Thinking differently. Working differently. Leading differently.

As my graduation from UWM approaches, my focus has shifted to starting a career, so I was pleased to attend the recent Women Leadership Conference 2010 hosted by UWM’s School of Continuing Education. Several key thoughts resonated with me as I prepare to enter the full-time business world and build my career.

Chief HR Officer at Xerox and keynote speaker, Pat Nazemetz spoke of the paradigm shift in characteristics required for leadership in the new workplace, the new workforce and the new economy. “Workforce 2020 will be driven by agile, “right brain,” big-picture types who will use these characteristics to lead and inspire a more diverse and complex workforce in a dynamic economy.” Pat asked the audience of 300 plus women what they thought was the most important quality in a leader: intelligence, teamwork, vision, courage or empathy. Surprisingly, intelligence was the least chosen response. With intelligence deemed a given, courage and vision were chosen as the most important qualities of a successful leader. As the workforce changes, the qualities needed to lead will change.

Pat’s key next generation leadership characteristic, courage, is in line with the theme I heard throughout the conference – dare to do things differently. Here are some other points I heard:

• Take smart, calculated risks. Step out from the rest of the pack.
• Continually seek ways to re-invent yourself as an on-going life management skill.
• Look for more answers from more people (mentor and be mentored).
• Find a leadership style that you feel comfortable in.

As a leader at every level in my career, these are all valuable points to remember whether treading new waters or covering familiar ground. We look forward to hearing the powerful stories and insights of next year’s speakers at the Women Leaders Conference 2011. You can follow the leadership conversation and conference updates on the UWM SCE website or WIWomenLeaders Twitter, Linked In or Facebook pages.

What Do Women Want? TO SUCCEED

On Friday, April 30, 2010, it will not be business as usual on the UW-Milwaukee campus. The UWM School of Continuing Education will be hosting the 2010 Women Leaders Conference. Pat Nazemetz, Chief HR Officer at Xerox Corporation, will be the featured keynote speaker among other successful businesswomen who will speak on preparing for the future face of the changing workforce.

Sharing Learning with the International Association of Business Communicators

Mary Dingeldein, Human Resource Director, and Dee Johnson, Account Group Director, VersantWorks, spoke to members of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) on Wednesday, September 23, in Madison, Wisconsin. Their topic was How to Create a Performance-focused Culture through World 2.0 Communication Strategies. 

About the program– Focusing employees on achieving results has never been more important than it is today. This learning session helps participants gain an understanding of how to create and foster a workplace culture that builds and sustains commitment from high-performing talent.

Additional details can be found on the IABC Web Site http://madison.iabc.com/meetings.htm

You Don’t Know Me

I have never talked to your recruiters.

I have never sent you my resume.

I don’t hang out on your Facebook fan page.

I don’t know anyone who works at your company.

In fact, I have never even heard of your company.

Yet, I’m a perfect fit for your hiring needs.

And I would excel in your culture.

So, how will you find me?

Can you believe it? I actually think YOU have to find me.

I guess you don’t know me and never will.

An Emerging Double Standard in Business Communications

You find yourself on the phone with a prospect, or maybe it’s a face-to-face meeting with a client, or networking at an event or trade show. In each of these situations the expectations across any organization are likely to be pretty consistent and clear; at that moment you are the organization, so represent it in the best possible manner. Every day millions of professionals, across a broad array of industries and skill sets, are trusted to do just that.

Seems pretty straight forward, but why is it that this level of trust is not always so easily transferred to the social media space? The trust and related freedom to share insights, discuss an idea, or talk about a service provided by your organization that is common place in the “real world” can suddenly come under a microscope of perceived marketing perfection. Fear of a documented misstep and the desire to put out only the best, most aligned messages, drives rules, processes and approvals that take the “social” out of social media and make it just another marketing channel.

Certainly, as representatives of our organizations, we must always put our best foot forward. But a key step in leveraging the benefits of social media is recognizing that in many ways the perceived control risks are not much different than the risks all business take when engaging in a discussion with a prospect or client. Developing social media policy is a sound business decision, but ensure that it empowers your associates to engage in the conversation, and start to put the power of social media to work for your organization.

What do you think? Should organizations take the risk of trusting their employees more in social media?

Generation Now

Versant was part of a generational marketing presentation recently at a local high school. Our goal was to talk to the kids about the differences in the various generations and how to communicate to each group. Millennials, Gen X and Boomers were represented. I had the privilege of speaking for Gen X. Talk about feeling old! The students all looked at me like I was from the prehistoric age. But, they were all very respectful and seemed eager to hear what we had to say — except for the kid way in the back who seemed to be sleeping with his eyes open.

I haven’t stepped foot in a high school for many, many years. With the exception of the metal detector I had to pass through on my way in, I was surprised to see that so much had stayed the same since my days as a directionless, nervous kid. Although technology and teaching methods have developed drastically, I saw many of the same looks on the faces, heard many of the same types of conversations in the classroom, and felt much of the same uncertainty and angst in the halls.

I learned in my brief visit, that times have changed, the tools we use to communicate have developed, and new generational categories have been created to help us figure out who we are and why we do what we do. These students, in many ways, were the same as the generations that walked these halls before them. They had a desire to learn, share information and feel valued — something many of us have in common — even those of us from the prehistoric age.

Although the similarities were apparent, and somewhat reassuring, there was one glaring difference between these students and the kids I used to walk the halls with — the speed and frequency in which they communicate with each other and the rest of the world. It’s important to realize that connecting to this group requires adapting how you communicate to help bridge the gap into their multichannel, multitasking world.

Five Signs Your Employee L&D Offerings Need Branding

1. Employees think your L&D offerings are irrelevant to their careers.
2. Participation is low or required.
3. Employees confuse L&D with training (someone once told me dogs are trained, not people).
4. Your company is headed into “do more with less people” territory.
5. Employees fail to perceive L&D as an added perk to their compensation (or more broadly, their employment experience).

Think about how your employees currently perceive your organization’s L&D offerings – where it comes from, what they call it, what it looks like and what it feels like. Are your L&D communications organized around a defined brand identity that supports your employee value proposition? You will find your L&D brand is a reinforcing example of your Employer Brand and can be leveraged to drive successful employee engagement, retention, recruiting and onboarding.

Break away from misperception, confusion and clutter. Take control of your L&D brand.

- Korre Johnson

A Haiku on Employer Branding

I am fascinated by the choices employers make in deciding how much they want to engage the outside world in their internal employee experiences, especially as innovative Web 2.0 technologies make this easier and easier to do. Reflecting on this, I took some time to write a haiku and focus my thoughts:

Windows let light in
Both open and closed, you choose
A brand in light shines

Many employers follow a path of providing trust-me-I-am-telling-you-the-truth-about-what-it’s-really-like-to-work-here communications to candidates. Others go further, offering employee photography, videos and testimonials to serve as windows into their organizational culture. But other employers go even further, promoting two-way interaction that strengthens their Employer Brands by fostering relationships between candidates and their brands. Blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn offer real opportunities for two-way conversations to develop. They are tools for opening windows.

So I ask, how many windows do you have? Are they open or closed?

- Korre Johnson

If You Want to Make a Splash, Start Swimming

Tell me, what is the best kept secret about why people love working at your company? Now tell me, why is it a secret?

Some employers continue to struggle in their efforts to develop recruitment marketing strategies that communicate their unique employment experiences. Why? Because it is harder than the alternative, which is to simply fill your recruitment marketing copy with general statements like “we are passionate about our employees,” or “we value teamwork,” and my favorite, “our employees are the reason for our continued success.” Really?

As long as your recruitment marketing copy looks and feels like this, or should I say, like everyone else’s, you will continue to compete with everyone else. Assuming you’d rather position your company apart from the competition, the best thing you can do is to identify those things that make your employment experience unique and invest in telling those stories to candidates. For example…

Don’t just tell me you’re passionate. Tell me something passionately.

Don’t just tell me you value teamwork. Show me your employees working together as a team.

Don’t just tell me your employees are the reason for your success. Let your employees tell me in their own words how they make an impact at work.

As an employer, it’s ok to take a few risks and put yourself out there, warts and all, for candidates to see. Remember, these are windows of opportunity for candidates to distinguish you from the competition. After all, trying to get noticed by being the same as everyone else is a tough game, with few winners.

- Korre Johnson

Accelerate Your Employer Brand Through Shared Experiences

It’s a fact, people talk. Employees talk. Candidates talk. But many employers seem to overlook this, which translates into missed opportunities to extend the reach of their Employer Brands. The secret is to create and leverage experiences as part of your Employer Branding efforts that candidates and employees can share with peers in their social and professional networks. Often times, these are the unseen, passive candidates that you want and need to reach.

For example, why give an employee cash as an employee referral reward when you could reward her with a set of concert tickets or roundtrip airfare tickets? Why give a campus recruiting candidate an iPod during the interviewing process when you could pay for a game of paint ball with his friends or a set of tickets to a comedy club?

The point here is to create positive experiences that can be shared with multiple people at once. You’ll find the shared experience you create will also carry your Employer Brand into the networks of each of the participants as they tell their friends about the baseball game they attended thanks to your relationship with a key employee or candidate they know. And with the rising popularity of Facebook and MySpace, just think how quickly and far word can spread.

Create these opportunities to extend the reach of your Employer Brand through social and professional networks. In the end, you’ll discover your Employer Branding efforts have a much greater impact when you leverage our common human appreciation for sharing time with friends.

- Korre Johnson

How to Fail at Employer Branding

Your recruiters can talk all day about how great it is to work at your company, but is it just talk? Your marketing department can design a beautiful brochure that describes how exciting your career opportunities are, but is it just a handful of paper? What proof are you offering job seekers to support your claims? If you’re long on talk, but short on evidence, you’re missing the key to Employer Branding success.

Too often organizations attempt to actively manage their Employer Brands but fail to incorporate recruitment marketing strategies that authenticate their promise to candidates. Simply put, prove what you say. Job seekers are faced with a tremendous amount of marketing spin from employers that all promise great places to work with exciting career opportunities. To be successful, you must substantiate your Employer Brand promise with such things as:

• Employee testimonials, videos and photography
• Recognition from industry experts or associations
• Regional or national best-place-to-work awards

Collect and leverage the evidence of your Employer Brand. This is the path to Employer Branding success.

- Korre Johnson

Ten Things to Consider When Launching an Internal Communication Initiative

In my experience helping organizations with internal communication initiatives, I have developed an appreciation for the unique details, yet common challenges, organizations must overcome to connect with their employees and drive desired results. Whether your business is looking to communicate a change in leadership, a merger or acquisition, a new vision or an organizational restructuring, it is often difficult to acquire that shift in thinking or behavioral change your employees need to take to ensure your messaging is received properly.

To help, I have compiled a list of 10 things you should consider before launching your next internal communication initiative:

1. Step back from your day-to-day tactical environment and think strategically about your communication goals and objectives.
2. Be prepared to build and sell your case. Some in the corporate world still view communication as a lesser priority compared to getting work done.
3. Ensure your messaging is aligned with your organization’s mission, vision and values. And of course, stay on brand.
4. Craft messaging that is connected to the needs of your employees, not merely the needs of your business. Since today’s work environments are already overloaded with information, this will help your messaging stand out.
5. Segment your internal audiences and target your communications accordingly. Be flexible enough with your messaging to keep it relevant to each audience.
6. Pick the right combination of communication tools. Your employees will interpret and react to messaging differently based on the environment and medium in which they receive the message. And never under estimate the value of face-to-face communication.
7. Focus your messaging to clearly identifiable takeaways that your employees can understand. Repeat your key points several times to ensure retention.
8. Establish feedback channels. Communication is a two-way street, so listen to your employees and acknowledge their feedback. 
9. Measure the results. How many people received your message? How do you know? Technology is making this easier and easier to track.
10. Communicate early and often during times of organizational change, even though you may not have all the information your employees will eventually want. And don’t just announce a change, include reasons for the change in your employee communications to increase engagement and support for the initiative.

Do you have any suggestions you want to add to this list? I would love to hear your feedback.

- Korre Johnson

Don’t Be Boring and Other Advice for Effective Campus Recruitment Marketing

Imagine this, a senior in college walks through a campus career fair and encounters the following messages from employers:

• Join [insert company name] and contribute to our growing success.
• [Insert company name] offers exciting career opportunities for college graduates.
• Begin your career at [insert company name], the leading provider of [insert anything].

What will this student do? Probably keep walking. So if your campus recruitment marketing is this boring, you better have a cool factor that competes with Google or Apple, otherwise you’re in for a challenge. To be successful in this highly competitive campus recruiting environment, you must identify what makes your employment experience unique and craft your messages in a way that will resonate with this generation (Millennials).

Does your company give back to the local community? Are you recruiting for positions that require travel? Does your campus recruiter have a Facebook page? Be creative and sell what makes you unique. We’re not looking for poetry here, just something a little more interesting like:

• How does paid time off for community service sound? Learn how you can make a difference at [insert company name].
• At [insert company name], our culture is driven by teamwork, flexibility and innovation. Connect with us on our Facebook page to learn more.
• Like to travel? Careers at [insert company name] offer opportunities to see new places and meet new people.

If you don’t know what your selling points are, or if you’re unsure how to craft your messages, invest in the resources to find out. Of course if you have nothing unique to offer college students, then you have something larger than a communications problem.

- Korre Johnson

Quick Pulse Survey: Millennials and Work

Last month, our VersantWorks team conducted a Quick Pulse survey of 100 college juniors, seniors and recent graduates to obtain their perceptions on work. Why? Because the increasing number of Millennials (born since 1978) joining the workforce is making a significant impact, compelling employers to adapt their recruiting and retention strategies to successfully integrate and engage this generation at work.

Here are a few highlights from our findings:

• Pay/promotions was the most frequent response when asked what they look forward to in their careers
• Enjoyment/satisfaction was the most frequent response when asked what they most want from a job
• Necessary was the highest response when asked to finish this statement, “Work is ____.”

Findings from our ongoing research will be used to help VersantWorks and our clients better understand how to attract, connect and engage employees across a multigenerational workplace.

- Korre Johnson

The Growing Impact of Visual Communication on the Workplace

Statistics abound about the growing number of people who simply no longer read. According to the National Assessment of Education, the proportion of 17-year-olds who read for enjoyment “almost every day” fell from 31 percent to 22 percent between 1984 and 2004. Meanwhile, television viewing continues to rise about three percent a year, and 87 percent of kids aged 8 to 17 have a video game player in their home.

Add to that the three hours and 43 minutes per day that the average American spends online, a growing amount of which is interacting with multimedia, and it is no wonder that reading is on the decline. We just don’t make the time in our hectic lives.

Our emerging visual culture has a wide-ranging impact on both recruitment and internal communications. How do we attract and engage the best and brightest talent in a world dominated by colorful screens and dynamic social networks? And, as critically, how do we best connect to multiple generations of workers who are adapting to this shift in communication culture at various rates?

There is no simple answer to this challenge. But there are a few key steps we can keep in mind:

• Ensure all recruitment and internal communication, written and visual, aligns with and supports your brand and that it provides the purpose and direction needed to drive the action you desire.
• Identify and keep top-of-mind the various audiences you must communicate with. Take an integrated approach that includes both written and visual channels to reach out to these diverse audiences with messaging that resonates with them.
• Look for opportunities to take advantage of Web-based video and multimedia in your communication efforts. The days of the stodgy, yet high-priced, corporate video are gone. The opportunity to re-use and recycle digital video and graphic components across multiple efforts drives both efficiency and effectiveness.
• Devote time to ongoing learning in the area of new media and digital communication. Connecting to the workforce of the future will require mastery of the emerging multimedia storytelling of today.

Job Boards: National vs. Local

You may have wondered if posting your job ad on a national job board is more effective than posting on a local job board. The thing to understand is that the relative strengths of local and national job boards vary by geographic market. Some markets have no local job boards and others have very strong ones. If you do a little media research and ask around, you will find out who the major players are in any given geographic market.

If you have a strong local job board competing in your city, you’re probably familiar with their billboards, television commercials and radio ads. You may have even met their sales reps at local HR conferences and job fairs. All this strengthens their local brands, builds their base of local job-seeker traffic and helps differentiate them from the national job boards who can’t match this local attention. To compete and become more “local”, the national job boards have been partnering with local newspapers (CareerBuilder is known for this, but Monster and HotJobs are following suit). Visit the jobs section of your local newspaper’s Web site and see what I mean.

I’ve found the national job boards typically sell themselves to employers by quoting the size of their job-seeker traffic. Bigger is better in their world. Alternatively, local job boards sell themselves by saying they attract primarily local job seekers (that way you won’t get all those resumes from Los Angeles to fill a position in Boston). As you know, sorting through hundreds of out-of-state resumes is a hassle, and most often quality trumps quantity anyway.

The only way to categorically tell if a national or local job board recruiting strategy is better or worse for a particular job in a particular geographic market is to conduct a test. Post the exact same job on both and compare results. Online postings are relatively inexpensive (compared to newspaper ads) so it’s worth the investment. As part of your test, be sure to look closely at your ATS and interview process to ensure you’re accurately tracking how candidates hear of your open positions. For what it’s worth, I’ve found that national job boards typically cost more than local job boards (CareerBuilder has to pay for those Super Bowl commercials somehow). For example, in Milwaukee a 60-day single job posting on MilwaukeeJobs.com is $275, while a similar posting on Monster is running over 43 percent higher at $395.

Good luck with your recruitment marketing and let me know how your test turns out.

- Korre Johnson

Were you at the ERE Expo in D.C.?

The Fall 2007 ERE Expo bills itself as the "the industry's leading conference on recruiting and talent  management," and for good reason. The level and quality of speakers contributing to this fall’s conference in Washington D.C. has been very impressive.

I particularly enjoyed listening to Cara Beck from Starbucks describe the success of their internal (employee only) career Web site. What makes it so unique? As Cara explains it, Starbucks employees are able to connect and communicate with other employees across the organization through searchable profiles they've created (imagine something along the lines of MySpace or Facebook). By fostering and promoting this employee network, Starbucks recruiters are able to more proactively build and leverage internal talent pipelines. According to Cara, designated hosts create online groups which include features such as blogs, forums and events, all aligned with functional areas in the company.

How does that compare to your company's internal career site?

Do you think it also has a positive impact on employee engagement at Starbucks? (I do.)

- Korre Johnson

Employer Branding, Recruitment Marketing and the 2008 Presidential Campaign

Have you visited any of the current presidential candidates’ Web sites? Anyone involved in recruiting should pay attention as these sites provide great examples of how to apply Web 2.0 thinking to employer branding and recruitment marketing. Here are just a few examples:

www.barackobama.com – Visit the Obama Mobile section of Barack Obama’s site and you will find an emerging media channel being used to capture and retain attention. How do your campus recruiters stay in touch with students? Do you think text messaging would help break through the clutter and encourage them to participate in your next on-campus recruiting event?

www.joinrudy2008.com – Take a look at the video embedded in the header of Rudy’s Story. Here, Rudy Giuliani talks about his promise to voters and his core beliefs. What communication channels do you use to communicate your brand promise and values to job seekers? Would video of employee testimonials help provide job seekers with insight into your unique organizational culture?

www.hillaryclinton.com – You will notice on Hillary Clinton’s site a number of icons linking to social networking sites. Her MySpace page proudly boasts friends such as “Latinos for Hillary”, “GLBT for Hillary” and “Hillary Rocks 2008”. How can your employer brand take shape in this social networking environment? Would the benefits outweigh the risks?

www.brownback.com – Check out The Daily Brownbacker blog section on Sam Brownback’s site. Blogs engage users and encourage repeat visitors since people expect to see fresh content when they return later. Think about your career Web site – after a job seeker applies for a position is there any reason to return? Do you think blog posts from select employees (representing your hard-to-fill positions) could reinforce your recruitment marketing efforts?

You can learn a lot from how these presidential candidates invest their marketing dollars. Over time, I expect to see more and more employers take similar steps toward investing their employer branding and recruitment marketing dollars into Web 2.0 strategies.

- Korre Johnson

Millennials and the Workforce: Get Connected

To successfully connect with Millennials, employers need to tailor their recruitment marketing efforts to speak their language. Here at VersantWorks, that’s what we do. We help our clients customize recruitment messages to specific audiences such as this one. We encourage our clients to recognize certain traits Millennials possess so they can most effectively reach this audience. Per our research, here are some key facts about Millenials to keep in mind for your recruitment efforts:

• Millennials view their career as an opportunity to contribute to a greater good.
• Their ideas and solutions are often technology-oriented.
• They have a strong sense of social responsibility and seek out employers who give back to the community.
• Millennials do not define themselves by their jobs; they want to do excellent work, but their life is not about their work. Work-life balance is very important to them.
• They want to be connected and know how they fit into the bigger picture. They are team-oriented.

So, what does all of this mean? To the extent that your company can deliver on these promises, at VersantWorks we recommend you communicate the following messages to this audience:

• Your company empowers employees and allows them to make an impact.
• Employees have the opportunity to use cutting edge technology and advance their skill sets.
• Your company is socially responsible, contributes to charity and gives back to your community.
• Work-life balance is recognized and encouraged within your organization.
• There are opportunities for employees to collaborate in teams and to connect through outside-of-work activities.

Good luck with your recruitment efforts!

An Effective Employer Brand Leads to Recruiting Success

 Last week, VersantWorks had the opportunity to share our experiences helping clients with employer branding and recruitment marketing at the annual MRA HR Conference in Milwaukee. During a breakout session, Versant CEO Will Ruch led a discussion titled "An Effective Employer Brand Leads to Recruiting Success".

Our takeaway from this event is that there is still a way to go before the concept of employer branding is widely recognized and understood in the HR community. At the risk of oversimplifying things, we could describe employer branding as merely applying the principles of traditional product branding to the employment experience. Think about it...what steps is your marketing department taking to attract and retain customers? Now compare that to the steps your human resource department is taking to attract and retain best-fit employees.

Leading organizations understand this relationship and are making strategic investments in branding the unique employment experiences they offer. Is your organization making this investment?

- Korre Johnson

Strengthen Your Employer Brand with Job Posting Templates

These days, it is common for employers to use job boards such as Monster, CareerBuilder and HotJobs to recruit candidates online. What is also common, unfortunately, is that most job postings look alike. When you visit these job boards, you will notice that most postings do not stand apart from one another. They tend to be text heavy and fit a cookie-cutter mold.

In helping our clients negotiate job board contracts, we have noticed that job boards are finally stepping up and offering employers a solution to this problem—job posting templates. As an employer, you want your online job postings to be attention grabbing and convey the culture of your organization. Job posting templates accomplish this and effectively ensure that your postings reinforce your employer brand.

At VersantWorks, we encourage our clients to use job posting templates as a key element of their online recruiting strategy. Take a look at a job posting template we created for The Thomson Corporation. This example on Monster effectively sets Thomson apart from a multitude of other employers vying for candidates’ attention.

Investing in this type of feature will position you to receive increased visibility, credibility and greater brand recognition. In planning your online recruiting strategy, consider job posting templates a strategic solution to increase
your ROI.

Is Anyone Listening?

Having gone through a fair amount of corporate change in my career, I understand how stressful change can be. It’s human nature to avoid change by not listening or by resisting. What I’ve learned is that leveraging the fundamentals of communication – audience analysis, targeted messaging and appropriate media – takes your audience beyond the typical e-mail announcement, captures their attention and gets your message heard and embraced.

Recently, one of our clients needed to introduce and gain acceptance for a global process that centralizes control of new product releases – a needed but controversial change. They asked for help communicating this change and getting buy-in from their employees. Before we sent a single e-mail, we surveyed the audience – internal marketing managers and staff - to understand their concerns and questions, and then worked with leadership to craft messaging that responded and clarified the why and how.

To provide 24/7 access to information for their employees around the globe, we created an online learning tool. The tool includes video clips of key employees expressing their views on this change and how it will impact the organization, personalizing the message. Because the presentation is automated with narration, the message is clear and consistent, walking employees through the new procedure so they can easily implement it. The strategic thinking and benefits are clarified, the how answered, and the new process is brought to life in a compelling and out-of-the-box format and medium that connects with their workforce. Simple updates to their Web site provide FAQs, a feedback forum that will keep the dialogue going, and links to resources and detailed instructions.

The result? A smooth transition to the new process, and an international company linked with access to on-demand information they need to understand, accept, embrace and implement the new process. 

Linking Your Employer Brand to Your Recruitment Marketing

Your goal is to find and hire qualified candidates who will be engaged in their work and contribute to the success of your company. You understand that recruiting talent that fits well within your organizational culture is key to increasing retention and engagement levels. But where do you start? Start with your employer brand.

Remember that retention, engagement and recruitment are all linked through your employer brand. Externally, candidates perceive your employer brand as a promise for an expected employment experience. Internally, employees perceive your employer brand as how well you deliver on that promise and how well they fit within your organizational culture.

Aligning what you promise and what you actually deliver is critical to strengthening your employer brand, and increasing employee engagement and retention levels. Knowing this, be sure your employer brand is carefully reflected in your recruitment marketing. For best results, your recruitment marketing should also:

• Address issues that matter most to your target candidates
• Concentrate on key motivators
• Focus messaging through relevant communication channels

Reinforcing your employer brand through relevant, targeted recruitment marketing will position your organization to attract qualified, best-fit candidates.

- Korre Johnson 

WI SHRM Conference, Day 2

Day two at WI SHRM involved a mix of attending breakout learning sessions and manning our VersantWorks booth in the exhibition hall. Ben Hannemann, one of our VersantWorks Account Managers, was highly engaged in the exhibition hall's many activities, including practicing his golf game (special thanks goes out to our booth neighbor HNI Risk Services).

I also met up with our Milwaukee Journal Sentinel representative, Katie Mullen. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a key resource for many of our Milwaukee-based recruitment marketing clients.

The conference has been great, but will I ever dare to venture on a SHRM safari again? You bet!

- Korre Johnson

WI SHRM Conference, Day 1

The VersantWorks team traveled to Wisconsin Dells to participate in day one of the 20th annual Wisconsin Society for Human Resource Management (WI SHRM) conference. The conference is designed to celebrate the human resource profession through networking, breakout learning sessions and information sharing. This year's conference has a safari theme, and as you can tell, we've been having a great time.

I had the opportunity to talk with the WI SHRM 2006 conference co-chair, Theresa Dew. According to Theresa, this year's conference will have more than 800 attendees and 118 exhibitors participating.

We each took an opportunity to mix and mingle with human resource professionals and catch up with some of the media vendors we partner with to support our clients' recruitment marketing needs. The folks at MilwaukeeJobs.com had a lot of traffic at their booth and were kind enough to pose for this picture with me.

Day one has been exhausting, but we are looking forward to day two!

- Korre Johnson

Day Two at the Onrec Expo 2006

Day two at the Onrec Expo provided another wide range of speakers and topics for discussion. My favorites included Joel Cheesman’s discussion on blogging and search engine optimization, Peter Weddle’s tips for online recruiting and John Younger’s views on defining and recruiting passive talent.

The global summit closed with a panel discussion focused to the future of online recruiting. Pictured from left to right were panelists:

• John Sumser, Founder and President, IBN: Interbiznet.com
• John Zappe, Recruitment Analyst, Classified Intelligence
• Peter Weddle, Editor and Publisher, Weddles.com
• Louis Vong, VP Interactive Strategy, TMP

My objective now is to bring together all the insight I acquired over the past two days and identify areas within our marketing and communications expertise where this learning can be leveraged to our clients’ benefit. A theme that repeated itself throughout the summit was the need for better and more relevant candidate and employee communications. I couldn't agree more.

- Korre Johnson

Day One at the Onrec Expo 2006

Yesterday I traveled to Chicago to attend the first of a two-day global summit for online recruitment organized by Onrec. The aim of this summit is to bring delegates interested in online recruitment from the US together with delegates from around the world to discuss and debate the online recruitment industry.

Day one provided great discussions, with sessions titled:

• Getting Top Talent: What Really Matters
• Using Knowledge Measurement Solutions for HR Best Practices
• The Real Cost of Sourcing and Hiring
• Global Recruiting and Workforce Planning Challenges
• Best Practices for Recruiting in China
• Facebook, MySpace and Other Social Networking Sites: Are They Dangerous, Opportunities or Both?
• An Insight into McDonald’s Online Recruitment Strategy in the United States
• The Global Niche Job Board Perspective
• Added Value Available to Recruiters in the Online Recruitment Process
• Tap into New Pools for Candidates

Highlights from day one included hearing Yves Lermusiaux, president and founder of Taleo Research, lead a discussion on talent management, and Steven Rothberg, president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, talk about the effects of social networking sites in online recruitment.

There is much to look forward to in day two of the summit (including another tasty lunch, I hope).

- Korre Johnson

How to Write a Better Recruitment Ad

To expand on one of my previous blog entries, I have put together the following top five suggestions for writing better recruitment ads:

1. Understand that a recruitment ad is not (just) a job description. This seems obvious, but I am continually amazed at the lack of effort many employers put toward writing recruitment ads. A job description should be just one part of your recruitment ad. Be sure to also "sell" your organization and your career opportunity to job seekers – do more than just communicate minimum qualifications.
2. The soft stuff is important. Be sure to include copy in your recruitment ad that speaks directly to your organization's work culture, environment, goals and mission. This will help you attract "best-fit" candidates, not just "best-qualified" candidates.
3. Know your audience and your competition. Talk to existing employees in the positions you are trying to fill and have them help you determine what messaging and media channels to use for your recruitment ads. Also, if you are losing job seekers to your competition, find out why. Your recruitment ads should use messaging that resonates with targeted talent and communicates a clear reason why working for you is better than working for your competition.
4. Choose the right words. After reading your recruitment ads, job seekers should be able to visualize themselves successfully working in your organization. Choose words that give them an opportunity to make this mental and emotional connection. Feed their ability to convince themselves how much they want to work for you.
5. Keep the application process simple. I hear many employers say that if a candidate cannot figure out how to apply online through their applicant tracking systems, then they shouldn't apply. This is unfortunate because most applicant tracking systems are not user-friendly, offer poor navigation and reinforce a negative, or at least frustrating, candidate experience. My advice – keep the application process as simple as possible and remember that every candidate experience shapes your Employer Brand.

- Korre Johnson

Finding Yourself Online

Have you ever done a Google search on your name? What comes up? Perhaps you've posted a raving concert review on your favorite band's Web site or maybe your dedicated support to a particular political candidate is well-documented online. Pretty harmless. But consider this, how would a potential employer react if it found embarrassing pictures or foul language posted online with your name all over it?

A recent press release from the National Association of Colleges and Employers and New York Times article suggest that job seekers, in particular graduating college students, should pay close attention to the images they've built online because more and more employers are taking notice. It is well-established that the Internet is an effective tool for finding talent (job boards), but as the amount of personal information posted on public Web sites increases (social networking sites), the Internet is revealing a lot more to employers than some job seekers may wish.

So I ask the readers of this blog, should what happens in college, stay in college? Where should an employer draw the line, if at all?

- Korre Johnson

Listen Closely... You Can Almost Hear Your Employer Brand

You know the old saying, "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Because I do not have any audio/video to prove it, you will just have to trust me, it does. And the same can be said about your employer brand. Do not think that an organization's lack of effort, knowledge or concern with employer branding positions it in some peaceful state of ignorant bliss on the matter. There is no such thing as an employer without an employer brand.

The challenge I see facing many human resource professionals is their need to acquire the skill sets that can help them successfully apply the principles of branding to their work. While they may acquire these skills internally or externally, the learning begins with employer brand awareness. And along this path of self-discovery, they will find employer brands are never created, but merely fed. What is (or is not) motivating and engaging your employees, and how this is communicated internally and externally, is what feeds your employer brand.

So I close this blog entry with a question. What are you feeding your employer brand?

- Korre Johnson

Abilene Anyone?

Do you enjoy feeling singled out by voicing disagreement in a group decision? If not, maybe you should just be a team player, be quiet and support the group. If you are familiar with the Abilene Paradox, you understand its disabling effect on group productivity. I first heard of this parable in a communications class back in college. At the time, I knew it only as a required subject for me to study before an exam. But now 10 years later as a working professional, I find that lesson increasingly relevant to my professional success.

The Abilene Paradox provides insight into group dynamics, human behavior and miscommunication. The phenomenon occurs when no member of a group is willing to voice an objection to a misguided group activity, although everyone in the group feels the activity is misguided. For many of us, working in groups or teams is a large part of our jobs. My experience has shown success in group activities is largely, if not completely, determined by how effective the group communicates.

It can be easy to fall victim to the Abilene Paradox by avoiding the risk of embarrassment or humiliation in group discussions. But when you are conscious of the unique communication roadblocks that exist, you are empowered to overcome them.

- Korre Johnson

EMA 2006, Part 4 (Day Two)

Today Will met with another group during his second presentation at the EMA conference on aligning a changing workforce with business goals. Will included learning from last night's conference keynote speaker Daniel Goleman, a well-known psychologist and author. Although the conference is drawing to a close, we're already looking forward to next year!

- Korre Johnson

EMA 2006, Part 3 (Day Two)

At this year's EMA conference, we showcased some of our new Snap product offerings, Snap Engager and Snap Talent Profiler, which were well received. Later in the afternoon, we drew for the winner of the Apple video iPod raffle. And the winner is... Islands Fine Burger & Drinks! Congratulations!

- Korre Johnson

EMA 2006, Part 2

Tonight the VersantWorks team manned our EMA exhibit booth and networked with HR professionals from all across the country. Our booth was one of the busiest in the exhibit hall thanks to Will's excellent presentation earlier in the day. We also had the opportunity to catch up with our friend Marcel Legrand, Senior Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development at Monster. There is no shortage of expertise represented here at the 2006 EMA conference. Looking forward to a busy and fun tomorrow!

- Korre Johnson

EMA 2006, Part 1

I arrived in San Diego with our VersantWorks team to attend SHRM's 2006 Employment Management Association (EMA) Annual Conference and Exposition. The weather here in San Diego is great, much better than spring in Milwaukee. Our CEO, Will Ruch, is with us presenting strategic learning sessions on the subject of aligning a changing workforce with business goals. Will spoke to a packed room of HR professionals and the feedback was very positive. Tonight the exhibit hall opens, much to look forward to.

- Korre Johnson

Lao Tzu on Employee Engagement

One of the benefits an actively managed employer brand provides is the ability to increase employee engagement. An engaged employee is more than just motivated, he or she is driven, highly involved, encouraging to others and proud of his or her work. They go so far as to make an emotional investment toward realizing their organization's mission and vision. These are the employees you want to keep and attract. They are your high performers.

Many factors can contribute to increased employee engagement, but perhaps the most significant is the role leadership plays in "living" the employer brand. On this point, I thought we could all learn something from the great Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu. His philosophy was recorded 2,500 years ago in a book called Tao Te Ching. In this, Lao Tzu says:

The best leaders are those the people hardly know exist.
The next best is a leader who is loved and praised.
Next comes the one who is feared.
The worst one is the leader that is despised.

If you don't trust the people,
they will become untrustworthy.

The best leaders value their words, and use them sparingly.
When she has accomplished her task,
the people say, "Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!"

I have learned a lot from his philosophy and believe much of it can be applied directly to the concept of employer branding. I truly believe the best leaders are the ones who do not take credit or recognition, but rather give it. As I see it, to lead people is to engage them.

- Korre Johnson

Go-to-Campus Plan

Are you planning on recruiting at a college campus this spring? If not, you're missing out on a great opportunity to extend your employer brand and reach prospective entry-level candidates.

Campus recruiting activities can range from a simple booth at an on-campus career fair to sponsoring conferences or student club functions. After you have identified the schools that make the most sense for your recruiting needs, it is important to foster a relationship with each school's career center. They will give you an overview of available recruiting opportunities and help you prepare for your events. Some career centers will even help you advertise on campus by sending e-mail announcements, hanging posters and distributing flyers. And your go-to-campus plan would not be complete without an information session where your recruiters can more formally present the hiring opportunities and employment experience available at your company.

Getting the attention of college students can be challenging, something very evident from the types of giveaways you'll see at a typical on-campus career fair. But as with any recruitment marketing campaign, you will want to invest resources into getting to know your target audience's likes and preferences. And one more thing, be careful with scheduling an information session on a Thursday night, weekends tend to start early in college. Good luck!

- Korre Johnson

Tips for Writing Successful Job Advertisements

I find it amazing how often I see job openings posted online or in the newspaper that are not just poorly written, but are so inadequate that my entire opinion of the company begins to change. A company may invest significant resources into advertising and developing a strong consumer brand, but fail to communicate this wisdom to its own human resource department, which is also "advertising" and shaping its employer brand.

Your employer brand is communicated in every job advertisement you write. Here are a few tips for making your next job advertisement a successful one:

1. Identify and profile those high-performing employees who hold positions you are currently recruiting for. This will provide you with the job-specific knowledge and language to credibly and successfully communicate to your target audience. A job advertisement written to attract forklift drivers will not resonate with candidates to fill your current openings in accounting.
2. Be sure to include the basics in your job advertisement, such as job title, company description, responsibilities, qualifications and how to apply. Most, if not all, job boards provide unlimited space to write job descriptions, so take advantage of this. However, while some job descriptions can be too short, be aware that a long, over-detailed job description can also lose job seeker interest fast.
3. Proof and reproof your advertisement for grammatical and spelling errors. It is hard to attract candidates with attention to detail if you fail to spell the job title correctly.
4. The most important tip I can provide is simply to remember that you are essentially selling your company to the job seeker. Be honest of course, but be sure to emphasize the good things about your company - the awards, the location, the benefits, the work environment, etc. If possible, try and use descriptive language that will allow the job seekers to envision themselves happily working in your company.

Once your job description is written, the next step is deciding where to advertise it. Your current employees can provide good suggestions on where to advertise, otherwise a little media research can go a long way.

Much of this is common sense, but sometimes we just need to be reminded that a job seeker's first impression is often developed through the help wanted section of the Sunday paper.

- Korre Johnson

Employee – Employer Disconnect

I recently came across research that identifies large differences in perception between employees and employers on a range of workplace issues. This disconnect indicates that employers can do a lot more to increase their employee retention rate. According to Spherion's 2005 Emerging Workforce Study: 

• Time and flexibility were rated very important by 60% of employees, but only by 35% of employers.
• Financial compensation was rated very important by 69% of employees, but only by 49% of employers.
• 40% of employees intend to find a new job in the next year, while employers expect only 14% of their workforce to leave. 

Employees rate the top three drivers of retention as:

1. Financial compensation
2. Benefits
3. Growth and earnings potential

Employers rate the top three drivers of retention as:

1. Management climate
2. Supervisor relationship
3. Culture and work environment
4. The figure that surprised me the most was the high percentage of employees who expect to find new employment over the next year versus what employers anticipate. Employee retention will become an increasing challenge for those organizations that do not evolve and begin to address their employees' perceptions on key workplace issues. Organizations that understand and internally communicate their employees' needs will not only become better positioned for lower turnover rates, but will also experience higher productivity as their employees become more engaged over time.

This study also underscores the importance research plays in employer branding, recruitment marketing and internal communications. Avoid cultural misalignment by profiling your high-performing employees and use that research to strengthen your employer brand, attract best-fit candidates and retain current high performers.

- Korre Johnson

College Students and the Employer Brand

Like most of us, I watch a lot of television. Whether we realize it or not, the sights, sounds and emotions we take away from commercials affect our perceptions of what it would be like to work for those companies. Research is showing this is especially true of college students.

Christopher Collins, assistant professor at Cornell University, was interviewed by Workforce Magazine regarding research he conducted into college recruitment practices. Collins found many graduating college students are making career choices based too highly on the consumer advertising they see. According to Collins, “they don’t have enough work experience to really know what work is and they develop these highly idealistic notions of what it is like to work at a particular company.”

Collins goes on to provide examples of companies such as Intel and Apple who have very creative television commercials and consequently find it relatively easy to attract college graduates. His concern is that television commercials like these may have been the largest influence on college students accepting positions, as opposed to actual information about their unique employment experience. He attributes this to why some companies see high turnover rates in the first year after hire.

I agree with Collins and found his research supports the work VersantWorks does in developing, communicating, and managing the employer brand of our clients. His research also provided me with an opportunity to reflect and appreciate all the spare time I invested watching television in college. A great introduction to the real world!

- Korre Johnson