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/

I recently came across a really interesting article on Recruiting Trends about Google’s social media effect on recruiting. The article discusses Google’s failed social media attempts before and discusses what is different in their strategy this time.

Google has an ambitious plan to extend social media across the entire Internet experience. You may have noticed the +1 sign that now accompanies a number of your favorite web pages, which is used to aid in future searches and the web experience as a whole.

This would be an incredibly ostentatious plan for anyone not named Google. It was only a matter of time before the most powerful brand on the Internet would break into the social media market. But what does this mean for recruiting? How could this affect companies like Linkedin?

In the article from Recruiting Trends, Vitaly Latush says, “If Google’s social overlay covers the entire Internet people may start choosing professional branding tools that better suit their professional/knowledge profile rather than accepting the one-size-fits-all options. ”

Google’s reach extends to nearly every corner of the Internet. Thus, building your recruiting brand through Google would be the most logical move should they develop the medium to deliver it. With Google+ they may have done just that. But only time will tell if Google+ can challenge and overtake Facebook and LinkedIn, or if it’ll wind up an afterthought like Google’s previous failed attempts.

Google Buzz anyone?

You can check out Latush’s article in its entirety by going here:

http://www.recruitingtrends.com/google-social-what-does-it-mean-for-recruiting

Universum held the Fifth Annual Universum Awards in New York City last Wednesday. The event was hosted by the New York Times and featured a number of talented speakers and guests.

The featured speakers included Yolanda Mangolini, Global Director of Diversity Talent and Inclusion at Google, Paula Caligiuri, author, professor and frequent CNN analyst as well as New York Times Bestselling Author and Businessman Stedman Graham.

The night saw dozens of awards handed out to employers who were perceived to be the most attractive as voted on by over 65,000 undergraduate and MBA students in the United States.

To see a full list of the winners you can go to Businessweek:

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/may2011/bs20110511_024823.htm

Last week I mentioned that Universum’s first annual employer rankings for young professionals was released. The rankings saw extensive coverage and really helped ignite the conversation on just what makes an employer seem like a good place to work?

While many were content with just listing the employers as ranked by the 10,000 plus professionals, some decided to delve in more deeply to uncover just what makes an employer seem attractive?

Laura Vanderkam from the CBS Interactive Business Network decided to look at the rankings more closely and question just why a company that very few people are qualified to work for consistently ranks high on desired employer lists.

Vanderkam writes:

“Google’s perks in particular are legendary (free lunches! ball pits!) and nearly 25% of young professionals said they wanted to work there.

“But if you think about it, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Google’s a great place to work… if you’re a software engineer. If you’re a writer, chemical engineer, musician, botanist or any of a host of other specialties, the opportunities are a bit more limited.”

And she’s right, there are very few of us out there that would be qualified to write code, but essentially it all comes down to branding and positioning, two of Google’s strong points.

The Universum Survey is incredibly straightforward. Students and professionals alike are asked the simple question “Where would you consider working?”

The result represents the strength of employer brands regardless of industry or the individual’s qualifications. It’s not so much a job application as it is a wish list, and where employers rank on this list depends heavily on its use of employer branding and strategy.

You can read Laura Vanderkam’s article in its entirety here:

http://www.bnet.com/blog/time-management/what-makes-a-company-a-cool-place-to-work/373

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