Lights, Camera, Authenticity: A Practical Approach to Employer Brand Storytelling
As an employer brander, you’re sold on storytelling. You know deep down in your heart that the people you want to hire aren’t going to be satisfied by reading a list of your company’s values on the career site. They want to see them in action. What does growth look like? How do coworkers collaborate and celebrate successes? What’s the reality of a day in the life for someone in the same role?
When these questions are answered by your people, the effect is powerful not only for attracting and engaging new talent but also for inspiring pride and advocacy in employees. And with every story, your EVP, personas and messaging framework collectively serve as your strategy’s north star — guiding your approach to storytelling in ways that will connect with the right audience, stir emotion and leave a lasting impression.
Budget, resources and time can challenge even the most “sold” employer brand leader to get a working plan off their vision board. How to begin can seem daunting, but when mapped across the entire talent lifecycle, the incredible possibilities of such stories are endless, too. So, let’s think about a realistic and very doable plan in the forever classic crawl, walk, run approach.
Crawl: Start with the Basics
Oh, where to begin? A great way to start is by developing content in the form of an employee Q&A blog series. Create a standard set of persona-led questionnaires to make the process scalable, easier to produce and focused on connecting with your target audiences internally and externally. Think of the resulting blogs as storytelling snapshots with bite-sized insights perfectly tailored to specific talent groups. For example, if your target persona is a group known to be ambitious problem-solvers, include a question that invites them to share a memorable challenge they successfully tackled or learned a ton from.
Add some at-work or at-play photos to the mix (bonus points if they’re candid) and you’ve got yourself the start of some very clickable and sharable content. Across relevant career site pages, job descriptions, social posts, nurture campaigns and even your company’s intranet or newsletter, a blog series can be the gift that keeps on giving when integrated into a wide variety of activations.
Walk: Take It up a Notch
Next, consider stepping it up to UGC (user-generated content) videos. Get employees and leadership excited and comfortable with the idea. Frame the exercise as a way to share authentic stories about being part of the team because an employee’s point of view is the ultimate job description. Provide clear guidelines and a prompt for each video request, such as “What’s your favorite thing about working here?” Even better, share an example or two of great UGC videos to inspire employees. While you can also offer optional training or tools to help with audio and video quality, like phone stands or ring lights, the camera on their phone or laptop is likely all that they’ll need. We really want to keep these real.
YouTube UGC videos versus brand-produced videos receive 10 times more views. As a dynamic element to your many talent touchpoints, imagine the impact on generating very meaningful engagement and quality conversions. And don’t forget to acknowledge and celebrate the employees who participate. Shining a spotlight on their stories company-wide helps build trust and jump-starts advocacy.
Run: Invest in Production
Moving right along, give serious consideration to investing in a professionally produced video series. Now, don’t worry. “Produced” doesn’t mean polished to the point of perfection. Authenticity still reigns supreme, but a little cinematic flair can go a very long way. Produced videos can creatively highlight key stories, showcase leadership or bring your EVP to life in a way that’s consistent with the look and feel of your employer brand that adds yet another level of credibility. Plus, the footage, including the bloopers, can be cut and recut into all sorts of applications to motivate and retain top talent.
The ROI of Storytelling
Investing in storytelling isn’t just a feel-good exercise; it’s also a business decision. According to LinkedIn, candidates are 3x more likely to trust a company’s employees over the company itself. By sharing real employee stories, you’re building trust, shaping perceptions, engaging candidates and fostering a sense of belonging before a candidate hits the “apply now” button or a new hire fires up their brand-new laptop on day one.
When tenured employees see their stories valued and shared, it deepens their connection to your organization. They can become your most authentic ambassadors, amplifying your brand to their networks and expanding your organic reach exponentially all by genuinely wanting to share this type of content.
So, whether you’re crawling, walking or running, the key is to start somewhere and make authentic storytelling an ongoing and highly rewarding journey.
