Why talent must be the hero of your story [podcast #5]

Talent must be the hero in a modern employer brand story. It is the paradigm shift the modern employer branding concept introduces, and what I blogged and podcasted about last week.

Traditional marketing and communications has always been about us: emphasizing our business, our offering, our success and accolades as well as our needs as the key messages. We are so used to talking only about us we have lost sight into is it even effective. Companies foolishly believe their audiences are interested in their company relevant data and information. Well, they are not.

Traditional employer branding has been exactly the same. It’s time to reverse roles in your key messages, if you want to win the attention of your talent audiences.

Your ideal talent is the hero of your employer brand story

This role reversal is paramount for your employer branding success. You will never produce messages and content relevant to your talent audiences unless you start by putting them into the heart of your messages.

First you must of course recognize who your ideal talent is and what are their pressing work-life related struggles. Then, your employer branding content should be about how being employed by your company might solve those struggles.

This is important, because we only pay attention to messages that are somehow relevant to us. Pay attention to what wins your attention online. You only need to take this exercise a couple of times, and you figure it out yourself. Very seldom totally random company talk is relevant to you. Why? Because typical company talk is about the company, not about you.

The Modern Eminent Employer Branding -method frames your employer branding talk within what I call the relevancy radar of your ideal talent. The key in successful modern employer branding is getting your own butt off the pedestal and putting your ideal talents on it. You shine some light on it, and it becomes more visible and likely to gain attention.

Storytelling gives us the framework

Did you know that stories are the single most impactful type of communication there is? If you really want to get a message across, using storytelling as your technique is a must.

There are many storytelling formulas for you to choose from when planning your employer branding messages. Effective storytelling requires deep understanding of human emotions, motivations and psychology.

Most of us had storytelling skills when we were kids. We just set them aside when we became adults and started to communicate facts, figures and boring data very effective for sleep deprived people to use as medication at night times.

Most of us had storytelling skills when we were kids. We just set them aside when we became adults and started to communicate facts, figures and boring data very effective for sleep deprived people to use as medication at night times.

I watch my son using his imagination and creating stories on a daily basis when he play with his Legos for example. He has a fantastic habit of planning a storyline, collecting the required collection of Lego Star Wars space ships and then placing them on our living room floor to then play out the transcript of the story in his mind.

If we interrupt him, he often says: “Can you wait a few minutes, please? I want to finish this story first.” Then he plays out the story in his mind, and once he’s done, he says: “I’m done now. What was it you wanted me to do, Mummy?”

> (opens in a new tab)”>Become inspired by Storytelling through selected TEDTalks >>

A good story has a purpose and a formula

What makes a story so compelling is the emotional journey the main character (the hero) goes through. The more there is struggle and pain, the more emotional, and compelling the story will be.

There are a multitude of storytelling formulas out there. Some of them are very complex, some of them are really easy to comprehend, my favourite being the StoryBrand Formula.

A story formula

A story must always have the following elements:

• The hero (the main character; who’s story it is about).
• The guide (who the hero turns to in order to survive).
• The struggle, pain or the problem the hero has and cannot solve on their own.
• The solution the guide offers based on their past experiences.
• The Call to Action that pushes the hero to act.
• The vision of what could be, also known as the positive outcome.
• The vision of what will be, unless the hero acts on the solution.

The more pain, heartache and struggle, the juicier the win will be. Leave any element out, and you will not have a story. You may have a narrative, but it is nowhere near as effective as a proper story in terms of impacting the audience.

The accompanying podcast-episode

In the episode #5 of Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast, we talk about the critical role reversal in modern employer branding: making the talent the hero of your employer brand story.

Episode-length: 32:35 min

Listen to this episode on Soundcloud >>

Episode content:

• What is the role reversal and why is it so critical?
• What inspired me to storytelling?
• Why understanding how to win attention is vital in successful employer branding?
• Modern employer brand is not a campaign nor a one-off attempt for viral

About Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast

Building a Modern Employer Brand-podcast is a weekly podcast bringing you a modern breath of air into HR marketing and employer branding. 

This podcast is dedicated to all modern growth companies and modern employer branding practitioners who want to really influence their talent audiences and add measurable value to growing and scaling modern businesses with HR marketing and employer branding.

The Building a Modern Employer Brand -podcast is sponsored by Employee Experience Agency Emine and scripted & hosted by Susanna Rantanen.