Will Staney: Why Companies Need to Focus on Employer Brand to Succeed

March 13, 2021 Marcus Edwardes Recruiting Trailblazers Comments Off on Will Staney: Why Companies Need to Focus on Employer Brand to Succeed

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Will Staney, the founder of Proactive Talent, an employer branding consulting and staffing company focused on helping companies evolve the way they hire and attract talent. He is also the co-founder of Talent Brand Alliance, a community for employment branding and recruitment marketing practitioners to learn, collaborate, and network.

Will is the former Head of Global Talent Acquisition at Twilio and Glassdoor, and a prolific speaker as well, having been featured at events such as the ERE Recruiting Conference, SourceCon, recruit DC, LinkedIn’s Talent Connect, Glassdoor Summit, and many, many more.

Listen in as Will shares how the pandemic has shifted perceptions on hiring in the business world as a whole, the keys to creating a great candidate experience, the ROI of developing a strong employer brand, infusing the human story into the company brand itself, and the evolution of the tech landscape for talent acquisition during the pandemic.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • [02:07] An introduction to Proactive Talent and Talent Brand Alliance
  • [04:10] Growing Proactive Talent (and any company) throughout 2020
  • [09:22] How soon startups need to commit to a proper talent strategy
  • [11:53] How Will helps company founders think about culture
  • [15:38] Sharing your value proposition to prospective clients as an RPO
  • [20:02] What is employer branding?
  • [24:05] Being intentional about your company’s reputation
  • [28:49] Fundamental steps to improve your company’s employer brand
  • [33:14] Examples of companies that have nailed their employer brand
  • [35:45] How your employer brand impacts your ROI
  • [37:55] The business of talent acquisition in the COVID economy
  • [42:40] Why the hybrid office is the future
  • [45:50] What Will is looking forward to in 2021

Key quotes:

  • “My personal mission since I got into this industry is to modernize recruiting to make it more client-centric. It is an outdated industry and sector. I want companies to be better run and more profitable and people to find the right career.”
  • “I think both VCs and CEOs are coming to the realization that talent is really important right now. If this pandemic has done anything, it’s shown us the humanity of hiring and business.”
  • “Obviously, startups need to commit to a proper talent strategy as soon as possible, and they need to update it at every phase of their growth. It’s just as important, if not more so, than your go-to-market strategy for your product or your service.”
  • “Culture and values are so important. They are usually an afterthought; but they are really core to how you define your hiring process.”
  • “The goal of employer branding is to help organizations attract and retain the right talent but, most importantly, give candidates the information they need to either self-select in or to self-select out.”
  • “I’m seeing a humanization of company brands overall. You’re telling the consumer brand story by telling customer stories as well as the employees’ stories and the impact they’re making to the company.”
  • “Your values and your mission are a collection of shared beliefs; but your employer brand determines how that is put into action.”
  • “You have to look at your hiring process and think about those moments where human connection really matters. Don’t automate those parts.”

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