let us
be ruthless in applying these
when bringing in fresh talent and
appraising existing talent, but let’s
then support our talent and give
them the opportunity to become
the best they can be.
Technological solutions such
as Rolepoint for internal
mobility, and Predictive
Hire and Majio for help with
automatically identifying traits
and characteristics of relevant
employees are getting more and
more interesting.
Candidate Experience
The annual Candidate
Experience awards, provide
participating companies with lots
of insights, but a participating
company can decide if they want
their own results published or
not. Retail is once again showing
us the way where it is now the
standard to implement review
services such as Trustpilot,
FeeFo, Reevoo. Users can rate
the service, and via a free text
field, leave a detailed review
and reasons for their rating.
All reviews can be viewed and
published on the site.
In the recruitment industry, instead
of having to go to Glassdoor –
another step in my already busy
life – the candidate should be able
to see reviews from their peers
directly on the career site.
The fallacy of
talent communities
Recruitment and job seeking
and finding are driven by speed
and relevance. Job seeking is –
for most parts and for most people
– a stressful and confidence-
zapping experience. They have
limited control over the process
and outcome, yet it has maximum
impact on self-esteem through
rejection and probing. A job seeker
wants to get the process over as
fast as possible. Being invited to
participate in a talent community
is the last thing they need.
Even the argument that talent
communities are for passive
not active candidates is flawed.
Putting aside the fact that there
is a big argument to be had
over whether there is such a
thing as a passive candidate,
more importantly let’s look
at behaviours and outcomes.
Passive candidates would be
even less interested in engaging
with your employer brand facet.
It is much more beneficial for
a company to participate in an
existing community, rather than
building their own. The challenge
for a brand when confronted with
passive candidates is to be at the
right place at the right time, when
a candidate is ready to make a
move, but on their terms.
Job Boards and beyond
I understand why companies
use job boards (including
aggregators) and LinkedIn. I
understand why companies use
recruitment agencies. It makes
complete sense as they drive
value. If your target market is
using them and is participating
actively, then they belong in the
overall mix. As long as job boards
and LI continue to improve and
deliver better personalisations
and recommendations through
improved matching, candidates
will continue to use them. But
competition is fierce, standing out
is difficult, hence the brand can
often get lost.
There are many candidate sources
beyond job boards and LinkedIn,
such as Workshape, StackOverflow,
Swoop Talent which are worthwhile
testing and trialling. If your target
market is there, you have to be
there too. Don’t stop here.
Jumping
straight to social
Many companies use job boards
and LinkedIn and then jump
straight to social media. It always
surprises me that they leave a
whole host of proven, valuable,
desired marketing channels
untouched and instead engage in
channels with lower direct returns,
REASONS TO LIKE
REVIEW SERVICES:
l PROVIDE INSIGHT
INTO YOUR USER
BEHAVIOUR
l ENABLE USERS TO
PARTICIPATE
l RESULT IN
PEER TO PEER
RECOMMENDATIONS
(THE IMPORTANT
SOCIAL PROOF)
l THE DATE AND TIME
STAMP SHOW HOW
POPULAR A SITE IS
l DEMONSTRATE
HOW OVERALL
SATISFACTION
COMPARES WITH
COMPETITORS
l ALLOW YOU TO
REACT IMMEDIATELY
TO YOUR USERS

13. 13TALENT ATTRACTION CHANNELS
lower possibilities to scale and
that require more effort. It shows
three things:
1. Talent functions and their
advisors don’t have the expertise
and knowledge about other
marketing channels, especially
from a B2C perspective.
2. They don’t understand their
target market and are not
taking a people perspective.
3. Management, after listening to
some charlatans, believe that
social media is free, delivers
differentiation and scalable
response, which is a sign that
the company does not use
metrics and KPIs for the entire
candidate journey.
The wider world
There are many other marketing
channels, that deserve focus before
jumping to social media: SEO,
PPC, Facebook lookalikes, native
and programmatic advertising, in-
game advertising... They are used
in other industries and deserve
more consideration and usage in
the recruitment industry.
Be aware when tracking as there
will be different behaviours
for each channel: Somebody
searching on Google has a clear
intent, somebody seeing an ad on
Facebook is in a far more passive
mode, therefore participation will
build more slowly and messaging
needs adjusting accordingly.
Research and constant
interactions with the target
market will give insights and
guidance into communication
and participation channels
outside of digital such as Sky
AdSmart or local media. Your
research will also give you
insight into interests and
activities outside of job hunting
and careers that you can tap into.
Choose your marketing channels
according to your target market.
The question to answer is: What
is the most effective way of
communicating with the talent
you want to attract?
Assembling
the right team
Google is a search engine, that’s
why they have a substantial
team of bright people focussing
on improving their search all
the time. That makes complete
sense, doesn’t it?
If people are really important for
business, why is there a resource
constraint on the talent function?
Why don’t we have the right skills
for the world we are currently
working in? Why are we not
doing what we expect of other
functions and companies? Who is
responsible and accountable for
digital channels, beyond job boards?
Where are the digital teams found in
consumer marketing functions? Are
we seeking talent with transferable
skills? Are we ready to give up
control? Are we ready to change? All
these questions require answers.
THERE ARE MANY MORE MARKETING CHANNELS, THAT
DESERVE FOCUS: SEO, PPC, FACEBOOK LOOKALIKES,
NATIVE AND PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING,
IN-GAME ADVERTISING... THEY ARE USED IN OTHER
INDUSTRIES AND DESERVE CONSIDERATION AND
USAGE IN THE RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY.

14. PEOPLE ARE THE BRAND, By Felix Wetzel14
The game is challenging, fun and
educational just like RMS. We could
never get in front of this many people
this quickly. Over 1 million games have
already been sold and they are finishing
up an android version right now. While
playing, the game people will see the
RMS brand pop up at least four times and
not in a cheesy way. We are a character
in the game… an expert advisor. Lastly,
our LifeRisk business actually builds
similar, much more complex of course,
models. So this gives us an easy fun
way to explain a part of our business to
people inside and outside our industry.”
“
”Amelia Merril
SVP People Strategy, Risk Management Solution
on the game, Plague Inc

15. 15LEARNING FROM THE BEST
A
melia Merrill, SVP
People Strategy, for Risk
Management Solutions
(RMS) used an incredibly
creative approach based on good
insights and an appreciation for
the competition her company is
facing when hiring.
RMS is based in Silicon Valley and
therefore competes for talent with
the likes of Google, Facebook, and
a multitude of cool and colourful
start-ups. RMS obviously doesn’t
have the same brand awareness
and brand recognition, or the
apparent attractiveness, of their
competitors. So RMS has to
contact a lot of people before
they get one to bite.
RMS is offering sophisticated
products and services for the
management of catastrophe risk
associated with natural perils
such as earthquakes, hurricanes,
and windstorms, as well as
products for weather derivatives
and enterprise risk management
for the P&C insurance industry.
RMS also leads the market in
risk modelling for man-made
disasters associated with acts of
terrorism, and in 2012 released
the first infectious disease model
to quantify and manage the
risks associated with pandemic
disease on the world’s population
and economy.
So to build some serious
brand recognition in their key
recruitment market segments,
Amelia and the team came up
with an ingenious solution. RMS
featured in the game “Plague Inc.”
In 2012 Plague Inc. was one of
the most played games on iPhone
and iPad. RMS wasn’t included in
the usual advertising ways, but as
a character in the game.
As Amelia Merrill explained:
“The game is challenging, fun
and educational just like RMS. We
could never get in front of this many
people this quickly. Over 1 million
games have already been sold and
they are finishing up an android
version right now. While playing the
game people will see the RMS brand
pop up at least 4 times and not in
a cheesy way. We are a character
in the game… an expert advisor.
Lastly, our LifeRisk business actually
builds similar, much more complex
of course, models. So this gives us
an easy fun way to explain a part of
our business to people inside and
outside our industry.”
But it didn’t stop with the release
of the game. Amelia Merrill
and team used it for internal
engagement by having a
contest where an employee
created a situation which caused
a virus to react differently during
the game. Externally they handed
out access codes for the games
at all kinds of events.
The real beauty, besides the
creativity, is the understanding and
development of some key principles
of recruitment and marketing
outlined earlier in this paper:
l It’s a great, real world example
of the fact the employment
branding is only a facet of
the overall company brand
(instead of a loosely connected,
separate entity).
l It follows the traditional
marketing principles of
Segmenting, Targeting, and
Positioning and shows an
in-depth understanding of
the target audience.
l It closes the distance between
brand and candidate, and cuts
out any intermediaries.
l It spans across different
marketing channels and
overcomes the digital divide.
l It’s built on the knowledge
that the internal and external
audience are intrinsically
linked, and uses this initiative
to enhance and reinforce
RMS’ culture – after all your
employees are your most
important brand ambassadors.
4. Learning from the best –
how RMS combined it all
WHY DON’T YOU
HAVE THE RIGHT
SKILLS FOR THE
WORLD WE
CURRENTLY
WORK IN?

16. 16BIOGRAPHY
About Felix Wetzel
B
uilding on nearly twenty years of senior
marketing and strategy experience
within disruptive, two-sided marketplace
companies, I am fascinated by the concept
of introducing Marketing principles and techniques
to Talent functions and Recruitment companies.
I help companies position themselves in a way
that is attractive to clients and empowering for
employees, and then translate this into product
and marketing implementations. I advise CEOs on
designing strategies and building organisations
that match their ambitions. I integrate HR Tech
solutions to improve the candidate experience and
internal productivity. It’s all about people.
Tell me about your stories, challenges and
experience. I’d love to know your thoughts about
the themes and topics covered in this paper.
MARKETING AND HR HAVE A LOT IN COMMON.
THE SUCCESS OF ONE DEPENDS ON THE OTHER,
BUT ALL TOO OFTEN THEY WORK IN ISOLATION.
IN THIS PEOPLE-CENTRIC AGE WHERE AUTHENTICITY
IS EVERYTHING, THIS HAS TO CHANGE.
GET IN TOUCH:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/felixwetzel
@felixwetzel
blog: “People, Brands and Random thoughts”
www.felixwetzel.com