With the growing talent shortage, organizations are working just as hard to attract employees as they are consumers. They're doing this by building their employer brand and positioning their organization as a great place to work. Building your own employer brand starts with developing an EVP, but it's not whole until it's aligned with your corporate brand—the outward-facing touchpoints your average consumer experiences.

Corporate branding is successful when consumers don’t even know (or at least feel like) they’re being sold anything. Branding is successful when an organization presents itself and tells its story in such a way that people are naturally drawn to the brand and what it stands for.

To give you some ideas, here are great examples of brand messages that speak to both consumers and talent:

Orvis

First off, dogs are easy to love, so this video will stop Facebook scrollers in their tracks. Orvis is kind of cheating with the cuteness, but by the end, you want to do two things: 1) Work for this company, and 2) Buy its products.

Organic Valley

Here’s a beautiful example of a company that knows who it is and has stayed true to its purpose. Everything that needs to be conveyed is emanated in its founder and CEO, and their marketing department was tactful in capturing that in this “behind-the-scenes” retelling of how and why the company started. The types of customers and employees who share Organic Valley's values can easily see themselves in the brand and form an immediate connection.

From the outside it seems like these companies may simply have a clearer vision and purpose than most, but the reality is these cohesive brands are the result of a cross-functional effort between marketing and human resources.

For a true alignment to occur, organizations need to:

- Build and maintain a strong marketing + human resources partnership.

- Align the values of your ideal employees with the values of your ideal consumers (a well-defined EVP is an excellent roadmap here).

- Identify the touchpoints where your ideal talent audience and your ideal consumer audience will collide. Your website will be a key tool in reaching both.

- Use those touchpoints to market aligned values in a way that appeals to both consumers and talent.

If you’re an HR professional, I imagine you’re reading this and wondering how you’re going to find the time to make marketing your BFF when you’ve got a stack of resumes to screen and a slew of jobs to fill. The reality is that none of this is extra-credit. This is the real work that needs to be done to get ahead of the labor shortage and make true advancements in your workforce.

By developing a strategy, opening dialogue across departments, and aligning and communicating values, you can stop filling seats and start truly fulfilling both your company’s and your employees’ purposes.

Ready to get started or interested in hearing more? Feel free to reach out to jeni@shootforthemoon.com.