Sirona Says

First the McDiploma, now a Tesco Degree....what next a BA with BA?

The big companies are finally realising that there is such a lack of interested talent in the job market, that 'growing your own' is the way to solve their future talent management problems. McDonalds were one of the first, creating their own McDiploma's, and Tescos have gone one step further and have developed their own 'every little (graduate) helps'  foundation degree.

I have to say that I think these are great initiatives going forward, but will it now become a pre-requisite for their competitors to match them and start their own qualifications? So what could be next around the corner?

A degree in Pocket Tapping (Asda if you are wondering)

Its not just any degree it is an M&S Degree

Try something new this September, try a Sainsburys degree

Or outside of retail, you could go for a BA with BA

I am sure you can be creative with some others!!

Let me explain more with a video...

Some of you may have seen the yellow graphic in the sidebar to the left, some of you may even have linked through to the site as well. Jobinablog.com is a forward thinking website aimed at SME companies who fail to use their own website to recruit staff (shame on you!). Of course they are happy to moan about the fact that they can't recruit staff, but they never do anything about it. So last year I combined the idea of this opportunity, with the power of the blog to create Jobinablog - I call it a career site with a difference. So for an easy explanation I have produced a video presentation explaining how it works in a very easy way!! Here goes:

By the way, how do you like the Kyte interface - I like it and it's a bit different!

No Employment Brand? .....forget it then!

So much for all this marketing hype around employment brands, it does seem that as an employer if you want to have a chance of recruiting the best for your company, then you are going to have to take your employment brand very seriously!! According to a recent survey by jobs.ac.uk , a massive 86% of job seekers rate an employers brand important when applying for jobs - only 2% said it was unimportant!

So it is something recruiters have known for a while (and have actually been advocating for years), that job seekers are increasingly researching prospective employers' brands before deciding whether to apply for a job with them! So, before you even get to see a cv, job seekers have already made a decision about whether they want your company to see it!! In this talent driven marketplace that means you will be losing talent even before you start recruiting unless you start evaluating your employment brand and what it actually is!!

10 Things you need to know about Employer Branding

As this subject is such a hot topic at the moment I thought I would share this article that I recently wrote for another blog. As a starting point on this subject, we had first better define what an employment brand actually is -  the CIPD define it as a set of attributes and qualities (often intangible) that makes an organisation distinctive, promises a particular kind of employment experience, and appeals to those people who will thrive and perform to their best in its culture.

However like all brands, employer brands are essentially marketing concepts and constructs.
The tools and methodologies of employer brand development are substantially the same as those for consumer or corporate brand development. Below are listed the 10 things you need to know about employment brands:

The employment brand - Marketing VS HR

This is something that you will heard alot of within business communities, but the employment brand isn't a new phenomenon because as an employer in the marketplace, you already have one. Very simply, a company will already have a reputation as a place to work, whether that be good or bad.
Its just that now the 'employment brand' has now become a very fashionble subject matter with companies, as they try to beat 'the war for talent', and position their recruitment and retention strategies accordingly.
So what actually is an employment brand? - the CIPD define it as a set of attributes and qualities (often intangible) that makes an organisation distinctive, promises a particular kind of employment experience, and appeals to those people who will thrive and perform to their best in its culture.

But is that what most companies see their employment brand to be?