I recently caught up with two old friends who I hadn’t seen for a while. One was a top-performing graduate who is now a successful lawyer in a prestigious law firm. The other is a rising star within one of the world’s biggest IT companies, who has just back from a year’s secondment overseas.

Having expected an evening filled with success stories about promotions, bonuses and exciting challenges, I was shocked to hear that they had both walked away from their jobs. In short, their work and employer no longer matched their expectations, needs and values.

They were disillusioned that the traditional career paths and rigid organisational cultures were not allowing them to influence the direction of the business, develop their career and work in a way that suited them. They are not alone.

From Google to Goldman Sachs, top talent is taking flight to find an environment that is better suited to their career aspirations and personal values. And many of them are slamming the door behind them by sharing their reasons for leaving.

If the ‘War for Talent’ was about beating off competitors to attract and retain top talent, the immediate battle is getting your talent behind the brand – so they do not become the enemy within or leave on bad terms.

Technology has enabled and empowered talented people, by removing the dependency on their current employer. Private and working lives have merged, and they are ‘always on’ not by necessity but by choice. In a connected age, fulfilment and stimulation is as much about participation and making connections in your professional network, as it is within the organisational border.

Talent is no longer dazzled by a successful brand, linear career opportunities or six-figure salaries. More than ever before, talented people know their own worth and they want more from the employment deal. They want the freedom and flexibility that technology offers, they want to see that they can influence the direction of the organisation and they want to feel connected with the leadership.

Leaders of the future need to embrace their talent as allies, instead of a commodity. Asking about and understanding their needs, is a significant step towards building the kind of culture in which talent will thrive. It is about building a culture of engagement – that creates a path to individual and collective success!

For more thoughts on developing a culture of engagement – contact Annette Frem, Practice Leader afrem@hodes.co.uk – +44 (0) 79 214 98 314.

The human race is literally spewing out information. From what one has for breakfast to what you bought from Amazon to what went down in ‘Magaluuuufff!’, the digital sphere is alive with the jetsam and flotsam of our conversations, thoughts, behaviours, shopping trips, ratings, rants, feelings, fantasies, worries, grief, doodles, likes, loves and even insights.

It is estimated that more information has been produced in the last decade than in the whole history of mankind. The recent McKinsey Big Data report spelt out the mass of data now becoming available to us, the need to capture, analyse and interpret, and how globally we may need some 1.5 million new analysts to help us through the statistical quagmire.

As we each leave a digital footprint, so organisations are trying to look at the stats and put in place some hard measures about what we do, why we do it, and what could drive our behaviour in the future. This is the art of predictive modelling.

Take this approach to recruitment, and there is the potential to save businesses money and time in finding, engaging and converting the right talent. You can get data from a vast array of sources – web sites, applicant tracking systems, job boards, tracking software, social media monitoring, mobiles, surveys; and it can be sliced and diced to look at sources, geographies, time spent, actions taken, reputation, followers, fall-out, pipeline, network,…

Armed with this information, we can target and engage people more effectively than ever before. For example, here at Hodes we have helped one of our clients save more than 40% year on year on their recruitment spend with tracking and optimisation by using great analysis and tools. We even use something that will serve different messages until it finds the one that gets the best possible responses.

That’s the science part. Here’s where imagination and innovation take over. Some of the most successful marketing campaigns throw out traditions and trends, and hit consumers and candidates with the unexpected and even the unfathomable. That’s how we got aliens making mashed potato, meerkats selling insurance and matadors promoting KPMG careers.

Yes, make the very most of every piece of data at your disposal. Just don’t lose that magic dust.

As the UK’s double-dip back into recession dampens hopes of recovery, it’s worth reflecting on one of few positives to emerge from five years of economic gloom – the growing freelance economy.

While the financial crisis caused a lot of downsizing and public sector cuts, it also shifted the economy towards a more flexible labour model that benefits business and talent.

Instead of taking the risk on a permanent appointment, many employers are offering interim and contract roles to provide additional resource at the busiest times of year; fill short-term gaps; or bring in specialist skills that can’t be found or justified in a full-time role.

As a result, the freelance or ‘gig economy’ is buoyant. Recent CIPD research  (Work Audit: The rise in self-employment January 2012) showed that since 2008 more than 300,000 people in the UK have declared as self-employed – off-setting 40% of total UK job losses.

Self-employed people now make up 14.2% of the UK workforce, offering business flexible skills on demand and workers the ability to choose how, when and with whom they work.

Working your way

While many are freelancing out of necessity, an increasing number of workers – particularly in creative professions – are choosing to work flexibly to suit their preferred lifestyle.

If the challenge is securing enough work, the reward is a chance to take on a variety of briefs that is rarely available in a single full-time role. They decide what work to pursue and how to develop as professionals.

Many freelancers are developing specialist skills that sit outside business-as-usual competencies, they are working with a variety of people and taking on a range of challenges. While that might not reflect the reality for many freelancers, it’s the kind of career experience talented people want.

Fulfilling careers

For all employers, recognising that freelancing is an attractive and increasingly viable option should be something of a wake-up call. Competition to secure the best talent – on permanent and temporary contracts – is intensifying, not least because social media is making talent and opportunities more visible.

Among the many ways organisations can attract and engage talent is to consider how their employment deal compares with the freelance alternative. Talented people want to be stimulated by fresh challenges and exposed to a variety of learning experiences, so how can you recreate those conditions within your organisation? After all, if job-security is the main benefit of your employment deal, what kind of talent will you retain and attract?

Career mobility is important for talent to thrive, and it can be achieved within the organisation by offering creative career development pathways including internal mobility, secondments, rotations or mentorships. Even if those opportunities are not practical, a culture of mobility can be supported by knowledge sharing, social learning and versatile learning and development frameworks.

There’s more to life

Equally important is the recognition that there’s more to life to work. The attraction of freelancing is working in a way that suits your lifestyle – balancing the demands of a career and parenthood, or perhaps toil and leisure. Employers that offer flexible or remote working, and are willing to accommodate career breaks at key times in life, are more likely to retain experienced talent and attract high-performing professional women who ‘want it all’. Those that don’t may find themselves strengthening the competition or even creating new competitors in the freelance market.

Shifts in the labour market suggest we are moving towards a future where everyone – even full-time employees – will operate as freelancers, going wherever the challenge is to develop their skills and add value. That can only be a good thing for employees and those employers that are able to attract, engage and retain the best talent.

What do you think? Are we moving to an age where we are all freelancers?

A great event at Nomura offices on Angel Lane, London, to discuss women on the board of FTSE companies and the Third Sector. The keynote speaker was the Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Theresa May MP. This was prior to LOL-gate, so no embarrassing moments there.

What did I take away? Amanda MacKenzie, Group Marketing Officer for Aviva, who was a key participant in the Davies Report, talked about how to improve the pathway for women to board level. Specifically, for her, there are three key drivers:

• Cultural change
• Momentum
• Compound effect of all measures

She focused on the progress made in recent times, such as 1 in 4 appointments in the last 12 months to FTSE 100 boards have been women. Interestingly, she also thanked those head-hunters that had signed up to the Voluntary Code – albeit only 26!

So things are changing. But the suspicion remains not quick enough – and a lot of the debate afterwards was how much the cultural change has happened – or not.

• Should there be quotas? For some, yes. For others, is it counter cultural?
• If policy drives behaviour, what drives belief?
• Is there too much focus on women on boards, especially as most boards tend to be five to eight people? Would we not be better focusing on the senior management population as a whole?
• As Gen Y-ers tend to be more open to open and multi-cultural in outlook, they question why so much regulation and policy needs to be in place. Shouldn’t this just be part of the organisational DNA?

Interestingly in comparing the FTSE 100 to the Charity Leaders Index, there are some similarities and some differences. 15% of FTSE100 Directors are women; 32% of the Charity Leaders Index are women. But if you look beyond the large charities, this percentage falls significantly. So perhaps the Third Sector has similar challenges to FTSE companies. But whereas people may understand what a Director of a FTSE does; there seemed to be a real perception issue about being a Trustee of a charity. “It doesn’t mean having to go round collecting money.”

More than anything else, I came away thinking that cultural change is possibly the most fundamental factor in creating a more balanced workforce. Question is, how many organisations are really willing to take such a wholesale approach?

For thousands of years, people have surrounded themselves with content that is relevant and personal to them. We make choices about the books we read, the people we are friends with, the places we go. The challenge for anyone is how we challenge ourselves, question our outlook and push ourselves to think and act in ways that enrich our lives and the lives of others.

Today the internet is dominated by permission-based marketing. You chose X, so you’re bound to like Y. You’re from A, so you probably want to go to B. You like this, so you’d naturally love that. Of course, analysts tell us that groups of us act in similar ways, and the art of sales and marketing is to be able to target groups of similar interests and behaviours and give them what they (probably) want.

But what about what they need? This is very much the role of friends, colleagues, teachers, publishers, even priests – the people with the sensibility and insight to challenge a view, to throw in an opinion, to suggest a book or film that they may have never considered before. Here is the power of intelligent and trusted connections – not to confirm what you know, but to help you question your assumptions, to suggest and recommend new experiences, and help you explore new lines of intellectual enquiry.

Today, the ability to question and challenge, to inform and inspire comes from far beyond the four walls of one’s working environment. That is why it’s important for organisations continually to embrace new thinking. Where should that thinking come from? Traditionally it has come from a few external consultants, sometimes new hires, often individual networking but predominately the senior leadership. In a world of social media, those intelligent connections can now be spread far and wide.

Such an approach not only drives collaboration and innovation in an organisation; it shows to suppliers, stakeholders, potential hires and of course customers that the organisation lives its values rather than simply puts them on a board in reception. So why then do organisations still have Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter turned off? Why is innovation either driven or controlled by leadership? How do organisations provide an outlet for people internally and externally to contribute, learn and share more widely?

Big questions, perhaps. But so many can be linked to The Deal organisations have with colleagues and candidates. If a central principle is empowerment, this should be reflected in the social media policy. If another is collaboration or teamwork, there should be the tools or process to make this a reality. Otherwise, are you guilty of living in a bubble? It’s called the organisation.

Further reading:
An insight into the world of employer branding and the employer brand deal, a two-way deal between an organisation and its people.
Our employer branding case study for ABB.

Translated from Poland’s most admired HR Magazine (Personel i Zarządzanie).

Employer branding is nowadays very popular in Poland but most companies recognise it as the synonym of recruitment marketing. What is different between these two concepts?

The concept of the employer brand allows organisations to consider what their brand stands for to a vital stakeholder audience – past, present and future employees. And given that many organisations are reporting that their ability to recruit and retain talent is pivotal to their business, getting to understand and manage your employer brand is today fast becoming a critical business activity. The employer brand is best thought about in two parts – firstly, what the proposition is at the heart of the employer brand – the deal between the organisation and its people – and then secondly how that deal plays out in practice across the lifecycle of the employee in the organisation – from candidate to alumni. Sadly the rush to “package” employer brands often results in an emphasis on recruitment communications and not enough time and attention on how effectively the brand is being lived within the organisation.

During your speech at the HR Congress in Warsaw you stressed the necessity of surveying the employer image before the phase of strategy development. Why is this analysis so important?

I have referenced the “deal”. One of the key roots of the employer brand concept is in the psychological contract. When people “buy” the product called “job” they have expectations and so has the organisation that puts the product call “job” on sale. There is deal struck between both parties – some of how that deal plays out is written but also much is unwritten. When you carry out employer brand research with employees and prospective employees you are looking to uncover what is important in this deal for all parties, how that changes outside looking in and inside looking out given the perceptions of importance and relative strength of the employer. This is vital to understand the deal and its dynamics in action. Only by doing this can the organisation start to ask the question of whether their employer brand is working for their business strategy – is it attracting and retaining the talent needed to meet their goals?

And what about employee satisfaction or engagement surveys? Are their results not enough?

Unfortunately most engagement surveys do not ask the questions you need to understand the entirety of the deal – well constructed new hire and exit interviews are often a far better source of insight. Of course you also need to understand what the perspective on the deal is from those who you would like to hire – it is vital to get the “outside looking in” intelligence. And finally you need the context of your competitor set – and by that I mean the talent competitor set and not simply market/sector competition. The relativity of your deal is also a vital component in understanding and managing your employer brand.

Today a lot is said about the different needs of the Y and Z generations. How does it look like in your business practice? Should these generations’ differences influence the choice of employer branding tools?

Understanding the views, needs and preferences of your talent audiences is vital and as I have already said the right original research and then ongoing tracking should give you this. Yes there are differences between generations and lots has been research and written about this. However when it comes to the key criteria for selection an employer globally there are some consistent results whatever the generation – compensation/reward and career development consistently rise to the top – sometimes development first and sometimes reward first. However in recent times not surprisingly “stable and secure” has started to come through, something that was less important five years ago, and also “international opportunity” too, particularly for the Generation Y and Z audiences in certain economies. When it comes to the “how” of employer brand activation, there is no doubt that Generations Y and Z naturally turn to digital proof points. But don’t be fooled. We often say “people join brands and leave managers”. The real acid test of any employer brand is in the behaviours of line management – and no manner of tools, digital or otherwise, is a substitute for that.

What is your opinion of the popularity of social media? Is it justifiable?

Social media is now a vital channel to understanding and managing your employer brand. Whether you are tracking feedback on your employer reputation on sites like Glass Door or building your own social media hub to engage graduates like Barclays, it is pivotal. All brands are about relationships and today social media channels are where brand relationships are being formed, developed and tested. But you cannot tinker – you have to be serious, you have to have a strategy for your social media approach and it has to be part of and integrated within a wider brand management approach.

The confusion around the value of ‘social media’ stems from the fact that the term is used to refer to both the tools and how they are used. Many clients and agencies simply focus on delivering the same propositions on social media platforms that they do in other channels and end up disappointed. There also tends to be an (incorrect) assumption that social media is the playground of young people, which tends to blur the focus on what is trying to be achieved. The true potential in social media lies in using the platforms to enhance the way you work – whether that be generating new ideas; reaching and engaging with broader communities; gaining deeper insight or extending service channels.

We have shown with a number of clients how powerful this can be: for a small global client, we used social media internally to communicate and gain buy-in to a complex global change proposition. The response rate and level of engagement across the world was staggering, with over 94% of employees sharing their thoughts and ideas. For another client, we used social media to launch a recruitment drive in the UK. Again the results were impressive – significant reduction in attraction costs, a higher quality pipeline of talent and most importantly higher quality employees.

We continue to remain passionate advocates of the power of social media to humanise brands and have spent a lot of time this year helping clients set out the right structure to get the best out of what social media offers. The appetite is there. Whether organisations can make the leap to achieving its true potential remains to be seen.

What employer branding tools are the most effective today?

(I am interpreting this in the “activation” sense)
Recent research has shown that digital touch-points are being given the most attention when it comes to brand activation, and in particular organisations’ careers sites. However this is falling back into the “recruitment only” trap of employer brand activation. Again and again we see that not enough time and attention is being put into the “transition” stage from defining the organisation’s employer brand to the “go live” aspects of activation. The best brands are built “inside out” and therefore time and effort needs to go into activation planning and in particular into building internal understanding and appreciation of the employer brand. We create for many clients comprehensive toolkits – now typically on line – to explain the development of that organisation’s employer brand and how it should be presented in various communication formats, particularly to help the “super users”– typically HR. These aids to understanding and educating the organisation about the employer brand are critical – and not just for the super users but for the managers who will ultimately be the test of the reality of deal for employees. In fact you will be undermining your employer brand if you are “window dressing” the careers site at the expense of ensuring you live up to the deal for new recruits!

During the financial crisis companies have no problems with the recruitment of employees. Don’t you think that employer branding is something extravagant in these times? Wouldn’t it be better to postpone these activities for better times?

Managing your employer brand is not a “fair weather” activity. It is anchored in the engagement of people and the importance of that transcends any economic climate. Whilst the current climate might be making some people hesitant to move jobs and fuelling the appeal of employer stability, the failure to understand and manage your employer brand will undoubtedly store up major problems for the future. The argument that it is not for tough times is also wrapped up in the notion that to manage our employer brand is costly. It does not need to be. It is about a mindset that needs to start with leadership who value employer reputation and an appreciation that real employer brand thinking is couched in the strategic management of culture.

How do you convince the board of directors that employer branding is something valuable for the organisation and a good investment?

Research has shown that this is one of the toughest challenges for those who want to launch employer brand projects within their organisations. One of the reasons is that unfortunately there are few examples of best practice with solid supporting metrics. In our book we reference the work of the Royal Bank of Scotland, recognised by Harvard as best in class when it comes to the measurement of human capital. They have demonstrated a clear link between the employer brand performance of their branches and customer satisfaction. Yet many organisations are still reporting that finding and keeping the right talent is business critical. Whether you build your business case on the basis of the “service profit chain” or on the ticket of “resourcing and retention”, getting the right stakeholder support is key – HR, marketing/brand and/or corporate communications all need to be on board as they need to collaborate to activate an employer brand program. The other key strand in many business cases today is the need to change perceptions- for example a public sector business now positioning itself as a private sector employer – or the need to appeal across cultures and geographies, particularly in the high growth economies of Asia and South America.

How do you recognise a good employer branding campaign? What are the criteria for a good employer branding campaign?

I have touched a lot on employer brand measurement and the case for employer branding. When it comes to a campaign this is just a strand of activation – whether internal or external. The judgement of success has got to rise above the subjectivity of creative – despite awards won! – and to the behaviours any campaign drives – so internally that could be advocacy of the organisation as an employer, engagement and retention scores and externally that could be quality of speculative applications to the organisation. Too many organisations get excited about rankings on “best employer” lists around the worlds. Some of these lists are purely down to the view of internal employees – so missing that external dimension – and those that are external are more about awareness rather than demonstrating clarity of understanding of just what an organisation stands for as an employer.

Download the original employer brand article from Poland’s HR magazine (Personel i Zarządzanie) in Polish.

Published in the CIPD’s insights’ section, our contribution to: “Innovation is HR’s business and if not it should be – 5 expert opinions”

In Linda Gratton’s superb book Hot Spots, her research reveals that innovative value in organisations is created through a combination of four elements, one of which is about people with the right skills, capabilities and mindset working together in a highly co-operative way. She argues that co-operation is not simply the combination of intellectual and emotional capital – but requires social capital too. This is defined as the depth and extent of relationships between people and the energy released as a result. If you have not read the book I can heartily recommend it and I buy her argument. But is this all down to HR? No – not directly. This is about having a particular culture – a deeply co-operative and integrated one – and the people who set the tone for culture of course are leadership. But as much of the CIPD research of recent years has shown, HR professionals should be equipped and want to play a pivotal role in the strategic management of corporate culture. And there is an obvious starting point of course – HR as a Hot Spot in its own right!

Helen Rosethorn - CEO – Bernard Hodes Group

I have never owned an Audi. But I’d love to. Why? Ads tell me how beautifully made the cars are, owners and journalists tell me how reliable they are, certain models have won awards, friends say how much they love their Audi, and when I did a test-drive, I understood what all the fuss was about. Although I still haven’t bought one, still I receive promotions and invites. Because one day…

Move along the marketing spectrum to the world of recruitment, and there is a very different relationship with the audience. Recruitment has relied on a transactional process rather than building brand affinity. The candidate is often viewed as a commodity – and traded as such. Speaking to one of the largest recruitment consultancies in the UK, and their mantra is about owning the candidate.

Of course, the world is changing – and people are more self-determining in their career choices. But many recruiters and organisations still act in a very linear fashion. While our audience will grab information and be influenced by content, opinion and reputation in all manner of places and over a sustained period of time, there’s still an over-reliance on candidates making an impulse decision.

Impulse decisions are rarely good ones. Last year, one company reported that 84% of candidates coming from job boards failed even to apply. They were simply trawling the job boards for anything remotely relevant. Compare that to the experience of a leading blue-chip company that found that sustained engagement on social media reduced applications and improved quality, and a clear picture starts to emerge.

There’s a need to complement candidate sourcing with content-led strategies. Be where candidates are. Help build awareness and consideration. And create a brand affinity that makes the very best want to work for you. Because one day…

We were celebrating with good reason, too. After all, we picked up the Best Graduate Website award for our digital work with Barclays RBB – quite an achievement in a category where there was some strong competition.

That’s not where the good news ended, either. In addition to Barclays, several of our other clients received recognition for their excellence within graduate recruitment. British Airways walked away with the award for most popular graduate recruiter in the logistics, transport and supply chain sector, KPMG were named graduate employer of the year, and there was special (and extremely well-deserved) recognition for Donna Miller, European HR Director for Enterprise Rent-a-Car, acknowledging her huge contribution to graduate recruitment down the years.

All in all, a great night was had by all.

Once again students were asked ‘Which employer do you think offers the best opportunities for graduates?’ – so it’s simply a question of perception. Last year, Apple swooped straight in at number 53 and this year jumped to 27, but is this because of a strong recruitment message or its position as the world’s most valuable brand (according to the Global 500)?

The High-Flyer Season, between February and March, sees a peak in big bang campus interaction for employers as the Times Top 100 survey begins to circulate. The flurry of activity obviously brings cleverly-marketed brands to the forefront of students’ minds, which begs the question – if the survey was conducted at random times throughout the year would we get the same results? And as more employers recognise the importance of targeting the early years, we think there is value in gathering the views of first and second years as well as final year students.

Many of the Times Top 10 are leading brands that focus their activity on top-tier university campuses. But are they missing out? The talent pool in universities outside the top tier offer a less-tapped source that might ultimately bring fresh perspectives, expertise and diversity to an organisation.

Around 60,000 copies of the Times Top 100 directory are distributed each year. And thousands of students register with the website, making this a strong brand-building exercise that could sway wavering minds. But what about the many organisations outside the list? There are other valuable ranking systems, which take a more detailed look at students’ expectations and their foreknowledge of employers. Most students aren’t concerned or experienced enough to question the methodology behind how each ranking is compiled — they just look at the results. It would be interesting to see which rankings are seen as the most valuable amongst the student and graduate populations.

Today, many organisations’ biggest challenge is often not filling places but attracting quality applicants in the first place. To do this, a strategic, long-term approach is crucial.

Organisations must attract and retain the talent they need to meet their goals. We recommend consistent on-campus activity throughout the academic year, which focuses on educating students about the organisation and its expectations of employees. One of the ways to do this is by building relationships with key stakeholders in HE, to ensure that as many on-campus touch points as possible are covered.

We look at who an employer is trying to attract and then develop the best possible solution that considers the what, when and how, so that we can find innovative ways of targeting within a broader future talent pool. We are currently helping Enterprise-Rent-A-Car’s regional recruiters by running workshops which equip them with the right tools to work effectively on campus and as such result in ROI for them as a business.

Attracting graduates that fit your business strategy means you’ll work smarter as an organisation and perform better through your people.