We’ve blogged before about company branding and recruitment strategies, but as we come into the new year, we wanted to share some fresh ideas with all of you. Here is a basic outline approach to how you can tackle #branding and #recruiting in #2017 to make sure that you target the stars in your field.

1. Ask yourself “How is my company going to get the sources to achieve our goal for branding? How are we going to achieve this transformation?”
   1. Whether you are looking to change up the feel of your company culture, or put a new image out there in your industry, or just maintain the status quo that you’ve developed, you need to approach it with a solid strategy in mind.

2. A great way to incorporate feedback from all employees across the organization (not just HR or Marketing for instance), is to include people from outside your department. They’ve experienced the brand through their own onboarding (using newer employees is a great idea since their memory and experience is the most fresh!)
3. Your leadership should adopt the attitude of “It’s not a company culture problem, it’s a CEO problem.”
4. Look at the data and get smart about your current systems of data already in place.
   1. Ask yourself: What are your key initiatives and how can we analyze the data to see where we can make it better?
   2. One idea – create data analysis internships in your organization and attract graduates/college students to analyze the data – they get experience and you have inexpensive experts at your disposal. Win, win!
5. Consider one thing that you can do in 2017 to take a risk or start something new. Candidates will appreciate the changes you are making to the company culture, risks you take, and your community involvement. Community involvement is HUGE with millennials and the unknown generation coming in on the millennials’ heels.
6. Employee enthusiasm about your brand is critical – get people excited about the direction you’re headed in. Encourage social media posting from employees about the changes, and use internal company feedback.
7. Recruit people who are interested in your company values!
8. Adopt a workplace philosophy of the 3 O’s:
   1. Optimism – What does the future look like for your company?
   2. Ownership – Eliminate “that’s not my job” from your employees’ vocabulary. It’s a toxic statement to the work environment. Instead, explore new incentives and benefits for your employees to encourage them to take on new challenges, work together, and promote teamwork.
   3. Openness – encourage company values and always be clear and honest when facing turbulent times. Your employees (and new recruits) will appreciate the transparency!