Category: Branding
When Creating Your 2009 Recruitment Plan, Think Broad
Nov 19, 2008
Like most business professionals in Q4, I’m in the throes of finalizing my Marketing budget for 2009. The trick in figuring out how to spend the money I do have is creating the right marketing mix. Some things are easy – we should continue and increase programs that make us money. Some things are more challenging – figuring out the right branding vehicles which are notoriously difficult to measure. Each line item is an important part of my marketing mix.
Believe it or not, I have this conversation all the time with corporate recruiters, CPOs, CMOs, CEOs and line managers. But, we don’t talk in terms of how to best market the company and its products. We speak about the recruiting mix – what is the best way to express the company’s brand and what are the best vehicles to capture the most qualified job seekers. The concept of marketing mix and the concept of recruiting mix are basically the same things.
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- Categories Branding, Employee Attraction, Employer Advice
The Smartest Investment You’ll Make in This Economy
Oct 21, 2008
from OPEN Forum:
The smartest investment you’ll make in this economy is your investment in your employees. Companies that plan to survive, even thrive, in this economy should increase their investments in their employees. That’s right. Companies should invest more in their employees during this challenging economic period.
Forget those CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) or CDSs (collateralized debt swaps) and Wall Street banks hoping for a comeback or those secret Santa Claus-like portfolios of sub-prime home loans you’ve heard are all the rage. Forget about green energy technologies like wind or solar or geothermal. The smartest investment you’ll make in this or any economy is your investments in your employees.
Now’s the time to not only maintain your current investment program of salary and benefits (You do offer benefits, don’t you?), but find ways to increase that investment. Here’s why: Employees are your company’s number one asset. Oh sure, we’ve all heard that cliche bandied about. Peter Drucker, the legendary management expert, coined that phrase decades ago. It stuck. It stuck because it’s true.
Who makes your company’s products and services? Who talks to your customers? Whose efforts make them love your company and tolerate your mistakes to their credit cards and bank accounts that ruin their day and waste their time? And, who comes up with the systemic solutions to those problems?
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- Categories Branding, Economy, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employer Advice, Events
The People’s Voice: We’re Listening To You
Sep 15, 2008
What makes this nation unique is the opportunity for an uncensored voice of the people, for opinions to be shared, for questions to be asked. It is what makes an election year always interesting, and inspires a posting such as this to reach out for public opinion (don’t jump ahead just yet, but make sure you exercise your 1st Amendment rights in the comments feature below).
In that political vein, with the earth-shattering intriguing political convention season behind us, and candidates racing towards what’s guaranteed to be a highly-dramatic November 4th Election Day, several things are certain: Read the rest
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- Categories Branding, Economy, Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employer Advice, Events, Generational Hiring, Going Green, Leadership Development, Philanthropy
Be Careful What You Conserve For…
Aug 25, 2008
If your company is making a conscious decision to “go green” - and not just for appearance’s sake - I genuinely applaud you. Just don’t make the same mistake that Texas-based canning company WHH Ranch did, using shredded checks from a nearby bank to package their shipped goods to customers.
As good as their intentions might’ve been, they probably could’ve made a wiser decision about which paper products they chose to recycle…perhaps something a little less identity-thefty, no? (And, as Consumerist.com points out, “It’s great that WHH Ranch agreed to stop packing goods in shredded checks, but what sort of insanely reckless bank was handing them out to begin with?!”)
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- Categories Branding, Employee Engagement, Going Green
Snatching up layoffs: other companies’ losses are your gain
Aug 15, 2008
I’m about to make an analogy that’s going to blow your mind.
There’s a great scene in When Harry Met Sally when Meg Ryan’s title character is having lunch with her girlfriends Marie and Alice, and she breaks the news that she and her long-time boyfriend, Joe, broke up. Immediately, of course, Alice exhibits sympathy, but Carrie Fisher’s reaction as Marie is priceless: “You mean Joe’s available?”
Oh, Marie, if only hiring managers today thought the way you do.
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- Categories Branding, Employee Attraction, Survey Results
Should you encourage your employees to tweet?
Aug 11, 2008
It doesn’t surprise me that I’m only now learning about - and figuring out - Twitter.
When it comes to technology, I’m laughably behind the rest of the world. I was still listening to cassette tapes long after all of my friends converted to CDs (and no way have I ever been cool enough to pull off the excuse that I’m “retro.”); I spent years rolling my eyes at friends who asked me, “How can you not have a cell phone?” before I finally gave in - and began subscribing to the same belief; and for way too long, I put way too much faith in my disposable cameras from Walgreens, trusting that one shot would come out decently the first time, every time - for 15 bucks a pop.
But I’ve gotten significantly hipper in recent years (people say “hip,” right?), and while I may not own the latest version of every gadget out there, I try to maintain a general understanding of what’s new and how it works. After all, I’m a blogger, so knowing my way around new technology probably comes in handy.
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- Categories Branding, Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Social Media
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