🤗 Stressed out

The Hug 116

Author

Lois Payne
November 28, 2024

EMBRACING THE WORLD OF EMPLOYER BRAND
#116

THE MAIN SQUEEZE

One Thing that will Actually Attract Gen Z (That Everyone is Ignoring)

Ah, Generation Z. The middle-part-wearing, slay-queening, TikTok-loving rascals. 

They'll make up more than a quarter of your workforce by 2025, but how do you get their attention? What do they crave from a working experience? Of course, no group this broad ever wants exactly the same things, so while I don't have all the answers, I do have some observations.

Let’s get into them.

There’s something powerful and obvious companies aren't addressing through their employer brands — or if they are, it’s an afterthought, when it should be up in neon lights. It sounds like a given, but isn't...

No one is making an explicit promise their company does not make employees stressed and miserable.

Put yourself in a Gen Zer’s New Balance sneakers for a sec.

You're post Covid-lockdowns, stressed about the cost of living crisis, the rise of social media, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the bad news bombarding you from every angle. Plus you’re pretty sure climate change will wipe us all out with some epic natural cataclysm. Fun times!

With all of that noise rattling around your brain, wouldn’t you also want a bit of reassurance that your day job isn’t going to add to your woes?

Wouldn't messaging like "must handle stress" or "works well under pressure" strike you as a bit, well, brazen?

If you ask a Zoomer what they care about in a job interview, they’ll probably tell you they live for metrics. Achieving company KPIs just butters their crumpets. 

I can almost guarantee their convos outside of work sound more like:

  • "I should just make candles and sell them on Etsy."

  • "I just wanna get a cafe job and work on my art."

  • "Shall we quit tomorrow and buy a camper van?"

WEBINARS THAT WOWED

Well folks, we’ve wrapped up on webinars for 2024.

To the thousands of you joined that have tuned in along the way, thanks very much! We hope you enjoyed learning about EB as much as we’ve enjoyed chewing your ears off.👂

Anyway. Because we’d hate for you to miss out, here are the top three webinars that made you say “wow.” (Or “waauuow,” if by any chance you’re Owen Wilson?)

  1. “We're Hiring” isn't enough

    Cut through the sameness on socials and captivate your audience with organic recruitment marketing.

  2. Aligning corporate and employer brand 

    Is it always the right thing to do? And how do you go about it?

  3. Employer Brand and AI

    Find the best tools and create hyper-personalised experiences that resonate with candidates.

Happy listening!

HUG HACK

 
This week’s hack comes from Jeff Gill, Senior Creative Designer at Ph.Creative

Tired of blurry, pixelated logos in your presentations?

What do you do when you need an organisation’s logo and you want something better than a screenshot or the crappy version you found on Google? Here’s the easiest solution, and it works about 75% of the time.

  1. Add the SVG Export extension to your Chrome browser.

  2. Go to the website of the organisation whose logo you need.

  3. Click the Extensions button on the toolbar, then click SVG Export on the dropdown menu.

  4. If the company has an SVG version of their logo on the page – usually they do – it will show up in a new tab. You can choose to download the logo as an SVG, PNG or JPG. Choose SVG.

  5. Now you can add the SVG version of the logo to Canva, Word or Powerpoint and do whatever you want to it. Change the colours. Enlarge it to the size of a house with no loss of quality. Put it on the tummy of a clipart bear. (Before editing the logo in Word or Powerpoint, you’ll need to go to Graphics Format and click Convert to Shape.)

[Want to brainstorm some solutions to your employer brand challenges?]

QUICK POLL

What’s the most reliable sign your employer brand is working?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

HUGGING THE SPOTLIGHT

WARNING: Oatly’s careers site may lead to excessive smiling, warm feels and the desire to give the hand of the copywriter responsible a good ol’ shake. 🤝

There’s no doubt about it, the cowless milk brand have found their voice, and they’re sticking to it. We love how this site strikes the right balance between humour and clear info on the type of talent Oatly looking for, and how in keeping this messaging feels with the popular consumer brand. If it ain’t broke… well, you know the rest.

Who said advertising jobs needs to be boring?

ICYMI

Hug 115 - Five ChatGPT prompts we love for employer branding

EVENTS TO EMBRACE