• What's in a name? Why your employer brand still matters

  Alongside L&D initiatives, branding and marketing are traditionally the first casualties of a downturn - primarily because the return on these investments is notoriously difficult to measure.
  
  If marketing costs are tied with the employer brand, the justification for continued spending becomes even trickier. To the uninformed, ‘employer branding' may seem like marketing lingo - raising further doubts about its usefulness. The words attributed to US department store merchant John Wanamaker still linger for many: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” Furthermore, if an organisation has scaled back recruitment activities, why is a focus on the employer brand necessary at all?
  
  Anecdotal evidence suggests that some employers are already licking their lips in anticipation of scaling back all those ‘nice to haves' that have been used to attract candidates to an organisation during the talent squeeze - such as flexible work hours, work-life initiatives, perks, and so on. Is the employer brand set to be another victim of downsizing? 
  
  Defining the brand
  It is almost 20 years since Simon Barrow, chairman of UK-based People in Business, began selling the concept of employer branding. But only in the last five years has the concept gained traction.
  
  Employer branding, at its simplest, is about how an employer sells itself to current and future employees. The brand showcases the company's personality and values and says: ‘this is who we are and this is why you should work for us'. Note that this definition specifically mentions current employees - a fact that is frequently forgotten in analyses of the employer brand. The employer brand is undeniably at its most powerful when utilised in recruitment but it is equally useful as a retention tool. Indeed, it should mirror an organisation's talent management strategies, which for most organisations in this market are focused on retaining top performers and increasing their engagement and productivity...Read More>>
  
  

• Healing Recessionary Disengagement

Do your employees seem more reticent than usual? Do they have that empty look in their eyes? Are they doing just enough to get by?
According to Kevin Sheridan, CEO of HR Solutions, these are all symptoms of recessionary disengagement, which is the “collateral damage” from layoffs, hiring freezes and salary cuts.

“They’re what we call the ‘ambivalent employee,’” he said. “You could even call them quit-and-stay employees. They’re in the job. They’re getting a paycheck every two weeks, but they literally quit weeks ago. It’s not that they’re bad employees; it’s just that they need coaching [to] get them re-engaged to their job and the mission at hand.”...Read More>>

• The Story Whisperer
  
  It was an off-site training program for the new hires of a major software firm. The young employees were in their seats early — they were excited to hear from the opening speaker, an executive who held a position of astonishing power. But that wasn’t why the audience was excited. They were excited because he was young — mid-30s, not too much older than them.
  Everyone knew the man’s career trajectory, which was characterized by short stints and cross-organizational zigzags, as if he’d taken a Southwest flight to the corner office. Needless to say, they all wanted to live that flight plan.
  But the excitement in the room quickly fizzled. The young exec spoke as if he were being paid by the cliche. He urged the employees to “work hard” and to “pursue their passion.” (Presumably this was intended for employees who were chasing work that didn’t interest them — and doing so lazily.) It was frankly a miracle that he didn’t challenge the crowd to “give 110 percent.”...Read More>>