Good Will Hunting

In the 1997 film starring Matt Damon, Will Hunting has a turbulent ride as a misguided, violent youth with a genius level IQ and an extraordinary talent for solving maths problems. Hunting’s story is defined by his experience of being orphaned and abused as a child and the film captures his journey to finding the meaning of life by learning to love and trust. It doesn’t take a genius to identify the link here between goodwill and trust – how do you like them apples?

Goodwill is an intangible asset usually associated with the excess purchase price of another company factoring in items such as intellectual property, brand recognition and reputation. In accounting terms, it’s a premium paid over fair value which cannot be bought or sold independently. You could argue that it’s the difference that makes up the difference. It’s certainly important but it can also be fragile. Just like reputation, goodwill takes a long time to build and only seconds to destroy.

Managing goodwill is difficult. People build their view and attitude to your business through product, service, and employee experiences to name but a few. They form opinions and sentiment through an increasingly broad range of always-on channels. And the pressure on companies to do the right thing is growing, fast.

The ‘reservoir of goodwill’ is a helpful way of approaching reputation management. The ideal scenario is that we fill the reservoir. We recognise that over time there is potential for the level to drop, so we need to keep it topped up and we do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t empty.

We need to be asking ourselves the question, ‘What can we do to fill the reservoir?’ As an employer that means always striving to enhance and improve the candidate and employee experience – focusing on how to build, manage and protect your reputation.

Employer reputation management may be for Talent Acquisition or Human Resources to own but it’s everyone’s responsibility to deliver.

How are you measuring your employer reputation?