The New Dictionary of Hiring

Preference Infrastructure

/PREF-RUHNS IN-FRUH-STRUK-CHER/

NOUN

Preference Infrastructure is the reputation, evidence and presence built in advance so critical talent has a reason to choose you later.

MEANING

Because employer brand produces words, pictures and campaigns, it's easy to mistake it for a communications expense. Its real value is closer to infrastructure. You build it before you need to rely on it.

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Nobody proposes building the bridge once the trucks arrive. Yet companies routinely wait until a critical requisition opens to start giving scarce talent a reason to choose them. The stories, proof, reputation and repeated exposure should have been doing that work for months.

Defined by:
James Ellis,
Employer Brand Labs

Category:

Essentials

Related Terms:

Talent Demand Creation

The New Dictionary of Hiring card: Preference Infrastructure, noun. The reputation, evidence and presence built in advance so critical talent has a reason to choose you later. Abstract iridescent glass shape on a white background.

MAKE THE CHANGE

Instead of:

Employer brand as careers-site content and campaigns.

Ask:

What are we building today that makes tomorrow's critical hires easier?

EXAMPLE

A company has credible employee stories, a known point of view and recruiters who stay in touch with the right talent. When a critical role opens, the conversation doesn't begin with 'Who are you?'

HOW TO USE IT

Build a repeatable system for collecting proof, publishing useful stories and keeping relationships warm in priority talent markets. Judge it by how much easier future searches become.

SAY IT TO LEADERSHIP

I'd rather build reasons for the right people to know and trust us now than keep buying their attention from scratch every time we need a hire.

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH

Other terms

The New Dictionary of Hiring card: The Capability Receipt, noun. A one-sentence test of a hire's business impact: “Because this person is here, the business can now ___.” Abstract iridescent glass shape on a white background.

Preference Infrastructure

Preference Infrastructure is the reputation, evidence and presence built in advance so critical talent has a reason to choose you later.

MEANING

MAKE THE CHANGE

EXAMPLE

HOW TO USE IT

SAY IT TO LEADERSHIP

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH

Other terms

The Capability Receipt

The Twelve Clause

Employer Sameness

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Ideas

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