We were fascinated last week when we ran a story about a new employer branding initiative at Anheuser-Busch. What exactly is employer branding, we wondered, and what is the business plan?
We caught up earlier today with Alexis Smith, A-B’s director of employer branding. It’s a job the nine-year A-B veteran has held since January 2016.
It’s a mix of HR, communications and marketing. Her job is to “tell great stories” and help recruit new hires to the company. Most of her experience has been in the marketing department, and she’s now applying those to this new role.
What does employer branding try to accomplish? “Making sure we’re telling great stories and highlighting the great things our employees are doing inside the company, and figuring how we can take the brand we’re building internally and sharing it so people on the outside can see what our people are doing.”
In the job market, A-B is finding increasing competition. “So it’s important to find people who have the right skill set, but also to make sure we’re at the forefront of people understanding what we have to offer and what it’s like to work for us,” she said. “What does your day-to-day look light, who are the people you work with, what projects can you own and lead?”
We wondered what was behind the decision to use actual employees in the video. You can hear the full interview – it runs about 14 minutes – here.