Even the President of the United States speaks of the War for Talent. If the US is going to lead the way into the 21st Century, much has to be done to “out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world,” as Mr. Obama said. Considering the status quo, a lot needs to be done to keep up with the increasing knowledge and skill levels in emerging markets.

For employers in the US, the future looks grim. Nearly half of all new jobs will require more than just a high school degree, but a fourth of America’s students don’t have one.  “The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. America has fallen to 9th in the proportion of young people with a college degree”, he said.
Unfortunately, the educational crisis goes beyond the high number of students not completing high school or the lack of competent teachers.  With so many Baby Boomers retiring from classrooms, the US has to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math to secure the future quality of its education. In addition, these teachers face the challenge of educating and inspiring more students to go beyond their high school diplomas.

A long-term employer branding strategy will be needed in the US, as the talent shortage is further aggravated. Finding the right people, with the right skills, will be your challenge!

By: Grazyna Sotta

We can “blame” diminishing job satisfaction on today’s abundance of life choices. One can choose to travel, relocate or undergo a career change much more easily now, than let’s say two or three decades ago. We all know that bubbles burst and there comes a time when one has to make a life altering decision or remain miserable forever.  For whatever reason, we see people disillusioned by the corporate world and hear stories like an executive who turns to teaching because he finds it more fulfilling.  We can no longer ignore the general discontent or label it as a temporary fad.

Graduates are increasingly polarized in two groups. Some come out hungry for the business card, desk and handshakes – their ambition may rise or subside depending on the experience of their first office job. Others want a balanced life and getting the job or doing the job is not their sole purpose in life – a sentiment that is likely to increase when they face the corporate reality.

Sites, such as escapethecity.org, offer a forum, a way out and inspiration for the latter group. Escapethecity.org is “on a mission to liberate talented people from unfulfilling corporate jobs” by inspiring readers and community members to dare to do something different. According to their experience, many talented graduates feel stuck in unfulfilling jobs, but don’t dare to take the step to change. The site provides hero stories about branding professionals taking off to travel, others leaving professional services to start up a publisher of children’s travel books or finance analysts going green. The nearly 200 individual stories and over 20,000 community members prove that it’s a movement on the rise.

Despite the growing numbers of university graduates, companies are faced with talent shortages. On one hand, we have a crisis and growing unemployment increases the concern about job security and stability. On the other hand, we find a movement of black sheep, jumping off the corporate ladder and following the unbeaten path. Could this ants-in-their-pants phenomenon be the reason behind the war for talent experienced by corporations today? What’s the answer?

One solution could lie in increasing job flexibility. Offering talented employees sabbaticals is already offered by e.g. professional services companies; a practice other corporations would benefit from adapting and making common practice for their employees too. Part-time employment could be another solution that would allow for more personal space and developing projects in their free time, while keeping the knowhow in-house. The key in making these a success lies in de-dramatizing the process and listening to the new demographic rather than trying to form them according to the existing structures and one-size fits all models. For generation y, it’s not working. And in a world of tailor-made solutions and growing individualism, 9-5 one-size-fits-all is just not going to cut it.

What can employers do to ensure that their employees feel good in their working environment?

CNN published a human interest story about a former marketing executive, with 15 years of experience, who decides to make a radical career change to a career in teaching.

The man said climbing the corporate ladder wasn’t fulfilling and decided that teaching was his true calling. He found the corporate environment frustrating and political, adding that working on weekends and being glued to his phone 24/7 made his life completely imbalanced.

CNN reports that dissatisfaction with the corporate world is a growing phenomenon. Although 1 in 10 Americans is unemployed, those who do have jobs find themselves “increasingly miserable at work”.

Katherine Dorsett reports that “Fewer than half of U.S. workers (45 percent) are satisfied with their jobs, the lowest level since tracking (…) began 22 years ago for The Conference Board, according to a survey released earlier this month”.

Is dissatisfaction with the corporate world commonplace, or are a great majority of people simply misguided and choose the wrong job? Are some individuals too lazy or afraid to make a fulfilling career change? Or are some simply stuck due to family obligations?

For whatever reason, employer branding professionals need to address the decreasing job satisfaction in the workplace. They need to ask themselves the following questions: why are certain employees unhappy? What can we do about it?

The solution: ensure that communications is two-way and try to increase employee engagement by finding out what motivates. Surely, there are things in the job they’ll dislike, but there should be things that they like too – finding a good compromise between the two is what’s needed.

Although Brazil was ranked 41 in the country brand index (Future Brand), Brazil is determined to become the destination for the world’s researchers. In their article, “Go south, young scientists”, The Economist reports that Brazil aims to counter their brain drain, by bringing Brazilian scientists back home, and lure foreign senior researchers to the tropics. What’s been done?

As research funding is being cut in Europe and North America, the timing is perfect for Brazil to stand out. Brazil spends 1% of their rapidly growing GDP on research, double the amount spent in other South American countries. It’s worked hard to improve the quality of education at their academic institutions and is already leaders in a number of areas – tropical medicine, bio-energy and plant biology.

Universum’s research shows that 13.32% of the country’s graduates wish to work in Academic Research – making it the sector that attracts most of Brazil’s top talent. Government/Public Services and Marketing/Advertising are other popular sectors – attracting 13.17 % and 10.68% respectively. It’s great that so many students want to work with academic research, but as The Economist reported in a previous article – isn’t there already an oversupply of PhD students in the world? If jobs are available in Brazil for academics, the country should certainly be able to attract foreign researchers.   

Efforts in tertiary education seem to be one of the country’s main focus areas.  As The Economist reports, the number of graduates and PhDs has grown ten times in comparison to two decades ago; Brazil currently produces half a million graduates and 10,000 PhDs a year. Also, its place in the academic world is being established: its share of the world’s scientific papers rose from 1.7% to 2.7%, from 2002 to 2008, and “30% of scientific papers by Brazilians now have a foreign co-author”.

Although huge strides are being taken, challenges remain. Brazil’s research spending is still half that of the rich world. It also can’t offer the same salary level to researchers as countries such as the U.S. and in Europe. Yet what Brazil can offer, according to the article,  is an opportunity for researchers to shine – by giving scientists the liberty to explore new research areas independently. That’s something that might not be possible in an otherwise cramped or underbudgeted research world.

How does the reputation of a country affect its ability to attract talent from abroad?

Future Brand surveyed 3,400 international business and leisure travellers, as well as conducted focus groups, and based a country’s position on a bunch of criteria, from country brand awareness to esteem.  According to their country brand index,  the top ranked countries are: 1) Canada, 2) Australia, 3) New Zealand, 4) U.S., 5) Switzerland, 6) Japan, 7) France, 8)Finland, 9) U.K., and 10) Sweden. If the index is accurate, these countries should be the best in attracting the world’s top talent.

Interestingly, with 110 countries in their index, the BRIC countries (emerging markets) are poorly positioned: Brazil (no. 41), Russia (no. 81), India (no. 23), and China (no.56). If these countries are to grow and attract talent from abroad – such as the world’s best scientists, researchers, engineers, etc. – they’ll understandably need to work on their image. Can employer branding professionals in these countries influence governments to do something about it?

A country that is tackling this problem is China. Kathrin Hille and Alan Rappeport, in their article “China tackles image problem in the west”, reports about the country’s recent advertising campaign on Times Square. The advert apparently shows Chinese actors, entrepreneurs, athletes and astronauts… and forms part of a larger campaign by Beijing to change its image around the world. The journalists quote a number of communication professionals, as well as random pedestrians, about the impact that the campaign is making. Feelings are mixed, but one is quoted saying it “makes you wonder if China is the next superpower (…) putting themselves out there as being at the forefront of research and space travel”.

China’s attempt to make a difference is still to be seen. But if governments fail to change their country’s image, what can companies do? The FT reporters quote Richard Edelman, chief executive of Edelman, about how China’s brand reputation depends more on “the performance of its largest companies, noting the effect Samsung and LG have on South Korea’s brand or the importance of Toyota and Sony to Japan’s image in past decades”.

What companies in China can change the country’s brand perception? Can a company like Lenovo, a Chinese-based multinational computer technology corporation, which ranked number 44 in the world’s most attractive employers, make the difference?  For now, it still seems like a long shot.

If they’re too vague to understand, too long to remember and so far removed from reality that nobody believes them, then corporate values are pointless! But why are they important? And who gets it right?

Certainly, corporate values forge a certain culture and organisational mindset. If you know what your company stands for, you’ll have an easier time recruiting people who represent or share the same values. When everyone abides to the same code of conduct, it’s easier to achieve the corporate objectives.

Like a football team, everybody has a role and place on the field and if there is no teamwork, a belief that you’ll win, the game will be goalless. Corporate values help set the groundwork for establishing a great football team, an underlying set of principles that create team coherence and a winning attitude. 
 
Lucy Kellaway in her article “Finnish lesson on principles for Goldman” provides an example of how two organisations approach their corporate values – one is extremely straightforward in what they want to achieve and the other perhaps somewhat misleading.

Lucy points out that Stockmann, the Finnish retailer, has “We are in business to make money; all our operations should support this goal” as their first principle.  Well, that’s certainly the purpose of any business, unless your organisation is a non-profit of course. Is it too obvious?

Although simple, it’s still the primary purpose of any company. Without making money, there simply is no company!  It’s clever to articulate the role of all departments and employees to support sales. Make it official and clearly understood: we are here to make money!

For recruiters and employer branding professionals, the job of identifying the type of employees your organisation wish to attract, recruit and retain is made easier by having established corporate values. Make sure you spend that precious time with management (if not already clearly defined) to create or evaluate your guiding principles.

Nobody can deny that corporate values forge a corporate culture. But what’s important to stress is that those values need to be clear and simple, easily understood by all employees, and more importantly –  believed in! Would anyone disagree with making money? Of course not, otherwise he/she will soon be jobless.

By: Grazyna Sotta

In the 2010 Polish Professional Survey results, the Polish television channel TVN S.A. is the big winner among both business and humanities respondents. Google continues with its strong position on the IT ranking and the Swedish construction company Skanska wins the hearts of engineers. L’Oréal, although ranked second in the business category, has a very strong position with the female public.

Who else is on top? Click here to find out.

Is transparency a threat to business or an opportunity to be a better employer?

Disgruntled employees can certainly damage your employer reputation in just a matter of seconds. A message posted on Facebook, a tweet in cyberspace, a review of your employer brand on Glass Door, etc…communication is boundless.

Unlike in the past, PR professionals will have their arms twisted, will experience hot flushes, anxiety, as they try to contain crises and are unable to generate the corporate spin without the empowered consumer or employee reading between the lines of perceived “nonsense”.

The controversial figure Mr. Assange, the founder of Wikileaks,  was interviewed by Forbes Magazine, explaining the reason behind his cause:  “It just means that it’s easier for honest CEOs to run an honest business, if the dishonest businesses are more affected negatively by leaks… That’s the whole idea… we’re creating a tremendous reputational tax on the unethical companies.”

Is the “reputation tax”, something to be desired? Perhaps so, if we want to enter into a world were business is conducted in a sustainable manner, without negatively affecting the environment, people and communities. Businesses are already held accountable for corporate malpractice, but it’s been hard to discover and prove. Transparency thus helps to identify the wrongdoers.

Anthony Goodman, in his article “Leadership in the age of Wikileaks”, explores the greater issues of transparency, from a management perspective, saying that the challenge for companies will be even greater in 2011.

Disgruntled employees are nothing new, aside from the fact that “they now have more option”, says Anthony. Whistleblowers can receive financial incentives from regulators. Corporate espionage firms can tempt employees to release confidential information. Moreover, legislators, regulators and enforcement agencies can now look through a company’s e-mails for evidence of wrongdoing. 

So what’s there to do? Anthony says that leaders will have to conduct their work lives as if they would one day be under public scrutiny. They’ll need to “establish processes to indentify internal problems before they become external crises”; something that will be a challenge, but nothing new, for the corporate PR professionals.

In this transparent society, it seems that everyone is being watched: from the employer to the employee, from the company selling a product or service to the consumer buying it. Is there such a thing as privacy anymore? Is any information confidential? George Orwell’s Big Brother is not the one watching you; nowadays, everyone is!

It was interesting to hear Alan Walters, Vice President of HR for Unilever UK and Ireland, say that true talent is hard to come by. Today, in an interview with the CIPD, he said, “There are lots of people about, but the really good people are getting maybe even harder to find for us”. Read the rest of this entry »

The employer that describes itself as the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company, won its title as business professionals’ Ideal Employer of the year in Switzerland — well done Nestlé!

Alongside Nestlé’s victory, the Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation ABB, operating in power and automation technology, ranked no. 1 by Switzerland’s engineering professionals.

Who else won the race to the top? click here