For a B2B company, GE's corporate brand needed to be synonymous with its employer brand. Shaunda Zilich, Global Employment Brand Leader, grew brand awareness and loyalty organically: through social media, storytelling and employee advocates.
4. “ If you w ent to bed las t
night as an indus tr ial
c ompany, you’re going to
w ak e up today as a
s oftw ar e and analytic s
c ompany.”
– Jeff Immelt
5. A Perfect Storm
• NOW a Digital Industrial company
• We brand GE with PEOPLE
• Transparency is “in”
• We sell experiences!
9. Employee
Advocates
• All GE employees
• Equip: training and
amplification
• Brand-centric to people-
centric
• Start with “Why”
• Connect to emotions,
connect to candidates:
“Why”
10.
11. Technology
Tsunami!!
• Own it!
• Simplify it: need vs. want
• Leapfrog it: think like a
marketer
– It’s been done before! –
Marketing!
– Take care of leads
– Dynamic experiences –
Amazon it!
– Conversation
12. Marketing is a Partner
• Patience is a virtue
• Numbers, numbers,
numbers
• Don’t stomp on their
efforts
• Give them content!
• Rethink things! Be a
disruptor!
13.
14. Action Plan
• Organic social media
strategy
• Employee advocacy
• Own your technology
choices!
• Stop complaining! Be
friends with marketing!
Things are not as they seem – you might think I’m this HR person, I have this big brand, an endless budget….
So let’s level set….
Motorcycles – 0 HR – background marketing – Greg Capito – 4 yrs ago Social Media Recruiter
I Sell Experienced
I do not run a brand for a consumers
in 2008 we tried to step away from being a consumer brand
350K employees in 180 countries… 5 K were Appliances
5000 openings at any one time at most 50 were appliances…
News to some of you? Let me take a second and level set….
$117 B in revenue
Hire 80K / year
GE Jet engine takes off every 2 seconds
We create over ¼ of the worlds electricity
Our Healthcare technology has touched over 1.5 billion lives
We were a company of industrial solutions….
Now we are digital industrial solutions…
Using Digital and Data behind industrial solutions…
Predix Example: Jet Engine gives us a terabyte of data every second…. less fuel….
Example 2: predictive analytics…. Healthcare scans allow diagnosis long before we use to be able to…
GE Store using the IoT to create digital industrial solutions…
And last but most important…
I had a budget of…. Are you ready for this? Zero!– 2014, 2015, and $50K 2016
Probably not what you thought?
My goal is….action…. no matter where you are at in this adventure….
(a not so perfect start) maybe it will inspire you to get started! Or if you already have some of these things in place to be able to find something to add (for free)
GO TO NEXT SLIDE – to level set again… when your chairmen says something like this…
you have a story to tell…. So that is where employment brand comes in….
So in reality…. I was just at the right place at the right time ;)
It is a perfect storm for employment brand!!!
Rebranding of GE as a whole
Employment brand is the customer facing brand – we reach the consumers/households – employment brand is the customer brand
Transparency is in and people telling their stories/testimonials is ‘in’ - ‘day in the life of?’
We sell experiences… TA meet marketing!
I plug in to TA and marketing
I’m a big one for action plans….
Four buckets – walk away with something you can put into action…
Establishing your place with a budget of $0. - Organic
Dynamic– too much information – social allows information pertaining to me come up to me – Twitter news feed
Conversational
How did we do this? How did we set it up? Completely organically.- We can reach 1 M+ people on our GE CAREERS social channels – call out Heather
Hashtags and mentions - @LifeatPurdue
Content from all over the company
90/10 rule
Win/win – resume tips, what not to do in an interview – Thought Leaders
Team of curators – instead of little channels – Team structure/EB Council (business/region/affinity network/LPs) – pilot got license
breadth and depth – women in mexico/event in MENAT
Through email $0
Percolate – pilot for marketing – 1 to 4 articles per month
work on the ‘why’ GE – impact peoples lives for the better – Steam Sales
Key elements to a social strategy
Goals/Objectives
Audience – who are they.. where do they ‘hang out’ - Veterans example FB; target job ads on FB
Content Calendar - hard
What does success look like? – don’t tell me hires – sources of influence – 6 sources
How to maintain/longevity (is that needed)? –Staff changes…. Candidates change… don’t get stuck like we have in the past….
Creating Brand Ambassadorsbest storytellers in your organization - your employees.
Candidate care less what a company has to say about itself…
You read reviews before buying a product…
How did we do this?
Recruiters
Hiring managers
All GE Employees
get leaders involved… ‘Can you train my team……. But let’s go over mine first”
LI by 50K (example: GE China now has over 75% of employees on LI) – 1000’s trained….
Virtual course now and part of NEO
Not one dime is spent on this!
Helping themselves and GE – 1 hour training - safe, brand yourself and GE, other places
Make it voluntary – only want people that want to…. Different levels… only profile
Provide training/helps/tools–
monthly tips session (OOO example)
behavior to amplify – email to tool
Why did we do it?
People want to hear from people…emotion… connection to purpose
More than just a profile and amping…
Have employees answer ‘why’ they do it. I don’t know about you but I like my job but I love my life… because of that I try to find purpose in what I’m doing everyday…. It means something…. I think most of our employees are this way too… have them answer that…
Real life example – technical writer in HC
Candidates (and customers) connect to the ‘why’
Along with the ‘why’… remember those Owen commercials? Started marketing – no talent no products
Marketing then came to me….. They don’t market to consumers… how do they reach talent? How does Owen sell the ‘why’
Owen commercial to Brand Ambassadors and gave them a sneak peak 3 days ahead of super bowl – CMO through social – doubled reach
Owen commercial to talent…
https://youtu.be/_EN9tO5nxIw – owen commercial directly to candidates
https://youtu.be/3xGoBlI_fdg - owen commercial
Hopefully you have seen the Owen commercials…. Figuring most have we won’t take the time to show today…
Were they perfect…. No….
- Global appeal making fun of yourself
Literal interpretation – paper resumes
Owen is a nerd
First goal was to brand the company… having Owen as a brand ambassador was an indirect cause…
And I could use that….
800% increase in applications
Commercial
And again…he talks about the ‘what’ we are doing… ‘how’ we are doing it and end with the ‘why’ - change the world
Staying ahead of the tech tsunami.100s of new start up tools/companies HR Tech.
It’s overwhelming
How did we do this?
First step is to Own it. John
Second step is to Simplify it. We prioritized what is need vs. want (shinny new penny)
Third step Leapfrog. We need to think like marketers and don’t re-invent the wheel.
Dynamic experiences / customized communications – amazon it;
Example: potty Training
Example: University grad that turns us down
And even scary stuff….
Example: Running belt
Jobs - engineer in the aviation industry - see jobs – see example on fuel consumptions
It is about the conversation;
connecting to brand ambassadors
Video interviews / texting – tailor to candidates!
Marketing as a Partner
good relationships take time, respect and nurturing
In full transparency
Is it perfect…. No
Have we had fights…. Yes….
We are friends but not holding hands
Example of 4 years ago breaking the site no one can apply
Now we are the first customer (along with investors)
This is how...
Be friends with marketing…
Be patient!
Numbers – what is your reach engagement (Website, Elevate, Brand ambassador – jaw drop example)
Don’t stomp on what they are doing – strategize together! (example of Owen commercials)
Promote their content
Give them useful (and easy / quick) content (Snapchat example)
Rethink things and how you attract talent…
I ride coattails to ride – disruptive media…
One more commercial you may or may not have seen…. People didn’t like it….
It disrupted… caught attention… husband… hard to catch his attention
https://youtu.be/2C0zVXHB9sU - talking donkey disruptor 1
Commercial…
Partner with marketing
Quit complaining…
Quit waiting for perfect content from them
Partner with what they have going on….
I personally loved the talking donkey and thought it resonated with the talent we are trying to gain.
SO again… it might not be perfect or what you think is best but you can use it! It helps to tell the story!
Action Plan… You knew this was coming…. What’s your action plan… what one thing will you implement?
Remember I’m not speaking to you with a background in HR or have a huge budget…. If I can do this as a motorcycle riding, non-consumer brand selling, pennies for a budget (let’s add lazy Gen X-er)…. So can you! Quit waiting for the perfect moment.
Employment brand IS the consumer brand of our companies!
We brand with PEOPLE to PEOPLE
We help to match our companies purpose (the ‘why’) with top talent and their purpose in life!
We sell life experiences with our companies that we already believe in…. What is better than that?
So… stop waiting for the perfect moment to implement your employment brand….
Thomas Edison…
"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try..."
Thank you!