Coffee, Cookies, Culture?

How to Use Talent Branding to Attract
and Retain the Right People

by Will Kilburn
Monster Government Solutions

What do Starbucks coffee, Girl Scout cookies, and working at the Environmental Protection Agency have in common? Plenty, if you think of them as brands.

Rethinking the way Federal agencies view Federal employment was the topic of the most recent Monster Government Solutions Breakfast Seminar, “The Power of an Agency Talent Brand,” held April 29 in Washington and led by Monster Government Solutions’ Bob Duffy and Rebecca Ward.

“Some popular brands operate on deeper levels than others,” says Duffy in a post-seminar interview. “For instance, people fasten on Starbucks coffee as something very desirable, and they’re willing to stand in line for ten minutes and pay four bucks for a cup because the Starbucks “experience” makes them feel special for some reason. That kind of emotional hook is the key to branding. You want to create the same kind of relationship with your organization’s audiences, not just recruits. You want people to view you –consciously and otherwise-- as a great place to work.”

While it might seem like a bit of a leap between, say, buying an espresso and taking a job as an Information Management Specialist at the EPA, Duffy says just the opposite is true, using Girl Scout cookies as an example.

“That’s another one where you’re branding a “big idea”, not merely a snack. We’re not talking here about better-tasting, cheaper, conveniently available, more cookies to the box product,” Duffy explains. “We’re talking about participating in a special experience that makes you feel like you’re participating in the life of your neighborhood, or extended family, or workplace --and also contributing to society by supporting a worthwhile group.”

Beyond the branding of the altruistic aspects of Federal service, Duffy says that managers also need to determine what kinds of people will perform the best in their agency’s unique culture.

“At EPA, we like to think we discovered kind of the essence of the culture, which is the constructive balance, how a balance seems to emerge from opposing ideas, opposing personalities, opposing experience-- they love that there,” says Duffy, who adds that others are happier in settings where productivity and efficiency is the ultimate goal. At another well known agency, “the kind of person most likely to succeed is somebody who wants to be rewarded for measurable performance against an objective standard. He or she doesn’t want to be compared with other people, because that injects a personality bias in the evaluation. This is how that particular agency’s culture works”

That difference, Duffy says, isn’t reflected in job titles: On paper, accountants at the EPA may have duties that are pretty similar to those of their counterparts at NASA, but their on-the-job experiences are not necessarily the same. Defining both the workplace “experience” and the personalities of the top performers is the key to an authentic and useful Talent Brand.

“We build creatively on what we discover to recruit people, but we also build on that brand for internal programs—retention, change management, and that kind of stuff,” says Duffy. “We find the mix of personalities that tends to incline people to stay there.”

And make life easier for Federal Human Capital managers who need to plan for and adapt to an ever-uncertain future.

“Coming to awareness of what your workplace culture is like is an exciting discovery for both managers and associates alike,” says Duffy, “and awareness of those kinds of core values helps you do your job better, and enjoy your job better at the same time.”

For more information about Talent Branding by Monster Government Solutions, contact Bob Duffy at bob.duffy@monster.com.

To learn more about and register for the next Monster Government Solutions Breakfast Seminar on June 9th, “Strategies for Recruiting Diverse Talent”, click here.