Can you remember back to when you first started your current job?  How did you decide that it was the right fit for you?  You probably did a bit of desktop research, checked out their website but more importantly, met with some people from the teams that you’ll be working with?  This helped you get a bit of an understanding of the business, the people, and the culture.

Strong Employer Branding does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to attracting talent.  Brand Storytelling is an extension of your Employer Brand, bringing it to life through engaging and authentic employee-generated content.  It’s one of the best ways to drive sustained interest in your company with candidates.

Some companies are a magnet when it comes to attracting the best talent - brands such as Google, Apple, Cisco, Canva have consistently strong performance attracting the best candidates to their business.

Here are some tips on the best ways to engage candidates (thanks to the folks at Wordsmith.Hk):

• Infuse personality into your brand stories.  Bring the brand persona to life through creative storytelling.  This might not necessarily be about filming your staff.  It could include your customers - what problems are they solving?  How does your brand make life better for people? What impact does it have?  We love this example from LandRover.  You don’t have to be the biggest or best, but being authentic about the work that you do and the difference you can make can really resonate with candidates.
  

• Generate curiosity and action.  What products are you developing?  How can candidates contribute?  What can they learn?  What can we learn from them? 

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There are some brands that set the standard for delivering a strong Employer Brand through clever storytelling  Here are some of our favourites:

Air BnB‍

Air BnB is 100% about the customer: both the travelers and the hosts.  The stories are about the experiences of visiting a new place: whether that’s diving at the Great Barrier Reef or climbing the Eiffel tower.  It’s also the unique, quirky experiences that are the heartbeat of our travels.  The site enables hosts to offer experiences, as well as places to eat.  Part of their site showcases the Air BnB community and the recent ‘Belong Anywhere’ rebrand features imagery and short films which offers a snapshot into the lives of hosts and what guests might experience staying with them.  

Everlane‍

Everlane is a online clothing retailer that manages to cut through an incredibly competitive retail landscape by a simple brand ethos: Exceptional quality. Ethical factories. Radical transparency.

In a space where consumers are becoming increasingly socially conscious and educated about their purchasing behaviour, Everlane works off a 2-3x production cost model, a stark comparison to competitors who might charge 5x, 10x or more.  The pricing model provides explanatory information about the process and markup for each item, enabling customers to better understand the manufacturing to consumer process and the pricing that sits behind it.