Employer Branding & Covid-19 - Amazon takes a coffee break with Seenit
Last month we hosted the first of our brand new webinar series where we invite guest speakers to take a 'coffee break with Seenit'. The discussion lasts for around 30 minutes which gives our host Emily Forbes, CEO and Founder of Seenit, just enough time to delve into our guest's current priorities and challenges during Covid-19 followed by a short Q&A from the audience.
Written by Krishan Patel
17 Jun, 2020 – 4 min read
Last month we hosted the first of our brand new webinar series where we invite guest speakers to take a ‘coffee break with Seenit’. The discussion lasts for around 30 minutes which gives our host Emily Forbes, CEO and Founder of Seenit, just enough time to delve into our guest’s current priorities and challenges during Covid-19 followed by a short Q&A from the audience.
To kick off this series our first guest was Matt Sharp - Employer Brand Manager at Amazon and long-term customer of Seenit. We were so pleased to have over 300 registrants for this first webinar including some of our customers: Vodafone, Liberty Global and Barclays joining us alongside a wide array of companies such as Siemens, GSK and PwC.
In case you missed it, here are the top 3 takeaways from Matt & Emily:
1. Think employee first
Do the inner work first. Now more than ever employee wellbeing and creating an inclusive and transparent culture that builds trust while everyone is working remotely is critical for the survival of our businesses. So if this is top of your agenda, let your people do the talking and make employee advocacy part of your brand strategy. At this time the voice of the employee is more trusted than ever.
2. Re-think your content strategy
There is no blueprint on how to manage a brand strategy in a pandemic. A lot of it has to be driven by awareness of the situation and how people are affected. Check in with your employees and create mindful, reactive and impactful content. This year 41% of people have expressed a desire to retrain or find more ‘meaningful’ work (Slater & Gordan, 2020), therefore it is essential that as businesses we reflect on what we are contributing and giving back to society and adapt our messaging, and the stories we tell about our business accordingly. (As an example, see Amazon sustainability video here)
3. How your business reacts to this time will have a long-term impact on your company image
What you do now and the stories you tell during this crisis will ultimately impact the future of your employer brand. Companies have been more exposed on how they treat their employees, so remember: be mindful, reactive, impactful and think employee-first. “In a story, the only way anyone’s true character is revealed is by watching how they deal with adversity, hardship and loss. Conflict and adversity are tests of who we are” - Jim Hardison
You can watch the whole webinar recording on-demand below and learn about the challenges and top-tips for building a strong employer brand during Covid-19👇
We have worked very closely with Matt and his team at Amazon over the last two years, enabling them to create some fantastic employee-led videos that bring their brand truly to life.
Here is a great example: A day in the life of a brand specialist at Amazon:
