We are just six months away from the most awaited year of the century, “Year 2020”. While analysts are busy predicting what new does 2020 hold for culture, technology, sciences, business and banking, we at Phoenix TalentX Branding are ready to give you a lowdown on how to devise employer branding strategies that are just as sassy, tech-savvy, wicked and fly as your centennial and millennial talent! 

Read on, to pace on your branding efforts…

Artificial Intelligence, Virtual/Augmented Reality, Holograms/hololens/Haptics, Bots are the reality of employer branding. Where do you stand?

We all have seen the pop-ups saying ‘Hi there, can I help you?’ when we visit a website. Undeniably, they have been of great use with their capability to provide resolution in minimum time. Many companies like Accenture are using conversational chatbots powered by AI for initial talent engagement and are now increasing its usage from recruiting employees to training employees.

IBM is developing machine learning technology to conduct their campaigns to help them with more effective personalized campaigning, getting most accurate stats, interactive reciprocity, engagement to potential employee.

Chatbotlr provided early knowledge and learning for the development of MC, the Marriott Careers Chatbot, designed to enhance the job candidate experience.

Everyone is exploiting new-age technologies to capitalize on them faster than their competitors. Gartner's latest prediction, estimates that one in five workers will have an AI as their co-worker by 2022. An AI driven careersite that scours talent, a bot that greets new joiners and introduces alexa as their office buddy, holofans attracting talent at sponsored event booths, Oculus games for employee engagement, training etc. are all examples that will be seen rampantly in offices-of-the-future.

It’s critical to build budgets for ai-driven employer branding if you want to make 2020 a heck of a year!

Switch your social media preferences. Instagram first, Influencer second and every other media after that!

To reach out the right audience you need to be on the right social media platform. Potential candidates need constant updates on-the-go to stay engaged and Instagram ' is' the platform designed for instantaneous content. Separate company profiles like “careers” “inside” and “life at” are playing a major role in building very active talent engagement platforms. 

Google, Microsoft, Accenture are great examples of well-managed Instagram pages. Posting events, office upgrades, relevant memes gives a broader view and understanding to the talent about the work style of the organization. Instagram provides multiple options to promote, you can choose to post stories, interact with other profiles, post job ads and give a live walk-through of anything that reflects your brand positively. Your best places, teams, offices deserve a peekaboo - Innovation labs, research centres, robots, wellness activities, happy faces in office? Go-live with them! 

Allow Instagram takeovers by employees in various roles to provide that view of what they’re doing throughout the day, not just what they’re doing at work but also what they’re doing when they wake up in the morning. If they’re going to the gym and, of course, when they’re at work, who they’re working with, what types of projects they’re working on. And then after work, if they’re doing volunteering work or whatever that is so people can see the personal side as well. Lo’real, SAP do this really well.

To attain an even greater visibility, companies are actively collaborating with influencers or social content creators with loyal and large dedicated audiences to showcase their work/culture. Facebook did an office show around recently with a popular celebrity and took employer brand endorsement to an entirely new level.

LinkedIn is another medium that will continue its hold on talent branding because of their largest captive professional talent network and the ease of connecting with both active and passive talent pools on one screen.

Any digital agency asking you to brand on Facebook is fooling you with fake profiles, outreach with irrelevant talent groups like Baby Boomers, Gen X, backward areas etc. Use Twitter if your company makes news everyday. 

Remember to #tag talent along in 2020!  

3. Diversity offers huge paybacks. The bigger your diversity umbrella, the wider your reach as an employer. Pride anyone?

Millennials and centennials who have been raised to be very conscious and responsible citizens have a strong voice and a unique perspective and they truly respect employers who respect the differences of their workforce and choose to be ‘progressive in thoughts, opinions and actions.

Companies who challenge preconceived notions and provide a level-playing field to all categories of employees irrespective of their cast, creed, background and orientation, have an edge in their attractiveness quotient. So, the more you choose not only to employ women, disabled, abused, war veterans, LGBT etc. but truly make a difference in their lives, impact a large-section of society as opposed to miniscule numbers, the stronger connection you will build with your talent base.

Likewise, don’t shy away from applying to a variety of Diversity awards – one they validate your efforts, two they help set higher benchmarks for diversity and three they help share your story with the world. All of which contributes to your employer brand being stronger in the market.

Strive to be most respected workplace in 2020.

4. Build appetiser-style engagement programs for young talent. Campus students ‘want experience before experience’.

Modern talent pool isn’t comprised of the same silent generation anymore that longs for plane sailing with a dull outlook towards work and workplace. Instead of salary and Christmas bonuses, they rather long for excitement and thrill in the workplace. Millennials and centennials want to know what opportunities can the employer provide even before they file an application. Therefore, engagement prior to joining the organization needs more spotlight. To grab the attention of the potential applicants before interview, GE's brand ambassador program gave a real picture of what life is like at GE and answered their queries. Employees were motivated through digital medium to become brand ambassadors by sharing content across the organization, resulting in 800% increase in applications.

Various digital and non-digital means can turn out to be useful in creating pre-engagement like Google Hangouts, Upskilling/Life-skill Forums, Career Platforms, Thought-leadership events, Hackathons, Gaming, VR experiences.

Use your in-house innovation labs and training teams to build high-end learning and career growth programs targeted for fresh talent.

In 2020, you cannot choose to ignore 30-40% of your employee base.    

5. Marketing to a blended workforce: humans, robots, remote, requires forming unique bonds with each talent set.

The 9 to 5 work trend is now over. The rise of the gig economy is real. Robots are rapidly replacing low-end work in all industries. Millennial or Expert Talent mostly prefers to work remotely or on contract or while travelling. The earlier employers get around this fact, the better. You all will very soon be branding to humans, chatbots and robots, remote or flexi workforce with one campaign. Are you ready?

Take a 2-3 year view of the composition of your workforce before designing a brand campaign and work towards fabricating new-age engagement programs to enchant the right talent set in unimaginable ways.

The key is to build long-term relationships with short-term assignees. Deal with everyone in the office in the same way, whether they are permanent or freelance or robots, because everyone is representing your brand!

You need to focus on creating high-touch transactions that leave a lasting impression. 

Make Year 2020 a rewarding and promising year for your employer branding efforts. Activate your campaigns now!