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The end of the office... and the future of work |
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Written by EBO Editor
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Tuesday, 19 January 2010 19:29 |
In an article by Drake Bennett on the online version of The Boston Globe he says, "By the end of the month, a company called txteagle will be the largest employer in Kenya. The firm, started in its original form in 2008 by a young computer engineer named Nathan Eagle and, as of this coming June, based in Boston, will have 10,000 people working for it in Kenya. Txteagle does not rent office space for these workers, nor do the company’s officers interview them, or ever talk to most of them."
The article continues.................The txteagle story is a variety of things: a tale of savvy social entrepreneurs taking advantage of the proliferation of cellphones in much of the developing world, an example of the ability of clever programming to chop big jobs up into tiny discrete chunks and to assess reliability by checking the answers of different workers against each other. But txteagle is also, at the most basic level, a story of how people are rethinking what work can be.
Editor's note: I'm sure we will see many more examples of these type of employers in the short-medium turn as the technology to support the start-up ventures improves and talented people laid off in the Global Financial Crisis decide to stay on their own or start a virtual community to make a living.
To read the full article please click here>
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Employer branding towards 2020....Consider |
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Written by Brett Minchington
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Monday, 18 January 2010 21:10 |
Having spent the best part of the last decade researching, writing, speaking and consulting in the field of employer branding, I thought as this new decade begins now would be a good time to reflect and share my opinion on employer branding trends towards 2020 and how they will impact on the workplace.
My views have been shaped by leaders, practitioners and academics I have been fortunate to collaborate with over the past 10 years with the past 3 spent travelling to 30 cities in 20 countries as part of my Employer Brand Global Masterclass Tour.
Some of the trends below have already started and will gain momentum towards 2020. Whilst it is by no means a complete list, I hope it will provide insights, awareness and facilitate discussions into how I see employer branding evolving over the next decade and your preparedness to meet these challenges.
Global companies such as Google, Sodexo, Apple, McKinsey & Co, Southwest and Philips have been frequently spoken about as leading employer brands over the past decade. Whilst there are many lesser known or visible employer brands, they are in fact in all industry categories and in companies of all shapes and sizes. These companies consistently articulate a clearly defined employment proposition to their target audience and align systems, policies and processes to ensure an authentic employment experience for employees across the employment lifecycle. In short they care about the welfare of their employees and have leadership conversations to better understand what drives superior performance in their teams.
Companies who are judged as the leading employer brands over the next 10 years will be those who identify, react and adapt to the people and product/service challenges that lay ahead. These include: |
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The Finance Sector: How can employer branding still attract graduates in the recession-battered banking sector? |
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Written by EBO Editor
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Friday, 11 September 2009 10:50 |
Originally published on managementtoday.com by Peter Crush
The financial sector has taken a battering, yet many banking groups still top the list of places graduates want to work. Why have these brands have stayed indestructible?
It was Brian Till, professor of marketing at Saint Louis University, who, in his 2008 book, The Truth About Creating Brands People Love, wrote: 'Nothing can destroy a brand more quickly than creating expectations, interest and promises about something that doesn't exist.' Writing specifically about maintaining brands in tight economic conditions, his sentiment is simple - no brand is indestructible.
But are the laws of employer branding in need of a rewrite? Exclusive research for HR by recruitment consultancy Freshminds throws up a fascinating paradox: despite 12 months of damaging headlines about the UK financial sector, most grads still want to work for it. The research finds specific firms' reputations seem to be bomb-proof - or at least credit crunch-proof. But how?
The tables come from two identical surveys conducted pre- and post the credit crunch. In 2008, Freshminds gave its Graduates to Watch list a free vote on the firms they most wanted to work for. In 2009 it was repeated. Staggeringly, the three top firms are the same in both surveys. Of note are repeated top three positions in 2009 for Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley - two of the mostly negatively reported of the investment banks. ('The halcyon days for staff are over at Goldman Sachs' - The Times). How is this so?
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Is this employer brand management of the future? Building Your Employer Brand Virtual Community |
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Written by Brett Minchington
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Monday, 03 August 2009 11:28 |
Originally published in ERE's Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership
The economic downturn, advances in technology and an explosion of online communities is changing the way companies build competitive advantage through human capital
Today's workplace can best be described as in transition to a ‘global knowledge economy’, which requires the rules and practices that determined success in the industrial economy need rewriting in an interconnected, globalized economy where knowledge resources such as know-how and expertise are as critical as other economic resources.
In the employer branding industry (which consists of players including employers, employees, agencies, thought leaders, academics, students and the media), the battles that matter aren't between products and services but between business models. Compounding this is the trend towards a virtual business model which provides companies with the benefits of leveraging best practice from all regions of the world whilst saving on consulting fees in the process. Knowledge when locked into a community, systems and processes has higher inherent value than when it can ‘walk out of the door’ in people's heads. The virtual community model provides a sustainable proposition at a time when average employee tenure is decreasing and the concept of a ‘job for life’ has disappeared. |
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Employer branding fatigue |
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Written by Nick Price
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Thursday, 09 July 2009 18:02 |
Employer branding has always had a battle to convince organisations – some more than others – that it is worth its place on the board room table. Arguments would rage that it had little value, it was just about having consistent communication and there were far better things on which to justify prising open the company coffers.
It has been hyped more than ever as some agencies have seen it as an opportunity to jump on the envisaged gravy train and tout their wares as the next employer branding experts. As a result inconsistent messages, a fragile economy and over-complicated analysis is resulting in something of a backlash.
Everyone’s an expert
It would appear that everyone has something to say about how ‘employer branding should be done’. Now I’m not saying there aren’t many people making very worthwhile contributions to the debate and discussion on the topic, but I’m regularly bombarded by web links to articles (and maybe this is one of them!) on people sharing their insights and ideas like the concept was developed yesterday. It’s creating an element of fatigue that if you subscribe to many of the networking sites you will be familiar with and have to make some clear distinctions between generally worthwhile contributions and blatant self-promotion.
Large agency services
I personally feel some of the large agencies who have tried to offer ‘employer branding’ as a product in its own right have a lot to answer for. Regardless of the fact that these are often the most poor at managing their own employer brand, they are also inconsistent with the way they deliver their ’services’.
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