The War for Talent: Branding 101 to the Rescue
Employers who grasp the connection between marketing techniques and talent attraction stand to gain the upper hand. Strong brands know who they are and engender consumer loyalty by living a life of alignment. This helps consumers know what they stand for and understand how to interact with them. To illustrate the point, let’s use the McDonald’s brand. No one would walk into a McDonald’s restaurant in search of a spaghetti dinner. Nor would we sit down at one of their molded plastic tables and expect wait staff to arrive with an order pad. We know McDonald’s for what their brand is: speed, a fairly consistent menu across geographies, and a standard ordering process that begins at the cash register. [ go]

The Myth of the Unique Employment Proposition
Is there such a thing as a completely unique employment brand? Perhaps if you are the White House, Disneyland or Google. Most employers, however, struggle to determine what is truly unique about them that can attract candidates who have many choices. Healthcare organizations describe themselves as “caring” places, where “you can make a difference.” Companies tell us that it’s all about “collaboration,” where your colleagues “feel like family.” Others speak in general terms about “career growth and opportunity.” How do you cut through the clichés and create something memorable and enticing to candidates, especially when you may not have one startlingly unique attribute to advertise? Consider the following: [ go]

The Zappos Story: How Creating a Corporate Culture Drives Recruitment and Business Development Objectives
If there is one company whose outlook and understanding of corporate culture impresses me, it is Zappos. What started as an online shoe retailer with an aim of providing the widest selection of footwear, later became a full-line clothing and merchandise provider with an annual revenue of over 1 billion USD. Their revised goal was to provide exceptional customer service to prompt repeat business. This has become their recipe for success. [ go]

Employer Branding and Social Media -- If You Build It They Will Come
Once upon a time (sometime around 2005), most companies had mastered the art of using online tools to promote their products or services. Their websites were primarily focused on business activities and while some banner advertising and basic search engine optimization helped advertise their business on the web, it did little to promote the company brand to potential recruits. For that companies posted opportunities on their websites and possibly advertised them on Albertajobcentre.ca or other job seeker sites. [ go]

You are what Google says you are
On average, people do 22 Google searches per day, each lasting about 11 seconds. Google has replaced encyclopaedias, directories and even ‘Mom’ in many cases (don’t tell her I said that) as the go-to resource for seeking answers. So it should come as no surprise that when people want to find out more about what kind of company yours is to work for, they ask Google. [ go]

Not just a pretty face. Give your brand a little personality.
Social media is all about transparency. This can be a good thing! It’s a great opportunity for your company to share what it’s really like to work there, and show off the personality of your brand and your people. So how can you highlight the personality of your staff, and the environment of your company on sites like Facebook? [ go]

Employer branding the Web 2.0 way
Employer branding means involving employees in the communication and characterization of a company’s brand. Many companies have moved employer branding into the world of social media and “Web 2.0”. [ go]

Winning the War
Over the past decade, employment branding has increasingly become the critical issue for human resources thought leaders. Recently, the buzz has become almost deafening, although the concept itself is only vaguely understood by many. [ go]

Focus Groups: 7 Steps to Defining your Unique Employment Brand
To determine the parameters of a distinctive employment brand, it’s necessary to undergo a comprehensive evaluation process. This includes analyzing previous results, setting goals, defining a possible employment brand, substantiating the employment brand proposition and, possibly, conducting a focus group. [ go]

Attract and Retain Top Talent
2010 Opportunities Push Lower Mainland Companies To Re-evaluate Their Ability To Attract & Retain Top Talent [ go]

Employer branding using employee branding
Employer branding, the darling of the human resources marketing machine, now includes employee branding. [ go]

Being an Employer of Choice
Every employer wants to be considered an employer of choice given today’s shrinking labour force and employee shortages. This is a fancied-up way of saying that the company is a great place to work. [ go]

The next frontier in the war for Canada’s talent
A positive and successful employer brand leads to greater retention and recruitment of top-notch employees and results in overall higher company productivity. Now let’s talk about the next step... [ go]

Benefits of employer branding
Employer branding helps companies attract and retain high performing employees. If your company wants to succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace, leveraging employer branding may help. [ go]

The Four Ps of Hiring: HR Takes a Lesson from Marketing
Every independent business owner knows that competing against the big boys for top talent has always been tough contest to win. With their well-recognized brands and rich benefits packages, large companies seem naturally to have what it takes to attract and retain great employees. [ go]

Keeping It Real
I recently got an email from a friend working for a company newly ranked on Maclean’s magazine’s “Canada’s Top 100 Employers” list: “Who were they comparing us to – federal penitentiaries? [ go]

Building an Internal Brand
While recently on a trip down in the US, I was asked to participate in a taste test for Coke vs. Pepsi. Really… taste tests are still around. And this got me thinking about branding and how HR can make a difference to a corporate brand. [ go]

Wikipedia & Your Employer Reputation
Yes, yes, Wikipedia is not exactly the latest technology, but it still delivers on providing the latest information on anything, including your organization and its reputation as an employer. [ go]