SaltLab

James Ellis, Head of Global Employer Brand, Groupon

Proven expert in multiple marketing disciplines. To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Which is why I carry around a whole tool kit. See my Amazon Author page, LinkedIn profile and all the stuff I’ve built here.

RSS The Talent Cast

  • EP 080 – Better Job Postings May 21, 2018
    Just because everyone knows job posts suck doesn’t mean you have the excuse to suck. In fact, the company that writes better job posts can increase the quality and quantity of applicants, change the diversity of applicants, and facilitate far better interviews. No, really. In this (surprisingly long and detailed) podcast, we break down exactly […]
  • EP 079 – Boxing or Dancing May 14, 2018
    In North America, unemployment is so low, it’s statistically zero. And every single one of us is desperate to hire talent. So when we are in such dangerous straights, do we take an antagonistic approach to recruiting and hiring? I’m no Sun Tzu, but when your opponent is strong, it makes no sense to fight. […]
  • EP 078 – The Best Network Wins May 7, 2018
    The thing that differentiates a company that has moved from 20th century recruiting to the 21st century is the focus not on the transactional, but on the long-term development of a network. Its the basis of a strong employer brand and the ability to find amazing talent in an instant. Show notes: Come see me […]
  • EP 077 – Where Your Employer Brand Lives April 30, 2018
    Are you ready to invest in your employer brand? Where? How? A brand is made up of a myriad of impressing made well before someone starts looking for your job, so where do you focus? What you need is a map of all the ways your prospect is going to fall in love with you […]
  • EP 076 – Storytelling for Recruiting April 23, 2018
    I know you think that if you make a video or write a nice story about your company, you are engaging in “storytelling” to recruit. Sorry. You’re not even close. Storytelling isn’t when you tell a story, it’s when the candidate can see themselves in a story, one where they are the hero, where they […]
  • EP 075 – Serious Thoughts About Employer Brand April 16, 2018
    There are a lot of unspoken assumptions and ideas when it comes to employer branding. Here are two big ones: having a different conversation about jobs and nibbling around the edges. Show Notes: Talent Brand Summit I’ll be attending! I’m guesting at the MNTRN Webinar on April 18th Come see me speak at RecruitCon Come […]
  • EP 074 – The End of the ATS (#ERERC Wrap-up) April 9, 2018
    After spending two days in sunnier-than-Chicago San Diego, I came away with the sense that the next big change in recruitment marketing is just about here: We’re about to make the ATS all-but-invisible to the candidate. Not dressing it up to look like a real web site, but completely eliminating it from the candidate experience. […]
  • EP 073 – How To Manage Your Employer Brand April 2, 2018
    It’s so much more fun to think about designing and launching an employer brand than it is to think about maintenance, which might explain why so many companies are willing to take that concern off your hands for the right investment. But don’t abdicate your responsibility to keeping your employer brand strong and clear. In […]
  • EP 072 – When We’re Not March 26, 2018
    The most common question about employer brand tends to completely miss the point of what an employer brand is and how it works. “How can I make my employer brand more [diverse, fun, exciting, energetic, collaborative, employee-focused, et al]?” The problem is that if you’re asking how to make your brand more X, its likely […]
  • EP 071 – The Unsexy Employer Brand March 19, 2018
    Do you want a sexy employer brand? Me, too! Sadly, that’s just not in the cards for most of us. In a world with millions of brands, only a few can be considered sexy. But that’s fine. It turns out, not being the Posh/Becks (or your hot couple of the day) doesn’t keep you from […]

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Recruiting Content… The Book?!

Yep! Perfect for your eReader of your choice! Amazon link iTunes Link Enjoy!

Do you know what your prospects care about? #recruiting #hros

You have a fixed amount of time and resources to spend telling people amazing things about yourself (activating your employer brand, as it were). So why are you…

Do you think you have a clear #employerbrand? It depends on who you ask.

I know you think it’s clear, but your employer brand wasn’t meant for you. Go ahead. Ask the next candidate you interview to describe your employer brand. Then…

Engaging #recruiting content is often entertaining content

You know that if you had your choice between boring and dry recruiting content and engaging recruiting content, you’d choose the engaging stuff every single time. You don’t…

Why are we fighting? #recruiting

It’s just that simple. Let’s work together.

The hurdle to get people to apply is a lot higher than you think it is

I think your entire recruitment strategy would benefit a great deal if you asked this question to every idea, campaign and tactic you consider: If a prospect saw…

Recruiting content is incredibly difficult to do

Recruiting content is a complex series of processes and tools that the average talent acquisition professional won’t be able to master: Step one: Do something interesting. Step two:…

There’s a special kind of person who doesn’t think stories compel prospects to apply

I just hope that special kind of person isn’t in charge of your recruitment marketing strategy.

Why are your job descriptions so bad?

Look, the lawyers will tell you that there are things you have to put in the job description, like your EOE statement, the basic requirements of an applicant,…

You love reading ads, right? Sure, everyone does!

2016 will likely be the first year that digital ad spending slows or shrinks. Why? Because the market is flooded with ad inventory (they just keep making more,…

No one ever fell in love with a job description

They are horribly-written, poorly-designed, occassionally stolen from other companies, and generally pretty painful pieces of communication. In short, job descriptions suck. But you knew that. Every recruiter, every…

Do you not trust your staff to talk about your company?

If you don’t trust your staff to talk about your company and post reviews and interact with people online, you’ve made a pretty big mistake. You hired the…

Still on the fence about the power of #recruiting content?

Would you have seen the latest Star Wars as a memo? Can you see it as having done a billion dollars of business in two weeks if it…

Communicating a lot is not the same as communicating well

I know, I know. Someone told you that you need to tweet every day, or three times a day, or tens times a day. They told you that…

No one logs onto Facebook to apply for a job

I know the argument: there are just so many people on Facebook that you would be crazy to ignore it. 1.55 billion active users is a heck of…

The case for investing in your #employerbrand

There’s only 18 million OTHER BUSINESSES in the US (alone!) right now. I’m sure most people can identify who you are, what you do and why you are…

Proof that your job descriptions are not working

Isn’t that the way it goes? After a little light chit chat, you spend the first five minutes explaining what the job is all about? 1: Isn’t that…

Your career site deserves better than stock art

Images are amazing at delivering a huge amount of information in a split second. Looking at a picture, you can absorb space, emotion and human interactions. Look at paintings…

What’s the most important part of a career site?

Yeah, this is just the nice way to say what we talked about on Friday: Your career site needs to be useful to prospects, not to you.

What’s the purpose of your career site?

In looking at career site after career site, Your users are on your site for two reasons: apply for a job, or learn more information. Everything else is…

A top tech tip in #recruiting strategy

Maybe you shouldn’t be focused so much on Snapchat and Periscope if you haven’t yet gotten everything you can out of the conversation that happens on the phone….

You don’t want employees who feel engaged

Have you been hearing business leaders talk about how this program or that program will make their employees feel engaged? Whether its a survey or a poll or a project…

Why are you copying your job descriptions? Who’s story are you telling?

Tell the truth: you’ve copied other company’s job descriptions. Maybe not the whole thing, but when you write them, you start with ideas and bullet points and whole…

Bad job descriptions are not solved with more job descriptions

There seem to be two strategies when it comes to dealing with the heartbreak of bad job descriptions: Complain wildly about them and then make more of them….

Have you ever actually learned anything from a job description?

A recipe in reverse: Take one standard job description. Remove the EOE boilerplate language written by lawyers designed to do nothing but keep the company from getting sued….

Everything is #recruiting

Everything is recruiting. Everything. Every news item, every Glassdoor review, every product or service interaction, every tweet, every customer complaint, every store visit, every press release, every quarterly…

Can you predict candidate quality?

As the consideration funnel gets longer (41% in the last two years by our data), we worry that this leads to more opportunities for candidates to get lost…

Your Employer Brand Is Your Reflection

REI announced Monday that it would be closed Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving when stores roll out major discounts and open early to jumpstart holiday sales). REI, a…

The best prospects are too smart for “help wanted”

Sticking a job description in a job board is a great way to get lots and lots of resumes, assuming you want resumes from entry-level kids, unqualified “it…

Don’t just recruit. Recruit differently

Have you ever wondered why all your prospects sound the same and look the same and write the same phrases in their resumes? It’s because they all read…

Where is Recruitment Marketing’s George Lois?

The guy invented “I Want My MTV!” He virtually invented the Tommy Hillfiger brand overnight. He did all those Esquire covers in the 60’s that ended up in…

Your missing #recruiting metric that means so much

Let’s be real about all of this. A good recruiter can convince you that you could work at a new company. A great recruiter can convince that you want…

There’s only one way to get better prospects #recruiting

Self-help 101: keep doing what you’ve been doing and you’re going to keep getting what you’ve been getting. You can’t complain that you aren’t getting better candidates when…

Does Your ATS Work For You? Or Do You Work For Your ATS? #Recruiting #HRTech

You know the story that today’s train tracks are actually based on the width of Roman era chariots? It’s not a completely true story, but the gist is…

Post and pray 2.0 #recruiting

Seriously. Post and pray 2.0. If you aren’t targeting your jobs to people who could do them or live near them, you are spamming people. If you post…

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