Michael Rothman told Ragan that knowing the organization paid for IVF treatments allowed him to profile a colleague and show how that benefit played out in real life. He added that the piece had the ability to appeal to both prospective employees and those already within the company. That mindset guided him when creating employer branding content at TD Bank.
At Ragan’s Social Media Conference at Walt Disney World next month, Rothman will share insights into his experience of elevating the stories of real employees to improve the brand’s overall perception.
“There’s always a temptation just to put content out there, but the strongest work comes when you’re really intentional about what story you’re telling and why,” Rothman said. “When you step back and look at it from that perspective, it becomes much easier to understand how employer branding should actually work.”
Rothman told Ragan that he focused on narratives that differentiated TD Bank as an employer.
“From a big-picture view, a lot of what we tried to do was pull out the things that showed how the culture was actually different, not just how it was being described,” he told Ragan. “That’s really where social and storytelling come into play — helping show what those values look like in real life instead of just talking about them.”
Rothman added that his coverage of the IVF benefits the company offered went beyond simply highlighting what the company had, and instead created a human story behind the people using them.
“It was about showing how the company actually supports people and what that says about the environment you’re coming into or want to be more involved in,” he said. “The challenge is actually showing that you can be your authentic self at the company through content and social instead of just saying it.”
Business-critical work can make powerful employer branding content
Sometimes the best employer branding stories take a novel lens to the everyday actions of the company. Rothman told Ragan that during the height of COVID, he captained a campaign titled “Backbone of the Economy,” which highlighted the small businesses that are key to TD’s success.
While it wasn’t originally conceived as an employer branding push, Rothman said that choosing topics that were a key part of the brand’s remit during a tough time showed employees the kind of work the bank valued.
“When everything ties back into one narrative, it helps people understand what the brand is about,” he said. “Otherwise, things start to feel scattered and you don’t really know what the company stands for or why it’s doing what it’s doing. A lot of what we were trying to do was show what the company actually prioritizes. When you’re telling those stories consistently, it becomes much clearer what the organization cares about and what kind of work it’s focused on.”
Rothman said that by viewing the actions of the company through the lens of both a current employee and a member of the general public, he determined which stories and campaigns were worth highlighting TD Bank as a great place to work.
“Even if something is a great story, you still have to ask if it fits into what you’re trying to do from a branding point of view,” he said. “Otherwise, people don’t really know what the brand is about or why they’d want to work there. That’s where things start to feel disjointed — when you’re putting content out there without really thinking about what it’s saying about the company.”
He added that the choices communicators make with employer branding content are critical because the content holds a mirror up to the reality of life at a company.
“You want people to see themselves in these jobs, roles and campaigns that we’re highlighting,” Rothman told Ragan. “So when you’re profiling colleagues and writing about what your organization does day-to-day, you need to make sure those stories actually connect back to what the brand is offering and what the experience of working there really looks like.”
Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications.
