Employer Brand, Culture and Authenticity: Interview with Max Heywood
October 4, 2011
This is the first of a series of three interviews focused on careers, online recruitment and social media. First up: Paul (Corporate Eye CEO) interviews Max Heywood, former Global Head of Employer Brand at Credit Suisse, about his views on employer brand, and how employers express themselves online.
Job seekers’ behaviour on corporate websites, especially graduates, is probably not what you’d expect. Listening to the research that Max has done would lead you to re-evaluate where you focus your online careers efforts. And when the job-seeker does get to your content, the thing they really value is authenticity.
It’s a brave company that allows employees to be authentically themselves while representing the corporate brand. And yet, in this new world of social media, this may be the best way to attract potential candidates, by conveying the corporate culture in the natural voices of current employees.
Max believes that social media and networking technologies are in the middle of – or perhaps only at the beginning of – changing massively how organisations connect with everybody, especially jobseekers.
He talks about actions some of the more adventurous companies are already taking, and the opportunities for firms to steal a competitive advantage by taking the next step forward.
Do listen: the interview is full of valuable pickings gleaned from the coalface of careers communication: the way candidates view companies; how they use the corporate website and social media in practice; and the reality of recruitment pressures.
I’ve broken the interview down into smaller pieces, so that you can quickly find particular points you’d like to hear about. I’ve also included the whole interview and a transcript.
Part 1: Change, choice and channels
Key topics:
- ever-increasing choice of channels
- wide-spread availability of information about people’s experiences within companies
- reduced trust in employer communication
Soundbite:
“The world has changed from one where corporate communications could control the brand, control the message… all they can do these days is really engage, participate and influence.”
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Length: 3:52
Download: Max Heywood interview: part 1
Part 2: Facing the fear and doing it anyway
Key topics:
- where to start
- overcoming the corporate fear of:
- conversational overload
- brand-threatening conversation
- the benefits of social media for promoting employer brand
Soundbites:
“[some companies] lock their pages down so that students can’t engage… that’s actually a big turn-off and I think massively limits the power of the medium.”
“Having sat on that side, planning those activities, I know full well what the concerns are… but the reality of it is quite different”
“If you’re talking about [communicating with] university students, then really Facebook has got to be one of the primary platforms, because [of the] 650 million people [...] and all university students, pretty much, using it”
“In the year that Ernst and Young began its Facebook activity, they had a massive jump up the Universum rankings, I think they got to the top, or very close to the top.”
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Length: 10:27
Download: Max Heywood interview: part 2
Part 3: Employer differentiation and corporate culture
Key points:
- importance of people in conveying culture
- using home-grown advocates to connect
- using LinkedIn to connect: know your audience
Soundbites:
“By the time [students] have seen three or four [milkround] presentations, they can’t remember who’s who, or what’s what! And what they fall back on, and this is why face-to-face continues to be arguably the most important channel, is ‘Did I like the people?’ ”
“The reality is, if you empower an employee to speak on your behalf… they’re not going to say negative things. They’re going to be positive”
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Length: 7:29
Download: Max Heywood interview: part 3
Part 4: Employer Brand and Values
Key topics:
- relationship between employer brand and corporate brand
- relationship between employer brand and corporate values
- how best to use advocates to communicate values
Soundbites:
“There’s value in trying to understand who you are, and trying to express that. But there’s a real danger that it becomes very manufactured [and that is] an increasingly big turn-off to candidates who really are interested in authenticity.”
“If you let employees talk about their experience authentically… those things [values and culture] will shine through.”
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Length: 6:33
Download: Max Heywood interview: part 4
Part 5: Employer brand online: corporate website vs Facebook
Key topics:
- behaviour of students in usability tests of the corporate website
- migration of the careers site towards Facebook
Soundbites:
“[On their first visit] university students pretty much didn’t go to the careers website… They did come and visit the site for one thing, and one thing only. And that’s to make an application… They wouldn’t come back at all unless they got some kind of positive response from us.”
“There’s a number of studies that show that if you’re two clicks away from Facebook, you lose half the people.”
“The web is shrinking, apart from social, which is great. And you see a trend now where you see big employers actually moving their careers site, almost lock, stock and barrel, into Facebook”
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Length: 7:24
Download: Max Heywood interview: part 5
Part 6: Evolution, ethics and expenditure
Key topics:
- evolution of the employee profile
- Facebook, privacy and ethics
- where to put the corporate budget?
Soundbite:
“The single most powerful thing is campus events… this is an opportunity with social to really viralise your content and your messages.”
“So when you go on campus, and you’re going to do a campus event, for goodness sake, take some pictures, post some pictures up, get people tagging themselves. Encourage candidates to do it. And actually, because the more authentic it is, the better, actually: shoot some video. Get some vox pops saying, ‘What do you think?’ ”
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Length: 6:59
Download: Max Heywood interview: part 6
Here’s the whole interview, in case you’d rather listen to it end-to-end; and the transcript, for those who prefer to read.
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Length: 42:53
Download: Max Heywood interview (whole interview)
Download: Transcript
Many thanks to Max for taking the time to talk to Paul.
Who were we speaking to?
Formerly Global Head of Employer Brand at Credit Suisse Max Heywood has spent the last 10 years running Talent Attraction programs for Investment Banks, previously JPMorgan, HSBC and UBS.
His experience is centred in graduate recruitment but also includes experienced professional recruitment, internal mobility initiatives, HR and employee communications, HR systems and HR transformation programs. He began his career as an account manager at EURO RSCG, and went on to successfully co-found his own digital marketing agency, before moving across to the client side to manage global agency partnerships and run recruitment marketing operations.
Max is an enthusiastic advocate of Social Media for recruiting, and has been active across all of the major social networks for some time.
100 Leading Media Companies 2011 Edition Released
October 3, 2011
Today, AdAge released the 2011 edition of its annual 100 Leading Media Companies report, which ranks media companies according to U.S. net revenue. Overall, the report indicates that the media market is recovering after the 2007-2009 recession sent media revenues spiraling downward. In 2010, U.S. media revenue for the 100 leading media companies increased to $322.5, which is up 5.4% over 2009 revenue numbers.
However, AdAge reports that momentum is already slowing down, and the possibility of a double-dip recession has media companies worried. According to the report, the top media company by U.S. net revenue in 2010 was Comcast Corp. with $44.54 billion in net revenue.
The big winners in 2010 were digital media companies which experienced significant growth (17.7%) in both net revenues and employment. For example, Facebook’s revenue more than doubled and Google’s revenue grew by 27.4%. Broadcast TV grew by 14% in 2010 thanks to increased local auto advertising and political ad spending. Unfortunately, that growth isn’t continuing so far in 2011. Video and broadband providers saw a 6.5% increase in 2010, but magazine revenue decreased by 0.8% and newspaper revenue dropped by 5.1% (not as painful as the 21.5% drop newspaper revenue experienced in 2009). At the bottom of the 2010 media market was the yellow pages sector which experienced a 17.9% drop in net revenues.
One of the big trends in the media market has been (and continues to be) consolidation and acquisition. For example, Comcast Corp. purchased NBC Universal in 2011 making its U.S. media revenue twice as much as any other media company. We’re likely to see a lot more of this company and brand consolidation in the future.
I suspect this list will change a lot from year to year throughout the near future. The media market is in a state of flux, and it will be interesting to see which companies and brands survive the next 5 years. It seems obvious that the digital media sector will continue to grow quickly while traditional media sectors like the yellow pages and newspaper will continue to struggle. Which companies will own which companies and brands in 2015? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the 100 Leading Media Companies report and your predictions for the future of the media market and media brands.
Image: AdAge
A new dawn for new business?
October 3, 2011
Let’s start this post with a little quiz.
Who here’s heard of the GRI? Excellent, that’s nearly all of you. Those with your hands down need to go off and do a little homework .
Now then, who’s heard of Ceres or the Tellus Institute?
Ah not so many of you, but then again that’s not too surprising. Both are US based sustainability institutes: Ceres looks at it from the business and investment point of view while the Tellus Institute is more involved in policy formulation and research. Together they founded GRI, although it is now a fully independent organisation.
Last question: who’s heard of GISR, the Global Institute for Sustainability Ratings?
Oooh, one, two .. a few more hands. Not that many though. Well, to be fair it was only unveiled a couple of months ago. Like GRI it’s involved in the sustainability standards game, and like GRI it’s being established by Ceres and the Tellus Institute.
So, what you might ask, is the point of GISR? What does it do which GRI doesn’t do? Apart from give us yet another acronym to get confused by, that is.
Read more
Negative Brand Buzz Gains Influence in Consumer Buying Decisions
October 1, 2011
Data from the 2011 Cone Online Influence Trend Tracker research report from August 2011 provides further evidence that online brand buzz (both positive brand buzz and negative brand buzz) directly influences consumer buying decisions.
According to the study, 87% of respondents (up from 80% in 2010) stated that positive information they read online has reinforced their decision to buy a product or service that was recommended to them. An even bigger jump between 2010 and 2011 was seen in how negative buzz affects consumer buying decisions. In 2011, 80% of respondents (up from 68% in 2010) stated that negative information they read online has made them change their minds about purchasing a product or service that was recommended to them.
Furthermore, the Cone study revealed that consumers spend more time researching products and services online prior to making a purchase decision than they did in previous years. In fact, almost every reason why consumers go online before making a buying decision increased by approximately 10 percentage points! Check out the percentage of respondents who indicated the reasons why they conduct research before deciding what to purchase below:
- Research product or service information: 69% (up from 61% in 2010)
- Search for consumer or user reviews: 64% (up from 55% in 2010)
- Search for the product or service on ratings websites such as Consumer Reports, Yelp, and Angie’s List: 50% (up from 43% in 2010)
- Search for opinions from product or service experts: 43% (up from 38% in 2010)
- Read articles or blog posts about the product or service: 42% (up from 28% in 2010)
- Solicit opinions from their social networks: 12% (up from 10% in 2010)
As the numbers above show, the biggest jump in where consumers go to get information prior to making a buying decision came from reading articles or blog posts about the product or service which increased by 14 percentage points between 2010 and 2011. It’s a perfect example of why content marketing is so important to brands and why you need to be taking time to publish amazing content and to promote great content (and content related to your business) published by other people.
Of course, with online brand buzz comes negative publicity, too, but as the Cone report indicates, you can’t operate successfully by simply pretending online negative buzz doesn’t matter or by not publishing content at all. Follow the 3 Fs of brand reputation management, so you know how and when to successfully respond to and manage negative brand buzz.
Image: ugaldew
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