By Michelle Boyde

If your head is still firmly in the sand, it’s time to pull it out. Competition to hire the best people is stronger than ever. Whatever the unemployment figures tell us, getting those top 5 per cent of talented young things to sign on your dotted line is getting harder still. Just because you can fill your positions today does not mean you always will.

Today Skype announced it plans to hire 400 new employees, almost doubling its headcount.  CEO, Mr Bates, explains that Skype’s weakness is a shortage of product engineers capable of pushing out new products. Their lack of revenue growth is directly related to their lack of talented people.

If you weren’t convinced that employer branding has a direct affect on the bottom line, keep an eye on Skype. If he can find those 400 people, with exactly the right skills, the correct experience and of course cultural fit and then get them to work for Skype, we might see something exciting happening. That’s tough anyway, but even tougher when competing against Google and lets know forget the new kid on the block: Facebook.

By Michelle Boyde

You always need to be a little bit sceptical about CSR and what it really means. It’s a buzz word, one to take care with. This week Credit Suisse, the Swiss investment bank, announced it is forcing hundreds of US managing directors to give 2.5 per cent of their 2010 bonuses to charity.

Donating to charity is always a good thing – as long as the people who need help receive it.  But we know CSR is important to young people: students seek this in an employer – 19 per cent in the US and UK and 30 per cent in Switzerland (source: Universum Student Surveys).

When something appears to be forced, you have to question how this will affect the employer brand. Would it have been better to not have handed over such large bonuses in the first place and made a sizeable donation to charity alongside?

And are we really over scrutinising the banks? I am confident we are not.  Will students see this as an attempt to soften public perception or a genuine charitable activity?

By Michelle Boyde

With 500 million active users worldwide, Facebook has incredible potential, but is it the right platform for employers to communicate? Only 20 per cent use Facebook for both social and career purposes, 35 per cent of people on Twitter and 16 per cent of people on YouTube. In fact, the majority of members on these social networks disapprove of employers sending them information: 57 per cent of Facebook members, 61 per cent of YouTube members and 50 per cent of Twitter members say “No thank you”.

This data is based on Universum’s “Communicating with Talent Report 2010”, which delves into what and how to communicate to UK career seekers. Universum is hosting its Communicating with Talent Webinar on November 11th and 18th at 4pm GMT. If you would like to attend, please email michelle.boyde@universumeurope.com

By Michelle Boyde

Tomorrow promises to be a painful day in the capital, not to mention a long one as we try to get around without the tube. If you find yourself feeling a little bitter about tomorrow’s strike, spare a thought for my colleague. He will be caught by our strike tomorrow morning as he heads for St Pancreas and then by the French Metro strike (over retirement age) when he arrives in Paris later that day. Strikes are certainly prevalent right now…

Coca Cola have confirmed their strike over pay for September 8th and the majority of union members at the BBC have called for industrial action over the change in pension scheme. I won’t even mention British Airways.

Strikes are certainly a very visible example of disgruntled employees. Others may not be quite so palpable. However, for loyal employees who have stood by their employer the last couple of years, through the pay freezes and imposed hour cuts, many will be asking what they will get in return. In amongst the job cuts, perhaps they should be happy to have a job. However, the reality is that top talent can always find job elsewhere and they are the ones you need to keep.  New hires are expensive; investing in current employees is better value for money.

Internal engagement continues to be a critical facet of employer branding – brands are built from the inside out and now is one of the worse times to neglect this element.

By Christopher Van Mossevelde

Britain’s graduates say they would like to work for an employer that is judged well or is held in high esteem by the community or the public generally. This probably confirms what Dov Seidman wrote, that we’re now in the “Era of Behaviour”¹ – let’s hope that it becomes the era of ‘good’ behaviour.

With Goldman Sachs under current public scrutiny in the UK, the short-sighted focus on shareholder value at the expense of others, the doing ‘more with less’ mantra that has resulted in the recent public calamity at France Telecom with employee suicides, and the general burden that this recession has had upon employees, to say no more… has perhaps, or at least I hope, catapulted students to drastically re-think their career choices. 

Student research reveals that Britain’s students deem ‘good reputation’ as the most important attribute an employer can have, should it strive to be perceived as an ‘ideal’ employer – 49 per cent select this as an attractive employer characteristic.  And if an employer doesn’t have it, they may lose out in terms of their brand perception. Finally, we’ve seen some results in the latest UK ideal employer rankings by Universum, as students have judged the recklessness of the financial institutions and banks have lost out in the popularity stakes².

How employers are viewed by others is important for graduates who are choosing their future employer and thus an important employer branding issue to consider for companies and organisations. Similarly, ‘high-ethical standards’ is highly regarded by 30 per cent of students, yet what are the values they deem important, relating to employer conduct, and with respect to the rightness and wrongness of employer actions, is still to be determined. It’s for us to ask the students to clarify and to remove this ash cloud to let the sun shine through – so be it!

———–

¹ “Inspirational Shame in the Era of Behavior”, by Dov Seidman <http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/apr2010/ca2010047_343747.htm>

² ”Why apple is a tasty job option”, by Steve McCormack  <http://www.independent.co.uk/student/career-planning/getting-job/why-apple-is-a-tasty-job-option-1944828.html>

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is ranked 40 by UK humanties students, climbing from position 58 last year

At BCG, individuals can “grow further”. Flexible career paths are encouraged and employees have a lot of choice around the path that will best support their personal development.

By Michelle Boyde

Interview with Stephen Huntley, UK University Recruiting Director at BCG

“International opportunities are an element of our new branding campaign, Grow Further, which promotes personal growth.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Interview with Navjot Singh, Global Marketing Manager & Recruitment & HR Communication Manager at Shell

By Christopher Van Mossevelde

At the moment there is a lot of talk about the economic downturn. The media reports on a daily basis about the recession.  How do you think this is affecting the graduate recruitment market?

Graduates themselves think that there are not many companies recruiting at the moment, but certainly companies in our sector, i.e. in the oil & gas, as well as leading blue chip companies, in the FT 100 index and Fortune 100, are recruiting. Read the rest of this entry »