By Michelle Boyde

Do you offer your employees a bonus for referring a friend or acquaintance for an open position? You probably do. Many companies offer these incentives to find people that match their culture. Human beings like and trust what they know.

This is also true of young graduate talent: 29 per cent of UK students use friends and family for information about employers. This trend is prevalent throughout the world: 25 per in Germany, 28 per cent in the US and 27 per cent in Brazil. They may not know you – the employer – but they are ready to believe the experiences of the people they do know. But, for a generation of Facebook users, who “you know” has shifted; they certainly use the word ‘friend’ more loosely than their parents did.

Furthermore, 78% of internet users trust peer recommendations.

If you are not yet listening to the chatter in social networks, then you really should be. It’s an ideal way of seeing yourself through the eyes of talent.

Your employer brand is global and just like the game Chinese Whispers, everyone who comes into contact with it tells it in their own way – do you know what they are saying?

by Anne Margrethe Mannerfelt

We are all feeling it – 2009, the year when employer branding strategies, activities and priorities are evaluated closely. With smaller budgets, many employers have had to evaluate how and where they spend their money. Are we doing the right thing, are we reaching out to the right target group? The demands for return of investment on marketing activities are higher than ever before. Read the rest of this entry »