May 29, 2008

It is all about me ...

What could be more self-serving and vain than quoting yourself? How about republishing an entire speech verbatim? Ego and laziness all in one entry.

My address to the New England Society of Healthcare Communicators:

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been at a gathering where a speaker has asked you to raise your hand. Typically what happens is the speaker then goes on to make a point that relates to the question posed even if only two people raise their hand. The idea is that somehow the audience response has supported the speaker’s notion. This is a phenomenon known as spurious affirmation. It is assertion without proof.

The other day, I conducted an Internet search for the phrase “Our people are our (fill in the blank).” There were 164,000 citations that included “Our people are our greatest asset, strength, biggest innovation, competitive advantage, family, power, or most valuable resource.” 164,000 citations stated in one form or another by everyone from Nortel to the Wheeling Auto Center. All I can say is, wow – these must be some special people.

But for the vast majority of these organizations, they were just engaging in the same spurious affirmation that I did a moment ago. It’s a proposition without the value. It’s risky business. It is the exact opposite of an employer brand.

If just anyone could develop, manage, and deliver your organization’s services, you wouldn’t need an employer brand. But if just anyone could do those things, there would be nothing distinctive about what your organization offered its patients and customers.

Knowledge capital and talent are the keys to making an organization successful. Attracting both requires not only a fair exchange of value between employer and employee, but also a relevant and differentiated offer.

In other words, an employer brand - one that can be crafted and articulated in advertising, networking, and communication channels.

Let’s talk about this talent, this knowledge capital that all organizations need to be successful. These folks consciously or unconsciously seek to affiliate with brands. They only have the capacity to be familiar with a certain number of brands. And absent brand affiliation, they are likely to make choices based on price-point. In other words, they are just like any other consumer.

And just like consumers, you have to wonder: how long are they yours?
Service brands, experiential brands/institutional brands, rely on moments between staff and customer, staff and patient. Sometimes these are big moments – sometimes they’re small. But as you know, perhaps better than anyone, they’re all important.

In the mid-90s, a white paper was published in the Journal of Brand Management by Simon Barrow and Tim Ambler, both of the U.K. Their premise was that the best shops (a decidedly British phrase) created the best word of mouth, which in turn led to the best applicants, resulting in the best people, which of course, came full circle to the establishment of the best shops. While much less complex than quantum physics, it’s still a simple and powerful idea today. In fact, it is the foundation of the employer brand concept.

The purpose of an employer brand is to create a desired perception of an organization as an employer in the minds of employees and candidates that is both relevant and differentiated. It is fact-based – founded on those attributes of the employment experience that an organization delivers and a candidate/employee deems to be important. It is constructed to achieve rational and emotional resonance while connecting with an individual’s aspirations.

It should be designed to further the achievement of an organization’s mission by increasing engagement of current employees and attracting future employees who are naturally aligned with those goals.

It will connect with more of the candidate market with deeper, more meaningful messaging. It will enable an organization to attract candidates based on important tangible and intangible brand attributes rather than just commodity attractors such as compensation. And it will provide a unified voice for an organization that brings clarity to recruitment efforts – from the career site to employee referrals. Not that anyone here has to worry about attracting healthcare professionals – what with the overabundance of RNs, PAs, and the like, and demographics working so well in your favor.

However, while the premise is simple, it cannot be achieved simply through the development of a new recruitment advertising campaign. Ten years ago, a study estimated that the average person was exposed to 500 brand messages each day. Imagine what it must be now. Globalization has led to the introduction of an increasing number of brands to a given market. Technology leads to more pervasive delivery of brand messages, contributing to message saturation. Not that we have too many pharmaceutical ads.

Breaking through with messaging that actually results in an employer brand requires the concerted and aligned efforts of staffing professionals, marketers, brand managers, and communication professionals. Otherwise, you’re simply contributing to the noise.

But in the end, if you work together, you will not only effectively deliver a more meaningful message to candidates and a more significant experience to employees, you’ll also deliver a better brand experience to your patients, your customers.

Raise your hand if you agree.

Thank you.

r

Posted by robokeefe at 03:41 PM | Comments (1)

April 25, 2008

The definition of insanity …

A couple of months ago I decided to sell my car. Each weekend, I parked it at the end of my driveway so that everyone driving by could see that I had written “for sale” on the windshield in big white letters (New Times Roman, 120 point, in case you’re wondering). After a few weeks went by and no one inquired, I decided I needed to try something different. So I bought some of those red “for sale” signs that you can buy in the hardware store. (I also bought a portable generator after I accidentally severed the power line to our house while planting a dogwood tree. Who knew they were serious when they labeled the cable “do not cut?”) I had the car detailed, put two of the new signs in my car, and one large sign at the end of my driveway, where I again parked every weekend. I still didn’t get a single inquiry.

Maybe I should have realized I needed to use a different advertising strategy, especially since I live on a cul-de-sac with just four other houses on the street. But what do I know? I’m just a brand consultant, not a car salesman.

As ridiculous as this sounds, it’s really an allegory for what so many organizations are repeating in the employer brand arena. Companies typically attract candidates using a combination of job postings, their career site, referral programs, and the occasional classified ad. At some point the company determines that a change in perception needs to take place in order to more effectively attract talent.

So they undergo an extensive employer brand development project, arrive at the new positioning platform and go to market. How do they go to market, you might ask? (No really, go ahead and ask.) Through the exact same channels they did before they developed their brand strategy: using a combination of job postings, their career site, referral programs, and the occasional classified ad.

If a brand is a mechanism for affecting perceptions, then the message channels need to be conducive to achieving that objective. What channels reach a broad audience – people who are not considering your organization? What channels more effectively impart emotional context – the underpinning of all brands? What channels align with your brand, thereby reinforcing the attributes simply through association?

The lesson? It’s not just what you’re messaging, it’s also how you’re conveying the message.

So, anyone want to buy a 2002 Chevy Impala?

r

Posted by robokeefe at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)