Putting your firm's reputation on the line

03-February-2010

When social media websites such as Facebook and YouTube first started gaining relevance in the recruitment sector, it was candidates who were warned that their internet reputation or ’netrep’ was at risk.

The message was: dance on the table at your local pub if you wish, just don’t post a video of it on YouTube where potential employers might see you. It didn’t seem to occur to many employers, however, that their own reputation and employer brand was potentially at the mercy of the same medium. Recent years have seen more than one major brand star in the social media spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Notable examples include Virgin Atlantic after members of its cabin crew used Facebook to label its passengers ’chavs’, and Domino’s Pizza in the US, where two employees posted videos of themselves on YouTube abusing food.

Meanwhile, organisations of all sizes have to accept that they will be routinely rated - and berated - across the web as forums, comparison sites and other online spaces empower employees, customers and third parties to pass judgement on a company’s goods, services, performance behaviour and more. Just recently, the UK has seen the launch of Judgethejob.com, a website which allows jobseekers to review experiences of working with a particular company.

Much is made of this loss of control over brand but, as Annette Frem, head of solutions in the employer brand consultancy arm of Bernard Hodes Group, points out, organisations have never wholly owned this in the first place and it is merely the scale of the situation that has changed. “People always talked about employers in the pub, but in the digital age the conversation is more global and more rapid,” she says.

The nature of social media means it is difficult if not impossible to prevent or police attacks on a brand but it is possible to find out who is saying what about you and where they are saying it. Bernard Hodes is one of those encouraging clients to monitor its online reputation. Head of digital, Andy Hyatt, believes this marks a shift from recruitment advertising being a simple transactional model to a much more ’complex communications’ exercise. “You have to understand not only how to get involved and how to have the conversation but what to get involved in and what not to,” he says.

Paul Harrison, managing partner at Carve Consulting, which works with clients to develop social media strategies, says the major mindset problem for recruiters is that they still only see such sites as a recruitment channel or job promotion tool rather than fully recognise the impact it can have on reputation. “It takes two minutes to set up a Twitter feed to say ’I hate a particular brand’,” he says. “No matter what size of organisation you are, listening to the social dialogue and having a framework in place to deal with things is critical.”

There can be a tendency for both internal and external recruiters to abdicate responsibility for monitoring the online reputation and brand to the likes of marketing and public relations. These departments may be the traditional custodians but reputation is so intrinsically linked to employer brand that recruiters and in-house resourcers cannot afford to turn a blind eye.

Frem says she is already seeing a new breed of HR person emerge who is much more marketing and brand aware and who recognises the importance of being involved in such strategies. Similarly, Vikki Chowney, editor of the website ReputationOnline.co.uk, which helps brands and businesses manage their online profile, says recruitment and HR work alongside functions are working alongside functions such as PR and the digital team to take on this shared responsibility is vital if strategies are to be joined up and consistent. “If marketing is doing something fabulous and HR or customer service is doing the opposite, any good work will be wasted,” she says. She adds that those organisations which are most successful at managing their online reputation are those sharing the processes internally and using new collaborative internet tools such as GoogleWave to achieve this.

The starting point for monitoring an online reputation is to carry out some form of social audit to find out who is saying what about you and where. It is possible to do this without any external help by using free tools that are available such as SocialMention.com and Google Alerts. Chowney adds that there are a growing number of small and large agencies that will carry out an audit as the first part of a pitch to win business. While there is a lot you can do yourself, using specialists alongside your own activities will help bring more depth and coherency to your audit. Such people will be better placed to analyse data and devise an overall social media strategy based on its findings.

Both Chowney and Harrison, however, warn against simply outsourcing the management of your online reputation and must maintain ownership of the exercise.

“Your social dialogue cuts to the heart of everything you do,” says Harrison. “So you need to create a working group with clear delineation of responsibility. It is important to have a community manager or someone who is ’on point’ to listen to what is being said and is then able to direct what needs to be done.” He adds that the key to extracting maximum value from the process is “active listening”, which can help recruiters and employers map talent and communities of talent, and better understand how to improve an organisation’s reputation and perception as an employer. “Active listening allows us to identify key influencers and trust agents who can promote our message and opportunities,” he says.

As an example of using such monitoring to better understand and engage with talent, Hyatt highlights Deutsche Bank in the US. It found that its reputation at some 20 universities was very much down to two to three influencers at each campus who were driving opinion and conversations. Having identified them, it made a point of meeting them and talking through their issues or concerns about the company.

Stephen Jones, managing director of Focus Management, a recruitment consultancy dedicated to the food and drink sector, uses a mixture of Google Alerts and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) readers to monitor its brand and it also enlists the help of Carve. As well as its brands, Jones explains that it also monitors the social dialogue around the names of key consultants, clients and competitors. “We also monitor buzz around industry events and so forth,” he says. “We’re always surprised by the volume of conversations taking place and the number of our candidates and clients using platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.”

Focus has been active in the social space for some time and says negative feedback has appeared rarely but if it does the company leaves the comments in the space they were made and makes sure they respond in an appropriate way. “On these rare occasions where criticism has been posted, we always follow up internally,” says Jones. “Was the criticism valid? Do we have a breakdown in our processes? Is there a training issue to address? What could we do differently or better?”

As Harrison says, a mechanism for dealing with any negative activity must be in place beforehand. “It’s no good saying ’who do I have to talk to in corporate comms as we’re getting a kicking on YouTube’.” Experts also agree that it is important to respond in the space where the comments were posted: so if it happens on Facebook, respond on Facebook.

Ben Nunn, head of digital at recruitment and employee communications business ThirtyThree, adds that it is vital not to let any negative comments fester but warns against an impulse response. “Don’t feel you have to respond immediately or post a response 10 minutes later. It’s important to respond quickly but take time to consider the most appropriate response method and message,” he says.

For most companies, monitoring online reputation is still in its infancy but there can be no doubt about the importance of either the practice itself or the necessary roles of the recruiter or HR department. Nunn says he is already seeing greater recognition of this. ThirtyThree has been working on an active listening campaign to support the promotion of the internship programme for a major bank and says that several other clients are investigating putting in place listening strategies for the coming year to aid in their recruitment strategy. “Last year, a major challenge was justifying spend in this area,” he says. “But this year I believe it will form part of how an organisation gets results.”

Key Facts:

• Carry out an audit of the social space to find out what is being said about you and where. Until you do this, you can’t put together an effective social media and monitoring strategy
• Have a framework in place to support the monitoring and this must define how negative feedback will be dealt with Engage external help but don’t abdicate responsibility or ownership of the process as your reputation is too important
• Respond to any incidents or negative comments in the same online space as they happened. The response should be prompt but well thought through. Avoid knee-jerk reactions
• Carry on listening to the online conversation and adapt your strategy to take in new channels – monitoring is an ongoing and everchanging process

Have your say

Please do not complete the following form field for security reasons.

Name

E-mail

Comment

I have read and agree to the terms and conditions