Time to pull the plug on “Life at” content

The time has come to pull the plug on “Life at," corporate-produced employee profiles.

How does the company live the motto glued to their walls? How do people feel rolling into the office Monday morning or opening their laptop after the weekend?

That’s what employer branding teams should focus on showing, instead of putting time and money into plastic “Life at” content, which:

• Is time consuming to create and comes at the expense of more impactful work

• Adds an unnecessary layer of friction and is a degree removed from the employee’s experience

• Tells, doesn’t show

• Is out of step with audiences conditioned to tune out corporate accounts—they want authentic stories, especially when trying to get a real handle on what a workplace is like

• Feels dated

• Is confined to a silo, instead of bringing the overall ethos and experience of the company to life

Employer branding teams are better served to use the time to develop more holistic content and employee advocacy programs, both of which lag far behind. I'm for monetizing and rewarding advocacy as it’s an extra task that is of direct benefit to the company. And it’s fine if the employee-created content is not all kittens and rainbows. Hearing the “cons” will make prospects trust the “pros” all the more.

Tightly controlled “Life at” content is a bigger tell that the company either doesn’t trust their employees to tell their work story in their own words, or employees don’t feel motivated, safe, or comfortable to post. Both are signs of underlying culture issues, which are exposed by sanitized puff pieces.

In the absence of feeling like they are getting a good read on a place, prospects are going to Reddit to get the scoop. And without a solid breadcrumb trail of well-rounded, believable content to compare against, the company loses control of the narrative.