The Importance of Having a Strong Employer Brand
I want to take a moment to talk about outdoor industry branding and its connection to your employer brand. And by that, I’m talking about the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding of executives and other members of your team.
If you were to ask one of your customers what a brand is, they’re likely to point to your company’s logo. And who could blame them for thinking that’s your brand?
For anyone lacking experience in organization development and design, brand management, or organizational culture, a brand is pretty much just its visuals. But for those with key responsibilities in recruitment and hiring, we operate knowing that effective brand management is inclusive of company’s current, future, and prospective leaders and employees.
Brand management ensnares anyone who’s ever applied for a position within your company — and even those who’ve never even considered doing so. As a result, your brand drives more than just sales and profits; it has a significant impact on your human resources and talent pool. That includes everything from how motivated and creative your organization’s people are, to how eager people are to come and work for you.
As the founder and president of a professional services firm focused on placing highly driven, talented professionals with outdoor industry, active lifestyle, and sporting goods organizations, I can tell you this: Recruiting and hiring top talent is a whole lot easier when just about everyone in the industry dreams of being a part of your organization.
When you have a strong employer brand — one that’s associated with highly desirable company values, culture, and work/life rhythm — you have no trouble finding talent and persuading them to join your organization. The most challenging part of the recruitment and hiring process shifts from finding qualified candidates to narrowing the list.
The Power of Your Employer Brand
If you already have a well-recognized and deeply respected employer brand, kudos to you. Just don’t ruin it by doing something careless, like being rude or dismissive to a candidate. Unthinkable? Yes, but it happens.
Not too long ago, a candidate for a key executive position at an outdoor company postponed his Labor Day plans to engage in a final round of interviews. Ultimately, he wasn’t offered the position. He followed up by writing a long and highly thoughtful letter to the CEO expressing how much he appreciated the experience and the new connections he had made in the process. The CEO responded via email with a single word: “Thanks.”
When you’re trying to build a strong employer brand, pay attention to your hiring process. If the hiring process is organized, respectful, and positive, it leaves a good impression and enhances the organization’s reputation. But if it’s disorganized, unresponsive, or leaves candidates feeling frustrated, it will damage your employer brand and drive talent away instead of attracting it. Frustrated applicants may even stop purchasing or recommending your outdoor industry gear, apparel, and accessories, or even resort to sharing their negative experience online or via word-of-mouth. Criticism about your company or its hiring process and practices can quickly go viral and tarnish your organization’s image. That’s especially true when shared on websites and platforms such as LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, Vault, FairyGodBoss, and Comparably.
How to Strengthen Your Employer Brand
You can strengthen your employer brand by focusing on and making authentic improvements in the following areas:
- Culture
- Values
- Work environment & work/life rhythm
- Opportunities for growth
- The recruitment and hiring process
Truth is, all of these areas impact the recruitment and hiring process. And while many companies make a concerted effort to improve in the first four areas on that list, the recruitment and hiring process is often neglected because it’s traditionally not viewed as a component of branding. Even worse, mistakes made during the recruitment and hiring process will damage your employer brand.
Here are a few of those mistakes:
- Posting a misleading description of the position, essentially creating a bait-and-switch scenario.
- Not providing candidates with feedback after each interview step — ghosting them. You can almost guarantee they will ghost your products in the isles of REI for the rest of their lives and encourage their friends and others to do the same.
- Fly a candidate in from across the country to meet with CEO, who fails to show up on the day of the interview, instead designating others to interview the job seeker.
- Having a direct report, who desires the same job, interview the candidate for that job, thereby giving the direct report an opportunity to sabotage the candidate.
A prime example of a brand with an exceptional reputation across the board is Patagonia, which recently ranked No. 1 in reputation among the 100 most visible brands in the United States, according to a survey by Axios and Harris Poll. Patagonia’s success — which can be attributed to its unwavering commitment to a number of things, including the natural environmental and a consistent dedication to its values — would be dramatically tarnished if it failed to recognize the importance of great employee relations. And that starts with recruitment.
Brand Prosperity and Its Connection to Executive Recruitment
Maintaining a strong reputation is vital for brand prosperity. In today’s outdoor industry landscape, companies are held accountable for their ethics, values, hiring process, and leadership. Even making cultural or political statements can have repercussions.
According to The State of Corporate Reputation in 2020: Everything Matters Now, executives attribute 63 percent of their company’s market value to its reputation. Companies must protect their reputation by actively monitoring and addressing any negative feedback while promoting positive press to counteract potential damage, including in the hiring process.
Design your hiring process before you start, then refine it to maintain a positive experience for both those individuals who are qualified and those who are not. If you want to share your process with me, Highline Outdoor Group would be happy to offer an audit on where the positive and negative experiences and exposures exist for your outdoor industry company and/or active lifestyle or sporting goods brand.
– – – – – – – –
About the Author: Tony O’Neill is the Founder and President of Highline Outdoor Group — the purpose-driven executive search firm for forward- thinking outdoor industry and sporting goods companies and brands.