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Most activities in a modern-day recruiting function are operational or tactical in nature, meaning
that they are focused on filling talent needs in the near term. One of the major exceptions to that
rule is employer branding, a strategic practice that involves managing the perception of the
organization among targeted talent populations to attract top talent and foster engagement of
existing top talent. Branding works by understanding what attributes top talent truly desire in an
employer and communicating stories and information that virally spreads, demonstrating how
the organization realistically delivers those attributes.
Firms that engage employment branding well create a velvet rope behind which top talent lines
up for an opportunity to be considered for employment/affiliation with the organization. The
very best firms approach employer branding as a science, using extensive metrics to understand
candidate perception and to target brand management efforts to reposition the organization
according to what is required to attract top talent versus how those in HR or leadership desire the
organization to be portrayed. The efforts are always focused on key attributes ² aka brand
pillars ² and rely on portraying the organization in the best ³true´ light, meaning that all
branding points can be backed up with examples of programs that deliver the brand
systematically.
Both of the organizations highlighted this year do a great job at looking at employer branding as
much more than advertising and recruiting collateral development.
 
  
As a global leader in accounting and advisory services, Ernst & Young has a long history of
excelling in many aspects of talent management. Its efforts with regard to employer branding are
no exception. E&Y¶s brand focuses on telling a robust story about how it helps professionals
³Achieve Potential ² Make a Difference.´It has been early adopters of using emerging
communication and engagement platforms and continues to experiment as new ways of sharing
its story emerge. Some key elements of its program include:
      ±Ernst & Young¶s brand focuses on establishing an industry-
leading perception around four brand pillars that all relate to the opportunity for an
individual applicant or employee to achieve their maximum potential. Its brand pillars
include: opportunity, learning & development, an inclusive and flexible environment, and
making a difference in the community. Brand messaging on these pillars is embedded in
every candidate-facing communication. =  

    

 
  

 
  
    
 
    
  
 
       
 
   
  



 
 

 
 
 
 
  
     
 
  

  
    

 c    ² Ernst & Young consistently ranks in numerous Best
Place to Work award rankings including: Universum¶s #1 IDEAL Employer of U.S.
undergraduates by business and accounting students; #3 on c Best Places
to Launch a Career; Top 3 in c Top Places to Intern; Top 10 in 


  Magazine¶s Best Companies for Working Moms; and Top 3 in DiversityInc¶s
Top 50 Companies for Diversity. Ernst & Young is the only big four professional
services firm to be ranked on
 Magazine¶s prestigious ³Best Companies to Work
For´ list for 11 years in a row.
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 =      ² Using a customer service type model, Ernst & Young
identifies or ³maps´ every critical interaction point with potential applicants and
candidates to determine what activities and communications are needed to communicate
the brand.
     ² Even though it operates in a conservative industry, Ernst &
Young has chosen to use the latest communication platforms to engage its large multi-
generational audience. It uses video, micro-blogging, blogging, and Facebook to ensure
that it communicates using channels the talent desires to use versus what might be easiest
to support. With more than 35,000 Facebook fans in 2009, E&Y launched Connect2U, a
Facebook application that includes an interactive events calendar and empowers students
to connect directly with recruiters and vital career information.
       ² Advanced employer brand messaging customizes the message
so that it best fits the targeted audience. By moving beyond traditional advertising
channels, E&Y reaches out to students (a significant portion of its target population) in
ways that are uniquely meaningful to students. This mass-personalized messaging
approach includes the development of a Pandora Streaming Radio Channel that plays
songs selected by the 2009 Sumer Intern Class. In addition, it also provides personalized
channels for potential experienced hires. For example, it launched the EY Experience, an
innovative online tool to communicate E&Y¶s culture and opportunities to potential
candidates long out of college. This tool delivers dynamic, personalized content to
experienced professionals based on users¶ responses to profile questions.
         ² Its innovative Flexspace provides a virtual
reality tour of employees¶ workspaces in order to communicate how work and personal
responsibilities can work together. A supplementary printed brochure helps point students
towards that online tool.
 _           ² Its branding efforts focus not just on external
populations, but also on existing employees as well. Reminding current employees about
their ³brand experience´ can increase employee referrals, as well as help spread a
credible message via social networks. Its internal branding efforts help employees
understand how their work, energy, and enthusiasm contributes to the success they have
with clients, the environment in which they work, and how together they can make a
difference in the world.
    !  " 
UnitedHealth Group is known to many in the United States, as it is one of the largest health
insurers and health system operators. Thanks to its employer brand management efforts that
focus on telling the story of there being ³Something Greater at Work Here,´ UnitedHealth is also
well regarded as an employer. Some key employer branding program elements include:
 _      ² UHG conducted a series of focus groups and one-on-one
interviews with employees, recruiters, and senior leadership to discover the most salient
employer brand attributes among 75,000 employees dispersed across a multitude of
individually branded facilities. This information, when categorized, help senior
leadership better understand which brand pillars represent their strengths.
       ² It launched a new career site dedicated to painting a clear
picture of the culture, diversity, career progression, and corporate social responsibility
efforts of the company. It also embedded brand positioning statements in all print
collateral including business development tools.
 _        ² UnitedHealth launched a brand campaign around ³There¶s
Something Greater at Work Here.´ They used a variety of media including Town Hall
meetings, teaser emails, infomercials, and the company intranet to articulate the new
brand positioning internally.
    ² The branding effort demonstrated significant measurable results including a
46% increase in the number of candidates who were knowledgeable about UnitedHealth
Group¶s mission and values, and a 36% increase in the number of candidates who
perceived UnitedHealth Group as an employer of choice.
c        
Most corporate careers sites are boring, serving up little more than generic content that can be
found on nearly every other talent competitor¶s site and offering no interaction of value except
for an incredibly painful online application. Great corporate career sites break the mold and
focus on both engaging and servicing prospective talent. The very best take advantage of
streaming video, social media, mobile accessibility, online assessment, metrics for continuous
improvement, compelling and fun features, and personalized messaging based on the interests of
the visiting candidate.
 #$%
DaVita is the largest provider of outpatient and inpatient dialysis treatment to patients suffering
from end-stage renal disease or chronic kidney failure. Recruiting medical specialists to staff
more than 1,400 outpatient facilities and 700+ inpatient facilities is no easy task, and DaVita has
rose to the challenge with a level of strategic aggressiveness few can match. Key highlights of its
ongoing best-in-class career website include:

 &     ² The benchmarking team audited half of the Fortune 500
career portals in order to learn best practices. It identified 12 features that DaVita should
implement in 2009, including making application navigation buttons more intuitive,
rewording headers to provide clearer directions, and simplifying its ³source of hire´
tracking.
  &  ² Because pictures are more powerful than words as selling tools, DaVita
started the DaVita YouTube.com channel, with 30+ videos. It later expanded its own
portals video offering to highlight its seven most popular positions.
     ² DaVita created branded social media networks and integrated
pointers to them throughout the site. There are prominent links on every page to allow
candidates to interact using their chosen platform(s). It uses crosslinks, contests, and job
updates to drive candidates to their careers portal from these networks.
 O   ² It came to the realization that all firms eventually will come to:
accessing to the Internet via a mobile device is quickly becoming ubiquitous for
professionals. Recognizing the incredible growth rate of smart phone usage among its
target population, it retooled its site to be mobile friendly. Smart phone browsers are
automatically directed to pages with easier navigation, quick access to company news,
and options to subscribe to mobile updates.
     ² It added some features to its site including printable coloring book pages
to help teammates and patients explain dialysis to children, while at the same time
hopefully planting seeds for future healthcare careers.

    ² Improvements in technology now make it increasingly possible to
conduct some candidate assessments online. As a result, DaVita integrated its standard
DDI assessments into its online application process.
       ² It used Google Analytics to extensively monitor visitor
trends. However, it didn¶t just use metrics to report trends; instead, it used the analytics to
adjust how DaVita organizes and presents information, so that it actually garners more
attention.

  & ² It added rotating branding messages to each page¶s navigation bar.
This helped to strengthen the DaVita brand image by highlighting its employer-of-choice
awards and other recognition. As part of this effort it created a corporate awards page.
   '  &  ² it ³screens-in´ higher quality candidates by presenting realistic
job previews. It also upgraded its Community & Culture page to better show the DaVita
VILLAGE (worksite).
 _ &      ² It did the work to modernize the career site internally,
spending just $60,000 for upgrades and ongoing maintenance. Results included
significant growth in hiring while reducing job board expenses by 85%. Part of this
budget is now used for targeted search engine marketing.
  _ 
This well-known financial software provider, under the leadership of Michael McNeal, has been
a long-time innovator in all aspects of recruitment. This year Intuit trashed the traditional career
site architecture, opting instead to create a rich user experience that demonstrates to prospective
talent that Intuit does a lot more than make tax software. While not accessible to mobile
browsers (mobile visitors are served up more traditional content), the site provide an interesting
experience worth checking out. Key features include:
 _  & ² The new site, launched in mid-2009, is built entirely in Flash. The highly
interactive portal opens with Melanie, a real Intuit receptionist who welcomes and
instructs visitors to explore three interactive ³rooms´ labeled Innovate, Connect, and
Grow. In the innovate room visitors can discover several ways that Intuit employees let
their creativity run wild, such as Idea Jams, Design for Delight methodology, and ³follow
me homes.´ The connect room lets visitors connect with social networks, and the grow
room tells them about growth and learning opportunities at Intuit.
    ² Intuit is currently developing an additional interactive channel
called ³Main Street´ that will let visitors explore the multitude of products and services
that can help Intuit customers manage their financial lives.
     ² It implemented Google Analytics to enable robust tracking and better
reporting capabilities.
 
_ ² the cost to rebuild the site was steep, $250,000, but the results are promising.
Over the last half of 2009 it averaged 26,000 unique visitors per month and over 10,000
applicants selected the website as its source of hire.
In recent years prospective top talent has got much better at filtering out attempts to market to
them, and much better at engaging in efforts to communicate with them. As social networking
continues to evolve and more recruiting organizations master the art of servicing talent in
interactive and innovative ways the importance of the employment branding will skyrocket. If
you think your organization is among the best, put your assumptions to the test and apply for
consideration next year!
In the next installment of this series, I¶ll take a look at college recruiting, retention, and the use
of technology.
c 
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E&Y also won the award for the best employer brand, demonstrating once again that
organizations with a strong heritage and conservative business standards can excel at innovation
when the business demands it.
Highlights of its approach to employment branding include:
 Its brand is based on three pillars: inclusiveness, flexibility, and continuous
learning/development.
 There are monthly e-mail opt-in news blasts.
 Its extensive Facebook profile, group, and messaging allow students to dialogue with one
another and current E&Y employees about careers in professional services.
 The Facebook profile is refreshed weekly with new content.
 There is extensive leveraging of the business press and PR to position E&Y as a
progressive employer capable of launching a phenomenal career.
 It built a culture campaign featuring stories of E&Y employees that replaced stale
corporate policies. The stories were chosen to emphasize the ³people first´ culture
elements once defined by policies.
 E&Y participates in corporate recognition contests like
 magazine¶s ³100 Best
Companies to Work For´ ranking, in which E&Y is the only ³Big Four´ company and
one of a tiny handful of companies overall to be ranked consecutively for 10 years.
 Notice its recruiting stats regarding boomerangs: 24% of all managers and senior
managers; 40% return within one year and 29% within 1-3 years. Plus 27% of
professional hires come from employee referrals.
 Its world-class alumni program features a dedicated website, monthly newsletter, and a
series of national, regional, and local events.

    is a targeted, long-term strategy to manage the awareness and


perceptions of employees, potential employees, and related stakeholders with regards to a
particular firm. The strategy can be tuned to drive recruitment, retention, and productivity
management efforts. It works by consistently putting forth an image surrounding management
and business practices that make your organization an attractive, ³good place to work.´ The net
result of successful employment branding is that your organization¶s exposure and reputation
increases, creating consensus among your employees, magazine editors, managers in other
organizations, and high potential applicants that you are one of the top employers of choice. A
successful employment brand management effort increases both the number and quality of
applicants, reduces the turnover rate among top performers, and increases overall workforce
productivity. Because employment branding is a targeted strategy it cannot be successfully
managed using a hodgepodge or uncoordinated effort. In order to be successful, it must contain
each of these eight essential elements:
1.        & ) No employment branding effort
can succeed in an organization that is afraid to expose or ³brag about´ its best
management practices. Many organizations today practice a false modesty by
discouraging or even forbidding managers from spreading the word externally about best
practices. Such an attitude might have been acceptable prior to the 1990s, when the value
of PR was highly doubted and models for placing a dollar value on such exposure were
highly theoretical. However, in an era where technology can track spikes in sales and
market value that correlate to such exposure, public touting has become a way of life in
leading firms like GE, Cisco, Southwest Airlines, and Wal-Mart. Unless your firm wants
to be left behind, becoming more and more obscure each year, it¶s essential that senior
management recognizes and encourages employment branding and the sharing of best
practices. Therefore, the foundation element of a good employment brand is a senior
management team that encourages, measures, and rewards the development and sharing
of best practices. (This element is strengthened by the development of processes the
enable the rapid sharing of best practices between business units.)
2.           &) Having unique benefits
and doing great community work both have some impact on a firm¶s external
employment image. However, the primary foundation of any employment brand is first
and foremost the firm¶s management practices. Unfortunately, some firms, in an effort to
become known for their management practices, go overboard in an effort to look good.
This ³look good´ effort might result in managers becoming overly soft or losing their
focus on the importance of maintaining an increasing productivity of the workforce.
Since the basis for any HR effort should be to improve its workforce productivity (i.e. the
value the company gets back for every dollar invested in its employees) any image
building effort must balance ³looking good´ and increasing productivity. On the flip side,
some managers become overly focused on workforce productivity and go overboard in
the opposite direction, ignoring good management practices for short-term gain. While
short-term output may increase, such actions almost always cause decreases in
productivity and increases in employment related costs in the long run. Some of the
problems that occur when managers push productivity at the expense of good
management practices include increased employee burnout, increased error rates,
decreased customer satisfaction and increased turnover, especially among top performers
that have come to expect excellent management. Therefore, in order to insure a strong
brand as well as improved employee productivity, firms must measure and reward
balance between the use of good management practices and efforts to improve employee
productivity.
3.
       *    +) There¶s no doubt that the
increased interest in employment branding during the past decade has been a direct result
of the increased number of organizations and magazines that create lists of great places to
work. While it¶s true that many of these lists are heavily slanted towards firms that offer
great benefits, no one can argue against the benefits of exposure that occur as a result of
being listed. Often times the exposure is not limited to just being mentioned in the list.
Local news agencies, periodicals, and industry trades frequently run features on firms in
their area or industry. This exposure increases the credibility of your firm and reinforces
the mindset among target audiences that your organization is a good place to work. The
most prominent great-place-to-work lists include those published by Fortune and
Working Mother Magazines.
4.
 , & -   ) One of the prime attributes of a great
employment brand is that employees go out of their way to tell stories about the firm¶s
management, business practices, and impact on their life. While almost any employee
will respond to a question about their firm, the employees at well-branded firms volunteer
their stories to strangers both inside and outside the workplace. Having created such an
environment enables viral marketing, where employees spread the word about the great
management practices to their families, friends, co-workers, and even strangers on
airplanes, at places like professional meetings and social settings. In a well-branded firm,
even the employee¶s families know of and help spread stories. Employees spreading the
word about your firm being a good place to work has a significantly higher impact than
the firm spreading the word that it is a great place to work. No firm or outside
consultancy can declare a firm a good place to work; that designation must come from
the employees themselves. Having employees proactively tell stories within the
organization builds pride and increases retention rates. Having employees that tell stories
externally increases the number and the quality of employee referrals for open positions.
5. "    ) The number of agencies that make up the business press has
grown so large and become so segmented and influential that being talked about in
specific publications has become an essential element in building a strong employment
brand. Getting written up is equivalent to getting a great review for restaurant. Having
others talk about you and site your great management practices has more than impact
than any employment ad that you could place. Getting talked about requires two basic
components. First, managers must speak and write about their management practices in
highly visible ways. While an internal meeting is great for communicating information to
a small group of employees, a conference or periodical column provides greater
exposure. By giving speeches and writing articles, you also increase the likelihood that
writers and editors will not overlook what you are doing. In fact, some research suggests
that up to half of a company¶s employment brand is tied to the CEO and how well they
are positively perceived in the business community. The second component of getting
talked about focuses on getting written up in the business press. By making managers
available to reporters and editors who can dramatically increase the number of times that
your best practices are cited by the business press, you exponentially increase chances of
growing your exposure.
6. c      ) The best managed firms are those also known as
benchmark firms. These are the firms that have best practices that everyone else wants to
learn about and emulate. A great brand requires management to participate in major
benchmarking studies and to make a conscious effort to respond to those that highlight
your best practices. The net result of this is that at management meetings around the
world your firm¶s name will become one of the most quoted and respected, a fact that
filters down to the community level with time. Since most benchmarking begins on the
Internet, you can even assess your ³benchmark shadow´ or exposure by doing a Google
search of both your firm¶s name plus the functional area (i.e. ³General Electric´ + HR).
Then compare your score to your competitors to assess how well known your
management practices are.
7. _         ) There are many companies that
are well known because of their product brand but that have not developed awareness for
their management practices. A great employment brand doesn¶t just increase the potential
applicants awareness of the firm. It goes one further step and informs potential applicants
about the management practices that make you a good place to work. The basic
foundation of this branding step is to craft messages to your target audience of potential
applicants, so that they apply for your jobs specifically because of your management and
business practices. This element requires each major business function to make it part of
their performance objectives to educate potential applicants about their best practices. It
entails highlighting best practices at tradeshow booths, in recruiting materials, in the
annual report, and especially on the company¶s website. Because so many potential
applicants educate themselves about a firm through the employer¶s website, it¶s essential
that the corporate website contains information that educates and excites applicants about
your management and business practices.
8. c     ) Building a product brand requires intense effort over
time. You can¶t rest on your laurels when you have a successful brand. You must
continually improve it and sculpt it to fit the changing needs of your target audience.
Employment brands are no different. They must continually change and improve. The
key to that continuous improvement is the use of brand assessment measures or metrics.
Any branding campaign should begin with side-by-side comparison numbers that can be
used to judge the relative success and improvement of the effort. Branding metrics should
become part of the assessment criteria for all major business functions and their
managers. You can¶t improve what you don¶t measure. What you measure, talk about,
and reward sends a clear message to everyone about what¶s really important.
    Employment branding and the actions required to build and manage an employment
brand are powerful tools that can be used to add value to your organization through HR. All to
often, HR looks to impact the bottom line of the firm by enacting cost-containment initiatives.
Such initiatives do nothing to increase quality or productivity. Employment branding, on the
other hand, can increase the quality of employees, help inspire them to become more productive,
and open opportunities to the company in the marketplace that might not have been open before.
In short, employment branding can address many of the issues facing corporation today. Ignoring
the concept and the elements that empower it is a sure way to help your firm ensure a spot in the
corporate graveyard.
It is only with this focus will we see the continued evolution of the employer brand concept and
employment offerings which on the whole, works towards achieving a much better match of the
needs of employees with those of business.
Here is my top 11
.+
      &    
Today real-time career development can be facilitated with some imagination, technology
devices, innovation and focus.
Each morning when I wake up, I grab an expresso, my Ipad and find a quiet spot whether it be on
the couch (winter) or on an outside table (summer!) and spend an hour on my own personal and
career development. This usually involves:
 Checking facebook, twitter and linkedin status updates, making comments and
responding to overnight messages
 Using the apps previously downloaded from publications such as New York Times,
Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, etc I scan the
world¶s leading newspapers to find out what¶s been happening in the world whilst
I've been asleep!
 Read an article each from the latest editions of The Economist and Harvard Business
Review
 Scan google alerts for key words I track such as employer branding, employment
branding, talent management, employee engagement, etc
 Read apps from websites such as www.mashable.com,
www.socialmediaexaminer.com, www.techcrunch.com, etc to update on social media
and technology trends
and once a month I visit the world¶s leading consulting firm's websites to download and read
their latest research and statistics.
So, in early 2011 take an hour to speak with your employees and assist them to develop a real-
time career development plan. This may include coaching them to develop a plan that tracks their
career development interests, current job function responsibilities and personal development
interests (if it¶s just work related people will switch off, many employees want a blended life so
if you mix it up a little you will keep it interesting). Don¶t complain too much about the $600 it
will cost you for their iPad, you¶ll get a ROI many times over.
å+!&   ! O        _=
It¶s no longer efficient or effective to develop and implement an employer brand strategy solely
with HR resources and budget. Your employer brand is interconnected with your corporate and
consumer brand and the total portfolio needs to be considered if you really want to build an
adaptable and agile employer brand. Think about how your organisation would react if faced
with the situation BP found itself in when one of its wells starting leaking oil into the Gulf of
Mexico earlier this year. Is the level of communication and connectedness between those
managing your corporate, consumer and employer brand high enough to react quickly and
effectively to structural changes (e.g. announcement of company layoffs), market changes (e.g.
the GFC) or in times of crisis (e.g. social media sabbotage)?
In 2011 schedule a two hour meeting with leaders from HR, Marketing, Communications and IT
and have a discussion around these agenda items ± it will start the conversation and provide for
some good discussion on where to go next. Some of the questions that may be useful include:
 How will a stronger employer brand support our business strategy e.g. mergers and
acquisitions, growth, consolidation?
 What are the main factors currently driving our employer brand?
 What kind of organisational culture do we have? How consistent is it across
geographical and divisional boundaries?
 What are the most consistently attractive and compelling organisational attributes for
both current employees and potential employees?
 What behaviours are felt to be most characteristic of our organisation? What are the
moments of truth when our organisation is at its best (and worse?)
 What is the most useful way of segmenting the employee population in terms of
cultural characteristics and distinctive needs?
 What are the most effective channels of employee communication, both top/down
and bottom/up?
 Which positions are most critical to our success and what are we currently
doing/need to do to attract, engage and retain this talent?
 What levels of resources are we prepared to invest in our employer brand strategy?
 What timeframe will we be working towards to define and develop our employer
brand strategy?
‰+            
Take this quick assessment to see how your employer branding initiatives measure up against
best practice companies. Answer yes of no to each question and then total your score out of 20.
We have developed an employer brand strategy
1. We have developed a social media strategy
2. We have at least two of the following working closely on our employer brand
strategy ± HR/Marketing/Communications/IT
3. Alignment to brand values is part of our performance management system
4. We have an active coaching and mentoring program in place to transfer knowledge
and build internal capabilities
5. We have defined our employer brand metrics
6. We have conducted research to determine the perception current employees have
about our company
7. We have conducted research to determine the perceptions prospective employees
have about our company
8. We monitor what people are saying about our brand online
9. We have identified the leadership competencies we aspire employees at all levels to
have
10. We have created a database of talented employees who we would like to hire when
the time is right
11. We have a dedicated careers section on our corporate website
12. Managers have access to a leadership development program
13. We have defined our employer value propositions (EVPs)
14. We have reviewed our EVP¶s in light of the Global Financial Crisis
15. We have an active employee referral program which we promote to staff and
external stakeholders
16. We conduct an employee engagement, satisfaction and/or climate survey at least
once per year
17. We participate in an external annual best employers and/or employer of choice
survey
18. Each staff member has a documented career development plan that is reviewed at
least annually
19. We use an IT system to automate our recruitment process and rank candidates
against weighted criteria
How did you rate?
0-5 We are in the very early stages
6-12 We have made a start
13-17 We just need some fine tuning
18-20 We are up there with the best

o+ &      &     *


%+    
When was the last time you review your EVP communication assets, how long ago were they
developed? Make it a project to review all your internal and external EVP communication tools
and ask the following questions:
 Does our employer value proposition clearly reflect the current employment
experience?
 How inspiring is our welcome pack for new hires? How does it differentiate our
employment offering?
 Can we deliver on what we are promising in our recruitment communication efforts?
 How effective is our social media strategy ± are we engaging with our communities
or are we merely broadcasting about our products and services?
 If I was looking for a job how inspired would I be by what our company is
communicating and how consistent is the messaging
 How well do our communication assets flow from text ± images ± audio ± video?
 How authentic is our messaging?
 How do we feel about the tone, style and imagery we are using in our
communications?
Based on the outcomes of your review schedule a project in 2011 to update your communication
assets across key offline and online touchpoints.
For a best practice case study, see how effective Starbucks is across its online platforms
includingfacebook, twitter and YouTube
Î+/            
Study and learn from companies who are leading the way in employer branding including
Google, IBM, Starbucks, Sodexo, SAS, Singapore Airlines, Deloitte, McKinsey, etc there are
many but these are some good companies to observe and learn from - for starters!. Don't just
study companies in your own industry - you'll find companies outside your industry a great
source of innovation for employer branding best practice. Companies in the oil and gas industry
companies such as Chevron, Schlumberger and Shell are good companies to follow as are the
major players in the banking and finance industry such as Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche
Bank and Goldman Sachs. They all invest in employer branding!
Companies to watch in 2011 include Research in Motion (RIM), UnitedHealth Group and
Adidas. Each company's employer branding programs are headed up by world leading employer
brand practitioners Kat Drum (RIM), Health Polivka (United Health Group) and Steve Fogarty
(Adidas). I can assure you if you have the right type of leader in charge of your employer brand
strategy you will go far!
0+      
Have your business unit leaders assess the employee lifecycle in their function to assess how
well it adds value to an inspiring employment experience and one that adds, not distracts from
engagement and retention efforts?
Employees at your company will transition through different stages of the employee¶s lifecycle
depending on factors such as age, education, experience, living arrangements, marital status, etc.
It is important to understand how important these 'moments of truths' are to employees and to
realise which ones if not handled well, can be deal breakers and result in employees seeking
another place to work whilst being unconsciously unproductive in their current role. It is
important to make adjustments based on observation and feedback from employees.
1+$ &               
    
If you haven't already started, 2011 is the year to train employees in how to use and leverage
social media to support branding efforts. Global food service group, Sodexo have experienced a
significant rise global brand awareness over the past two years through their ability to develop a
social media sharing culture within their organisation. It won't happen just because your
company has a facebook page or twitter profile, employees need to be trained across the
company to ensure your initiatives are aligned with your brand strategy. To identify your social
media Rockstars you may need to conduct some influencer studies to determine where your most
connected, active and influential social media participants in your organisation are. I like to
follow Kerry Noone from Sodexo.
+ 
Write a book about your employment practices and use it as an EVP communications tool for all
stakeholders. In 2008 I was inspired by a book I read about the mentoring practices at Essar, a
multinational conglomerate corporation in the sectors of steel, energy, power, communications,
shipping ports and logistics as well as construction headquartered at Mumbai, India. Over a 12
month period the HR Manager had compiled a book on the company¶s mentoring practices and
included insights from leaders and employees across the organisation. Whilst the publication
took a while to write, it will provide a lifetime of value for Essar. It has also been an excellent
tool to build internal engagement as employees were involved in the development of the product
and distribution of it on its release. So find a topic, write about it and share it with stakeholders!
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How often do we see the µwheel being re-invented inside organisations because there is no way
to track what has been developed previously and if it has, it¶s usually outdated or too hard to
find. IBM have had some great success in this area by establishing an internal social networking
tool, 'Beehive' which has allowed employees across the world to make new connections, share
knowledge and capabilities and to advance their career. Connected employees will lead to higher
levels of communication and trust between employees across the enterprise and is becoming
more important in today's increasingly dispersed workforces.
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Too many of today's leaders are too busy to spend quality time coaching and mentoring or even
just communicating with team members due to shorter deadlines, increasing workloads and
longer working hours.
Before they know it, they¶re burnt out, fail to take holidays and disconnect from the very people
who can assist them, their staff. This leads to higher levels of disengagement which is an all too
common output in organisations around the world today. For the first time in a decade, research
from the Hewitt Global Engagement database shows the percentage of organisations with
decreasing engagement now exceeds the percentage with increasing engagement. This is a
disturbing statistic!
..+c              
Most of time employees don¶t buy into your vision to develop and implement an employer brand
strategy because they lack the skills and capabilities to do so. Employer branding is an emerging
field in many economies so take the time to build awareness, knowledge, skill and capabilities
within your organisation. I¶ve written two books, µEmployer Brand Leadership-A Global
Perspective' and µYour Employer Brand attract-engage-retain', and a do it yourself guide, 'The
Employer Brand Manager¶s Handbook-2011 International edition' which will assist you to build
employer branding capabilities inside your company.

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