Paul Jacobs wears many hats – entrepreneur, social media evangelist, employment branding consultant, community DJ and conversation stirrer – but a common denominator in his work is a passion for, in his own words, “helping employers become stars“. A perennial experimenter, and blessed with an acute eye to spot new trends, Paul is one the most influential recruitment voices in the ANZ region. We caught up with Paul to discuss his current projects and upcoming talk at the Sourcing Summit.  Read more...

It’s no secret that Australians love social media, but little data exists on the extent of its adoption in finding jobs or enhancing career opportunities. In this year’s Executive Monitor study we further expanded on our earlier investigation on the subject of job seekers’ adoption of social media to find jobs.  Read more...

One of the question we asked participants in our recent study is – what name/brand comes to mind when you think of an employer you want to work for in the future?

This is a unaided attempt to gauge who senior executives think are the best employers in Australia. While one question alone does not address all the nuances and complexities of what makes a top employer, it is interesting to note which employer brands stood out in the minds of executives.  Read more...

Brett Minchington explains the importance of promoting a consistent employment brand message across all touch points

With the increasing fragmentation of communication channels used to express, ‘What it’s like to work for this organisation,’ and ‘What’s in it for you,’ it pays to ensure the employment experience you promote to potential employees through a job board is matched by what you can realistically deliver upon in the employment experience – and in many cases this experience starts at a job board.  Read more...

Adam Shay, Managing Director of  The Face answered our query – how relevant are advertising agencies in a rapidly evolving recruitment landscape?.

When I first read this question from Destination Talent I took immediate umbrage to the fact my craft of 15 odd years was seemingly under threat, that its value was being questioned! By the time I’d calmed down and re-read the question I could see its validity (excuse me for seeming dramatic but running an ad agency during a recession is tough, running an ad agency focused on recruitment, during a recession is well, challenging.)  Read more...

What makes a good employer? According to Hewitt – keep your promises.

Details here. 

Some good news from the manufacturing front. According to the latest Australian PMI (Performance of Manufacturing Index) employment in the manufacturing sector rose for the first time in 23 months. The index grew from 44.6 points in October to 53.7 in November. Average wages in the sector also grew, with the wage index increasing by 3.3 points.

It’s heartening news for the overall economy when one of the most vulnerable sectors shows signs of recovery. 

   Read more...

The difference between a good and a not so good employer – reputation worth spreading.

One of the five criteria used by Hewitt to chose a winner for its annual ‘Best Employers’ award is the likelihood that an employee would willingly recommend her employer to someone else. No surprises, best employers have happy employees keen to spread the good news.

Would current or former employees recommend your company to someone else. Should you care?  Read more...

It’s one thing to have a good story to tell. It is another to tell the story effectively.

Atlassian have a good story to tell. They also tell it rather honestly and convincingly.

Dig deeper and you will see Atlassian work really hard to spread their story – they blog incessantly (it looks like half their workforce have personal blogs), they tweet, they network on Facebook and upload their videos on YouTube. Isn’t it interesting, organisations that can afford to rest on their laurels are the ones that continue to work the hardest. Attracting talent is a never ending exercise.  Read more...

There is a real disconnect between employers and employees on how they view social networks. A new study by Deloitte highlighted the following:  Read more...

• 53% of employees say their social networking pages are non of their employers’ business
• 40% of managers disagree, and 30% admit to informally monitor social networking sites
• 61% of employees say that even if employers are monitoring their social networking profiles or activities, they won’t change what they’re doing online

How organisations sell their ‘employer brand’ varies widely from one company to another.

A new study by Employer Brand Institute sheds further light on how different employers approach the selling of their ‘employer brand’. Asked to name the communication mediums to market their ‘employer brand’, in 2009, survey participants came up with a wide range of options (see graph).

There seems to be a real disconnect between what’s in vogue and the reality of what people think works, and are planning to invest in.   Read more...

At its core building an employment brand is about ‘respect’.

Respect for your career website visitors; respect for job seekers’ attention, time and intelligence; respect for potential staff who took the trouble to review your jobs, read about your company and give you the utmost honour by contemplating you as an employer. Respect for the fact that job seekers have other employment and career options.

Instead, companies regularly abused the ‘trust’ of the very people they need to win over.  Read more...

Last week, I attended an information session for post-graduate students held by my alma mater UTS, exploring if a PHD is a mountain I dare climb.

Information sessions conducted by universities are often slick marketing affairs aimed at winning new students. And UTS didn’t disappoint. From the day I received an invitation as part of my alumni club membership (How universities capitalise from their alumni network is a story for another day) to being entertained with drinks and food on the night of the event, the whole affair to recruit new students is a well oiled operation.  Read more...

Zdnet keeps track of staff layoffs in the IT industry. As usual stories of doom and gloom gets all the attention, however the current situation has little resemblance to the last tech bubble. Sure IT job vacancies have dropped, but history is unlikely to repeat itself, at least not just yet.  In 2002 the ICT vacancy Index stood at 100,  currently it stands at 208.7, a drop of 4.6% from last month but twice the number in 2002. By the way, SEEK lists 21,374 IT jobs waiting to be filled.   Read more...

Crazy John’s video on Youtube – A good example of employment branding done well.

Close to 62 million people visit Youtube daily.  What will visitors see, if they keyed in your company name?