Why this topic is so important
83%Agree that employer
brand has significant
impact on ability to
hire great talent
talent.linkedin.com
Prioritization of employer brand
(by company size)
69%
Agree employer brand
is a top priority for
their organization
67%
70%
67%
78%
< 500 Employees
501-1,000 Employees
1,000-10,000 Employees
> 10,000 Employees
Source: The State of Employer Branding, 2012
lnkd.in/stateofeb

Lower cost per hire by
up to 50%.
Reduce employee
turnover by up to 28%.
Influence the conversation
with candidates. If you
don’t, someone else will.
91%
of companies increased
or maintained their talent
brand spend in 2012.
talent.linkedin.com
Source: What’s the Value of your Employment Brand?
lnkd.in/valueofEB
3 reasons to invest in your talent brand

talent.linkedin.com
39% 22%
TA shares
ownership
TA has primary
ownership
15%
TA has no
ownership
14%
TA is a
contributor
10%
Company doesn’t
think about EB
Most common departments that own employer
brand outside of talent acquisition
1. Marketing
2. Corporate Communications
Who owns employer brand?
Source: The State of Employer Branding, 2012
lnkd.in/stateofeb
Employer brand ownership

Five steps to a strong talent brand
• Start at the top
• Share compelling
data
• Bring partners to
the table
STEP 1
Get buy-in
STEP 2
Listen and
learn
STEP 3
Craft your
approach
STEP 4
Promote
and engage
STEP 5
Measure
and adjust
talent.linkedin.com

Step 1: get executive buy-in
Start at the top
• Get your CEO and
exec team to support
and contribute to your
talent brand efforts
Arm yourself with data
• Universal facts on the
business impact of your
talent brand.
• LinkedIn insights on your
company’s social presence,
e.g. -
• Number of employees
with profiles.
• Aggregate number of
connections,
• Recruiting metrics on
where you’re losing talent
or struggling to hire.
Bring partners to
the table
• Examples: HR,
Communications,
Marketing, IT.
• Create a cross-
functional talent brand
task force.
talent.linkedin.com

Persistence and small wins pay off
“I probably delivered the same
deck 40 times, sometimes to the
same audience. You will feel like
a broken record but it doesn’t
sound like that on the other end.”
Kara Yarnot
SAIC
SAIC turns to data to
ease concerns
Challenge: Leadership feared that competitors
might poach employees more easily if they joined
LinkedIn.
Approach: Presented the unchanged pre- and
post-attrition rates to leadership.
Result: Leadership bought in to the network, built
their own profiles, and even became active
themselves.
talent.linkedin.com

Five steps to a strong talent brand
• Start at the top
• Share compelling
data
• Bring partners to
the table
• Audit existing
materials
• Do your research:
who, what, when,
where & how
STEP 1
Get buy-in
STEP 2
Listen and
learn
talent.linkedin.com
STEP 3
Craft your
approach
STEP 4
Promote
and engage
STEP 5
Measure
and adjust

Step 2: Listen and learn
Where are the inconsistencies between what you say and what they think?
How does the feedback vary by audience?
What are the biggest issues you need to address?
When
• Regular cadence
• Change in strategy
or leadership
• Decline in hiring
results
Who
• Internal and external
• Include real-world
views (e.g.,
candidates who
declined offer)
Where &
how
• Focus groups
• 1-on-1 interviews
• Surveys
• Suggestion boxes
What
• What attracts talent?
• What keeps them
there?
• What to improve?
• Official & unofficial channels
Perform an audit from the shoes of candidates and employees
talent.linkedin.com

Listening can make all the difference
Strategic annual survey use
Challenge: Keeping employees engaged
in a connected world.
Approach: Through annual survey,
JPMorgan asked what employees need/
want in order to stay. Top answers:
mobility and development opportunities.
Result: Launched extensive internal
mobility program.
• In 10 months, internal hire rate rose
by 5% (they fill 75K positions/yr)
• Ranked #1 in Europe and #2 in the
US in Vault’s 2013 Best Places to
Work for Internal Mobility rankings.
Ellie
Shephard
Global Recruiting
Program Manager,
Vice President
talent.linkedin.com

Five steps to a strong talent brand
• Be real
• Be personal
• Be brave
• Be consistent
• Set your goals
• Start at the top
• Share compelling
data
• Bring partners to
the table
• Audit existing
materials
• Do your research:
who, what, when,
where & how
STEP 1
Get buy-in
STEP 2
Listen and
learn
STEP 3
Craft your
approach
talent.linkedin.com
STEP 4
Promote
and engage
STEP 5
Measure
and adjust

Step 3: craft your approach – right brand, right
success metrics
REAL
CONSISTENT
PERSONAL
BRAVE
Promise what you can deliver
Challenge: Talking about work-life balance at a
professional services firm.
Approach: Shifted focus from work-life balance to
“flexibility” - just as valuable to employees but much
more realistic.
Result: Believable talent brand, internally and externally.
Danielle Bond, CMO
talent.linkedin.com

Begin with the end in mind
Sample goals for your talent brand program
• Increase offer acceptance rate by X%
• Reduce attrition by X%
• Improve employee survey ratings by X%
• Increase baseline familiarity with your talent brand in external surveys by X%
• Double the number of employees with an optimized social presence
• Increase Talent Brand Index score by X% relative to key talent competitors or
for high-priority functions/regions
talent.linkedin.com

Five steps to a strong talent brand
• Upgrade profiles
(yours/team’s)
• Leverage your
employees’
presence via
Work with Us
• Brand via Jobs
• Build out your
hub – Company
and Career
Pages
• Use targeted
status updates
and APIs to
engage
• Be real
• Be personal
• Be brave
• Be consistent
• Set your goals
• Start at the top
• Share compelling
data
• Bring partners to
the table
• Audit existing
materials
• Do your research:
who, what, when,
where & how
STEP 1
Get buy-in
STEP 2
Listen and
learn
STEP 3
Craft your
approach
STEP 4
Promote
and engage
talent.linkedin.com
STEP 5
Measure
and adjust

Step 4: promote and engage, following these rules
Look in the mirror.
Make sure that what you do (and don’t do) is
what you’d like employees to emulate.
Empower your employees.
Lay out the goals and show them a clear, easy
path to action.
Inform your leadership.
Use data to gain support, ease concerns, and
help explain your choice of platforms.
Target your messages.
The more relevant your message is to a particular
audience, the greater its impact will be.
Make your culture shine.
It’s never just about jobs. Focus on your people –
their stories and emotions.
Go viral.
For amplified results, find creative ways to get more
people talking about your company’s great culture.
Be visual.
Bold and colorful images, graphics, charts, and
videos can bring your brand to life.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
Show that your efforts are scalable and sustainable
on one platform before moving on to another.
8 golden rules to promote and protect your talent brand
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
talent.linkedin.com

Erica Robertson
Software Engineer
ACME Systems
Consider your candidate’s experience
across LinkedIn and beyond
In their Inbox
On the LinkedIn
Homepage
When they
network with your
employees
When they
research your
company
Via Mobile
LinkedIn App
When they
search for jobs
talent.linkedin.com

Start with your own profile
Engaging, friendly
picture
Who wouldn’t want to
work with Brendan?
Links
to branded
destinations
Killer summary
Written in the first
person, oozing with
passion
Descriptive
headline
that goes beyond
the title
Other features
we like:
• Core skills,
endorsed by
your network
• Volunteer
experiences
• Just enough on
prior positions
to build
credibility
talent.linkedin.com

Leverage your employees’ presence on LinkedIn
Dell trains global employees at scale
• “SMaC University”
(Social Media and Communication)
• Global certification program with
structured classes
• Strong exec support
• 5,000 trained since mid-2010
UTI takes a brown bag approach
• Took a low-budget, grassroots approach
• Got exec buy-in to host brown bag
lunches for hiring managers
• Helped employees overcome anxieties
about what to say on profiles
HELP THEM SHINE
Clickthrough rates 20x
industry average
BENEFIT FROM PROFILE TRAFFIC
with Work With Us ads
talent.linkedin.com

Craft job posts for passive AND active
candidates
Avoid overly-creative job titles.
Tie the job to your LinkedIn Company Page.
Give high-priority positions extra oomph
with Sponsored Jobs
SCIENCE
50%
of job applications on
LinkedIn are via paths
other than search ART
Use your job post as a talent brand vehicle.
Showcase the position’s impact.
Try a conversational tone.
talent.linkedin.com

Create a strong hub via Company and Career
Pages
Think visually.
Use bold images to give a real-world
glimpse into your organization.
Think digitally.
Whatever you say, keep it brief. online,
where attention spans are shorter.
Think video.
You’ll be able to engage candidates more
deeply if they hear real people tell their
own stories,.
Think customized.
Adapt your content to viewers based on
their LinkedIn profiles. Target based on
job function, industry, geography, etc.
Make sure your Career Page has a clear owner!
talent.linkedin.com

Spark the conversation, on and off LinkedIn
Use APIs to make your career
site more social
Leverage targeted status updates
Sketch out what you’ll say in advance and build a dialogue with your followers.
Remember the messaging you’re trying to get across and incorporate it.
Stay on brand
71%
of company followers on
LinkedIn are interested in
career opportunities at
companies they follow.
Have a plan
Mix it up
Share jobs, relevant news about your company, employee interviews etc.
talent.linkedin.com

• Use Talent Brand
Index to prioritize
Five steps to a strong talent brand
• Be real
• Be personal
• Be brave
• Be consistent
• Set your goals
• Start at the top
• Share compelling
data
• Bring partners to
the table
• Audit existing
materials
• Do your research:
who, what, when,
where & how
STEP 1
Get buy-in
STEP 2
Listen and
learn
STEP 3
Craft your
approach
STEP 4
Promote
and engage
STEP 5
Measure
and adjust
• Upgrade profiles
(yours/team’s)
• Leverage your
employees’
presence via
Work with Us
• Brand via Jobs
• Build out your
hub – Company
and Career
Pages
• Use targeted
status updates
and APIs to
engage
talent.linkedin.com

How Talent Brand Index works
Talent Brand
Reach
1,873,354 members
Viewing employee profiles
Connecting with your employees
Talent that is interested in you as an employer
Researching company and
career pages
Following your company
Viewing jobs and applying
Talent Brand
Engagement
264,362 members
Talent that’s familiar with you as an employer
talent.linkedin.com

What percent of people who know about you show an interest?
Talent Brand
Engagement
Talent Brand
Reach
Talent
Brand
Index
How Talent Brand Index works
Talent Brand
Reach
1,873,354 members
Talent Brand
Engagement
264,362 members
=
Benchmark your score, e.g. v.s key competitors
talent.linkedin.com

For advanced tips, see the playbook
lnkd.in/gettheplaybook
talent.linkedin.com