Todd Raphael, Editor-in-Chief, ERE Media

Employer Branding Today is proud to welcome guest writer Todd Raphael, Editor-in-Chief of ERE Media. In his article, Todd explains that despite your written policies, your employees still have another perception or understanding of your workplace. The question is: How can you, as an employer, identify and address all those unwritten policies that create an atmosphere of uncertainty? 

By Todd Raphael, Editor-in-Chief of ERE Media

I was recently on the phone for ERE.net, talking to a company president about our website, conferences, and so on. He said it’d been an emotional day: an employee told him she was pregnant with her third child, and that she was scared.

He told me he wasn’t 100% sure why she was scared, but a small part of it, he thought – written policies or the law aside — was a fear she’d somehow lose her job or wouldn’t be wanted anymore. (“I’ve decided to keep it,” she told him – almost as if she thought he was going to tell her she shouldn’t!) Read the rest of this entry »

Economic malaise and dismal  job creation certainly isn’t encouraging workers to leave their jobs, or is it?

1.1 million US workers choose to quit

Ere.net reports that in the last month the bulk of 1.1 million workers left their jobs voluntarily, the largest number of “job-leavers”, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in more than a decade. Although the type of worker leaving isn’t clear, it’s an alarming figure.

Universum’s research on US young professionals indicates a similar trend of general dissatisfaction – a whopping 70% surveyed are interested in changing employer sometime during the next four years, with the largest percentage – 26% – wishing to leave in the next six months. Moreover, during the past 12 months, 33% have applied for a new job.

With the result of our survey, and others, Ere.net rightly points out that “employees are disengaging… [and are ready to] bolt should an opportunity come along”.

Measure your Employer Brand

For that reason, we strongly recommend employers to track levels of attractiveness, both externally and internally, and secure that their Employer Branding strategy is aligned with their organisation’s workforce and business plan.

Attrition isn’t a problem just yet, or is it? The question is irrelevant – neglecting your workforce is generally imprudent, as organisations will now or later begin to haemorrhage.

Anna Mindelöf, Universum´s Talent Strategy Director, reports on the progress of her work on the company´s internal employer brand. Among many things, it´s about making a revision in the company´s Talent Management process, changes that simultaneously enrich HR.

Since my last blog post, I’ve launched a new Talent Management process. Earlier we’ve measured performance and attitude on a six-degree scale. Now I’ve added a dimension I call “potential”. I think we need to work on identifying our super talents at Universum and help them to maximize their potential. It´s at Universum we should find our future management team and middle managers. Read the rest of this entry »

“Google yes, Bank of America and JP Morgan, no. Wall Street isn’t where most idealistic young professionals aspire to work.”

MarketWatch interviews Kortney Kutsop, EB specialist, on the results of the US professional survey. Click here to listen to the interview.

• One in five employees selects Google as an attractive employer
• Popularity of financial-services continues to plummet

On November 14th, Universum USA released the results of their Professional Survey 2011. The Wall Street Journal covered a story entitled “Young Workers Like Facebook, Apple and Google”, written by Rachel Emma Silverman. The WSJ published the top 100 ideal employers based on the overall target group of 6,700 early-career professionals. The top five ideal employers are: 1) Google, 2) Apple, 3) Facebook, 4) U.S. Department of State and 5) The Walt Disney Company.

Below we present the key research highlights. If you want to know more about how America’s professionals perceive employers, please feel free to contact Universum.
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It’s a historical moment for Apple, as it supersedes the world’s leading wireless operator – China Mobile. Seventeen-thousand young professionals carried out more than 48,000 individual company evaluations, judging them on their employer credentials and image, and have nominated the company that has been described as having an “I” for revolutionary technology – Apple.

In the business ranking, Apple takes over the top spot from China Mobile (now third) by climbing three positions, while SGCC keeps its second place. In the top 10 ranking, Chinese companies dominate – seven out of 10 employers are Chinese: Bank of China, PetroChina Company, Sinopec, CICC and Alibaba. Read the rest of this entry »

Fig 1. Business Plan

Universum has been doing research on the employer branding (EB) industry for the last 20 years. We have seen EB start from being a new buzzword to being an active component of a company’s corporate strategy. There is proof of companies being successful due to their recruitment and retention of the right talent and their strategic work with EB to achieve it. The magic formulae:  they have buy-in from top management, have a clear vision of where the company would like to be, and set goals and objective to reach that sweet spot, their ultimate employer brand position. This strategy is today more and more often linked to the business plan.

Every company has a business plan, which includes a workforce plan. In order to be successful with the latter, Universum recommends having a strong employer branding strategy, as it’s that which will ultimately make you more successful with your recruitment and retention of top talent.

The workforce plan involves deciding how many people you need to recruit and retain, and what education and skills they should have. It’s a concrete plan that is typically based on one to three years. It’s important to focus on the critical target groups that are the hardest to employ due to the competition. Furthermore, it’s imperative to gain the right type of competence to deliver successfully on the goals and objectives outlined in the business plan. In alignment with your workforce plan, your EB strategy will help you achieve your workforce needs and can be done in a simple, yet comprehensive, three-step process, one which will be outlined in this article. Read the rest of this entry »

New Employer Brand Model, New Opportunities

Lovisa Öhnell - Global Director of Research and Consulting, Universum

As much as I love to immerse myself in statistics, even I admit that research data sometimes is difficult to present in an understandable manner. And let’s face it – statistics are only persuasive if people actually understand them! I am therefore very proud to introduce Universum’s new brand positioning model.

By Lovisa Öhnell

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By Anna Blomberg

What’s a corporate story? Why is it important? And what makes a good one? Ideally, a good story brings the reader into one’s corporate world and leaves a lasting and memorable impression. In this blog post, we explore the benefits of telling your corporate story and provide suggestions on how to write one and what to say. Remember, everybody has an interesting story to tell – so share it!

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• Despite generous parental leave, the Swedes are delaying parenthood
• Women feel stressed in job interviews, when asked about plans to have children

In Sweden, the average age of having the first baby is 29. In some parts of Stockholm women wait until they’re 40 to become mothers. The reason: they’re afraid that their career will suffer, according to research conducted by Uppsala University.

Here are some quick facts from the research:

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