Anna Mindelöf, HR Director, Universum, shares her views on five critical talent management questions.

1. How do we make our values relevant?
2. How much should we invest?
3. What is great about knowing talent?
4. How do you make talent happy?
5. Who are the winners in the war for talent?

By Christopher Van Mossevelde, Editor of Employer Branding Today

Luis Gallardo - Global Brand, Marketing & Communications expert at ThapGroup (previously Managing Director of Global Brand & Marketing at Deloitte)

Meeting with Luis Gallardo, one of the speakers at the Universum Awards in Sweden, one couldn’t help but acknowledge the charisma and warmth of this man. Luis is the founder and CEO of ThapGroup, a consultancy that helps companies adopt the: Think Holistic Act Personal business philosophy. Previously, he was managing director of global brand and marketing at Deloitte and has a wealth of experience in the field. Luis held a session entitled “Build your Future Employer Brand” and the audience bought into the main idea: What does a brand stand for? What does it want to be known for? As he rightly pointed out, so many professionals in the field don’t know the answers to these questions and if they do, they might just be off track.

Our mission as branding professionals is to be focused on the bigger picture and always strive to get people aligned. Yet what’s more important is that it’s really about people relationships and how that builds the reputation of the company. As he rightly pointed out, Philip sells to Mathew an experience at Company X and it’s that, ultimately, which creates the brand.

A compelling story of why people matter

However, having a personal conversation with Luis, he told me a dramatic story about how the Deloitte office in Madrid burnt down. Watching it on the news, breathless with shock, his first concern was if everyone was safe. Families were contacted and fortunately nobody was injured – Deloitte’s people were out of harm’s way. Worried clients called from everywhere and were relieved to hear that Deloitte’s people were secure. Amazingly, the firm received an overwhelming amount of sympathy and solidarity, as clients offered to help in any way possible: by providing temporary office space, computers and other essentials – a competing firm even kindly lent their boardroom to Deloitte. Read the rest of this entry »

Claes Peyron, head of Nordic and East Europe and senior communications consultant

In the world of consumer branding, advertising and marketing professionals have learnt how to differentiate their products from their competitors and generate brand equity.  Everyone in the professions knows that consumers will pay a premium price for a product that is strongly affiliated to an image or emotion instead of the mundane generic product that doesn’t have one. Yet in the employer branding world, it seems like there is much to learn, as all employers say the same things, especially those in the same industry. It’s like everyone is speaking at the same time and giving you the same selling points – because of this, you don’t know who to listen to!     

 As the war for talent becomes more intense, employers will need to be better at differentiating themselves. To understand what it means, why it’s important and to get an understanding of how it can be done, among other things, we interviewed Claes Peyron, head of Nordic and East Europe and senior communications consultant at Universum, on this very timely subject.  

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Due to a critical shortage of experienced staff, attrition is an “every-day hazard for companies operating in East Asia”, reports the FT.

In her article, “Aggressive hiring keeps the talent moving”, Elaine Moore, gives the example of RBS Coutts, which lost one third of its staff to its rival BSI. 

According to her, the war for talent is not only affecting private banking and big corporations, but also small businesses where employees are known to switch jobs for minimal salary increases.

Michal Kalinowski, UNIVERSUM’s CEO, was quoted saying “In 2010, the first Chinese company entered UNIVERSUM’s World’s Most Attractive Employers list (a global index of Employer attractiveness). An interesting sign of things to come is that for the first time ever there is a Chinese company in the top 50 – Lenovo at 44 among engineers”.

The report featured UNIVERSUM’s data on East Asian Students’ Career expectations and the ideal employers in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Japan.

Quoting various experts in the field, however, the article’s main arguments were: 1) salary increases do not guarantee retention and 2) employers should assess cultural & motivational fit between candidate and the organisation prior to employment.