As we analyze the impact that different facets of our work with startup partners have had, this continually came up as a core building block, the building and elevation of the talent brand. This is despite how it often gets deprioritized amongst the many other things on our plates.

In this insightful conversation we had with the Senior DEIB Program manager, Katherine Castro, former Director of Copy at Shipt Katie Warren, and the CEO and founder of Hustle Hunters Nikki Adamson, they tackled some key areas of building your brand as a talent.

Watch below and do not forget to let us know what you think and sign up to our newsletters to receive updates on upcoming events!

Some of our takeaways from the panel:

• Storytelling to talent secret: "Bravery and being willing to be really specific" (10:09)

• Taking the time as organizations to define our Talent / People tone and voice is critical. Katie shares a 30 second branding exercise you can do right now (10:48)

• Actively centering the most historically excluded and marginalized groups in messaging + actions will lay the foundation for a diverse team (what is the whisper community say about your organization?)

• Being our human selves and show our learnings wins. #ShowYourMess as a balance between personalization and scaling. Folks join teams of humans. (16:50)

• A careers landing page that mostly houses a link to the job postings is better than just the job postings (show who you are first!!)

• A 30 second video with 2-3 answers from team members on the specifics of why they work at the company, the company values (with specific examples of their applications), and a team photo is enough to get started! (check out our newly revamped About Us page in response to these recommendations here!)

• Don't shy away from what's missing on our teams (esp. demographically), just sharing that you recognize it's missing goes a long way. Also sharing the intentional and aspirational goals there is key. ie - Nikki (CEO’s) recognition around being white went a long way towards making Hustle Hunters a safe space for Katherine.

• Talent Branding needs to look internally (current team) before externally (prospective hires). This process should leverage, learn from, and amplify our current employees in a way that helps uncover insights to help with retention

• Katherine shares a solid actionable path to build towards an actively anti-racist hiring program with steps of A) Asses B) External Evaluation C) Accountability (29:50)

Want more?!

Katie Warren is currently taking on new freelance CopyWriting clients (website)

At Hustle Hunters, we’ve opened up our consulting books (learn more)