How Accolade Uses The Muse to Build an Authentic Employer Brand

The Challenge

Accolade, a personalized health and benefits solution, will be the first to tell you that reinventing the healthcare experience and disrupting a three trillion dollar industry is no easy task.

To tackle those challenges and keep up with the company’s rapid growth, Accolade focused on growing its driven and dedicated team. But, despite increasing headcount demands and the fact that it’s tough to ensure culture fit at scale, the organization wasn’t willing to compromise its thoughtfulness or the quality of its hires.

With that in mind, Accolade knew that it needed to find a way to share the company’s core values, culture, and employee experience, in order to capture the attention of talent who would already be aligned with that mission and those beliefs.

“We think of our talent brand as a commitment to the authentic and evolving storyline of who we are and our aspirations—not just static campaigns to appeal to the masses,” says Brandon Linn, Accolade’s Talent Brand Leader.

The Solution

To create, curate, and share its employer brand, Accolade partnered with The Muse to show potential candidates what “Accoladians” love most about their company: its thriving culture, built on selflessness, trusted relationships, relentless reinvention, and a bias toward action. To be as genuine as possible, the company decided that this message couldn’t be topdown—it had to come from employees who were willing to serve as cultural beacons and share the real things that drive and motivate them.

“There’s so much more value in showcasing your amazing talent and workplace culture with real stories than by simply telling people the same. The Muse is our trusted co-author as we pursue our goal of becoming the best place to work in the world,” says Courtney Schneider, Accolade’s Director of Talent Management.

Together with The Muse, Accolade captured and then brought to life the unique stories of the company’s employees through photos, videos, and narratives. Those compelling stories are featured on Accolade’s dynamic employer profile, which also highlights the cultural cornerstones that make Accolade a great place to work.

The Results

By working with The Muse to curate and leverage employee stories in talent acquisition efforts, Accolade fostered transparency into the employee experience— which led to positive results for the company’s hiring efforts.

First and foremost, Accolade has witnessed a major uptick in interest from candidates. As just one example, Accolade saw their number of intern applicants triple from 2016 to 2018.

But, Accolade isn’t just getting more talent through the door—it’s also better talent. Because of this emphasis on transparency, candidates are much better informed from the outset. Through The Muse career platform, Accolade can attract the right fit talent, and applicants have a one-stop-shop to get the insights they need. Accolade’s Talent Acquisition team has said that this allows them to spend valuable interview time having conversations that matter, rather than covering basic questions about the company.

Accolade knows that turning its attention to crafting and amplifying an authentic employer brand was a win-win for both the company and prospective candidates. Accolade is now not only able to find the best talent that’s aligned with its core values, but it has also empowered talent to know when they’ve found exactly what they’re looking for in their next career move.