In this episode of the HRchat show, we look at the role of employer branding in 2023; how it’s evolved, and the approaches that can make the biggest positive impacts.
My guest is Eric Harris, CEO of MindHandle and Communications Professor at Texas Christian University Neely School for Executive Education.
With the goal of making employees feel great about their employer, Eric and his team offer a process called Magnetic Branding to get the strongest insights about the employee experience and how to communicate it to improve recruiting and retention.
Listen as we discuss ways larger companies with distributed workforces are investing in employer branding efforts to improve recruiting, retention, and engagement rates.
Questions For Eric Include:
- How can organizations take the lessons from systems that create a positive customer experience to improve the employee experience?
- What are some of the common challenges for projecting an appealing employer brand?
- Why is it important for companies to have an engaging employer brand? What are some of the big challenges and opportunities in 2023? E.g. competition for unskilled workers is still fierce despite the economic downtown.
- How to sabotage an employer brand overnight?
- “At MindHandle we call it magnetism. A strong employer brand will attract the right customers and repel the wrong ones. A strong consumer brand will deliver great employees and improve retention if leveraged correctly. Neither works in a vacuum. Starve one and the other withers.” Can you explain the notion of ‘magnetism’ in the context of employer branding?
- How can companies do a better job of measuring culture fit during the hiring process?
- Who should be involved in the hiring process?
- What are your top three tips for HR pros to work with internal comms., marketing, leadership and employees to create and maintain an awesome employer brand?
More About Eric and Mindhandle
MindHandle CEO Eric Harris describes himself as “a strategist by trade, storyteller by aptitude, creative by accident, professor by design.” Eric’s resume may not read the way you’d expect it to, but the sum of these experiences helps him empathize with his clients, students, and the agency team.
He is a self-proclaimed “suburban lumberjack“, a communications professor via TCU Neely Executive Education, drummer, Forbes Business Council contributor, and a camp-in-the-backyard father of two.
After several years in large advertising agencies, Eric joined his clients on the corporate team at YUM! Brands, where he led Pizza Hut’s integrated communications for 2 years. The experience taught Eric not only what it was like to be on the “buying” side of the agency economy, but also how much room there was to improve on internal communications. That’s why Eric founded GatherRound, a training company focused on storytelling for presentations.
In 2018, GatherRound and MindHandle merged, creating an employment branding agency with the talent and expertise to reach employees with advertising quality messages. As CEO Eric provides the vision that becomes decisions in the agency, and if he’s ever missing, look no further than the nearest whiteboard.
Companies working with Eric and the MindHandle team include Frost Bank, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Callaway, Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, and Lifespace.