RFL: 4 Keys to Internal Employment Branding In A Recession

Following up to my previous post, here are 4 keys to success for promoting your employment brand during hiring freezes or staffing reductions. Remember, in consumer markets, the effort you put into advertising and marketing during a downturn will directly affect your ability to capture market share when the economy turns.

The same applies to the labor market. If you want to sustain organizational excellence, you must be able to attract top talent in all positions in your company. You can greatly increase your ability to make good future hires by continuing to develop your employment brand during this recession. Here are 4 simple keys to remember as you go forward:

1. Whether your business is top-down, bottom-up, or organizationally flat, EMPLOYMENT BRANDING develops from the inside out. During these hard times, it may seem attractive to reduce spending on training, company events, and recognition programs. It will be up to HR professionals to fight to keep these activities in the budget. Further, if you are in a position to do so, now is the time to increase these types of activities.
   
   
2. Communicate, communicate, communicate! There is a great deal of anxiety in virtually every workplace in America right now. Be sure to over-communicate to your managers and to your employees. Go the extra mile to reinforce that communication is a two way street, and arm your front line supervisors with the knowledge and skill to handle employee concerns and questions constructively.
   
   
3. Remember The Law of Seven when announcing layoffs or salary freezes. This law, taught to me by a VC and former VP of National Advertising for BF Goodrich, states that a customer who experiences a negative interaction with your company will tell 7 people about it. Conversely, only one in 7 people will share a positive interaction with others. What does it mean? You have to put in extra effort to generate positive internal messaging even when delivering bad news. If people feel treated fairly, they may pass on just how well you handled things. If they feel treated poorly, they will yell it from the mountaintops.
   
   
4. Utilize Press Release distribution services to reinforce positive employment related events. Consider announcing long-term anniversaries, promotions, completion of trainings, employee events, and internal employee survey results. This is a low cost way to keep your employment brand alive even when you have no job ads to post. It also reinforces the value of your work internally, provided you follow key number two above.

All of these keys are directly related to positive word of mouth campaigns developed by you and carried out by your employees. Remember, the reality of your employment brand is what your workforce says it is, regardless of what you want it to be. The more focus you can put into guiding that internal dialogue, the more long-term brand integrity and brand penetration you'll have.

That's all from now from the Recruiting Front Lines! Next time, I'll share a few keys about external branding during a recession. Please share any thoughts or comments, and remember, if you like what you read here, please pass it on!

Jason