Introducing Our Virtual Coffee Mini Feature
This week we’re excited to debut a new mini feature on the Change State blog — a series of “Virtual Coffees” with leaders from around the talent acquisition universe. These are informal discussions we have (often virtually) on a wide range of topics, ranging from best practices at leading organizations, what’s worked (or hasn’t), and emerging trends in the HR tech space.
Recently we were able to sit down with Hannah Fleishman, Senior Manager of Employer Brand at HubSpot. We often speak about the importance of investing in your employer brand – so it was pretty exciting to speak with a company that is walking the walk when it comes to investing in their employer brand.
Here were some of our favorite highlights:
On her journey to leading employer branding at HubSpot…
Hannah’s initial role at HubSpot was on the Marketing and PR team. After a few years, Hannah went “on loan” to the engineering group when they were doubling down on tech talent, which typically gravitates more towards the West coast than Boston, where the company is based. During her time with the engineering team, Hannah spent two years building HubSpot’s employer brand specifically for tech talent by pitching stories to developer publications, managing the HubSpot Product Blogs, piloting tech event series etc. Since then, Hannah has replicated this approach with other departments and regional offices across the organization and now leads a team of four focused on employer brand content creation and PR specific to each business unit.
On how HubSpot measures the impact of investing in employer branding…
Measurement can be tricky, because ‘source of hire’ doesn’t typically translate to the brand marketing world. The more sources and systems you put in place, the more difficult it is to track reliably. As a result, at HubSpot, they measure a variety of marketing metrics, coupled with applicant data and trends. For example, follower growth across social channels (PSA: Follow HubSpot Life!) is one quantifiable metric. Another example is, HubSpot’s Product & Engineering Blog which gets 60k+ views per month. . Instead of trying to attach those views to hires, Hannah’s team is more focused on growing the Blog’s reach and quality of content, and then collecting feedback from candidates about how the Blog may have influenced their candidate experience.
On the growth of remote workers at HubSpot…
“Remote” is actually the second-most searched term on the HubSpot career site! If you took the entire remote workforce at HubSpot, it would actually be the third largest office. HubSpot has really focused on creating an amazing remote employee experience in 2019. They’ve hired their first Remote Work and Inclusion Program Manager, doubled down on collaboration tools like digital whiteboarding, and have helped non-remote teams work more remote-friendly with advice and content. They’ve also introduced more ‘delight’ moments for remote workers over 2019 like sending every remote employee swag for special announcements or events Most recently, HubSpot just released its first 2019 Remote Work Report with new data on remote worker lifestyle and working habits. Check it out here!
On where her team sits within the organization…
The employer brand team sits within People Ops at HubSpot, but the process of building partnerships across divisions continues to evolve every year. For example, business units now allocate budgets for programs specific to their growth goals. So if HubSpot is looking to grow its sales team in a certain market, Sales will often budget for ad campaigns, networking events and other PR opportunities run by the employer brand team.
One final quote that we loved: “Employer branding is a faucet you have to keep on. You can’t turn it off.”
If you’re interested in learning more about her journey, Hannah has some great posts about her experience on Medium.
