Let’s play a game. When I say the words ‘employer branding’, what do you think of? Google-esque offices with inspirational quotes plastered all over the walls? Employees with MacBooks, lounging on oversized primary-coloured beanbags? On-site, on-tap Starbucks coffee? Whatever springs to mind, there’s no denying that the recent emphasis on employer branding has turned it into something of a cliché, even a parody. In fact, there are a number of businesses in my industry (unfortunately, recruiters can be particularly guilty of it) whereby the owners believe that a state-of-the-art, quirky office is enough, and before the fresh paint smell has faded from the air, they relax, safe in the knowledge that they’ve achieved the perfect employer brand. As with most things in business, developing an employer brand is a lot more complicated than that. Establishing your business as the place to be in the face of multi-industry talent shortages is proving to be a challenge for even those who have graced the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For list. Glassdoor carried out a survey recently that found 84% of participants would consider leaving their current company if another employer with a better reputation offered them a job. Also, 69% of those surveyed said they’d decline a job offer from an employer with a bad reputation even if they were unemployed. So, before you make way for an office foosball table, let’s look at the bigger picture of employer branding. What actually is employer branding? Officially speaking, your employer brand refers to the perception that key stakeholders and both your current and potential future employees have of your business. To have any influence on this perception you need to be able to effectively communicate the values of your business, as well as your personality and culture. What you need to be aware of is that a successful employer brand is affected by every single touch point you have with your employees, from the recruitment of new starters right through to an employee’s exit from the company, and everything in between such as benefits, career pathways and support networks. Some companies focus too much on the recruitment side and I think we all have experience of those shiny, happy people who sing the praises of the business during an interview only to turn sour-faced and bitter once you’re a week into the job. It’s pointless promoting a culture of innovation and ambition to potential employees if the reality doesn’t reflect this. People talk and remember that social media channels are just a click away. Trust me, if your staff are unhappy, potential employees will soon get to hear about it. The very best employer brands are able to focus on the positives while remaining realistic about what’s actually on offer. So, what can you offer? More than you think. You’d be surprised by what job seekers are looking for from a potential employer. It’s not always about money and a fancy working environment. High numbers of people, at all ages and levels, are increasingly attracted by aspects such as the chance to works towards a formal qualification within the role and, more commonly, flexible working hours. Providing employees with flexibility doesn’t mean granting permission for a home office, but perhaps adjusting working hours slightly to suit them could make you stand out from a competitor. You might have an interesting pro-bono client, offer staff free yoga classes or even just go out for Friday night drinks with the team – all are worth shouting about and go a long way in communicating the real culture of your business. Don’t get culture confused As previously mentioned, businesses can mistake a cool working environment for culture. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Henry Nicholas office and aesthetics were important to me when designing it due to the fact that we spend a lot of time here. However, city centre location and designer graffiti-adorned walls aside, our culture is cultivated by deliberately employing professionals from a wide range of backgrounds rather than just recruitment. I never wanted Henry Nicholas to be known as a team of aggressive recruiters focused on target-smashing, the aim was instead to breed a culture of strong-minded and ambitious individuals who can learn from one another and concentrate on building meaningful relationships with clients and candidates. Remember the old adage that people buy from people. Investing in your current employees and telling the world all of the things that make you great will instantly make your business relatable, approachable and, you guessed it, an attractive place to work. If you really want to develop a meaningful employer brand and beat your competition to the punch when it comes to winning the best talent, you need to invest time and effort looking at your current culture and putting in the effort to change it, or if it’s already great, making sure you shout about it. No matter how long it takes though, trust me when I say that it’s one of the best investments you’ll ever make in the lifetime of your business. What are your thoughts on employer branding? I’d love to hear from you so leave a comment below or contact me directly to continue the conversation. Alternatively, if you’re a job seeker or a company looking for the best talent and like the sound of Henry Nicholas, our team would love to have a chat so get in touch today. Client page All blogs

Whether you design websites or implement marketing campaigns, it’s likely you’ll experience the dreaded creative burnout at some point in your career. Whereas for some it might only last a matter of hours (and be remedied by a strong coffee), others may find creative-block lasts longer, leading to a negative impact on work quality, colleague relationships and your overall outlook on work and life. While it can be difficult to predict when creative burnout will strike, psychotherapist and author, Dina Glouberman highlights three tell-tale signs in her book, The Joy of Burnout, including: - Growing emotional mental or physical exhaustion - Increasing feeling of distance from ourselves and other people - Decreasing ability to be effective at the things you've always done, both at work and at home. Luckily, there is a plethora of expert advice available to help creatives conquer a burnout. Our team has gathered some of the most effective tips according to our creative clients and candidates. Extract yourself Sometimes a simple change of scenery can make a world of difference when you’re feeling up against it. This is great for those able to work flexibly and can work from home or take their laptop away from the pressure-cooker setting of an office. However, not everyone can do that, so something as simple as making sure you take a lunch break and go for a walk to get some fresh air can provide some much-needed clarity. Director of Product Design at InVision, Andrew Cullen spoke of the importance of taking a step back on the company’s blog: “Sometimes being away from the screen is actually when your mind starts to wander and you think about problems you’re tackling at work in a different light.” Read a book If you think taking time out of your busy schedule to read a book is too indulgent it’s a sign you’re pushing yourself too hard. In our frenetic, digital world, taking time out to read a book can work wonders in getting those creative juices flowing. Josh Ritchie, CEO of creative content marketing agency ColumnFive wrote in a LinkedIn article: “There’s something nice about holding a book in your hands and turning the pages. I believe it’s a more interesting and gratifying experience than any other form of content consumption.” Go to an event Conferences and networking events can spark creativity and motivation, leaving you feeling refreshed and ready to get back to the office. Whether that’s due to sharing stories with your peers or hearing keynotes from industry leaders, events are well worth attending if you find yourself in a creative funk. Business owner and author of The Designer’s Handbook, Dennis Field spoke about the importance of events in an InVision blog post. “Conferences and networking events are full of positivity, and all that positivity can help you with burnout. Yes, I learn a ton from the speakers, but it’s the conversations with others that help me realise I’m not alone with any of my struggles.” Look after yourself It may sound obvious, but ask yourself whether you’re living your healthiest life. Do you get enough sleep? Do you move around enough during the day? What about your diet? And, dare we ask about your coffee consumption? This isn’t about living like a saint. It’s taking the time to be kind to your body so you have the energy to tackle the mental, physical and emotional challenges that can threaten your creativity levels every day. Everyone will have unique methods of coping with creative burnout, so if you have any nuggets of wisdom, don’t hesitate to share them with the Henry Nicholas team!

There’s little doubt that programmatic practices have changed the face of digital advertising as we know it. This multi-billion pound industry uses an approach defined by the Display Trading Council as automation in the buying and selling of media and can apply to anything from display to digital out-of-home and television. While a game changer for brands such as Topman, IHG and charity Missing Persons (read more on these success stories in Marketing Week), a 2018 report by London Research and TRUTH revealed that 79% of its advertising industry respondents have worries over the level of transparency in programmatic advertising. A significant contributor to this concern undoubtedly comes from the upcoming implementation of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Introduced on 25th May, the law covers everything from data portability and cyber security to consent, with non-compliance carrying fines of up to 4% of a firm’s annual turnover or £18m, whichever is higher. GDPR gives EU citizens greater control over what happens to their data and, in many cases, requires active consent, which presents a major challenge in programmatic advertising. Founder and chairman of communications agency REaD Group and former chair of the Direct Marketing Association, Mark Roy, believes GDPR could spell the beginning of the end for programmatic. In an article for AdExchanger, Roy wrote: "The ‘right to be forgotten’ rule, in which an individual can have their historic data removed from a database, will leave the programmatic industry with a significant conundrum. In order to be ‘forgotten’, we must be able to know what needs to be forgotten. Every click, path, transaction, request or click-through must be recorded and be deletable. Therefore, by putting data assets into the ether and allowing thousands of organisations to use it, it is nigh on impossible to comply with the GDPR." There may still be ways that programmatic advertising can be used post-GDPR however. Head of ecosystem at anti-ad-blocking solutions provider PageFair, Johnny Ryan, recently stated in an interview for MarTech Today that advertisers could avoid using personal data and instead use targeting segments that group users in ways that won’t identify them. For example, create groups of users based on things like the holidays they book or sports teams they support etc. However, Ryan addresses the difficulty of identifying when that data becomes too personal and in breach of GDPR. Although it seems the digital advertising industry will go through a seismic shift, insiders have heralded GDPR as the start of a new era of greater trust between organisations and customers who still want to share data in exchange for personalised services. It’s also been stated that advertising is likely to shift from its heavy reliance on algorithmic models of communicating and back to a simpler approach that relies on less volume and better quality of data. With the use of programmatic technology scaled back, we’re set to see the return of a more personal touch in advertising that’s facilitated by people rather than machines. Something advertising professionals who faced an uncertain future at the start of the programmatic boom will undoubtedly welcome with open arms. As will we.

Hubspot’s 2017 State of Inbound Report revealed that 40% of marketers see providing the ROI of their marketing activities as one of today’s top challenges. For a number of years, measuring the effectiveness of digital campaigns has remained one of the biggest challenges facing marketers. Social, mobile and native platforms, brought to us on a plethora of connected smart devices, means the scope for measuring campaign success is vast. Speaking with ExchangeWire, Tim Geenen, director of strategy and innovation at programmatic marketing agency Bannerconnect, said: “It makes intelligent, data-driven attribution almost impossible for digital marketing and advertising professionals, who end up with a tonne of data points that don’t connect, and give no indication of the overall effectiveness of online efforts.” So, with so many numbers out there to crunch, how do marketers know which ones to focus on? We round up tips from key industry players on things to consider when it comes to establishing true ROI. Unique website visitors Although it sounds obvious, senior vice president of Zog Digital, Thomas Stern reinforced to Business.com that analysing web traffic is still one of the most valuable measurement methods. He stated: “Swings in visitors can uncover issues with SEO, campaign targeting, content reach and social engagement. Analyse this data early and often within your analytics platform to avoid missing issues that can grow into big problems if left unattended.” Digital marketing analytics For more far-reaching, multi-platform campaigns, it pays to look beyond website analytics. HubSpot's Senior Marketing Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Elissa Hudson discusses the value of digital marketing analytics on the Hubspot blog: “Web analytics measure things a webmaster or technical SEO specialist cares about, like page load speed, page views per visit, and time on site. Digital marketing analytics, on the other hand, measure business metrics like traffic, leads, and sales, and which online events influence whether leads become customers.” Mid-funnel engagement Brett Jameson from Bear Fox Marketing insists that marketers focus their attention on measuring mid-funnel activities, such as asset downloads, visits to sales landing pages, and email open rates. He said: “Measuring increases in this type of engagement can help you understand where sales are coming from. When you can connect this activity to growth and revenue, you have a great way to measure digital marketing ROI.” Report, report, report It’s no good setting goals or running a digital campaign without producing ongoing progress reports. Owner of Retriever Digital Stuart Marler commented in an article for Digital Donut: “Reporting on targets and goals, KPIs and information should be as often as possible, monthly is ideal, to track an ongoing campaign, to make changes each month increase in targeting goals that are working and manipulate those that are achieving less.” What metrics do you have in place for your digital marketing campaigns? We’d love to hear more tips and best practices that have proved effective in your business.

One of the most exciting aspects of recruiting in the technology sector is that no two days are the same. In fact, no two conversations are the same. You don’t need us to tell you that we’re living in a fast-paced technological world that continues to evolve at breakneck speed. Just five years ago, who would have thought that drones would be one of the top-selling Christmas gifts of 2017? Or that ‘OK, Google…’ and ‘Alexa’ would become synonymous with AI-enabled devices that answer our questions, control elements of our home and even add things to our shopping lists so we don’t have to? The big question is, what’s coming next? Based on our industry observations, we provide a run-down of the technology we’re likely to see a lot more of in 2018. Alexa: The feeling’s mutual... 2018 is the year that AI-devices, like Alexa, Siri and Google, will step it up a gear. The evolution of AI means our devices will start learning our likes and dislikes in order to provide a more personalised experience. While having a full blown conversation with Alexa may seem like a creepy prospect, we’re not strangers to this approach. Programmatic advertising has been following us around for years now (as well as those suspiciously tailored social media posts), so Alexa selecting news stories, TV shows, music and even recipes we might like is the next logical step for consumer AI devices. Fashion gets a makeover Speaking of personalised services, online retail giants like Amazon have used AI to tailor recommendations to us for years and 2018 looks to be the year fashion catches up. Previously we’ve been treated to recommended products based on popular items other people have purchased, but this is set to evolve to products based on a range of criteria including our body shape, style and personal preferences. Smaller, mail-order businesses, like Fabletics, have been tailoring product offerings to customers, but it’s remained out of reach for large scale high-street fast-fashion brands. Until now. Fixing the plastic ocean There’s a movement going on and we’re not talking about clean eating. More and more social media influencers are pushing their environmentally friendly agenda in the wake of 2016 shock-documentary Plastic Ocean. What’s this got to do with tech? Consumers are increasingly demanding products be made from materials that have been ethically sourced. In order to achieve this ambition, emerging technologies are required to utilise alternative materials for the next wave of devices. Although it can be tricky to predict exactly what’s coming down the line and when, one thing’s for sure; 2018 will see the most consumer-driven technology markets ever and we can’t wait to see what develops. ​