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Cynthia Giles

Cynthia Giles

Back to Basics

Illuminated 17th century Danish bestiary

Imagine a parallel Internet universe, where the hyperlink doesn’t exist and the cost of making video is a million dollars a minute. No Flash either. No Java, no Shockwave, not even animated GIFs. In short–nothing moves …

So essentially, your web page in this universe is exactly like a page in a magazine or a book. Just words, and ordinary, motionless pictures. How would you get your message across? And what would it be?

In this universe you have to tell a job-seeker everything they need to know on one page. That means you have to determine exactly what information is necessary, and present it in an effective order. The information has to be clear and complete, because it’s not going to be clarified or amplified somewhere else. The text has to be well-written and interesting, because there aren’t going to be revolving pictures and talking heads to entertain the visitor.

Tough assignment!

I started thinking about this topic after accidentally landing on the Employment page of The Meadows Racetrack and Casino. I had just looked at twenty sites that used every trick except dancing girls to sell their message, so I was fairly startled by the retro simplicity at The Meadows. But since I happened to be at the site—and there wasn’t anything else to look at on the page—I read the message. And it was so clear, so personal, so inviting that I really wanted to get a job there.

Obviously, such a radically minimalist strategy can’t work for most companies. But this true story is a reminder that good content can be more important than slick presentation. Also that more is not necessarily better.

If you want to spend a little time on sharpening the Careers message, here’s an exercise. Take a look at your company’s existing site and imagine what a visitor would take away if they landed on the Careers home page and never did anything but read. Clicked no links, watched no videos. Just read the one page.

Back to basics

Some questions to consider:

  • If a visitor had no prior knowledge about the company, could they get a basic idea of its business identity?
  • Is there enough information to provide visitors with a general understanding of how the company finds, retains, and rewards employees?
  • Does the message highlight the most important things a visitor needs to know? Is the approach direct and personable?
  • Will visitors have the tools—and the desire—to take next steps?

I’d love to hear from any readers who try this exercise, so please share your findings! And in the next post, I’ll do a 180 degree turn to explore the latest, hottest trends for recruiting on the website.

Energizing the Employer Brand

QuikTripStop the presses! Readers are expressing their opinions on the Fortune list of ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ — and the range of comments is a reminder that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Though some folks express enthusiasm for their listed companies, others said something like ‘How could you put Company X on this list???’ (And often enough, different people are saying opposite things about the same company.) Another big response category is ‘What about my company?’ or the variant, ‘What about Famous Company X?’

Well, as promised, today’s episode will be notes from my tour of the Careers sites for companies from the list, focusing on ways to energize the employer brand. But the comment-fest at Fortune is irresistible reading—and offers some useful insights–so I’ll post a follow-up soon.

Starting off: I set a goal to visit the Careers sites for half the 100 companies. Didn’t make it! But I did get through quite a few, and have decided that 25 is the new 50. Based on the adventure so far, I have three overview observations:

  • Too much video is . . . too much. After the first dozen companies, I felt like I was channel-surfing instead of web-surfing. It takes the visitor time to view each video, and soon you’re feeling like a passive audience rather than an active applicant. So–now that website video is no longer novel–look for fresh, meaningful ways to use it, rather than just putting up obligatory testimonials. (Chesapeake Energy sets a good example.)
  • Location of access to the Careers page from the home page and menus is important. When you see a prominent link in the top or side navigation, the message is ‘jobs/employees are important to us.’ When you have to search out a tiny text link at the very bottom of the page, you get the opposite impression. (There can be challenges on this point for some companies. I’ll talk about integrating the Careers page with other site components in a future post.)
  • Message fragmentation is the problem I found most frequently in sites that don’t energize. If the visitor has to click on ten different links to see ten different kinds of information, the energy deflates rapidly. So if you need lots of pages, keep the core message focused, make the navigation very clear, and give visitors a logical path rather than just a pile of links. (QuikTrip and Arnold & Porter both do a good job on this, in different ways.)
Umpqua
Stew Leonard
Zappos

Wrapping up: Here is ‘Cynthia’s List of 5 Interesting Company Career Sites.’ Out of the sites I visited in this blitz, here are the ones I fell for. They are good examples, I think, of creating positive energy for the employer brand.

  • Umpqua Bank: Their whole site is so charming that I considered moving so I could bank with them. The Careers page highlights unusual perks, such as paid time for volunteer work.
  • Stew Leonard’s: The Careers page for this small grocery chain made me laugh and cry. (Really.) The use of snapshot-style photos to illustrate each of the ‘Ten Reasons”’ creates an emotional connection, making the company’s benefits seem personal rather than abstract.
  • Starbucks: Although I’m a major Starbucks enthusiast, I think their Careers site could be better. But the approach of creating a ‘Career Center’ works well from an energizing perspective. The site is visually active and information-rich, with a good brand fit.
  • Zappos.com: In a class by itself! This quirky site makes the list not just for the Core Values Frog (though that’s a hard one to top) but also for clever use of social media.
  • Alcon Laboratories: I was determined to find a big company with an energetic Careers site, and it wasn’t easy. But Alcon finally won me over with a bold, blog-style site that steps outside the typical corporate look without losing its dignity.

And FYI: If you’re wondering how I picked my visits—I went to every company with a Q in the name; three companies I really like; three I really don’t like; several I thought would be fun; and a random selection of law firms, construction companies, communication giants, etc.

Communicating the Employer Brand

Employer Branding Fortune Top 100 Companies

The new Fortune list of 100 Best Companies to Work For is out—and as always, it offers great information and ideas. So this will be the first of three posts that explore the list, to find out more about what we might call the ’employer brand.’ Basic idea:

Your company has a customer-facing brand, but it also has an applicant-facing brand, which images the company as an employer.

Job-seekers will judge your company at least as much by its ’employer brand’ as by its ‘customer brand.’ The Careers site harmonizes with the customer brand—but it communicates the employer brand.

Today’s post will look for useful lessons from the top three companies on the Fortune list. Part 2 of the series will take up the cautionary tale of two-time winner Google, considering whether (and how) to leverage perks on the Careers website. Finally, Part 3 will do some speed-dating with 50 or so of these employee-friendly companies, in search of common threads and good ideas.

Now, to end the suspense . . . at win, place and show: NetApp, Edward Jones, and Boston Consulting. When I visited their Career sites, I found that NetApp and Edward Jones are already leveraging their Fortune ranking, with badges and links that grab your attention on the Careers home page and also on the corporate home page. (The Fortune print issue is not out yet, but the list is up on their website.) That signals attention to the site, as well as an appreciation for the importance of employer branding.

I also found that all three of these sites are attractive, interesting, and easy to navigate. But most important — all three have a pronounced focus on individual employees. And instead of talking about the company, or talking about people in general, all three sites employ a consistent, apparent ‘you’ focus.

I’ll pound this home by bolding some relevant bits from their sites, as follows:

Employer Branding NetApp
  • NetApp starts big with the first sentence: ‘Leadership, passion and ownership are qualities in every person at NetApp.’ Prominent on their Careers page is a list of key points (“Get rewarded for your great work,” “Push yourself and your imagination,” etc.) that immediately puts the visitor inside the message.

  • Edward Jones also starts off with a personalized headline (‘Welcome to Your Career at Edward Jones’) and follows up in the first sentence with ‘we’re known for our personal approach to business.’

  • BCG has a similar all-about-you focus, with messaging topics like ‘Chart Your Own Course’, ‘Challenge Your Mind,’ and ‘Is BCG for Me?’

Obviously these three companies are very different. They range in size from relatively tiny BCG (1,680 employees) to mid-sized NetApp (5,014) to the fairly large Edward Jones (34,496), and they have different business model and employee populations. But their common emphasis on individual employees seems to endear them to workers—and that emphasis is evident in their Careers messaging.

For a reality check on this point, I went way down the Fortune list to number 72, Nordstrom, and compared their Careers messaging to Macy’s, which is not on the list. (Picked these two because they are apples-to-apples.) Sure enough . . . the Nordstrom page starts off with the headline “Your Bright Future.”

The Macy’s headline? “Opportunities for Success.”

Not exactly a scientific survey, I know—but pretty interesting. Nordstrom’s message goes on with a paragraph containing 44 words, 10% of which are some version of ‘you.’ Over at Macy’s the very first word on the page is ‘We.’ In fairness, there are some ‘you’ sections on the Macy’s site, but they are buried at lower levels, so the impression you get from a quick visit is not especially personal. (And it’s worth noting that the word ‘we’ does not ever appear on the Nordstrom top page—it’s all about ‘you.’)

Now, it may very well be that Macy’s is just as person-friendly as Nordstrom, or more so! But you wouldn’t know it from the messaging. So our takeaway for Part 1 is . . . figure out whether the Careers message is effectively communicating your company’s commitment to individual employees.

And PS: The online Fortune list provides plenty of details about all 100 companies, with enough slicing-and-dicing to make the information worth exploring!

Funny Business

There’s actually a good story about how I came upon today’s topic, but I’m going to save it for another post. (Just remember “Company A.”) For now, I want to zip right on to the silly stuff!

Or let’s put it this way: Given the proposition that recruiting should express a company’s personality—how do you deal with a corporate image that’s quirky, or even downright comical? Should you embrace the humor, play it straight, or go somewhere in between?

(And in case you’re thinking “if only that were my problem,” don’t stop reading. There are some lessons here for seriously dull businesses as well.)

Jack

Let’s start by looking at two companies that put a lot of money into making people laugh at their brands. Ask most people for one word about Jack in the Box commercials, and the answer will be “funny.” Same thing for Geico. When job-seekers go to those company sites, they take the humor association right along with them—and it may be a bit of a turn-off if they find an impersonal, unfunny page.

But neither company is recruiting for comic talent, and job-hunting is not by nature a humorous topic. So the key would be to bring the brand together with the mission. Enough Jack, but not too much. Just a touch of Gecko. And the balance needs to fit the business.

For the sake of full disclosure I’d better report at this point that I’m in the tank for Jack. If he’s on TV, I stop to watch, and I never get tired of analyzing the really great Jack moments. (Hint: It’s all about the mouth.) So I’m happy to report that Jack hits the mark on recruiting, with a site that perfectly captures “his” personality through conversational text and iconic illustrations.

jack-topper

Three things to notice: First, attention to detail. For example . . . in some browsers, when you hover on a navigation tab, a Jack antenna-topper pops up above the tab and starts turning his head back and forth. Yes, really! (All across JITB messaging, details sustain the illusion that Jack’s world is an actual place, which is a large part of what makes it all so funny.)

Second, appropriate balance. The “Why Jack” page is LOL funny–I’ve read it about five times now—but it also delivers some solid points. The trick is skillful comic writing that combines tongue-in-cheek delivery (“This is the big time.”) with substantive messaging (“from the first breakfast sandwich to the first portable salad to the most innovative food safety advancements in the industry”).

The “FAQ,” “Benefits,” and “Roles at Jack” pages are written in a crisp, direct style that signals serious business, but each one has a Jack photo, so everything fits together. And notice that every photo on the site neatly fits its page, to reinforce the key message. So Jack’s a high-flying executive on the “Roles” page (read: road to success), but on the “Benefits” page, he’s fly-fishing (read: quality of life).

Finally, the third thing. As they say in show biz, if you want to get around an inconvenient or unlikely plot point, “hang a lantern on it.” So JITB gives the Careers section a special header: Jobs. This is where Jack in the Box gets serious. And that neatly resolves the dissonance problem.

Geico

All right—now what about the Gecko? Over at Geico, they have a different set of constraints than JITB, since you just can’t be as playful about car insurance as you can about fast food. So the site itself is stick-straight. But on the landing page—exactly in the very center—there he is. And wouldn’t you have been disappointed otherwise?

Some takeaways for the rest of us:

  • Be true to your brand personality.
  • Be consistent across pages, but don’t be boring. Use appropriate variety.
  • Remember these famous last words, even though no one can remember who said them: “Dying is easy. Comedy–that’s hard.” It may be okay to add a touch of humor to your site, but make sure it works!

Lessons from the bleeding edge

What if . . . you were trying to recruit new employees for one of the most famously failing companies in America?

Not a day passes without news of the American auto industry teetering on the brink—and commentators frequently point out that consumers won’t buy cars from a company that’s inches away from bankruptcy. So you have to wonder whether job-seekers might not see Toyota as a better bet than Ford!

On top of that, since Ford, Chrysler and GM are under intense pressure to improve their PR, corporate messaging is now heavy on thriftiness and repentance. Good-bye perks and fat salaries, hello humility! But will the best workers be attracted to a company that apologized in print for being stupid?

Although your company may not be in quite such a fix, odds are that the economic downturn is already having an effect on recruiting, with budgets shrinking and applications increasing. That expanding pool of job-seekers may include high-value employees set adrift by failing companies—but you have to attract them and identify them.

To get an idea of how the auto companies are approaching this problem, I visited the “Careers” pages for Ford, GM, and Toyota. All three offer intro videos, but the videos create very different impressions. At Ford, the video starts automatically, and the message is all about F-A-S-T, with lot of zooms, cuts, and sound effects. The visual focus is mainly on cars—inside, outside, upside down. There is no text message, just instructions for searching the job posts.

GM Careers

Over at GM, on the other hand, the opt-in video feature rotates through clips highlighting diversity, NASCAR, day-on-the-job, etc. The text component is short, but hits the right note with this sentence: “Experience the next GM. Whether it’s battery powered, hydrogen fuel cell or the latest hybrid vehicles, we’re committed to putting cars on the road that meet the needs of the world.” Message? This is the next GM. Not the problem GM you know about now, but the one that’s about to emerge—and you can be part of this rebirth!!

I thought that worked really well under the circumstances, but had to wonder whether the approach was purposeful or just an accident. So I jumped on the Wayback Machine (aka Internet Archive), and found that the GM Career page one year ago featured a diversity snapshot, with this text: “The cars, trucks and SUVs we build are as diverse as the talented individuals who come to work here. And that’s why people from every background continue to choose GM as a great place to build a career and pave the road to a bright future.” Now that’s the voice of a company well pleased with itself . . .

Finally, at Toyota there’s a feel-good video about great cars and great people. No text message, but—and here’s the stroke of genius—a “What’s New” section, featuring press releases on Products, Environment, and Corporate (yes, that’s sales reporting). What does this feature signal? “We’re honest with you.” And we can afford to be honest with you, because the Toyota “news” is not nearly as bad as what’s happening with the Big Three.

Well, it will be interesting to see if there are more changes on these sites. But for now, the takeaway is . . . think seriously about the approach you want to take in this economic environment, and if you haven’t adjusted your site to deliver the most effective message, now might be a good time!