What’s the ROI of social media for an employer brand ?

Last week I was invited by Weavlink to facilitate a series of workshops on the ROI of social media for employer brands. Attendees were mainly HR people with uneven maturity levels but who were deeply investigating the area. Of course it was not possible to do deep inside the issue in half an hoyr but here’s how I structured my presentation to make them think about their own model.

1°) Introduction

• It’s a concept that’s hard to get with our traditional thinking models. Do you know the “streetlight” story ? A guy is walking around a streetlight in the middle of the night. A passer-by comes and ask him what he’s looking for. “My keys”. “Wait…I’m gonna help you”. After a few minutes of unsuccessful search, he asks : “Are you sure you lost them here ?”. “Not at all but this is the only place where’s there’s enough light to search”. We need to learn to search beyond the streetlight !

• There’s no mathematical model because such systematic models don’t work for activities that are not systematic, that are about working on knowledge and information, where everything is exception and unique. We can’t equate people and interactions.

2°) What’s your goal ?

• Being on twitter, Facebook or wherever is not a goal. It it was, companies would find themselves idle in spaces where they would not know what to do because no one would know the goal that’s strived toward. They would be tossed, react insread of act and put themselves in danger. So, what matters before all is to know why they move into these media.

• Quick reminder on Norton and Kaplan’s strategy maps. Working on intangible only creates a potential that has to be used into formal activities to reach tangible goals.

• All successful social media initiatives (internal or external) share a common point : they aim at improving the delivery of a process or activity, in this case it could be recruiting, building a corporate image etc…

• Social media don’t change the nature or goals of an HR department but are one more tool they can use to fullfil their goals. Hence the need for segmentation : social tools (and each of them taken alone) has a varying importance depending on the targeted population (you won’t recruit you CEO on Facebook or a Yer with an ad in the NYT)

• That’s not because no mathematical formula exists that what is done can’t be measured as well as the impact on the efficiency of a given processus.

• 3 challenges for the employer brand : sourcing, image, engagement.

• Then, what matters is not to wonder what are the impact of social media toward these challenges but how to use and include them in strategies that aims at addressing these challenges.

• If any improvement can me measured in the way any action plan is executed in termes of speed, quality, scalability or cost, then we have answers to the ROI question.

3°) indicators

Discussion with attendees to help them find their own relevant indicators. Very simple and down to earch “recruitment cycle”, “measuring image according to the lexical field related to the brand on the net (many tools measure it very well”, “more qualitative applications regarding to the job offer or the company’s culture”, “received CVs / relevant CVs ratio).

We realized that some relevant indicators were not implemented into many organizations.It’s impossible to ask for any ROI demonstration if what matters is not measured.

Ongoing improvement : if any logics seems theoretically right but results are not as good as expected, it does not mean that tools have to be given up but that the way their used to deliver a given process is wrong. Tools are often neutral, the way they are used is not.

4°) Misc ideas

Here are some things that came in the discussions, attendee’s feedbacks and thoughts they inspired me/

– the ROI is to learn while failing is acceptable. In one year businesses won’t have to right to fail on social media.

– today we celebrate companies that are doing things well because they are still a minority. Tomorrow, people will only point at those who’ll be doing wrong. What do you want being mentioned for ?

– people are already talking about companies on the web and it can’t be prevented. We have to win the “image and recruitment battle” so we can’t afford to leave the battlefield. What’s the ROI of refusing a battle you have to win ?

– Being on twitter or Fabebook is being in the field. Not being there is like refusing to visit campuses to promote our company to students.

– One doesn’t built his employer image only with HR communication but also by demonstrating excellence in operations. Example taken from the “volcano crisis” for airlines : people saw in public and real time how airlines mastered social media and served their customer. It impacts attractiveness : people prefer to apply for a job at companies who demonstrate their excellence, not at those that looked like being lost.

Hoping you’ll findt it useful…

Bertrand DUPERRIN
Bertrand DUPERRINhttps://www.duperrin.com/english
Head of People and Business Delivery @Emakina / Former consulting director / Crossroads of people, business and technology / Speaker / Compulsive traveler
Head of People and Business Delivery @Emakina / Former consulting director / Crossroads of people, business and technology / Speaker / Compulsive traveler
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