Every company wants to hire the top 15%.  A few actually do – typically those with the big brass brands and compelling employee value propositions.  Those with a small wind or rhythm section can do pretty well, too, under the right circumstances.  For just about everyone else, there’s a feeling that getting to average is about all that can be expected.  Well strike up the music, it doesn’t have to be that way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODu888i14-I

The reason the big brands attract the best talent is that they don't have to tell every potential employee they'll be working on cool stuff, or that they'll be on a steep learning curve, or that there are growth opportunities galore.  With this public awareness and high buzz quotient there's a feeling that just getting any job with the big brands will lead to an exciting career adventure.  It's never about the compensation, either.  As long as the financial package is competitive, people sign up in droves.  But how can the rest of us compete for the same talent?

Simple – just brand your jobs instead of your company.

What's an employer brand anyway?  On one level it's an easy way to communicate that any job the company offers will lead to personal satisfaction, rapid learning, and significant growth.  If this is not obvious at your company, you'll need to stop using traditional job descriptions to advertise your jobs.  To see if this is even necessary, read a job description right now for one of your open jobs.  As you review it, consider which of the following candidate types this posting is most likely to attract:

• A strong, fully-qualified person who is looking for a career move
• A fully-qualified person who is looking for a lateral transfer
• A fast-track top-performer with proven potential, but less experience
• A partially-qualified or marginally qualified person who needs any job

Now do this same exercise again, but only look at the title and the first two lines of the posting and ask yourself which of the candidates is likely to read the complete description.  According to Doug Berg at Jobs2Web, the strongest people who are actually looking online only spend 12-20 seconds after finding an ad to decide if they'll read it.

Now reverse engineer the ad by trying to find it yourself using typical Google search terms (i.e., the title, the location, a core skill term and the word "jobs").  Don't include your company name, since you're a non-brand.  Based on the results, which of the candidate types is likely to find your ad, read it, get excited, and apply?  Would anyone other than the aggressively desperate?

Job branding a posting means you have a great title; a compelling introduction; copy that describes what the person can learn, do, and become if successful; and the impact the person can make on the company or some connection to the bigger mission.  This way the ad, instead of the company's employer brand, creates the buzz.  This job content is what the candidate will be telling her friends and family why she's applying and why she's accepting an offer if she gets one.

To get a sense of this, here's the opening of an ad that won our 2007 creative ad contest.  By itself it summarizes what job branding is all about.  The result – great candidates in hours vs. no worthy candidates in months.

We've just created an ad wizard to generate compelling and creative copy just like this.  If you've attended one of our Recruiter Boot Camp courses you can try it out.  Just This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll send you the link.  If you attend Recruiter Boot Camp Online or one of our upcoming live tour events you'll have one year access to the ad wizard as part of your eLearning Center.

It you don't have a great employer brand, maybe it's time to change how people listen to your music.