One of the re-occurring themes I come across in my experiences with employer branding and recruiting is the seeming competitiveness for IT talent out of college and shortage there of.

Employers looking for the top IT talent often times find themselves competing for a small pool of qualified applicants. If there’s been one consistent trend in Universum’s resarch, it’s that Google is winning this battle. But it may not be that easy.

I recently came across a very telling graphic from the folks at Top Prospect Blog (blog.topprospect.com). The bloggers over at Top Prospect took on the task of visually illustrating the internal recruitment battle that goes on between some of the top employers for IT Talent.

In reviewing this graph you’ll notice that each arrow represents the ratio of employees leaving one company for another. Therefore, you’ll be able to see, which IT employers are winning the head to head.

Pretty cool, huh? It looks like for all the talent Google attracts out of college, they are still losing out to Facebook and LinkedIn. It also confirms what a lot of us have known for awhile – Yahoo! is in trouble.

I really would have liked to see this graph include some newcomers like Zynga or SalesForce, to see how they measure up against these tech giants.

Anyway, as you can plainly see the battle for tech talent is fierce between these tech giants and although Google may be winning the battle of attractiveness for those coming directly out of college, they aren’t always able to hold onto them.

To check out the article from Top Prospect and get a closer look at the graph go here:

http://blog.topprospect.com/2011/06/the-biggest-talent-losers-and-winners/

In a recent article from Recruiting Trends, Author Chad Storlie discusses how military experience can translate extremely well into the work place. The example Storlie uses is that of Operation Command Centers or OPCEN. Walt Disney World recently opened a brand new Operations Center, “to ensure that theme parks guests, employee, and services run smoothly, effectively, and on time.”

Globally, there are several  hundred military OPCENs running all day and under combat conditions. Certainly, that type of experience could prove invaluable to Walt Disney World when looking for candidates to run their brand new Operations Center.

Since Gulf War Veterans make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, Storlie listed some incredibly useful ways for recruiters to learn more about adding value to their company by utilizing military experience:

1. Leverage Their Military Experience to the Company & Job

2. Mentor an Individual or Group

3. Further Education One Class at a Time.

Storlie goes over each of these methods in great detail and the whole article is worth a look. You can see the article in its entirety here:

http://www.recruitingtrends.com/how-recruiters-can-leverage-military-experience

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!

You see it on TV and hear it on the radio and it really makes you wonder. It makes you wonder how during a recession and fresh off government bailouts, many employers in the banking industry are still giving out record bonuses.

Many think during a period of such high unemployment, bonuses like these are completely indefensible. However, an expert in employer branding, Simon Barrow, asks why the banks aren’t defending these bonuses more vigorously.

Barrow doesn’t buy the classic excuse–that if the most talented executives don’t get bonuses, they’ll seek them elsewhere and move on to the competition. There are a number of factors that come in to why a person chooses their employer and remuneration is only one.

Instead, Barrow creates a list of a number of possible arguments banks could use to defend the practice of giving out bonuses–assuming his arguments are true, they would be powerful tools in defense of the practice.

Some of Barrow’s potential arguments include: the bonuses’ purpose of offsetting the high cost of education for those high ranking executives, the relatively short career of those in the banking industry and the high burn out/drop out rates of bankers.

Barrow admits he’s never been asked to defend the bonuses officially and thus can only speculate about ways to argue their validity. However, assuming his arguments are true to an extent, and they are quite believable, it makes you wonder why the banks haven’t fought harder to defend them.

To see Barrow’s whole article you can go here:

http://simon-barrow.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-are-bankers-not-defending-their.html

So your company ranked among the 2010 IDEAL Employers, now what? It’s time to use feedback from your target audience to improve communication and understand your position in the market.

Join us this Thursday, July 22nd at 2pm to learn more! Joel Quast, Senior Consultant at Universum, will share valuable information in this webinar.

Register now at: https://universumusa.ilinc.com/register/bxcrmfk

International companies are increasingly focusing on emerging markets for the growth of their business, given the pace of the economic development, size of the prospective markets and the cost advantage in many areas. This growth is fully dependent on the success of attracting and retaining the right talent to run and develop the operations. Yet finding the right people has been difficult. Similarly, in the developed nations, companies are faced with the challenges of an ageing population and a shortage of skilled workers – this has lead to the so-called War for Talent.

Universum, the global leader in Employer Branding, presents key arguments of why employer branding should be a core component of your organization’s strategy.  We explore the career and employer preferences of today’s students – or tomorrow your employees. We will discuss how to measure your activities, to ensure that you are implementing the right activities, and how to communicate to talent to fulfill your recruitment needs. Employer branding will help you be more successful in the recruitment and retention of top talent.

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To register for this complimentary webinar, please follow this link: http://www.ere.net/webinars/global-trends-in-employer-branding-and.asp

Based on more than 22,859 employer evaluations, reflecting the opinions of approximately 9,956 undergraduate students, Universum – Americas presents the 2010 Canada Top IDEAL^TM Employers

With the Government/public service industry showing up in the top three preferred industries among all fields of study (Business/Communication/Law, Engineering/IT/Natural Sciences, Liberal Arts/Fine Arts/Education/Social Sciences and Health/Medicine), it is only appropriate that the top ranked companies follow suit.

Based on the frequency of being selected as an IDEAL^TM employer, Universum produces an IDEAL^TM employer ranking, dubbed the Universum Top 100. The rankings reflect the level of employer attractiveness that companies or organizations have on the recruitment market, and consequently the strength of their employer brands.

“Since Canadian student career goals of job stability and serving society’s greater good were of high importance this year, it’s no surprise that they are choosing the Government of Canada as a top employer,” said Tracy Lynn Drye, Senior Vice President of Employer Branding at Universum, “We have actually seen this as a global trend. Undergraduate students around the world have expressed interest in beginning their career with the government, starting even prior to the economic challenges facing many markets.”

The first 10 IDEAL^TM Employers, segmented by their main field of study are:

Business/Communication/Law: 1. Government of Canada, 2. Apple, 3. Google, 4. Bank of Canada, 5. Provincial Government, 6. Deloitte, 7. L’Oréal, 8. Air Canada,9. Canada Revenue Agency, 10. KPMG

Liberal Arts/Fine Arts/Education/Social Science: 1. Government of Canada, 2. Provincial Government, 3. Health Canada, 4. Google, 5.Apple, 6. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 7. Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), 8. Air Canada,9. Public Service Commission, 10. L’Oréal

Engineering/IT/Natural Sciences:  1.Governement of Canada, 2. Health Canada, 3. Google, 4. Provincial Government, 5.Apple, 6. Microsoft, 7. Canadian Natural Resources Limited, 8. Research In Motion (RIM),9. Bombardier, 10. IBM

Health/Medicine: 1. Health Canada, 2. Government of Canada, 3. Provincial Government, 4. Google, Johnson & Johnson, 6. GlaxoSmithKline, 7. Pfizer, 8. Apple,9. Air Canada, 10. L’Oréal

To view the Universum Top 100 go to http://www.universumglobal.com/Canada-Undergraduate-Rankings

In the last issue of Universum Quarterly, I wrote about how to adjust your external employer branding strategy during a recession. Note that I say adjust – not halt. Now, I want to discuss a second fundamental aspect of employer branding: internal branding. And just like external branding, internal communication of your employer brand should continue during a recession. It may look a little different, but it is very important to keep it going, for the following reasons: Read the rest of this entry »