The Trusted Employer

20

Harvard Business Review

March 2022

FULL FUNNEL FINTECH

Employee Experience has a new way for clients

to lead to position their employer brand in the

marketplace

Adopt marketing tactics, typically used to reach consumers, to

attract and compel a wide swath of candidates to join your ranks.

USING PERFORMANCE MARKETING TOOLS TO ATTRACT

TOP TALENT

THE CHALLENGE

Hard-to-find fintech talent left Citadel struggling to deliver on

their growth strategy.

CORE INSIGHT

Use performance marketing tools to identify rare talent and then

to create direct connections between Citadel engineers (instead

of HR Recruiting) and talent prospects, disproportionately driving

awareness & consideration of career opportunities.

PROGRAM APPROACH

Edelman continues to advise Citadel, a leading investor in the

world’s financial markets, and Citadel Securities, a leading

global market maker, on how to use performance marketing

tools to leverage their employees’ authentic voices to raise their

employer brands online and in-person, in service of attracting the

best and brightest talent.

We stood up this innovative program to user sophisticated

performance marketing tools to a) find rare talent and b) make

direct connections between Citadel’s employee influencers -

35 handpicked Brand Captains across Software Engineering,

Trading and Quantitative Research -- to connect directly with

candidates. These employee influencers shared their own stories

about working at the firms, participated in digital engagement

and campus recruitment events, and served as points of contact

for select recruits through recruitment touchpoints and social

media channels.

EDELMAN EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE SUPPORT INCLUDES:

• Continuously optimized performance analytics to enable
  precision talent targeting.


• Social Content Development to ensure each Brand Captain’s
  voice is connecting to this rare talent; then the firm’s owned
  content is amplified, and posts are authentic while still
  abiding by the firms’ strict social media policies.


• Creation of Content Development Tools such as social
  content calendar and an EVP thematic to ensure Brand
  Captain outreach is strategic and aligns with the firm’s larger
  marketing and communications goals.

“I’m sorry,” Prisha said. “I

don’t want to abandon you all, but

Ishan seems so much happier and

has the potential to make more

money. It’s really tempting to

follow his lead. I have to think of

my own interests.”

So much for family, Diya

thought.

“I see where you’re coming

from,” Diya said, “but let me

present the counterargument.”

She shared all the reasons to stay:

the security, the benefits, the

company’s growth potential, and

yes, the close-knit culture.

But as she was talking, Diya

realized that she wasn’t sure

those upsides were convincing

enough. Would retention bonuses

or pay increases be more compel-

ling? Or was it time to intensify

the downsides of leaving by

instituting a no-working-with-

former-employees rule and

inserting language to the same

effect and noncompetes in all

future employment contracts?

Would carrots or sticks be more

persuasive?

RAKESH BOHRA is the senior VP

and head of projects at Pioneer

Urban Land & Infrastructure Ltd. and

a doctoral student in organizational

behavior and human resources

management at the Management

Development Institute in Gurgaon,

India. JYOTSNA BHATNAGAR is a

professor of organizational behavior

and human resources manage -

ment and dean of research at the

Manage ment Development Institute

in Gurgaon, India.

It’s time for Blackbird to

lean into 21 st-century

management, embrace the

gig economy, and let more

employees go freelance.

Diya and Veer made the right decision

with Ishan, and they’ll attract more

talent, foster greater loyalty, build a bet-

ter culture, and produce more-creative

work by letting others follow suit.

To keep pace with societal and

technological change, companies today

need to be flexible with—and offer

flexibility to—their workforces. Young

people, particularly creatives, want the

autonomy and variety that gig work

offers. And companies like Blackbird

can greatly benefit—first, by reducing

the danger of having people they can’t

keep busy on the payroll and, second,

by serving clients with curated teams

designed for their specific needs. If

your employees are almost exclusively

full-time, you’re stuck with their skills;

How should Diya handle all the

employees who want to follow

Ishan? The exper ts respond.

JOHN H. CHUANG is

the cofounder, chairman,

and CEO of Aquent.

152

Harvard Business Review

March–April 2022

Experience