Anna Mindelöf, Universum's Talent Strategy Director

Anna Mindelöf, Universum´s Talent Strategy Director, continues to blog about her work with Universum’s employer brand. This time Anna has visited the US office and shares her reflections on change leadership and being visible as a HR Director.

A few weeks ago I visited for the first time our US office in Philadelphia. It was really nice and cool to sit on the 18th floor in downtown Philly. While I was there, we still hadn’t signed for our new office in Manhattan, New York. There were many questions around this: “Are we going to close the Philadelphia office?”; “When do we move?” etc. I couldn’t answer the questions then, but that’s not the point, instead we created an environment in which the questions could be asked and somebody listened.

A visible HR Director

One of my objectives as an HR Director is to be visible. It works quite well with Skype, e-mail and phone, but it’s not at all the same thing as meeting the employees in real life. Before the trip, I had sent out an e-mail inviting everyone, who wanted to have a meeting with me, to fix a time. I also booked a “come and have lunch with me” meeting for all employees who could attend. At that meeting, we talked about our culture, our values and how we could step out of our silos and become a better US team. It’s always nice to meet employees who are full of ideas on how we can improve things –what an engagement in our business! Read the rest of this entry »

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.

What that means for the American workforce and more importantly the American dream

The American dream is a national ethos that has traditionally been the pursuit of prosperity and success. Yet that dream for many in the US is proving hard to achieve. Something that has defined the country and the American people as a whole is being challenged to the core.  Americans have always been known to be driven and ambitious to reach insatiable levels of wealth. But the reality today is that a large proportion of Americans, including the middle class, are finding it hard to make ends meet.

Veteran US pollster John Zogby believes that the American Dream is in the process of being redefined. According to him, there is a growing movement of people rejecting materialism and becoming instead secular spiritualists. He explains that the new age mindset is about “being genuine, about achieving a legacy larger than one’s self, about leaving this earth a better place for family, community, and planet”.

Why is materialism being rejected? Here are his reasons. 

“Status Anxiety” — Try to keep what you’ve got, let alone purchase more
Today, 35%  of people work for less than in their previous job. A growing number of people are afraid of losing their current status, resulting in most changing their goals in life because the traditional materialist goals are simply unreachable. People earn less today despite working harder, so the pursuit of prosperity seems like a long-shot – it’s thus better to try keep what you’ve got. Our research confirms this trend as more than half of working professionals in the US are concerned about job security above any other career aspiration, such as being a leader or manager of people, being entrepreneurial or creative/innovative, being a technical or functional expert, etc. (research taken from Universum’s recent professional survey).

“Baby Boomer self-indulgence” — Find your true purpose and remove material noise
The baby boomers are changing priorities and will reshape America. They will be the first age cohort of one million to reach the age of one hundred. Most baby boomers, unfortunately, will not be able to retire at 65 and will have to continue to work. Yet they will not be working to earn a living per se, instead they will be volunteering to do work that brings self-fulfilment, meets their own requirements and helps them to make their legacy. Aside from the baby boomers, it also includes people that are trying to simplify their lives and rid themselves of the materialist illusion of happiness, i.e. of more stuff equals greater self satisfaction.

Everybody is a global citizen
We have come to realize that the pursuit of materialism is leading to the destruction of our planet. Global warming and environmental catastrophes are no longer isolated problems of one nation or another. Today, everyone is concerned and needs to be held accountable. Consumption for that reason needs to be sustainable and eco-friendly. The transition from the pursuit of materialism to globally conscience citizens is especially embodied by the under-30s.  John Zogby describes them as such, “They have passports and have travelled abroad. The world is in the palm of their hands, they are the least likely to say that American culture is superior to other cultures of the world, and they are by far the most likely of any age cohort to call themselves ‘citizens of the planet Earth’”.

A new dream in the making
Mr. Zogby believes that the under-30s or global citizens are “revolutionizing the worlds of work, philanthropy, relationships, governing, and music.” Research shows that contribution to society and sense of purpose is extremely important to the Generation Y cohort. Most employers struggle to address and satisfy this need. Universum’s research shows that 45 per cent of America’s undergraduates choose “To be dedicated to a cause or to feel that I am serving a greater good” as one of their top three career goals (2010 survey results). First comes work-life balance and second is to be secure or stable in my job. Again, it’s a reconfirmation that the American Dream is taking on new meaning.

Even working professionals are changing their perspective on life. Recent research shows that more and more employees are disillusioned: 30 per cent feel overworked and resentful about layoffs; 33 per cent believe they are underemployed or overqualified for their positions; and 23 per cent do not find their work engaging. Moreover, a large proportion of people are half way out the door from their current employer:  25 percent of professionals plan to leave their organization within the next 6 months; another 28 per cent within 1-2 years; and close to 50 per cent of professionals have applied for a new job either internally or externally (Universum’s data).  Are Americans looking to achieve the secular spiritualist dream of being true to one’s self and making a significant difference?

Perhaps the American Dream is in the process of creating new meaning and has changed to reflect the current reality that Americans are now confronted with, as Mr. Zogby suggests.  Does the end of materialism, however, imply the end to the capitalism? Or are we striving to attain a new version of it, one which is dictated not by maximizing profits and minimizing costs but driven by care and love for society and our planet? Maybe a new dream for everybody is not such a bad idea.

Matt Millunchick, recruiting programs manager, and Orna Holland, EMEA recruiting manager

Being a social network, Facebook is its people and they, in turn, are the company’s brand ambassadors. The organization is extremely flat, no hierarchy of positions or top management sitting in an ivory tower. Even Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s CEO, works in the open space and the only conference room they have is called the aquarium, because it has no solid walls but only glass. Being a company where people are at the core of what they do and represent, Facebook encourages its employees to be bold and open, to challenge and make a difference.

This is the image that Facebook conveyed to Universum in an exclusive one-on-one session with Matt Millunchick, recruiting programs manager, and Orna Holland, EMEA recruiting manager, to get the inside story. “The open office space is what drives productivity and team collaboration”, says Matt.  “If people want to focus, they can wear earphones”, he said.  Yet, there is more to Facebook than just a bunch of people working in an open office. Both Matt and Orna were noticeably the perfect representations of what a brand advocate should be. They conveyed enthusiasm and passion for what they do in the way they spoke about the company – something they insist every employee feels at Facebook.

The importance of cultural fit

Perhaps this is the company’s true magical formula for success: identify talented individuals, make them believe in the company, its products and services, and finally turn them into the ideal brand advocates. Unsurprisingly, 30% of their recruitment needs are done via referrals. “Smart people know other smart people and that has helped us attract new talent to the company”, said Matt. 

Similar to Zappos, reported as a perfect business case study by the Financial Times, Facebook also assesses cultural match of candidates as part of their recruitment process.  “How potential candidates fit the corporate culture is definitely important to us at Facebook”, said Orna.  More and more companies that excel in talent attraction and retention proactively work with personality targeting; a practice that Universum advises will provide most employers with a competitive edge. 

 Yet, with the rapid growth Facebook is currently experiencing, both Orna and Matt expressed their concern about the company staying true to its core values. Facebook has gone from 200 employees, when they first started, to over 2000 colleagues today.  To prevent the risk of losing part of its initial identity, Facebook sets-up new offices with cultural carriers – to make sure that Facebook anywhere will have the same feel as the initial Palo Alto office. “We don’t want to be an organization that is bureaucratic and hierarchical”, Orna said.   “To remain true to who we are will be one of our future challenges”, she added.

Facebook’s popularity as a great place to work is impressive – the social network received a quarter of a million job applications in 2010 worldwide! “It’s overwhelming to process and review each and every candidate”, says Orna, “but the team works hard to do so and we rely on technology to identify promising individuals”. In addition, “all candidates that interview with us conduct a candidate experience survey, which is important to ensure that no candidate experience is negative”. It’s a best practice approach to consider, especially for organizations that struggle to manage the huge influx of applications.

A corporate culture that inspires action

Facebook is a company with an extremely strong corporate culture. It has five short and easy to remember values: 1) Focus on Impact 2) Move Fast, 3) Be bold 4) Be open and 5) Build trust. The values permeate the whole organization, with posters on the walls reiterating the key messages, with employees writing their own personal tributes or even comical interpretations of the core values. In their corporate videos, which were shown during their presentation at the Universum Awards in Sweden, the viewer was constantly reminded by Zuckerberg and other representatives of their core values. One could almost walk away with a feeling of knowing the company without ever having worked for Facebook or even visiting their headquarters. A simple exchange with two ambassadors, a presentation and a few videos gave all the impression one needed.

Facebook is an organization that empowers its employees. Their videos showed that and Matt stressed that everything filmed was non-scripted and truly shows how people feel about their work. “It’s an open and honest environment”, he said. The corporate values represent the trust in their people to do great things and make a difference, and they constantly encourage their staff to be bold and make an impact.

Being a social network, you would expect it would be relatively easy for a disgruntled employee to write something disagreeable about the company, but again they are all about being open and they say it is not something that has really happened. “We are authentic and true to what we say and we haven’t really had a situation of an employee experiencing otherwise”, insisted Matt. Because of the transparent and flat corporate culture, Facebook really works hard to recruit people who have an affinity to the corporate culture and they allow their employees to dare to work on their own projects, provided that there is, of course, some sort of impact to what they are doing.

Creating great content is the cornerstone of their employer brand communications

From an employer brand perspective, everything Facebook does is focused on content and building connections with and between people. “That’s our employer brand work in a nutshell”, said Matt. With regard to any guidelines in terms of what content they could generate, Matt said he had more or less free reign to do whatever he wished.  “When good content is created, it gets shared”, was his wise words of the day to other professionals in field.

How does Facebook measure the affects of their employer brand activities? By the number of connections, interactions and sharing of content they make and build. It’s obviously something which is relatively easy for a social network to do, but perhaps harder for other companies that don’t have at their disposal the ownership of such a powerful communication channel. However, the most important message of the day, which Matt summed up perfectly for every employer, was the rule of three 1) be authentic, 2) be meaningful and 3) be relevant. And for companies that are willing to explore social media, he said that social media is a team effort, “get everyone to tell a story!”