Personal branding in its simplest form is the application of marketing principles and tactics to promote an individual as a ‘brand’, with the expectation of gaining visibility, recognition and better career prospects. Since Tom Peters coined the phrase ‘brand you’ in the late nineties, the concept of self-promotion has taken off significantly. Today, it’s hard not to encounter material on personal branding; a Google search alone returned thousands of links on the topic.

Two main things (amongst many) seems to drive the popularity of personal branding. Changing work norms and low employment tenure means that job seekers need to engage in self-promotion fairly regularly. Secondly, the tools to self-promote are readily available and becoming easier to use.

Our survey found that executives are highly aware of the concept of personal branding. The vast majority (90%) think that it is important to promote their personal brand as opposed to the company they worked for.

Q. How important is it to build and promote your own personal brand separate from your employer’s brand?

What will happen in a world where everyone indulge in self-promotion?

These are early days and it’s hard to figure out the implications, other than the fact that people are by nature interested in self-promotion and will continue to invest in building their ‘personal brand’. In this scenario, what works in social media’s favour is it provides the tools and the environment for self-promotion. Perhaps, job boards will be at a disadvantage because they are not really equipped to help job seekers beyond presenting them with employment opportunities.

What’s certain is the ability for someone to find someone else will be enhanced significantly. Given that our whole industry is about finding someone, the rising phenomena of ‘personal branding’ will impact all in ways we cannot yet fathom.

Here’s the latest ABS data on the distribution of the Australian workforce (refer table). Health Care industry is by far the largest employer. Sectors like mining, in spite of getting all the media attention, employs only 1.5% of the workforce. While the manufacturing sector, arguably a dying industry, is the fourth largest employer it’s clear that the Australia is predominantly a service economy. And that trend is likely to continue for years to come.

From a recruitment perspective, workforce data offer clues to what type of tools and strategy should be used. Taking stock of the size and distribution of the workforce is a good start.

If you are a recruiter, the best way to make sense of the national unemployment rate, which currently sits at 5.3%, is to ignore it. Well, not really. But the real meat of the unemployment story lies in regional data. Broken down by states, Tasmania and NSW lead the nation in unemployment numbers, while employers in states like NT and ACT are likely to struggle with recruiting the right staff (Refer chart. Source: ABS).

Factor in the health of regional economies and one can have a fairly good idea of how difficult finding new staff will be. Commonwealth Bank measured the economic prowess of the states using eight different criteria and ranked them as follows:  

1. WA
2. ACT
3. South Australia
4. Northern Territory
5. Victoria
6. Tasmania
7. Queensland
8. NSW

Unsurprisingly, where a state lagged in economic development the unemployment rate tends to be high. The best performing economies like WA and the ACT have unemployment rates much below the national average. 

If you are a recruiter, arguably there will be more demand per capita for your skills in states like WA and the ACT (From an agency perspective having a presence in growing states would make sense – demand is likely to be consistent and competition lesser.) Dig deeper and one can unearth other data like job vacancies, supply of workforce (broken down by industry), labour productivity and turnover rates. A discerning recruiter can interpret the above sets of data and have a clearer picture on how and where to distribute limited resources.

Recruiting is mostly local, so regional data is what matters. Having a good grasp of local data should be an essential task when planning a sourcing strategy; by all means it should precedes any tactical activity (and yes that includes social media).

Jeff Weiner, CEO of Linkedin, wants the company to be synonymous with ‘talent’ just as ‘Internet Search’ is for Google. In an interview with Techcrunch, he talks about past achievements and sheds light on future plans. Not surprisingly, Linkedin’s recruitment products are the largest and fastest growing part of the business. However, Jeff is careful to differentiate Linkedin from job boards. Here’s his take:

We are unique….Monster is all about jobs and that’s a component of what we do certainly, but Linkedin is not just about helping you find the best job, it’s about making you more successful, more productive in the job you are already in.…. ultimately we want to connect talent to opportunity. We want to do that on a massive scale and I don’t think that it has been done before……within a professional context we have an opportunity to completely change the game.

Membership has now reached 75 million, and if rumours of an impending IPO are proven real, it’s safe to assume that growth will accelerate further. When job boards first showed up, fear and loathing greeted them. Once the dust settled and it became clear that they added value to the sourcing function, objections subsided. Soon, the focus shifted to getting the best out of the new recruitment channel. Discussions revolves around cost and pricing. ‘What is the cheapest and most effective way I can use job boards’ was the prevailing mindset; a sign job boards have come of age. A week ago I spoke to a recruitment manager who just negotiated a deal with Linkedin. ‘It’s very expensive, but necessary’ he quipped.  Be prepared to see conversations shifting to the issue of pricing. The question is no longer about LinkedIn’s place and relevance as a recruitment tool, but more about how best to capitalise; a situation enjoyed by job boards in their heydays. It seems to me Linkedin is destined to have a permanent and prominent presence in the Australian recruitment landscape. What do you think?

A new report by Ipsos suggested that employees are becoming more loyal. According to the study, the majority (55%) of the 1022 Australians surveyed last month indicated they would remain loyal even if they get offered a higher pay elsewhere.  A similar study by Kelly Services in March (sample size of 20,000) found that 44% percent of respondents are ‘totally committed’ to their current employer.

The above two surveys are a departure from earlier studies on the same subject. SEEK’s Satisfaction & Motivation survey taken in September 2009 reported that 61% of the workforce are keeping their eyes open for new opportunities. Our own survey revealed that close to 77% of high-income earners are ready to leave their current employers if a better opportunity comes along. In our study, only 9% of senior executives declared loyalty to their current employer.

So, is loyalty increasing? Perhaps, pay conditions have improved and employees have more reasons to stay with their current employer. As unemployment rate dropped to 5.2% and the economy show signs of more recovery, it could well be that alarmed employers are on charm offensive and are having success with their retention strategies.

While the different surveys presented different employee sentiments, there’s no denying that a significant chunk of the workforce is always on the lookout for new opportunities. By default, 1 million Australians are perennially looking for the next gig. For those in permanent roles, the average work tenure is getting shorter. ABS reports that a majority 21% of the Australian workforce are in their current job for less than twelve months. Only 7% are in their current role for 10 or more years. The idea that an employee should commit to a particular employer is a mindset from a by-gone era. Changing social mores, work styles and attitudes to employment, and economic fluctuations will ensure that employee churn will be a permanent fixtures in most organisations.

Expecting and preparing in advance for workplace churn is the best way recruiters can help insulate the organisation against risks.