The reach of Linkedin as a professional network is growing at a rate of knots. As of November 2011, there were 135 million Linkedin users in over 200 countries across the world (Linkedin, 2011). With such an impressive uptake among professionals, it would be a mistake to neglect this social networking tool within your employer branding strategy. Here are some helpful hints to ensure you reap the rewards in 2012:
Create a company Linkedin page: This will provide jobseekers access to your company that is not possible on other social networks. You can attract followers, create a careers section and update your company status (just as you would for your individual account).
Join relevant Linkedin groups: This is a great way promote your company as an employer of choice – you can do this passively by contributing to discussions, providing advice and sharing relevant news stories. After a while you will find that interest in your company grows organically as a result.
Create a company Linkedin group: Create a group that is aimed at attracting prospective employees, current employees and alumni. Get the conversation flowing by starting interesting discussions. This is a great way to help prospective employees feel a sense of belonging and identity long before the application process begins.
So that’s that. Hopefully these tips will help you boost your employer branding strategy through the use of social media in 2012. Good luck!
About the Author:Catherine Gutsell is the Group Marketing Manager at the CK Group. She is passionate about all things digital, especially when it comes to recruitment and HR practices.
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This tool must not be forgotten – if used properly it can be a fantastic medium to attract the best talent to your business. According to TalentMinded 2011, over half of job seekers will ‘Like’ a company on Facebook in the hope that they will find a job. So, to help you start Facebooking in 2012, here are a few tips:
Share photos: This is the Facebook feature that we all love the most (including your next generation of employees), so start sharing photos of things like:
Communicate in a human way: If jobseekers post questions on your company’s Facebook wall, respond in a human way and with personality. After all, Facebook is a sociable site, so try to create the impression that you are a friendly and open company by responding to questions in chatty (but still professional and helpful) way.
Get people talking: Don’t just shout about how great you are. Post unique and useful content for your fans, you can even ask questions to help get the conversation going. Be as helpful as you can to create the best impression of your company.
Make it a team effort: Give your colleagues the freedom and trust to contribute to your corporate Facebook page. After all, satisfied and happy employees are the best brand ambassadors you will ever find.
About the Author:Catherine Gutsell is the Group Marketing Manager at the CK Group. She is passionate about all things digital, especially when it comes to recruitment and HR practices.
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Video should be a key part of your employer branding strategy for 2012. It’s a great way of engaging potential employees by really showing them the human side of your company. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just invest in a Flip camera and get cracking! Here are a few ideas which could work for your organisation:
A ‘Day in the Life of…’ videos: These videos can be helpful by strengthening the recruitment campaign for a particular role you are recruiting for.
A tour of your offices: We all know that people love to be nosey and this is a great way to provide an insight into what it’s really like behind the scenes at your company.
Employee testimonials/Meet the Team videos: Encourage employees to talk about their backgrounds, experiences, how and why they joined the company and what they like about working there. This will help you to communicate the personality and camaraderie between colleagues within your organisation. Do be careful who you stick in front of the camera though (make sure they are engaging to watch and most importantly, like to smile!).
Update content regularly: Try to keep your videos looking fresh by producing new content at least once per month. Think about it, if potential employees come across dated looking videos that look like a flash back from the 80’s it’s more than likely they will steer clear of your company as a potential employer.
Some interesting employer branding videos which you could take a look at for inspiration include:
About the Author:Catherine Gutsell is the Group Marketing Manager at the CK Group. She is passionate about all things digital, especially when it comes to recruitment and HR practices.
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Reports suggest that Mercer has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pensjon & Finans, a leading Norwegian-based financial investment and pension consulting firm. Pensjon & Finans was established in 1997 and has a solid market share in the institutional market both in the public and private sector.
The acquisition is said to strengthen the value proposition to existing clients of Pensjon & Finans.
It also strengthens Mercer’s leadership role in investment consulting in the Nordic market.
The acquisition represents Mercer’s commitment to investing in its investment business to serve European clients. As Espen Kløw, the CEO of Pensjon & Finans, will take up the role as Head of Mercer Investment Consulting in Norway after the acquisition is finalised. Caspar Holter, the Founder of Pensjon & Finans, will continue at Mercer and serve his clients as of today. The firm has 5 employees and is owned by the working partners.
Closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other conditions. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
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Two thirds of FTSE 100 firms use Twitter, however, research shows that it is often neglected within their employer brand strategies (People Management, 2011). This is a missed opportunity. Why? Twitter currently has 100 million users with 50% logging in every day (Mashable, 2011). The potential for you to use this tool to attract talent to your organisation is off the scale. So why not beat your competition to it and get tweeting in 2012? Here are some pointers to help you:
Your Twitter profile - the trick here is to be as visible as possible. Here’s how:
Your profile page must have a professional look which reflects the branding of your company.
Choose your profile picture carefully – we would recommend you use your company logo. Again, this will ensure you are easily recognisable.
Choose your Twitter name carefully – be sure to include your company name and possibly the words ‘jobs’ or ‘careers’ too. This will attract the most targeted and relevant followers.
Profile text: Here you have 160 characters to play with so you need to make it good. Here are some suggestions:
Write about your company and the service it provides
Write about how people can benefit from following you
Include your website URL
Include relevant keywords to help people find you
Tweets:
Mix it up a bit: Try to avoid using Twitter to only shout about job vacancies you have open. Whilst these can certainly feature, it is important to mix your tweets up a bit to keep your followers engaged. Try tweeting industry and company news, as well as careers advice. It’s all about giving your followers value-added information and creating the impression that you are a great company to work for.
Get everyone in the team tweeting: This gives a good perception of culture, collaboration and personality which are all attractive traits from a jobseeker’s perspective.
Set up a schedule for your tweets: Tweeting too regularly can be annoying, whilst not tweeting enough may mean people will start to forget about you. So try to get the balance here. We recommend once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the evening (if you’re ultra keen!).
Re-tweet others: Remember, it’s not all about you. To build credibility and trust among potential employees you must re-tweet posts from key opinion leaders in your industry.
About the Author:Catherine Gutsell is the Group Marketing Manager at the CK Group. She is passionate about all things digital, especially when it comes to recruitment and HR practices.
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Since 2009 there has been a 209% increase in the number of companies using social media to communicate their employer brand (Global Recruiting Roundtable, 2011). But are you one of them? No? Well read on…
Today’s job seekers have the world at their fingertips (quite literally). Realistically, the types of people you are more than likely going to want to recruit have already clocked on to the fact that social media is the best place to find out the truth about your company. They might even already be talking about you online – so why aren’t you listening?
Not sure where to start? Here are a few tips from the CK Group to help you get your social media strategy kick started in 2012:
Listen:
Well first things first, you need to establish what is being said about you online before you start engaging with potential employees on social media. Here are a number on interesting tools you can use to do just that:
Google Alerts - Set up alerts direct to your inbox to find out exactly what people are saying about you online.
Social Mention - This software is free, and searches all real-time user generated content.
Glassdoor - Find out exactly what former employees have been saying about your company here.
Plan: This leads us nicely on to the next step: planning! Now, take a step back and have a think about…
Your main goals and objectives: These must be clearly aligned with the goals and objectives of your organisation.
The main messages you want to communicate: Here are a few ideas to get your thought process started:
What makes your company stand out? Eg exciting and rare job opportunities, personal development schemes, team building days, dress down Fridays.
Your company achievements – Eg awards, charity fundraisers, company accreditations.
Experiences of existing employees as they can be great brand ambassadors for your organisation.
Which social networks are you going to use?
Remember, it’s quality not quantity that matters here. As a minimum, we recommend that you build your presence on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Linkedin to really step your employer branding strategy up a gear or three. In the next blog post I'd be outlining few tips from us to help you start planning your strategy for each one of these social networking sites.
About the Author: Catherine Gutsell is the Group Marketing Manager at the CK Group. She is passionate about all things digital, especially when it comes to recruitment and HR practices.
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Adecco Group, the global leader in human resource services, has announced the acquisition of VSN Inc., a leading provider of professional staffing services in Japan, for an enterprise value of EUR 90 million.
"We are delighted that VSN Inc. has agreed to join the Adecco Group. This is a rare opportunity for us to expand our Japanese Professional Staffing business in the world’s second largest staffing market and it is an excellent fit with our global strategic priorities. The move will instantly double the contribution of professional staffing to Adecco’s revenues in Japan and reinforces our strong position in an attractive structural growth market." - Patrick De Maeseneire, Chief Executive Officer of the Adecco Group.
Adecco Japan is currently the fourth-largest player in the Japanese HR market, behind local players, with a strong position in the Office segment and leading profitability. VSN Inc. generated revenues of EUR 157 million in 2010 (fiscal year-end March 2011) and is focused mainly on the Engineering segment.
The transaction remains subject to certain closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012.
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During the recent Great Recession, many companies significantly scaled back their recruiting teams. As these businesses rebound, many are looking to rebuild their teams with an eye toward becoming as cost effective and flexible as possible. These organizations typically have three options:
Ask current staff to work longer hours, or simply work harder
Better utilize currently owned technology, or adopt new technology
Utilize outsourced recruiting support to augment their internal team
Most of us know where option #1 will get us: it can work in the short-term, and employees who take on extra responsibilities and larger workloads sometimes feel more invested in their employment and enjoy a bump in pay. But over the long-term this solution often times causes burnout, low morale, and high attrition.
Option #2, technology, can be used in two ways to help your team work more effectively and efficiently:
1. Get more out of your current technology: Almost all recruiting operations have some sort of technology they’ve invested in, even if it’s simply an applicant tracking system. And almost all recruiting operations aren’t getting all they can out of those tools. Most of the leading ATS providers are adding new features every year, and many of those features are included in the fees you already pay. A simple call to your rep might go a long way towards getting more out of what you already own.
2. Adopt new technology: Between new offerings from established recruiting technology companies and new entrants who are continually pushing the envelope, there are plenty of ways new technology investment can help you get more out of your current team. An example of the former is Monster’s 6Sense product line, and an example of the latter is BranchOut. Both are worth a look.
The 3rd option, outsourcing, has become more and more viable with the “flattening” of our world.
Outsourced recruiters can never replace your internal team, but they can help you significantly increase the productivity of your team, and the profitability of your business.
Most likely there are parts of your recruiting process that require a skillset that you can only find with an experienced internal recruiter. In all likelihood there are also parts of your process that aren’t as complex, and those are tasks that you can complete at about half the cost of doing it internally.
Take the example of a mid-sized IT company located on the East Coast. Prior to the recession this company had an internal research team that provided its recruiters a steady pipeline of candidates (which allowed its recruiters to spend more of their time speaking with, and placing, candidates). With the recession’s reduced hiring demand and intense cost pressures, the firm greatly scaled back the team at the beginning of 2009. As demand began to pick up again in 2010, the company decided to bring back the role, but with the pain of the recession still a fresh memory, they wanted to find an alternative to hiring fulltime internal resources, and decided to use PSG Global Solutions to staff the team.
This allowed the company to again enjoy the increased recruiter productivity the researcher role had previously brought, but with two distinct additional benefits:
Cost Savings: Once the company added in payroll taxes, benefits, bonuses, etc., PSG resources were 50% of the cost of hiring someone internally (not including additional savings from technology costs, office space, etc.)
Ease of Management: As company managers no longer have to recruit, on board, train and manage internal staff for the role, they can devote more management time to growing their business.
While most of us have at one time or another stretched our teams to grow capacity without growing headcount, for more and more companies technology and outsourcing are proving to be smarter alternatives. Brian Cotter is co-founder and president of PSG Global Solutions, the world’s largest and fastest growing provider of outsourced recruiting support to the US staffing industry.Read More....!
Featuring Emily King’s new book, FIELD TESTED: Recruiting, Managing, and Retaining Veterans at HR World Today:
Veterans, who have proudly served our country are a tremendous source of untapped talent and embody a wealth of skills. Field Tested gives readers the insight and tools they need to recruit and retain veterans, and to maximize their value in any organization. With real-world examples throughout the book, Emily covers topics from recruitment, to on-boarding, to performance, to career development, and much more.
FIELD TESTED is an excellent guide that explains subtle, but critical, cultural differences between military and corporate environments/ workplace, and reveals how these differences can affect employee performance, satisfaction, and retention.
Complete with real-world examples, practical models, and savvy advice, Emily King’s FIELD TESTED shows readers how to do it right:
Attract and interview veterans
On-board them quickly and effectively
Position them for success
Ensure a smooth cultural transition
Manage performance
Help them develop lasting careers.
A must-read for leaders, managers, and human resources professionals across industries.
About the Author: Emily King is a nationally recognized expert on transition from military service to civilian employment. Prior to founding Military Transitions, Emily launched the successful organizational development consulting firm of King Street Associates, LLC, and worked as an internal consultant and coach at Booz Allen Hamilton, leading a variety of programs geared to building strong leaders and managers. Emily’s writing has appeared in Diversity Executive, T+D and Training magazines. She has been featured in segments by CNN and appears regularly on WJLA’s “Capital Insider” program. She has worked extensively with veterans and civilian hiring organizations, and is a frequent speaker at industry events including SHRM and ASTD. Emily completed her Master of Science degree in Organization Development at Johns Hopkins University and received formal training and credentials as a leadership coach from Georgetown University.
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Cisco, Deloitte and Lloyds TSB have teamed up to help businesses address the staffing challenges of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games.
Research from the ODA (Keep on running: Travel advice for business, Olympic Delivery Authority, November 2010) showed that, during the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games,
27% of employees took annual leave
22% worked remotely, and
18% travelled to and from work at irregular hours.
How will your business stay on track during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games?
Businesses need to be proactive to manage issues including absenteeism, travel disruption, the availability of temporary staff, flexible working and impact on productivity during the Games.
Cisco believes planning ahead is the key to keeping business moving at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. So how prepared is your business to cope with all your staffing challenges? Take part in this free hr webinar and you can gain insights from experts, learn from peers and enhance your preparations for London 2012.
Reports suggest that Venezuelan beauty queen, Ivian Lunasol Sarcos Colmenares who won the Miss World 2011 title is a human resources graduate from Venezuela. It is also believed that she studied Diplomacy before becoming a beauty queen.
Ms. Sarcos Colmenares, 22, was orphaned at a young age and was raised by the nuns. She herself dreamt of becoming a nun but her life turned a new leaf.
Here's the video from the crowning moment of Miss World 2011. Ivian Sarcos from Venezuela crowned Miss World 2011.
Recruiters have always been quick on the uptake when it comes to new and innovative technology, especially if this technology makes it easier to stay connected. Lately, there’s a lot of buzz surrounding social recruiting and mobile recruiting – and many recruiters are blindly jumping on the bandwagon. But what’s just buzz, and what will become a permanent part of every recruiter’s toolbox?
Mobile Recruiting: Apps and More
Mobile recruiting allows recruiters to do what they do best: stay connected. How? Apps. There are a few recruiting apps that I really like:
JobScience puts the functionality of an applicant tracking system in recruiters' pockets.
Instant Customer is a handy gadget for business card and contact management.
Global Recruiting Roundtable gives users access to top industry news and trends, and allows them to plug in to a community of experts.
JobSpeek adds a new dimension to job postings: audio.
Mobile SMS and QR code recruiting is getting some serious attention. However, recruiting leader and sourcing consultant Geoff Peterson says, “The technology’s not 100% there.”
Social Recruiting: Plan for Your Slice of the Pie
Recruiting has always been social, but social media has opened a new can of worms. And if you want a piece of the social recruiting pie, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
You need a strategy. You may have a Twitter account, but that doesn’t mean you have a social recruiting strategy. You need clear goals, an execution plan and metrics for measuring success. Otherwise, you’re just filling my Twitter feed with white noise.
Don’t bombard, engage. Anyone can post “an exciting opportunity” on LinkedIn. If that’s all you're using your social media accounts for, however, you’re going to lose your audience fast. Share an article you enjoyed, link to something interesting you’ve come across, just don’t bombard them with jobs.
Keep the social in social media. You can get all the Facebook fans and Twitter followers you want, but unless you’re engaging your network, they’re just numbers. There are a number of communities out there that revolve around social media in a number of industries.
About the Author: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice. He blogs about trends, technology and best practices in HR and recruiting by day, and drinks entirely too much wine by night.
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Mercer, the human resource consultancy, and SMITH Magazine have joined forces to start an engaging contest about work.
The contest asks people to submit their opinions, attitudes and stories about work in just six words. The winner gets their choice of an iPad2 or a Blackberry PlayBook!
Adecco Group, the global leader in Human Resource services, today announced the acquisition of US-based Drake Beam Morin, Inc., a leading provider in the career transition and talent development services sector, for an enterprise value of EUR 149 million.
Combining Adecco’s Lee Hecht Harrison business with Drake Beam Morin, Inc. will create the world’s leading career transition and talent development services provider. The acquisition considerably expands the global footprint of Lee Hecht Harrison beyond its main markets, the U.S. and France, into new geographies, and enhances its scale in markets with an existing presence.
“I am very pleased that Drake Beam Morin, Inc. is joining forces with Lee Hecht Harrison. The combined businesses will provide a global presence in the outplacement and talent development services sector, enabling us to better serve our clients internationally. This fits very well with our customers’ increasing needs for global solutions across the full range of HR services. The move strengthens Adecco with an effective counter-balance to the temporary and permanent staffing business, given the counter-cyclical nature of the career transition sector.” - Patrick De Maeseneire, Chief Executive Officer of the Adecco Group
Mercer's Human Capital consultants Haig R. Nalbantian and Richard A. Guzzo, have been honored by the Academy of Management for their March 2009 Harvard Business Review article, "Making Mobility Matter."
The two consultants received the organization's 2010 "Outstanding Practitioner-Oriented Publication" award at a ceremony during the Academy’s annual conference in Montreal.
Mr. Nalbantian, Senior Partner and Director of Mercer’s Global Research and Commercialization function and who is based in New York, was a founder of Mercer’s Workforce Sciences group. A labor economist, he has been instrumental in developing Mercer’s unique capability to measure the economic impact of Human Capital practices. Prior to joining Mercer, he taught economics at New York University prior to joining NERA in 1989.
Based in Washington, DC, Dr. Guzzo, is a Partner and leads Mercer’s Workforce Sciences group. Before joining Mercer in 1997, he was Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Maryland. He received his PhD from Yale University.
About the award: The Outstanding Practitioner-Oriented Publication award is given in recognition of an article that provides the most significant contribution to the practice of management in the field of organizational behavior. The article was selected for the award by a committee of six well-known management scholars who reviewed management journals and other papers nominated by the Academy's membership.
Time Well Spent is a weekly cartoon series sponsored by Kronos Incorporated that illustrates the humorous aspects of workforce management.
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Larry King says he's stepping down this fall from the prime-time show that has anchored CNN's lineup for 25 years.
King said in a message he sent via Twitter: 'It's time to hang up my nightly suspenders.'
Piers Morgan is said to to replace host Larry King on CNN network.
"I have watched Larry King Live for much of the last 25 years, and dreamed of one day filling the legendary suspenders of the man I consider to be the greatest TV interviewer of them all" - Piers Morgan
This Labor Day, Secretary Hilda Solis talks directly with the American worker. Watch the video as Secretary Solis shares what she's seen and heard around the country... and what the US Department of Labor is doing to get America back to work.
The reach of Linkedin as a professional network is growing at a rate of knots. As of November 2011, there were 135 million Linkedin users in over 200 countries across the world (Linkedin, 2011). With such an impressive uptake among professionals, it would be a mistake to neglect this social networking tool within your employer branding strategy. Here are some helpful hints to ensure you reap the rewards in 2012:
