Defluffing Talent Branding
Let’s put the transaction back into this…transaction. Here is your real EVP:
We need your time and expertise - and in return we’re giving you money and benefits.
Certainly not the pitch I’d find on your glossy careers page. That page has an awkward group photo in an office building courtyard - alongside a lot of fluff. Awards lists you paid to be on fluff. Mission driven world changing tech fluff. Culture fluff. 3-12 values (all variations of “we work hard”) fluff. Rounded icons for benefits fluff. Office dog fluff (literally and figuratively). We’re a family-team-insert cutesy nickname for employees fluff.
Your company isn’t your family - each employee is a number and a name on a spreadsheet that has been looked at (maybe even selected) several times for cost cutting in this year of “efficiency”. Or last year’s “macroeconomic headwinds”.
Candidates want to know:
What’s the job
How much does it pay
Where is the job
What are the benefits
Who are the people I’m working with
What is it really like to work there
This is what candidates are trading their time for - achieve alignment on these 6 (arguably just the first 4) dimensions early and often from cold outreach through offer. Getting a thousand applications in a week? Candidates complaining they’ve been ghosted? Overwhelmed and understaffed talent teams? Get transactional.
But I’ve grown emotionally attached to my fluff and we paid $$$ for the website…keep it, use it other places. But get the most relevant data that allows candidates to opt in or out of the role in front of them early and often.
In order to invest in an interview process and sign an offer, candidate’s do not need to know:
Where the annual company retreat is
The origin story of your mascot
How well employees can repeat talking points in a docuseries video montage
Which founder’s basement the “idea” for your company came from
Bring out the fluff after a signature…
Once the candidate has signed their offer, talent transitions from a recruiting motion into engagement: reinforcing how they can realize the value of what you’re providing them. During the period between getting the signed offer and onboarding - it’s time to get fluffy. These are the delicate weeks where a competing offer or buyer’s remorse can creep in. Send out the swag, happy hour invites, and fun culture interviews.
But - keep reinforcing the transactional. Pre-start date you’ll want to share all the ways they can or will connect with their new teammates (build their networks), how they’ll be onboarded and start carving out a career path (professional development), and leverage all of their benefits (pay, equity, healthcare).
How will we find passionate people / mission driven employees if all they want is money?
Hiring only “mission-driven” talent is a different discussion for another day - but you can’t have this both ways. In the meeting with the spreadsheets and HR and Legal - no one is asking “On a scale of 1-5 how mission-driven is this person?” to determine who goes and who stays. When you need to get lean you keep the people that deliver, have room to grow, are creative, and have the most impact on the desired business results. They won’t work for peanuts before a layoff or after. Your strongest talent shouldn’t be focused on making sure they’re paid fairly or how to use their healthcare, or what even is an ISO. Keep table stakes as table stakes so your talent is focused on outcomes.
How to apply this
Ideas for real world implementation of these dimensions in the candidate experience are below - this isn’t an exhaustive list but gives you a sense of where and how you can embed this information.
I hope this provided some inspiration! If you have any feedback or want to chat please click here.
