Who controls your employment brand?  If you are not aggressively and proactively managing your employment brand, then grumpy people are controlling it; primarily bitter ex-employees and even worse, your less-than-happy current employees. 

It’s actually pretty simple to define.  Your employment brand is the word on the street about your organization as a place to work.  That’s it.  It’s not recruitment advertising.  It’s not some fancy aspirational slogan about what you wish you were.  It’s not the smoke and mirrors job description you created to make your boring job, working for an awful manager, sound enticing. 

It’s actually pretty simple to do.  Create a great place to work!  You can’t fake this.  You either have an environment that people enjoy working in or you don’t.  If you don’t, then start there. Fix it! If you do, then make sure people know about it. 

Your employment brand is what real people talk about when they go out to dinner with friends or answer questions about their job at a networking event.  Your employment brand is what former applicants say about how they were treated, or ignored, during your selection process.  Your employment brand is what your former employees say about their experience.  Your employment brand is simply the most important foundational piece of your recruiting strategy.

Be aggressive.  Be proactive.  Make sure you are the driving force behind your employment brand.  Or, feel free to sit back and let the grumpy people control the word on the street.  It’s your choice.