Employer branding has always been important, but it is now absolutely critical to employers if they want to connect, engage and influence in demand talent. Employer branding isn’t easy and for larger organisations building a global employer brand is a significant undertaking.
So how do you make the business case for employer branding, and how does employer brand activation work amid all of the challenges 2022 poses for employers?
My guest this week is Marije van der Togt, Head of Employer Branding at Just Eat Takeaway.com. Marije is highly experienced at building successful employer brands across multiple countries and has a massive amount of valuable insight to share.
In the interview, we discuss:
• Challenges of becoming one company with one story
• Evolving recruiting challenges
• How strong consumer brands create challenges for employer brands
• The importance of culture in candidate choice
• Why invest in a global employer brand?
• How employer brand strategy enables the business strategy
• Storytelling and linking authentic people centric stories to EVP pillars
• Strategically positioning podcasting as long form content.
• The role of data and technology
• Segmentation
• Advice to other employers on developing a global employer brand
• What does the future look like?
Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Transcript:
Matt Alder [00:00:00]:
Support for this podcast is provided by Candidate id, an ISIMS company. Candidate ID is an award winning marketing automation software built for talent acquisition. It enables recruiting teams to hyper target best fit most engaged candidates with unique lead scoring and automated marketing campaigns. Candidate ID recently joined ISIMS and together they’re redefining recruitment marketing. Visit candidaid.com to learn more about transforming your talent acquisition strategy.
Matt Alder [00:00:52]:
Hi there, this is Matt Alder. Welcome to episode 433 of the Recruiting Future podcast. Employer branding has always been important, but it’s now absolutely critical to employers if they want to connect, engage and influence in demand talent. Employer branding isn’t easy and for larger organizations, building a global employer brand is a significant undertaking. So how do you make the business case for employer branding and how does employer brand activation work amid all the challenges 2022 poses employers? My guest this week is Marije van der Tokt, head of employer branding@justdtakeaway.com Marije is highly experienced at building successful employer brands across multiple countries and has a massive amount of valuable insights to share.
Matt Alder [00:01:49]:
Hi Marije and welcome to the podcast.
Marije Van Der Togt [00:01:52]:
Hi Matt, nice to be here. Thank you for having me.
Matt Alder [00:01:55]:
An absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Could you just introduce yourself and tell us what you do?
Marije Van Der Togt [00:02:00]:
Yes, of course. Thank you very much. My name is Marije Van der Togt and I work@justeatakeaway.com as a global employer branding manager.
Matt Alder [00:02:09]:
Fantastic. So for people who may not have heard of justeatakeaway.com, could you just give us a bit of background on the company and tell us what it does?
Marije Van Der Togt [00:02:19]:
Yes, of course. So just eattakeway.com is a global online food delivery platform. We are active in 23 countries around the world. We’ve gone through a period of exponential growth. We’ve had a relatively recent merger between takeaway on the one hand and just eat on the other hand. And we’ve grown, or that our people have grown from 4,000 in 2020 to over 18,000 right now. And of course our ever growing courier colleagues which are also part of our orange family. So that’s where we are.
Matt Alder [00:02:53]:
Fantastic. And obviously a journey like this I’m sure comes with many challenges. We’re seeing many challeng challenges just generally in recruitment markets around the world at the moment. Tell us about the challenges that you have and how they’ve evolved.
Marije Van Der Togt [00:03:08]:
Yeah, so I think that when you’re merging and when you’re coming from different backgrounds. I think for our people, the challenge is becoming one company, right. With one joint story, joint experience, joint experience opportunities and joint career opportunities. So that’s more for sort of from our people’s perspective and getting used to sort of new, new and different ways of working. And then for our employer brand, the main challenge is that, and that is also not different for a lot of bigger companies that people know our consumer brand and they love our consumer brand, but they don’t really know us as an employer. Right. And if they do, then it’s mainly to work as a courier, because you see them on the streets luckily a lot. Right. So if you know us, you know us to work for as a courier, but otherwise you know us as a consumer brand.
Matt Alder [00:03:59]:
Want to talk a little bit about your sort of global employer brand journey in a second before we do, just wanted to dig a bit deeper into, you know, the recruiting challenges that you face. Because obviously, you know, delivery companies through the pandemic, there was a, there was a huge focus on them. You know, how’s that evolved and what, what are your sort of main recruiting challenges right now?
Marije Van Der Togt [00:04:21]:
Yeah, so I think absolutely the pandemic. And now we see a change, right, because that landscape is changing. We’re now currently seeing more stabilization sort of in our people growth. So there’s more focus on retention in general and not the huge exponential growth that it was in the last two years. So that’s the main challenge that, you know, that’s the main change that we see in terms of recruiting challenges. I think they’re not very different from other companies. Right. So I think that, you know, we have challenges in product and tech, we have challenges in sales, customer service and other areas which are more volume, volume related. So, yeah, there’s sort of similar challenges. People have lots of choice where they want to work, so culture becomes more and more important to them as well. And that’s what people say in the survey that we do with every candidate, is that they want to know about the people behind the brand.
Matt Alder [00:05:21]:
And that takes us very nicely on to exploring a bit more about your employer brand journey. So why did you invest in a global employer brand?
Marije Van Der Togt [00:05:30]:
I started in March 2021 and as I said before, we grew quite a bit and we felt the need to help create that people story, representing that unique people employee experience and our culture and our company. Of course we want to help find people who match that culture best. We want to help engage and retain our people. And of course we want to help direct the offerings that will support that people’s story. Right. So that’s all logical to start to do at the global level. And that’s why we have invested in that.
Matt Alder [00:06:05]:
That makes perfect sense. I mean, and how does your employer brand strategy enable your business? I know that’s something that it’s an important question because I know that lots of people who are trying to get the justification to do a big employer branding initiative. It’s kind of a key question in terms of how it ties back to the business.
Marije Van Der Togt [00:06:27]:
Yeah, it’s interesting, right, Because I usually say, well, when we’re in a recruiting process, you’re in a pressure cooker situation, right? So you’re trying to have three dates with someone and then ask them to move in with you, which is. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a relationship that you’ve moved in with someone after three dates, but I sure haven’t because I need a little more time, right. To get to know people. And the thing is that you want that relationship to work, right? Because you want people to be successful at your company. You want people to match your company, you want people to feel at home with your company so that they can stay longer and that they can be successful. And so you need to provide them with information about sort of the people behind the brand, how does it work? You know what they. They need more than those three dates in order to understand if this is a relationship they want to embark onto. And that’s kind of the story that I usually tell. So you don’t want to lengthen that recruitment process, but you do want to provide the information that makes it possible for people to make that choice. Right? Because if they make the right choice, they match. And if they match, they perform. And if they perform, they stay. Right. So that’s what you want to support. So if you don’t have that story, it’s very difficult for people to make that choice.
Matt Alder [00:07:39]:
You kind of mentioned story there. And I think I’m kind of really fascinated by how storytelling works in recruiting and recruitment marketing, but in particular in employer branding. How important is storytelling to what you do and how do you do it?
Marije Van Der Togt [00:07:56]:
There’s, of course, tremendously important to tell that story. And the thing is, I think the most important thing about that is to let our people show our story. Right? They live and they breathe our company every day. And no one can tell that story better than they can. So we’re very lucky, right? We are quite young, we’re about average age, 30, and we have very socially active employees. So we amplify their stories as much as we can, providing some additional context. And then we choose and we bundle the stories and support our sort of, you know, employee value proposition. But we sort of let our people show our stories. So that’s like on the people side, that’s one of the most important things to do. So on our socials, you see a lot of sort of our people stuff, but then bundled into sort of the message that we want to send. And on the other hand, it’s very important to support our leaders telling their story to attract the right people as well. Right. We are currently being asked and working with one, with a few leaders to showcase their vision and where they currently are and what potential talent can find in terms of career challenges. And yeah, to help those leaders get to where they need to be. So that’s the other side of it. And then of course, you know, overarchingly we tell that story from an employer brand perspective and have campaigns for our audience segments and have a number of formats that we use to showcase our people as well. So there’s actually three things like, you know, ambassadorship, leadership, and then sort of, you know, our overarching employer brand stories. So those overarching ones include a podcast. So I figured, you know, if I’m asking my people or our people to do it, then I might as well do it myself as well.
Matt Alder [00:09:41]:
Podcast, I mean, that’s really, that’s really interesting. You sort of mentioned other formats there. Tell us a little bit more about the form, those formats you’re using for storytelling and what you see, the kind of advantages of each one.
Marije Van Der Togt [00:09:55]:
Yeah, so I think it’s interesting, right, because there’s longer form things like the podcast, and we feel that that’s in the consideration phase. There’s a lot in there as well. When I was looking for a new challenge, then in between interviews, you want to just know more about the company, Right. You want to feel what kind of people work there, who are they, what kind of challenges. And a podcast gives you a nice input, like, you know, in depth view of something because it’s longer and it like, you know, it has more depth to sort of, you know, what people, what people actually do on a day to day basis. So that’s what that’s good for. And you know, other formats, such as, you know, social formats, like I said before, like, you know, the, the bundling of the stories of our people, for example, is, is just very sort of key glimpse into culture, which is, which is nice. And then there’s more specific ones like testimonial videos or you know, quick format, quick fire question videos or other formats such as ugc, so user generated content videos as well that provide other parts of the story of our people as well.
Matt Alder [00:11:00]:
And what role does data and technology play in your strategy?
Marije Van Der Togt [00:11:05]:
We’re doing something that I’m really quite proud of and that’s for data. We do continuous research with our candidates on a day to day basis. So every candidate, when they apply, they get a survey from us asking them what are the drivers for you, what are the other employers? Did you consider what do you think are strengths of just a takeaway, what information do you need? Those questions we ask and we ask that on a segment level and we ask that on a country level and we ask that on experience level. So and that database is building and building and building. So you know about what 50 plus percent of people answer that question because you know, for them it’s sort of another step in the candidate experience. Right. So it’s nice if you’re being asked about your experience. So it’s a win win situation. And then for us this is sort of building our database on a day to day and building that database, which means that, you know, in about six months time, if you’re asking me, you know what in Berlin, data folks, you know what, what other companies are they considering? What do they think is strong about us, what do they need and what are they, what are their drivers? I can answer that question and that’s great because those are the kind of people that we need in the future as well. So I think that, you know, building that database and building that data source for our work is tremendously important. That’s just, yeah, just something I’m very proud of that we do in house. That’s great. And as for tech, I mean there’s, you know, we don’t use tools for the sake of using tools. But one of the key things that we’re looking into right now is for example a referral tool which means that you know, you know, you know the drill with referral, right. Sometimes there’s lots of referral but the quality isn’t good. And then sometimes there’s not so much referral and sometimes the referral is not too diverse because people know people like them. A lot of the times when people refer people they, they want to know on a day to day basis from, from our talent acquisition colleagues, whatever happened to my friends. So there’s loads of things that you need to streamline but also you can be More targeted in, in the form of sort of, you know, campaigning for referrals. So that is what those tools enable us to do. So in that respect, technology can really help us be more targeted and more specific and more smart about sort of the way that we talk to these people and not just say, hey, we have a referral and we have a bonus and here you go. Right. So that’s kind of as an example of technology that we use in our space.
Matt Alder [00:13:35]:
As I mentioned earlier, there will be lots of people listening who are planning employer brand programs and really thinking about how they can use employer brand to, to deal with some of the challenges that they have. What advice would you give to other employers who might just be starting on this journey or refining what they do in terms of employer brand?
Marije Van Der Togt [00:14:00]:
Yeah, so there’s lots of different things that you can do also based on sort of your direct need, but also on the scale and the scope of what you can do. Right. So be consistent is what, what I would say try to, you know, it’s better to tell one story well than tell 17 stories mediocre. So be consistent, tell authentic people centric stories. So really, sort of the one thing that came out or comes out constantly on our survey is that people want to know about our culture. They want to know about the people behind the brand. Because when they’re considering it, you want to know who you’re going to be working with. You know, what, what are those kind of people, what drives them to do? I feel that I can be successful in that environment and I think that people centric stories really provide that opportunity for you to see that and to feel that and to acknowledge that. Right. So that’s kind of what I would definitely say. And then have your people showcase your culture. I think that’s the main, that’s the main thing. I mean, for us, it’s relative. Well, easy, I wouldn’t say. But like, as I said, right. We have some very socially savvy people, so it’s quite easy to, to find all those stories because people are very, very keen to tell them and I’m proud of them. So that I think is very authentic and real and direct and I think that it showcases who we are very well because that’s what people say about our stuff. Right. About our company. So, yeah, we recently finalized our employee value proposition and currently we’re linking all of those internal and external people related messaging to the pillars of our evp. Right. So that means that we’re being consistent with using the stories that are out there. If that makes sense. And I think that that is a good way of sort of constantly reminding people what we stand for and showcasing those stories at the same time. So your, your employer brand is already there, but you get to focus and direct it to make it stronger. That’s kind of what I. What I always say to people.
Matt Alder [00:16:04]:
Absolutely. So final question. What’s next? What does the future look like for just the takeaway?
Marije Van Der Togt [00:16:12]:
That’s a quite broad question. So I’ll just focus on with the employer brand, if that’s okay with you.
Matt Alder [00:16:17]:
Absolutely, yeah.
Marije Van Der Togt [00:16:18]:
Otherwise you’d have to talk to someone else in my organization, but yeah. So for employee brand, we built the foundation for this last year. Right. And then we are joining forces very much with our career employee brand this year. And then we continue to focus heavily on employer ambassadorship this year and the next as well, and expanding our campus presence and have some fun offline activations lined up as well. So, yeah, it’s very much expanding and building on that foundation that we do. And then the second thing is that, of course, embedding our employee value proposition, it’s important to focus on walking the walk. Right. So developing offerings that match our new people as a makeup people proud to work for us. That’s also a key challenge for us to moving forward.
Matt Alder [00:17:00]:
Marije, thank you very much for talking to me.
Marije Van Der Togt [00:17:03]:
Thank you very much, Matt. It was lovely.
Matt Alder [00:17:05]:
My thanks to Marije. You can subscribe to this podcast in Apple Podcasts on Spotify or via your podcasting app of choice. Please also follow the show on Instagram. You can find us by searching for Recruiting Future. You can search all the past episodes@recruitingfuture.com on that site. You can also subscribe to the mailing list to get the inside track about everything that’s coming up on the show. Thanks very much for listening. I’ll be back next time and I hope you’ll join me.
