It's about the Culture
By: Tim Augustine
Why do employees choose one job over another? Often, it's because of culture. Learn how to communicate the virtues of yours.
The culture of your organization and culture of your team is the most important product your company has to sell when striving to become an employer of choice. If you want to get at the heart of bringing your culture to prospective hires, you might first ask, why would someone want to join your company? Why would a job seeker want to learn more about your organization? Understanding and selling your unique culture is a critical aspect of attracting the right people to your firm.
Culture is defined as the values and practices shared by the members of the group. Company Culture, therefore, is the shared values and practices of the company's employees.
All organizations have product marketing strategies that promote the unique attributes of their products. However, with the changing and competitive job market beginning to heat up again, organizations will soon need to consider developing marketing campaigns to attract talent. Culture Marketing is the process of identifying the unique attributes that make your organization a great place to work and packaging them in an intriguing and appealing message.
When starting out, do a little reflective questioning: What makes a company a great place to work? Is your company a great place to work? If so, how would you bottle those unique traits and package them in a creative marketing message?
Job seekers are interested in finding an organization that offers personal and professional development opportunities as well as a place where they can make a difference.
Based on my research, job seekers look for the following characteristics when researching potential employers: security and stability, opportunity to contribute, professional education, career growth opportunities, work-life balance, and reward and recognition systems. What does your company offer?
The following steps can help to develop a culture marketing message.
Step 1: Ask your best employees
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"What makes our company unique?"
Identify and survey those employees that exemplify your culture and whom you compare potential candidates.
Some questions you might consider asking your best employees include:
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What do you like about our culture?
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Are we a team oriented organization or individually focused?
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Is our culture cooperative or competitive?
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Are we customer focused?
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How do we treat our employees?
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What type of reward / recognition programs exist?
Step 2: Who is your target market?
After assessing company characteristics, the next step is understanding the target market - who you want to attract. You can begin with a list of personality and behavioral traits that are common among your best employees. Several questions can help you figure this out:
Are your best employees:
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Team players or individual performers?
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Focus on professional development?
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Functionally or technically skilled
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Entrepreneurially focused?
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Maintain an optimistic attitude?
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Have high energy and enthusiasm?
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Focused on customer satisfaction?
These are just a few traits that you should consider. The purpose of Step 2 is to understand the type of people that thrive in your environment. You can use this information to begin targeting candidates who have similar personalities and behavioral traits.
Once you have identified what makes your company a great place to work, the next step is to build a marketing message.
Step 3: Develop your unique value proposition / marketing message
Your Unique Value Proposition explains why people should choose your company rather than your competition.
Following are real examples of culture marketing messages. The first example is a small privately held firm and the second is a multinational publicly held firm.
Atwell-Hicks is an entrepreneurial, people-focused organization that offers career growth opportunities in an enthusiastic environment. This company has been ranked as one of the best firms to work for in the country. Here is their culture marketing message:
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"To be the best, you have to work with the best. Attitude? Maybe. Confidence? Absolutely. We offer a compensation/benefits package that is second to none in the industry, and endless opportunities for you to grow, lead and succeed. We're always looking for skilled and knowledgeable individuals who exceed expectations, deliver technical excellence and add value every step of the way."
But culture marketing messages aren't just for small firms. General Electric is a global organization with specialties ranging from jet engines to power generation, financial services to plastics, and medical imaging to news and information.
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"GE is a place where you can live your dreams. Our global presence, innovation and financial strength help to make GE a dynamic place to work, giving you the advantage of a large company, with the agility of a small company, where your voice is heard.
"Our 11 different businesses give you flexibility for change, the opportunity to learn about new industries and markets, and provide unparalleled career options."
As with product advertisements, your marketing message should begin to grow into your employment brand. This brand needs to be consistently leveraged in job postings, advertisements as well as in the message that your hiring manager's use when interviewing potential employees.
By developing a strong cultural marketing message, your company may begin to cultivate a common theme about your culture that may encourage current employees to evangelize the benefits of working there. This culture marketing strategy can help build and reinforce an image of the company's culture, work practices, management style, and growth opportunities.
