One of the pillars of good branding lies in making sure that the people inside the company understand and buy into its values, believe in its products, and add value to them.

Graeme addison looks at the state of HR in South Africa today.

See Mark's article published in the Business day on 25 February 2008, please click the  image file below for download.

The media landscape and work environment has changed so much over the last decade that a new approach is required for HR staff to source and recruit talented candidates.

Human resource managers take heed - the future is not what it used to be. The search for talented employees continues to become tougher and nothing companies have done in the past will suffice. Recruiting and retaining staff of the future requires imagination, commitment and cutting-edge action. Doing nothing is not an option, nor is mildly incremental improvement.

With a younger new group of job seekers, often known as the Millenials or Generation Y, now entering the job market, human resources (HR) managers will have to adopt new approaches to recruit and retain the staff of the future, according to Mark Gray, head of specialist HR technology and marketing firm Graylink. Not only does the new generation of employees have a different view of the world, but they also do things very differently, and this will reshape the work environment, Gray says. The impact will be exacerbated by the fact that an ageing population worldwide means that companies will lose large numbers of experienced workers within the next few years. He cites the findings of RHR International, a US executive and organisational development firm, which reported that over half of the American companies they surveyed expect to lose 50% of their senior managers by 2010.

The recruitment game is changing as HR practitioners align their jobs with corporate branding, says Mark Gray of marketing and human resources firm Graylink.

Every year companies spend millions of rands building their corporate brands and marketing themselves as leaders in their respective industries. This is often in a bid to not only attract business but also to recruit and retain good talent.

By SAUL HANSELL Published: NY Times, January 3, 2007

Have you ever made a profit from a catering business or dog walking? Do you prefer to work alone or in groups? Have you ever set a world record in anything? The right answers could help get you a job at Google.
Google has always wanted to hire people with straight-A report cards and double 800s on their SATs. Now, like an Ivy League school, it is starting to look for more well-rounded candidates, like those who have published books or started their own clubs.

Employer branding is not about tinkering with terms and conditions or corporate colours in the workplace, but about the total employment experience.

 

A firm's first customers are its own employees. If the staff understand and wholeheartedly endorse the firm's marketing goals, they will take care of the external customers and ultimately the end users. Research suggests a close link between the happiness of customers and that of employees. For this reason companies have become increasingly interested in creating success in the external marketplace by first doing so internally. And success is made more probable by finding and then tracking at Exec level, the key metrics.

 

Article by Mark Gray featured in People Dynamics, March 2007

Technology, and more specifically, the internet has radically changed the way we do business. From travel to banking, the internet promises to connect supply and demand more efficiently, helping all parties involved in the transaction save time and money.