Original source:
Inside Out Recruiting, Recruiter.com
The job of the recruiting department today has become somewhat of a business generalist role. They are measured in terms of typical recruiting metrics, but they really have to be astute in every facet of the business. Marketing is one of those skill sets that a progressive recruiting department must add to their list of skill sets. You’re no longer just recruiting for the marketing department, but you are literally doing marketing for your company in order to attract and retain top talent.
Marketing you ask? Yes, you must become kings and queens of messaging as it relates to conveying your “employer brand”. This starts on the inside of your organization. It doesn’t do much good if your recruiters know that your company is an employer of choice but nobody on the inside of the organization knows that. Once you “market” your key messages inside of your organization, your employees begin speaking with that same vernacular and hopefully recruiting great candidates along the way.
Utilize tools such as an Intranet or Employee Benefit Portal to communicate these key messages about your company. That’s a start, but from there you should brand some of these key messages on things like trade-show giveaways, posters within your physical building, on your email tags, and certainly on the pages of your career site on your company’s external website. The important thing here is to make it a whole-company effort: every touch point between your company and the outside world is a potential recruiting opportunity.
Tagged as:
brand ambassadors,
employee ambassadors,
employer branding,
recruiting
Every company has two distinct brands, its employer brand and its consumer brand. With the rise of social networking, your company, how you run it and your culture has become a fishbowl — everything you do is on display for all to see. And like it or not, your employees have an abundance of channels for broadcasting their opinions — both negative and positive.
Company branding and employer branding aren’t the same, but they intersect to fuel each other. Many of the same characteristics that motivate consumers also motivate job seekers. Successful companies foster a culture where employees not only like where they work but also believe in the products and solutions they support. Understanding what distinguishes your employer brand and how it may affect attracting and retaining employees is an essential component to being an employer of choice. It also requires an awareness of changing workplace considerations from the employees’ perspectives to formulate a value proposition to employees that clearly answers the age-old question, “What’s in it for me?”
The employer brand is comprised of a myriad of factors that contribute to how your employees learn, plan and do their work and personal lives. These include everything from the obvious (such as compensation and benefits) to factors which, while more subtle, ultimately affect how employees are motivated and retained — and demonstrate how you’ve taken steps to create a corporate culture where they can thrive.
Tagged as:
branding,
corporate fishbowl,
employer branding
An exclusive, in-depth look into the Super Bowl’s first ever social media command center, the folks who ran it, and how the convergence of technology and people created the ultimate online Super Bowl experience.
Me with Taulbee Jackson, CEO of Raidious
You would think that, the day before the biggest sporting event of the year, the people in charge of the Super Bowl’s Social Media Command Center would be frantic, running around and putting out last minute fires. So imagine my surprise when I walked in and found it to be quite the opposite. Entering the offices of Raidious — the Indianapolis-based digital communications company behind the social media command center — the air was full of activity, but the mood was quiet and calm… almost, I dare say, serene.
And it’s no wonder. Having worked with such brands as Finish Line, Bass Pro Shops and Comcast, Raidious has honed the art of making, managing, and measuring the content that makes digital marketing work. And so, for the folks at Raidious, this really is almost like business as usual — despite this being the largest event they’ve ever managed. A group of 16 Raidious employees and 30 local college and university volunteers were stationed at what can only be akin to iMac Heaven and focused on monitoring all of the Super Bowl’s social media channels. Leading these individuals was Taulbee Jackson, CEO of Raidious. It was my pleasure that he took a few minutes of his day to chat with me
Tagged as:
#sb46,
#social46,
#superbowl,
awareness inc,
raidious,
social media marketing,
super bowl,
super bowl XLVI,
superbowl 2012
I consider myself very philosophical. But I do not like the proverbial chicken and egg question. And I get asked this a lot: What do you think comes first? A great company to work for or great people who work there? To me it’s just an exercise in futility because, at the end of the day, one doesn’t exist without the other. That is, without good people, it’s extremely difficult for an organization to be great. And vice versa. In 2009, employee turnover cost U.S. businesses an estimated $300 billion. The staggering cost of employee turnover can be viewed as simply the cost of doing business, however, additional damage occurs when turnover is compounded by poor hiring and management practices. (
The Real Cost of a Bad Hire, TEK Systems)
Finding Great People
But that means you have to be deliberate and thoughtful in your hiring practices. It’s tempting to make rash hiring decisions because you simply “need a body.” But that wrong body in the wrong job can end up costing your company more in the long run. With today’s economy and operating costs, companies simply can’t afford to hire “bad eggs.”
The scarcest commodity in business is not customers or technology capital — its people. And the greatest challenge for recruiters and leaders isn’t just hiring people — it’s hiring the right people for the right jobs. When people operate in their “sweet spot,” they lead, naturally. You don’t have to tell them to lead. You don’t have to ask them to lead. They just do it. (Developing Great Leaders for Great Companies, Steve Olson, Generative Consulting)
Tagged as:
Employee Engagement,
hiring,
leadership,
recruiting
Without a doubt, the adoption of using social technologies inside the organization is rampant. So many companies are hearing the loud beat of the “employee engagement” drum, but the task of effectively assessing your needs, implementing technologies correctly, and measuring for success and sustainability is a daunting project. So, it’s okay to slow down, take a deep breath and work from a well-crafted roadmap. Few things make employees more cynical than a social media platform that no one uses. And if your company quickly deployed a ["insert social tool here"] only to find that it fell flat because no one saw the value in using it then you know
exactly what I’m talking about.
Therefore, it’s refreshing to see firms such as Gagen MacDonald and APCO Worldwide working together to help shape internal social media programs. Recently, they analyzed research among U.S. adults working for companies with more than 500 employees that revealed 21 discrete attributes which in turn combine to form three major factors (see image below) that employees look for when deciding whether their company has effective social media internally.
As a result of their research, Gagen MacDonald and APCO Worldwide created a five-step process to build social media from within, ensuring sustainable change through shared goal-setting, leadership alignment, employee training and measurement of key metrics. Some highlights are below but the full whitepaper is available: Harness the Power of Internal Social Media.
A Five Step Roadmap for Internal Social Media
1. Assess
Tagged as:
#socialHR,
apco worldwide,
Employee Engagement,
gagen macdonald,
internal social media
